(329) “The Goodness Side of God”

0:00 All of these people that we're talking about are ordinary people that made mistakes. But they walked with God. Yeah. And while they're walking with him, at least, he is giving them his good side. Yeah. So we can look at our own lives and we can say, okay, let me just walk with God. I want to walk with God because I love him. And I want to love him more all the time. God promises in Joel 2 .28 to pour out his Spirit on all humanity.

0:40 Welcome to Global Outpouring, where we contend for that promised outpouring, we equip for that outpouring, so that we may engage in that very outpouring. I'm Philip Buss. And I'm Sharon Buss. Welcome to the podcast today. The last episode that we did was about the dark side of the glory, which you don't think the glory could possibly have a dark side, but it was really about the severity side of our Father, you know, like a good parent. And so this time we're going to talk about his goodness side or his blessing side or his kindness side. Thanks so much for joining us today. We're so glad that you have.

1:21 If you haven't already done so, we want to encourage you to go to our website, globaloutpouring .net, and make sure that you are on our mailing list, our email list, so that we can stay in touch with you because we feel like it's really important to be able to reach out to you. and begin to develop a relationship. If you're a regular here, if you like what you're hearing, if you're being built up by it, let us hear from you and let us speak to you in other ways besides on this podcast. So that's what our email list is all about. So go to the subscribe button and... be sure to subscribe. And while you're there, just check out some of the other things that are going on on our website. We have events that we have coming ahead, and we have just lots and lots of great content. There's blogs and there's books and all kinds of things in our bookstore, lots and lots of things in our bookstore, things that you won't find elsewhere. And so just encourage you to enjoy what we have on globaloutpouring .net. So today, We want to go a little further.

2:29 Romans 11 .22 says, Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God on those who fell severity, but toward you goodness. If you continue in his goodness, otherwise you also will be cut off. And the context of this is where Paul is talking about the olive branches that were cut off from the, or broken off from the domestic olive tree and wild olive branches were grafted in, in the place of the ones that had grown there to begin with. And that was a picture of the people of Israel that had not followed through with obeying God. So they've been broken off and the Gentiles have been being grafted in. And so Philip and I are probably among those Gentiles. And we're really grateful, but this is... Hopefully you are too. Yeah, absolutely. So the point here is that Paul is talking to this mixed group in Rome. where you've got some Gentiles and you've got some Jews that are believers, and they're kind of trying to work out, where do I belong?

3:45 How do I belong here? Paul is showing how in the history that, you know, time after time after time, and we talked about it in the last episode, time after time, the people of Israel disobeyed. And so whack, you know, it's kind of like getting a good licking, a good spanking. You know, I think, Philip, you experienced the belt when you were a kid, you know, your dad. Had the belt. I would use the belt. And that was severity. That was severity. But it was discipline, and you probably didn't repeat that. Yeah, you know, it worked, too. It works. You know, the book of Proverbs talks about if you love your child, you're going to spank him or her. Spare the rod, spoil the child. I don't think that's exactly from Proverbs. But there's something similar in Proverbs about. And we would hear that in school, I think. You know, there's a point to the severity. And what Paul is saying, particularly to the Gentiles in Rome, he's saying, look. There's goodness and there's severity. And if you're not careful, you'll also be broken off. You got to stick with the goodness side. You got to stick with the kindness side. Different translations will translate that word goodness and others will translate it kindness. And, you know, think of a kind father. An obedient child doesn't usually get the severity. You know, if you've got a broken

5:16 father. that was broken as a child, there might be some severity when it's not called for. And it's happened a lot of times. And please let your heavenly father heal those things that came across from a father that wasn't a good father, particularly if he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs or something like that and didn't have the compassion and didn't have the patience. Especially under the influence of some substance. You know, there's all kinds of bad behavior that comes out of that. So our Father isn't like that. He's absolutely 100 % just. And He's righteous.

5:59 And He's not going to do anything that's uncalled for. So we talked about that in our last episode. But Psalm 100. Philip, would you just read Psalm 100 for us? A psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name. For the Lord is good, his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. He's good. You know, I'd like to add a little something to that. Please do. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise, but enter his holy place with worship. There you go. That's very good.

