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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Believing That God Is Good | Stephen Dufresne | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. The Lord's been talking to me about a couple things, and one day I was driving home, and, man, I was just frustrated. Have you ever been frustrated before? And I was driving home, and just things weren't going the way that I thought they were. You know, you just sort of like, man, I didn't imagine my life going like this. And you can get into a flow of just thinking about everything that's going wrong in your life. You know, you can get into a flow of, gosh, just nothing works. You know, I can't get anything to work for me, you know? And out of my spirit, I just heard this. God is good. God is good. And I got to thinking about it, and I thought, well, let me think about this for a minute. Let me evaluate this. So I was just talking to God, and I said, father, show me what's the right thing to be doing. I just heard in my spirit, God is good. God is good. God is good. And I know it's a simple saying, and it sounds simple, but it's true. God is good. And if we take. We can always take the good, right? And say, hey, it's been a great day. I just got paid, or somebody did something good for me or something. God's good. God's good. But what if things are bad? Do things get bad for Christians? Yeah, they do. Things have been bad from the beginning for Christians. A lot of times. Things haven't always worked out great. And what are we supposed to say? God is good. Let's say it. God is good. God is good. And I'm just thinking about some things today, and I thought, what if your car blows up on the freeway? What do you say? God is good. And it's kind of a funny thing to say, like, God did this, and, thank you, God, for destroying my car. But God's not out destroying your car. He's not out trying to ruin your life. But there's things in life that just happen, you know, what if a storm comes and there's a tree next to your house? Tree falls on your house, cuts the thing in half, cut your house smooth in half. What do you say? God is good. Water pouring in, furniture is destroyed. Your house is total. God is good. Because that's what the word says that we have to say. Because what's the opposite of God is good? God is bad. And that's not a good thing to say, you know, to Blame God. And if God's bad, then you're blaming God for your car blowing up. You're blaming God and say, well, why didn't you have your angels catch that tree? Right? You kind of get a religious mind about it. And I think it's funny because every man or woman of God in the Bible had always dealt with some kind of garbage, right? They've always dealt with some kind of problems. There's always been an enemy at the front door, at the front gate. There's always been something to take your joy away, to make you unhappy. And it's important what we say when those times arise. And what are we supposed to say? God is good. God is good. When you don't have enough to pay your bills, what do you say? God is good. When your tires are bald, God is good. God is good. And the devil says, no, he's not. You're the brokest Christian. You the broken Christian, all that prosperity stuff doesn't work for you. And you go, you have an option. Which way do you go? Do you fall into the trap and go, you're right, God has not been good to me. Or do you say, God is good. Your house burns down in a wildfire around here. What do you say? God is good. And you get. Maybe if you had insurance, you get a brand new house. And if you didn't, God's still good. Maybe you living in a trailer, God is good. And you're like, well, that sounds really bad, Brother Stephen, but it's part of life. These things are happening to people every day. These things are happening. If you go to Florida, there's hurricanes every year. And what do they do? They destroy everybody's stuff. I mean, it's leveled. And they have an option to be upset. I'm talking about Christians. Or do they say, God is good. God is good. And so I want to kind of go through some of this stuff and we're just going to kind of look through the Word and see what the Word says about it. Amen. If you have your Bibles, I want you to go to Psalms 34:1. 34:1, 34:1, Psalms 34:1. And it says here, I will bless the Lord at how many times? All times. Including the bad, including the good. His praise shall continuously be in my mouth. If you're driving to Vegas and your car overheats and you're on the side of the road and it's 115 degrees, 120 degrees, and you're sweating and there's no one around to Help you and people are passing you. I put myself in realistic things. And you found out your spare tire was flat because you haven't checked it since you bought the car. You didn't know. So what do you do? You're upset. Do you fly off the handle? Yes, that's a very good option. I would like to fly off the handle. But is it the right way to do it or what do you say? God is good. God is good. Because there's somebody somewhere else that's got it way worse than you do. I promise you that. And you can look that God's trying to ruin your trip. That God's trying to. You know, it's so funny how we can get religious. Maybe it's just bad maintenance on your car that you just didn't do. And now you're like, well, Lord, I was believing you to get me there. But maybe it's like, well, you should have checked your tires. You know, it's one of those things. And they trying to, you know, like cover the gas gauge with a credit card or something. You know, it's like, look, get some gas. Stop it. You know, Anyways. My soul shall make his boast in the Lord and the humble shall hear all of it and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me, delivered me from all fear. They looked to him