7:01 I've started a song on that a few years ago. I've not finished it yet. Let's get that fixed. Need to do that. Yeah. He is good, the Lord Yehovah, our Father, is good. He's a good Father. And he introduced himself to Moses as this loving, mother -like Father, and a Father that cares about every little detail of your life, like a mother cares for her baby. So he really is good, but he gave us like a plumb line. He gave us a rule book. And as I was meditating on this recently, I thought, you know, he gave us a rule book to teach us how to rule. That's good. So, you know, there's a royalty that comes when you learn to walk with your father, who is the king of the universe and beyond what we call the universe.

7:57 He's the king of everything. He's the king. It's a kingdom because he's the king. When we get into alignment with him, when we get into symmetry with him, when we get into harmony with him, when we get into where we're designed to be to work with him, everything that comes is going to have a good side. And sometimes bad stuff happens. But our Father knows how to turn everything to good for them that love him and are called according to his purpose. Personally, I think we're all called according to his purpose. And we're all called to conform to the image of his son. I just believe that he made us with that possibility. And so this idea of him being good, I want to look into this a little more deeply.

8:51 The first one that we really see having a relationship with God is Abraham. Yeah. Adam and Eve had a relationship, but they didn't do very well with it. They kind of really lost that one. So we really see Abraham. And we see Noah, too, that Noah walked with God. We see Enoch that walked with God and was translated to heaven. So there are some perks that come with staying on his good side. You want to be on his good side. And just obedience to him and loving him is what keeps you on his good side. So Abraham, I just want to make some points about what it looks like to be on his good side. When you're in covenant with him, when you're obeying him, what does it say in Genesis 13 too? Now Abraham was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. Okay.

9:50 So he had a relationship with God, and he was prosperous as a result. Back then, the picture of prosperity was how big are your flocks or your herds. Exactly. How many cattle, how many sheep, how many you have. That would determine your wealth. Right. Absolutely. But here he had gold and silver. Yeah. Where did that come from? You know, he was probably a good businessman with his flocks and herds. You know, sell some here and do some business there. We got a deal for you. Yeah. So then what does Genesis 18, 17 to 19 say? The Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do? seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him. See, our God keeps his promises. But he keeps his promises to those who keep his promises. And who is the Lord talking to? Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do? Yeah, well, he was in the context here.

11:16 He and two angels had come for a visit. They were on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah. And so here's the thing about being in relationship with God. He will let you in on his secrets. And that's awesome. He'll let you in on his secrets. He wants you to know what he's doing. He wants you to be working with him. So he engages Abraham in this discussion, and he tells him, there's trouble in Sodom, and I'm fixing to bring down the hammer. Wow. Fixing to. That was the severity side of God. That was the severity side of God.

11:58 But now Abraham knows that his nephew Lot is living there. And so he gets into this deal. How many righteous are in that city? Would you destroy the righteous with the sinners? He works him down to 10. Because here's my take on it. I think that Abraham was considering the fact that there's Lot and his wife. He has two unmarried daughters. That's four. And the way the scripture describes it, that when the angels go to Lot, they say sons and sons -in -law. So there must have been two sons at least. And there must have been at least two sons -in -law. So we had four.

12:52 You add two sons, that's eight. You add two sons -in -law. That's 10. And so there must have been daughters for the sons -in -law to have been married from. So I got us to 10, didn't I? Yeah, that was all his sons. So his family. And his heirs. And his heirs, yeah. His sons, yeah. That would have been 10. Yeah. If they had been righteous. But they weren't his sons. That was the problem. Wife was not right. Yeah. His sons and his sons -in -law, obviously, you know, they thought he was very foolish for coming to them and saying, what do you mean God's going to destroy this place? I don't believe that. Wow. And so they didn't make it. No. And neither did Lot's wife because she turned back and looked. She turned back and looked. Because she's thinking about her sons and her daughters. That's her mama's heart. Her mama's heart, you know, is just. She was torn. She was torn. But the point here is the goodness of God lets Abraham begin to reason with him and kind of go to court here. Let's come, let's reason together. So God let him because they had relationship. Abraham was on the good side of God. He was on the goodness side of God.

14:21 And that's how he got all his wealth. And this isn't about getting on the good side of God so you'll get wealth. This is about getting on the good side of God for relationship's sake. And the benefit that follows with the benefit of the relationship is the wealth. It's not the wealth of the wicked. It's the wealth of the righteous, right? Remember Job. Job was a righteous, righteous, righteous, righteous man. And he had a lot of wealth. And then all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, boom. And one day it's all gone. But when the whole trial was over, he wound up with twice as much stuff. So being in right relationship with God. God is a rewarder to those who diligently seek him. Precisely. Precisely. So now you have Abraham's son, Isaac. And what does it say in Genesis 26, 12 to 14? And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold.

15:26 Wow. The Lord blessed him. And the man became rich and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him. Yeah. And it's interesting that that one verse, verse 13, in the King James it says, And the man waxed great. Waxing means getting bigger. The man waxed great and went forward and grew until he became very great. Now, the cool thing here is in the Hebrew, the word great. is gadol. So the man was great, gadol. And he went going on and was great. And that word is gadol. And gadol is the root word. And then it goes on, it says, and he was exceeding great.

16:19 So it's great, great, great. Great is a third power. That's great. I remember with this kind of picture, what Dean Braxton says about God and about how he looked at him, and he would just get overwhelmed with how great he was and how wonderful he was, and he'd look again, and he was more so. And this is what it's like when you're walking with God, that it continues to get greater. Your walk continues to grow, unless you get sidetracked, and the enemy of God is busy trying to keep us sidetracked. Or you get stuck. You get stuck, you get offended, you get fearful, you get doubting. All of those things will cause a decrease instead of an increase.

17:07 But as we are continuing to increase in our walk with him, increase in our submission to him out of love, not submission to him out of, I better do this or God won't like it, but out of love for him. It's like the more we experience his love, the more... how undoing it is, for me, anyway. It's like, you know, these little kisses from the Lord. Like, we wake up in the morning, and if we didn't manage to get up before sunup, our windows face east, and in the windowsill is a beautiful piece of, I don't know, I don't even know what to call it. It's a thing. And it's covered with beautiful Shaped glass. Yeah, shaped glass like, what do they call that? Not crystal like as in crystals of quartz. Not stained glass at all. But it's like cut glass. Yeah.

18:14 And cut glass prisms like leaded crystal. And so the whole room gets painted with all these little rainbows. And for me, waking up to that in the morning, that's the first thing I see when I open my eyes. It's like, oh. He's putting these kisses on us, you know. It's his presence. His presence is like a rainbow, right? And that's what was seen in heaven around his throne is like a rainbow. So all these little rainbows, they're like kisses from the Lord. I'll tell you one more that I had just this morning. As I was waking up, I was waking up from a dream where I was working on a letter and trying to get the wording just right for the letter. And I got down to the bottom of the letter. And you know how on a professional letter, the person who dictated the letter, that person's initials are put at the bottom in all caps. And then there's a colon. And then there's the initials of the person who typed it, right? Who took the dictation, whatever. So at the bottom of this letter. are these letters, in capital letters, I -M, colon, and then M -G. And as I'm waking up, I'm pondering, who's I -M and who's M -G? And you just said it. I am the great, I am, God's the great, I

19:46 am. Okay, God, yeah. No, M -G is. The M -G is mighty God. Mighty God, I am. So, you know, I'm asking the question, who's I am? And then it was like there was a chuckle in his voice, I am. And then I said, well, who's MG? And then I heard mighty God. So it's like a kiss in the morning when you first wake up. It's wonderful. The more you put your face towards him, you're looking towards him, and he's interacting with you, the more you just love him. He just loves you. And the more you become aware of his love, he's all around us. His presence is like oxygen.

20:29 You can't live without it and you can't live without him. And the oxygen is like his love. So as long as you've got oxygen to breathe, he's really wanting you to live, you know, and he's wanting to have this. intimate relationship with you like he did with Abraham. So then there's Isaac, and he became very great and became very wealthy. I mean, obviously, he inherited what his father left him, which was a lot. Yeah. And the man waxed great, this is Isaac, and went forward and grew until he became very great. And then in the ESV version, that was King James Version, in the ESV, and the man became rich and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. And the man waxed great. Yeah. So that's the remarks that I just read earlier that this Dr. Adam Clark remarks about this strange and observable occurrence of the same term in the original, which is literally, and the man was great. And he went on. And he went going on and was great until he was exceeding great. Exceeding great, yeah. The greater greatest. But the thing is, he just keeps getting greater and greater and greater and greater. And his goodness and his kindness for us continues to get great as we continue to flow with him. So then you have Isaac's son, Jacob. Genesis 32, 9 to 12. And

22:02 Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good. That I may do you good. I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant. For with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. For I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

22:47 So here's Jacob. Yeah. He goes across the river with his staff. And he had only just made this little agreement with God when he slept on the stone at Bethel. He said, okay, I'll let you be my God. And if you get me out of here, if you get me out of this pickle that I'm in, I'll give you 10 % of everything that I have. And at that point, he had nothing but his staff. But he's going to find his Uncle Laban to go work for him. And find him a wife. And so he gets there. And he gets two wives. He gets two wives out of it. Two wives and their handmaidens.