and were radiant and their faces were ashamed. The poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him and delivers them. And it says here in verse 8, O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. You know, if we look back at the Bible and some of the stuff that some of these people went through, it far outpasses the stuff that we're going through today. Amen. Is that true? They lived in a time where their country could be ransacked at any moment and you would be sold into slavery or killed. And, you know, if we look at the aspect of time, how about the Middle Ages when the Black Plague was coming through and killing everybody, when housing was like non existent, you know, there was feces in the street. It was just terrible situations. And we live in a time where we have cell phones and Internet and we all have decent cars or you can get a decent car. There's more cars than there is humans now. You know, everyone. The standard of living is incredibly much higher and it's like sometimes we forget and expect those things to be given to us. Amen. But that's not been the case since the beginning of time. And Job in the Bible is a great example. You know about Job in the Bible? Let's go to Job 1:13. The book of Job is a very old book. And I just want to kind of look at some of the stuff here. It's a very interesting book, some of it. I'll be honest, I don't understand everything. Maybe you do, maybe you don't. It doesn't matter. Just because you don't understand doesn't mean anything. But you can take some stuff out of it and apply it to your life. And Job was a very prosperous man. And it says now it talks about here that Job loses everything within just a matter of pretty much moments. Pretty much moments. I'm going to go to job 1 13. Now. There was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in the oldest brother's home. And a messenger came to Job. The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them when the Sabian raiders came and took them away. Indeed, they have killed the servants with the edge of their sword. And I alone have escaped to tell you. I mean Job is just minding his own business. He's a God fearing man, He's a God loving man. And I mean just tragic stuff starts happening to him. While he was still speaking, another came. The fire of God has fell from heaven and has burned the sheep and the servants and consumed them. And I alone have escaped to tell you. So his. His investments are going up in flames, his children are dying. I mean before the other one got done, people started running to him while he was speaking also came and said the whoever formed three ban raiders, canals, camels, and took them away. Yes, and killed the servants by the edge of their sword. And I have lone escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another came and said, you sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's home. And suddenly a great wind came across the wilderness. Instruct the four corners of the house. And it fell on the youngest people. And they are dead. And I alone have escaped to tell you. Job tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground. And what did he do? And worshiped and said, naked I have come from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. There the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Now see, that's what Job is saying. Job doesn't know the Devil is trying to destroy him. This is a very old book. In his ignorance, he doesn't know any better. Blessed be the name of the Lord in all this. Job did not sin, nor judge, or God will wrong. And over in chapter two, verse ten. But he. Now, this is the wife. What's back up to nine? Then his wife said to him, do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse the Lord and die, or curse God and die. But he said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God? And we shall now accept this in an all. Job did not sin. So what's happening here? Job's life has been just completely ransacked, just completely destroyed. And he had an option. His wife is saying, you need to forget God, curse his name and let's die. That's how bad it got. And he said, I'm not doing that. I refuse to do that. And he goes on and on and on. And then his friends get involved and his friends say, and they bring their wise counsel and say, you know what? I bet you've done something wrong. I bet you really messed up somewhere. And they start going through this whole list of stuff that Job had done wrong. He said, I haven't done any of that stuff. So we'll make a long story short, because it goes through like 35 chapters, something like that. So let's go to job 42, job 42, the very last one in verse 12. Now what if Job were to curse God and say, you know what? God isn't good. He was good, but now he's bad. But he had an option. And he kind of tangled with the thought of saying, you know, what are you doing, God? Why are you trying to destroy me? But his ignorance, he didn't know that the devil was trying to destroy him. And so he just thought God was doing it. So over here in verse 12, 42, 12. Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. For he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first Jeremiah. And let's go down to 15. And in the land were found no women so beautiful. I think that's funny that they recorded that. They must have. The other women must have been pretty rough looking women, because they were like, these women are gorgeous. So beautiful as the daughters of Job. And their father gave them an inheritance along with the brother. After this, Job lived 140 years and saw his children and his grandchildren for four generations. Job is a prime example of something when things in your life completely go, the saying, to hell in a handbasket, right? Maybe you've thought maybe people have lost their homes. We've seen people with children have lost parents. I'm sure one of you here has lost a loved one. Some parents, their children have died at infant stage. And that's a tragic thing. But what do you say? God is good? The first thing that comes to a person's mind is, why is this happening to me? Why would God allow this? I'm a Christian. I'm this, I'm that. And you can become in this entitlement stage. Well, this shouldn't happen to me. I don't deserve this. I don't deserve this. And I don't understand everything either, nor do you. But one thing that we are supposed to do is remember whether good things come or bad things come. What do we say? God is good. God is good. And that's such an important thing that I told myself I'd sit still. Stephen Dufresne, from now on. Anything that I don't understand or I don't know, that is hard on me, or maybe financially, whatever happens, God is good. God is good. God is good. Because you can become really unhappy very quick if you don't remember that God is good. And what you do is you get yourself out of the blessing. And when you get yourself out of the blessing, you're completely open to the devil to destroy your life. And you always have to have a tender heart towards God because a lot of people, they harden their heart towards God. How much in the world now do we see people, they don't believe that the church is for them. I've heard so many times, you know, they say, I'll invite people to church or something. Or I'll say, you know, why don't you go to church? They say, well, one day when I get right with God, I'll go. That's like saying, like, someone that says, well, when I quit drugs, I'll go to rehab. It's foolishness, you know, it's like, well, that's stupid. So there's this thing where they say, well, I'm not good enough. Well, I don't deserve that, you know, Or I'm not holy enough. People forget that God loves them, and they forget that God is good. The way that the church has been perverted through. When after Jesus left, the Christian religion just blew up. It took off and it turned Greece, which was the capital of the pagan system of the world into a Christian nation. And it became on fire for God. And then bad people got hold of the church and pretty much raped the people of financial prosperity. Kept them ignorant. And the church was so filthy rich that they pretty much owned countries and armies. And we know the whole story. It got really out of control. And the church, even till this day, has gotten a bad rap in some aspects. I'm not talking about the word of faith movement, but some of your denominational religious stuff. People have been taught wrong. Is that not right? And from the beginning, the priest would tell them, well, God giveth and God taketh away. And they say it with that tone, you know, that real religious tone. And people go, yeah, that's right. And they say, God took your little child because he needs one of them naked angels. And it's like, hold up a minute, you know, and people swallow this hook, line and sinker and they go, yeah, Jesus took. And what does that do? That develops a hatred for God. Is that not true? I mean, if you were told from your superiors and your parents and your grandparents that God was out to kill you, you would think, God's out to kill me. He's out to ruin my life. And when he decides that I'm not needed anymore, he's gonna lightning bolt me off the face of this earth. And so we can see how the world sees a type of bondage with the church because of the way, the wrong way they're taught. It's been a mis, perverted way of teaching and a lot of it. I'm not saying that's the way that they were taught and that's the way that they process it. And they never thought to look any deeper than what their grandmother told them. They never thought that, well then Jesus trying to kill us. And there's been songs about it about how God needed another angel and needed all this stuff and it's wrong thinking. And I praise God that I have enough smarts to be in a flow of God and to be in a church like this to have some revelation, to say, no, that's not true. Because the world believes that. They really believe that God's out when their time is done, it's over. You know, God's put cancer on me, I'm going to die. And that's not the case. And we always have to remember God is good no matter what happens. And if people would realize that and not blame God, I can't tell you how many times God, people are blaming God for everything. They're blaming God that they're in the situations they're in. They're blaming God for this, they're blaming God for that, and they're ungrateful. A lot of it is due from ignorance and a lot of it's due from stupidity because they won't take responsibility for their actions. Amen. Let's go over to Exodus 15:22. And here we know that the children of Israel came out of slavery. Let me tell you something about slavery. Slavery had been around since the beginning of time and only in the last 200, 150 years, it's been pretty much abolished for the first time since humankind. That's amazing. And praise God that I get to live in a time like this where we see that now, where we don't have the type of stuff that these people had to suffer through. Different races, things from being Jews or whatever race. I think every race and every nationality of the world at some time has been a slave, whether it be Chinese, whites, blacks, it doesn't matter. And for the first time, this pretty much worldwide. I'm not saying it's completely abolished, but we're seeing it on a mass scale. It's completely abolished. And the Jews had been in slavery for a long time and they had just been released by a good God and signs and wonders, one after another. We know the whole story from plagues to the firstborn to all that stuff parting the Red