23:30 Comes back with 12 sons. Well, actually, the 12th hadn't been born yet. Anyway, he comes back with 11 kids and all these flocks and herds. And he started out with no flocks and herds. And he made this agreement with his uncle. You let me go and take the ring -straked ones, the ones that have spots and stripes and all those kind of things, markings on them that are not your typical plain white sheep and goats. And that'll be my flock, and I'll separate from you those, and I'll leave them with my kids to raise. And he had a way that the Lord showed him, apparently, to start getting more flocks out of Laban's flocks.

24:17 And healthier ones. And healthier ones, yeah. He made sure that he just encouraged the healthy ones to come on his flocks. But the point is that he's working for his uncle who keeps changing his wages. Yeah, seven times. Yeah, and he still comes out with this great wealth because God had made a covenant. with his grandfather and with his father, he's saying, I'm going to do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude, which is exactly what he had promised to Abraham. So it's three generations out of the mouth of two or three witnesses, let everything be established.

25:03 God is showing that he will be good to those who are in covenant with him, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So then when the children of Israel, And they've come out of Egypt now and they've got the promised land. Then after Joshua dies, you've got the whole book of Judges. And in the book of Judges, you see this pattern over and over again. And of course, we saw it in the wilderness with the generation that came out of Egypt that they got the severity side because they were. You know, they were slaves in their minds. They were complainers, too. They'd been complaining about the slavery. Then they started complaining about the food and the lack of water and fussing and fighting. And God just had to take his severity side to them. So in Judges, they have this pattern where They start to sin. They go down into sin.

26:03 And then God releases his severity on them and sends enemies to fuss at them and do them bad. Then they cry out to the Lord. And he sends them a deliverer. He sends them a judge who fixes the problem, deals with the enemy. And then as long as that judge is living. They're behaving themselves. And there's peace in the land. And there's peace in the land. So they've got the good side of God because they're being obedient. And we had some very interesting judges, too. Oh, yes. You had Samson. Oh, yeah. And, you know, you always picture Samson. Picture Bible. When I was young, you had a picture Bible. And so Samson is this man of renown. Muslim man. Muslim man and all that. But different ones that have seen him. In heaven. In heaven. Said, you know, he's just an ordinary size. It was a supernatural strength. Yes. The Lord gave him. That's what made the Philistines. How is this guy that's just a normal looking guy take the gates? What city was he? He pulled the city gates. Gaza, I think. Yeah, the city gates of Gaza. He pulled them up. I mean, you know how many of those swinging doors? I mean, that's. Like a thousand pounds.

27:24 Thousands of pounds. And he lifted him up and carried him somewhere. Carried him up the hill and planted him. Carried him up the hill. But it was a long trip. Yeah, it was a long trip. And all these supernatural things happened to this ordinary -looking man. And he judged Israel in a different way than a lot of the others. But he was a deliverer. He was a deliverer. And he made them mad, too. Oh, yeah. He made the Philistines so mad. And, of course, Lust got the most of Samson, and he unlost his eyes. And in his death, though, you know, he brought down the whole Temple of Baal and all those that were in with it because of the big pillars he was chained to. So, you know, he was one of the most unusual of the judges. Yeah. You know, then you had Gideon, you know, with the 300, down to 300.