Sea. And God was good when God was doing good things. But when they had to go through a place of dryness or through what we would call the desert or a place where there was no resources after three days, I'm in verse Exodus 15:22. Let's go to 24, actually. And the people complained against Moses. Now that word complain, that's not being God is good. That's saying, you know what? God is not being good right now because we're really thirsty. And again, Moses saying, what shall we drink? And he heard the. So he cried out to God, and God showed him a tree, and when he cast it into the water, and the water was made sweet there, he made a statue of ordinance. And. And then it says here and said, if you diligently heed the voice of the Lord, the God, do not in this. I'm just going to go down to 16, verse 2. And it says, then the whole congregation of the children of Israel, what did they do? They complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, oh, that we had died in the hands of the Lord. So they're saying, God has brought us out here to die. God's going to kill us in the hands of Egypt. When we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to be full for. You have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. One thing we have in America as Americans is we have a saying. I don't know if I'm saying it right, but it's live free or die. Is that not true? That was, you know, the snake on the flag. What does that say? Don't. Don't tread on me. Or the other one. It's like in Maine or something that says live free or die. It's on the license plates. And most people, they're going to their promised land. They would rather. Most people would rather die for their country. But these people said, you know what? We don't want our country. We don't want what God has for us. We were better off sitting in slavery than just going to our nation. And I noticed one thing about Americans when the Civil War and stuff, they said it's better for us to die than be slaves to the English people. We're done with it, and we're willing to die for it. These people, they don't want to die for what they come out of. They're not willing to die for it. They're not willing to say, you know what? I'm okay to die because we're not slaves anymore. They didn't see the good in it. They were no longer their children's children, were no longer slaves. But they don't. Don't care, don't matter. We would rather die in the hands of. Of Egypt, sitting at the pots of meat. But remember, God is good. God is good. And they didn't because their bellies, women, your bellies, when you get hungry, you get hangry. Is that not true? Women get hangry. Can do you get hangry? No, I don't get hangry either. I just start shaking a little bit. But people get hangry, and all of a sudden, the demeanor of their life changes. But you have to remember, you're only a subway away from the next exit. You be all right. You get to subway, you get a sandwich. But from the beginning of time, and we know the children of Israel, if you go down through it, I mean, I have it. There's the word complain right there. Complain again. Complain. They complain. They complain. They complained. I just named off all the ones that were in the Bible. It says here they did not hear Moses they didn't care what he says. And Moses was angry with them. And then he goes on and says, why do you tempt the Lord? And the people complained against Moses to kill. And then he said to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst. And Moses cried out and said, lord, Lord, saying, what shall I do with these people? Why, they are almost ready to stone me. Are they grateful about what God has done for them? If you were a slave your whole life and you were set free, I think there's a level of gratefulness in seeing the miracles that they saw that you were okay to die in the wilderness. Just lay me here because I know I'm going to heaven. I know that my Father is God and he's going to receive. But no, that's not good enough for them. So not good enough. They don't care. And they got to the point where they forgot about God altogether. Moses says, I'm going up to the mountain. And we know the story. And they get all their jewelry, women's. Take off all their stuff. They take off the earrings. They had money. They had a lot of money. They had money and had so much gold. What did they do with it? They made a bull and they danced around it and gave it offerings. And they're going to worship a cow now, is this being grateful? Have they realized that God is good to them? No, they didn't realize it. They were only happy with God when he was doing 100% for him all the time. They're only happy. And we have to be careful with that as Christians, because a lot of times we think we deserve things because we have revelation on the Word, we have revelation about the Bible. We have revelation about prosperity. We have revelation about healing. We have. We have revelation about these things. And we can almost become entitled and say, I don't deserve this. I know what I'm capable of. Oh, really? Do you? Because you sound ungrateful. You sound like an idiot. And sometimes you have to stand back and say, father, I'm ignorant and I need your help. Because that's what Job did. Job said, father, I don't know what I've done, but whatever I've done, I ask you to forgive me. I ask you to forgive me. And if there's anything I can change, I ask you to show me what I can change. Moses had already been living out in the wilderness. He knew what this was like. The people, they had no idea. Obviously, they never went in. And we know the story. They died. Only the smallest generation went in. And we know the rest of the story. But we have to realize that no matter what happens, God is good. Amen. Anything that happens every day in your life, anything