28:16 Yeah. And then it was down in the valley was all the... And so with 300 men, 300 shofars, and 300 lamps, it put them in panic. Because each one of them represented a whole thousand. A whole legion. Thousands. They thought there were thousands of people coming down on them, and they scattered. So it's like God had a different battle plan for each judge. They were all different. And so there would be peace, and then there'd be peace no more. Until finally they cried out, give us a king. Give us a king like all the other nations. That's another whole story. Samuel, yeah, he said, you don't want a king. So anyway, the first king went sour. That was Saul. And then so David is on the scene. God promised to build David a house. Yeah, because David wanted to build him a house. He says, no, you've got too much blood on your hands from being a man of war. So I'm going to give you a peaceful son, and he'll build the house, but I'm going to build you a dynasty. So in 1 Kings 15, 4 -5, Nevertheless, for David's sake did the Lord his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem to set up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem. Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the manner of Uriah the Hittite. Right. And I think

29:49 that was a, well, I think we covered, kind of covered that on the last episode. Yes, yes. One of David's big boo -boos, you know. Yeah. But the point is that God loved David. Yeah. The name David means beloved. Hmm, okay. And God loved David, and David loved God. That's the thing. He loved God. He declared that God was his shepherd. As a man after my own heart. Exactly. And that's why God wanted to build him a house. He wanted to build him a dynasty to put David up here and say, look, kings, this is the kind of king I want you to be. I want you to follow his example of loving me. and obeying me. And except for that one thing, he was faithful. And think of the Psalms that he wrote. I mean, he was so expressive. He was so creative. I'm sure there's a lot of them that were lost and not even because he wrote so many. Yeah, probably.

30:50 So then God gave him the son, Solomon, which is another whole story that we've covered before of you know, here is the son that comes from the wife that he shouldn't have had to begin with. But God worked it all together for good because David loved him. So he gets the kindness. And God called Solomon Yedidia. God sent the prophet to David and said, God said, the Lord, Yehovah, said, I love this baby. And I'm calling him Yedidia, which means beloved of Yehovah.

31:37 And Shlomo or Solomon means peaceful. So here's this peaceful man that is loved by God. And 1 Kings 3 .3, you want to read that one, Philip, about Solomon? Solomon loved the Lord by walking in the statutes of his father David, but he also sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. That's because he hadn't built the temple yet. Yeah. Unless he, maybe he was doing that after he built the temple. I don't know. Yeah, we don't know. But all we know in the end for Solomon is, and he had a thousand, what was it, a thousand wives or concubines. Yeah. That his wives stole his heart. Yeah, it's true. It's true. But to begin with, remember, we're talking about the goodness of God. Goodness of God. The kindness, the kind side of him. And he had peace all his days. Solomon had no wars. It's true. He built the kingdom that his father had handed him by war and maintained it by peace. Yeah, that's very good. And he also maintained it by making marriages with the daughters of the kings. So there was some kind of diplomacy going on, marriage diplomacy, that enabled him to have a peaceful kingdom. Now, he did wind up making mistakes.

33:08 And, you know, as you pointed out, that his wives, because he'd married these foreign wives, they wanted him to build them temples for their gods. him getting them to worship the one true God. That was his mistake. If he was going to make these marriages, he would have been wise to get them to actually learn about the God of Israel and come to love the God of Israel and serve the God of Israel, and that would have made a big difference in his kingdom. Yeah, the end of his life and the kingdom would add a whole difference. Yeah, it would have. So then there were all kinds of kings, and some of them did well and some of them didn't. Some of them loved God, and there was trouble in their times when they didn't behave right and when they didn't obey God. Now, one of the kings that did well, at least until he made a wrong marriage, was Jehoshaphat. So 2 Chronicles 17, 3 -5, what does that say? The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David.

34:17 There it is again. He did not seek the Baals, but sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments, and not according to the practices of Israel. Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought tribute to Jehoshaphat, and he had great riches and honor. So he walked in the ways of David his father. Now this is generations after David, but the house of David wasn't named for David. And so he was obedient to the God of Israel. And so what happened as a result of his obedience? He walked in the ways of his father, David. He did not go after Baals. He sought the God of his father, walked in his commandments. Therefore, God established the kingdom in his hand. So what happens as we walk with God, he begins to establish things around us. He begins to establish our authority as we learn how to use it correctly.

35:26 the idea of authority without realizing that they really need to let the Holy Spirit lead them in this authority thing. We do have authority. We absolutely have authority. Dean Braxton preached a message about it at the convention. If you haven't heard that, you need to go listen to it. So you have heavenly authority, use it. But the idea is that your authority comes. As you walk with him and you learn his ways. And it says, all Judah brought tribute to Jehoshaphat. He had great riches and honor. So honor and riches. And again, I'm not saying that we're looking for prosperity. So we'll obey God in order to get prosperous. That's not the point. The point is that as you walk with him. as you have right relationship with him, he will establish good things in your life, and he will take care of you, and you're going to get the good side of him. You're going to get the goodness side. So then there's Hezekiah. He was another one. 2 Chronicles 32, 22 -23. So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. and from the hand of all his enemies, and he provided for them on every side. Wow. And many brought gifts to the Lord to Jerusalem and precious things to Hezekiah, king of Judah, so that he was exalted

36:58 in the sight of all nations from that time onward. Wow. Well, that's favor to be honored in the nations around you. But remember what Hezekiah did when Sennacherib was threatening? And he laid that letter out before the Lord. Yeah. And he cried. We covered that in the last podcast. Right. Yeah, he laid it out before the Lord and just cried before the Lord. And Isaiah sent the word to him. This is what's going to happen. Yep. And it did happen. Yeah. And God prospered him in great ways. Now, his big mistake was that when— The king of Babylon sent visitors. Yes, go ahead. And he showed them everything. He showed them the treasures of the house of God. And that was a big boogaloo. You never show some foreign people what you have because you know why? They may just want to come and steal it. And they did. And they did. Not in his lifetime, but in his son's. Wow. So I think it's amazing to see that all of these people that we're talking about, are ordinary people that made mistakes. But they walked with God. And while they're walking with him, at least, he is giving them his good side.

38:25 So we can look at our own lives and we can say, okay, let me just walk with God. I want to walk with God because I love him. And I want to love him more all the time. And I'm reminded of that little song, that little chorus that we used to sing. I want more of Jesus, more and more and more. I want more of Jesus than I've ever had before. Yes. I want more of his great love, so rich, so full and free. I want more of Jesus, so I'll give him more of me. And that is the secret here. If you want more of him, you give him more of you. And you don't save things for yourself, because that's where the severity will show up eventually. If you don't give it up, eventually it's going to call the severity of God to come and deal with it. So I love the promises to the godly. Psalm 112, verses 1 through 10.

39:27 Would you read that, please? Praise the Lord! Explanation mark. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. His offspring will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.

40:21 He has distributed freely. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn is exalted in honor. The wicked man sees it and is angry. He gnashes his teeth and melts away. The desire of the wicked will perish. So you can see all the good stuff. All the good side of God stuff. that is there for those who fear the Lord, who greatly delight in his commandments. You know, just read Psalm 119 and get a heart for loving his word, loving the things that come from his word, loving his expressions, loving his ways. And the next thing is that your offspring will be blessed. They'll become mighty. And the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house. That's what we've been talking about. Wealth and riches show up for those that are showing up for God. And his righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright. He's gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends. See, all of these things are the characteristics of God.

41:41 that are coming out through our lives as we walk with him. It's about getting filled with the Holy Spirit. And he'll begin to work his fruit in us. And as his fruit is working in us, you know, you bring forth good fruit. And there's prosperity of all kinds in that. And I'm not just talking about money. I'm talking about... a wealth that has to do with living well, living happily. It's not about what kind of a house you live in, and it's not how much you've gained. There's a scripture that I think is Paul writes that godliness with contentment is great gain, because some people are supposing that gain is godliness. In other words, some people are looking at the people who have gotten lots of wealth as though They've gotten it because they're godly.

42:37 But that's not necessarily the reason why they've gotten it. But godliness with contentment is great gain. So it's the contentment of your life. And there's nothing wrong with being wealthy. I'm not trying to say that it's bad to be rich. No, it's not. But there's a whole lot of rich people that are really unhappy. Yeah. And they're really poor. Poor in spirit. They have all these things, but it's not. bought happiness. Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't buy happiness. But walking with God buys happiness. Yeah. It's a wealth that money can't buy. Yeah. Money comes and you'll have it to use because you're trusting in the Lord. So even with a meager amount, if you are happy, and content in the Lord, it's greater riches than somebody who's living in a mansion and has six cars to choose from and can buy anything he wants. He's wealthy and unhappy. Nah, I don't want that kind of life. I want the kind of life that is just consumed with him and him consuming me. So one of the things that we see in our day, That is a beautiful illustration of the goodness of God and his goodness in keeping his promises.

44:09 We see that in Deuteronomy 30. And Deuteronomy is basically Moses retelling the story of what has gone on in... their time in the wilderness, and it's just before they're going to go into the promised land. And so he's reiterating all of these things and encouraging people to do right, because now the majority of the people that came out of Egypt that were adults when they came out of Egypt have all died. And so now he's exhorting the young people, and he's saying in chapter 30, it shall come to pass when all these things are come upon you, the blessing and the curse. So you have your choice. You're going to get blessings if you obey, and you're going to get curses if you disobey. You serve the Lord with gladness or you're going to have trouble, right? All of these things, the blessing and the curse, which I've set before you. And you shall call them to mind among the nation, among all the nations, whether the Lord your God has driven you. In other words, in leading up to this, he's saying, if you don't follow me, I'm going to drive you out of this promised land that you're getting to go into now. Which he did. He did it twice. But he prophesied that they would come back a second time. And so here he's promising what's going to happen in Deuteronomy 30. Bring these things to mind when you're in the nations where I've driven you. And you shall

45:40 return to Yehovah your God and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you today. You and your children with all your heart and with all your soul. And one of the big complaints that God had with Israel and that Jesus had with the Pharisees and Sadducees is that they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. So it's our hearts that count. It's about serving him with your heart that keeps you on his good side, on his kindness side. That's good. So here's his promise. You start thinking about me. You start loving me. You start serving me with all your heart. Then Yehovah, your God, will turn your captivity and have compassion on you and will return and gather you from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. And verse 5, the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it, and he will do you good and multiply you above your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed to love Yehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. good. He will do you good.

47:03 So as we follow him, as we walk with him with all of our hearts, as we love him with all of our hearts, he's going to do us good. We'll stay on the goodness side of God. We'll stay on the kindness side of God. So our God, we can't see with our physical eyes, but all the idols of the land, you know, like India and all that, well, they got... 30 million gods or however many. And most everything is something carved out of wood, hay, or stone or something like that. And it's just like when they came out of Egypt, the gods that the Egyptians, many of them, they're gods they could see. But here now they're serving a god they can't see. You can't see him, but you experience his goodness. Right. But all those other idols. don't give you any experience of goodness. Nothing. And even as God judged Egypt, each one according to one of their gods.

48:04 They did. You know, the flies, the frogs. Yeah, that was the severity side. The severity side of God on Egypt. So, you know, we serve a God that we don't see in the natural, but we connect in the spirit to him. That's right. And even through Jesus, he's visited many people. And you can always expect he may just do that to you someday. Exactly. Just pay you a visit in the natural or in a vision. Yeah. And in the meantime, he's probably going to shower you with kisses if you're paying attention. All these little things. It happens to me frequently that something that I thought I liked or I loved or my favorite thing, all of a sudden it shows up.

48:51 And it's like, wow. Yeah. And even when we went to the fireworks for 4th of July. Yeah. It was like with everything that popped off, every... Mortar. I don't know, what do you call them? Every firework? Everything that blasted into the sky. And all of these different shapes and sizes and colors and noises. And it was like at one point where it was coming so strong and so hard, I felt like the Lord was saying, this is how I love you. Bam. This is how I love you. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And I started to cry because he's trying to get through to us how much he loves us. And as we love him. The more we put our attention on Him, the more we're going to see those ways that He loves us. And He loved us so much that He gave His only Son to die for us. He was shredded for us. He was crucified for us. He shed His lifeblood, His sinless blood, so that we could be set free from our sins and be restored in our relationship with our Father. Yes. Wow. Hallelujah. Jesus, thank you. Thank you, Father. Hallelujah. Thank you, Father. Thank you. Thank you. We enter your gates with thanksgiving. We enter your courts with praise today to thank you for your goodness.

50:23 Yes. To thank you for your loving kindness because you are good. Yes. And you are kind. Thank you. And we just say thank you. And we give you all the praise. Yes. In Jesus' name. Yes, Lord. And teach us, Lord, entering into your holy place, holy holies, through worship. Yes, Lord. Thank you, Father. Amen. Amen. Your review helps the podcasting platform suggest this podcast to other listeners who are also looking for a great move of the Holy Spirit. Check out our website at globaloutpouring .org to find out more information, read our blogs, connect with us, and donate.

51:14 You can also browse our web store for life -changing anointed books. Until next time, this is Sharon Buss. And I'm Philip Buss. God bless you with His overwhelming, loving presence.