that happens. You know, there's so many times I'll be trying to leave on a trip and something happens, something breaks, and I get. And I have a tendency to just be like, you know, like really just when I'm about to leave, and I have to remind myself and say, you know what? God is good. God is good. And I have to sit down and say, no, he really is good. I'm not just saying that he really is good. Because a lot of people don't believe he's good Jesus. The prophet Isaiah prophesied about Jesus coming, and he said that he will come and he's going to be born in a manger. He's going to be crucified and die for your sins and our iniquities. And obviously Jesus came and he did just what was prophesied and being done. That. That you and me have that redemption to us right now, that we can walk in God's goodness, that we redeem from sickness, we're redeemed from poverty, that Jesus has come. Even if your house gets burnt to the ground, your salvation is something you can be grateful about. Is that not true? That is one of the greatest things, because we know that this life is a very small, small picture of eternity. And when you stop thinking about your tire being blown on the side of the road and what are you going to do? And when is AAA going to be out here and it's 115 degrees, you have to remember, God is good. God is good. I still have. I'm still a child of God because there's people passing you every day that are going to hell in a hand basket. And I say it truthfully. They don't care about God. They want sin in their life. They want perversion in their life. They like the sin, and they embrace sickness and disease. People are running to these pharmacies and these medical places looking for pills. It's crazy. I had to go there to get a class A license thing, and I couldn't believe it. I'm just like, oh, my God. These people come in literally crawling on the floor. I'm being a little bit dramatic, but literally, like, I have to get in now. Like, you got to give me pills. You got to give me pills. And I'm thinking, what a terrible life that I have to call my employer every day and be like, there's something wrong with me. I'm dying, and all this stuff's happening to me, and I can't breathe and all this stuff. And it's like, these people, the only thing they have to get somebody to care about them in life is drama, you know? And I'm just so grateful that God is good all the time. You don't know, maybe your house does burn down, and who knows, Your insurance says, we're going to build you a bigger one and a better one. And you go, praise God. Praise God. But what if you got down and said, my whole house burned down? I was believing for my house not to burn down, and it burned down. God don't like me. He hates me. It's like, hold on a minute. Hold up. Wait a minute. You. You don't know what's going to come out of it. You never know what's going to happen. So just like Job, what if Job said, you're right, wife, let's curse God and die? He would have never got his beautiful daughters and all his stuff back. Got all that back and more. I mean, he had boils on his face. His face was pussing up. I mean, he's falling apart. His life was gone. But he refused to give up on God to say, no, he is a bad God. He never said that. He said, no, God is good. Amen. Have you ever been upset at somebody? And I'm gonna shut up with this. Have you ever been upset because somebody else got something nice and you didn't? You're like, well, Brother Stephen, no, I'm a saint, and I've never done that. That's probably not true. We've all had that point where somebody rolls up in the church and has a new car, and they go, praise God, I got a new car. And you go, wow. And you look over at your junky car and you're like, man, God, that would sure be nice if I had me a new car. And then you start, you know, and then you get in your car and your AC don't work good, and, you know, things aren't work right, and you can almost get just fed up, you'd say, you know what, you stupid piece of junk? And. And you forget. What are you forgetting? God is good. God is good. If someone pulls up in a brand new car and says, brother, look what I got, what do you say? Praise God. And inside you're boiling. You go, no, you don't. No, you don't. No, you don't. I'm glad for them. And your inside say, no, you're not. You know, you Hate that car. You hate the color and you're upset that they have it. And you go, no, no, no. It's a choice. It's a choice whether or not you get upset that somebody else has something nice that you don't. Because it's so important that we learn this. Because I don't want to ever get to a place because I have to remind myself, because it went off in me when I was driving and I said it was just an intuition anytime I don't understand anything spiritually. Have you ever been believing for God for something and it just doesn't come at the time you thought it was, or it's just not working out the way you thought it was? I have, you know, a handful of those things. And you can almost get frustrated and say, what is going on? And just up inside of me, I just heard, God is good. God is good. And what does that do? It keeps you in the blessing flow. It keeps you in the movement flow forward. You don't have to understand everything, but what you do is you say, you know what? I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's going on in the kingdom. I don't know. But one thing I do know, God is good. Did I ingrain it into your brain enough? Did I say it enough times yet? Amen. I mean, that we have Panera every night. Not every night, but every Tuesday night. That you guys can come. I mean, that's a blessing. God is good. God is good. That we have a house to go home to. Amen. That, you know, some of us have family that loves us. Praise God. God is good. Some of our siblings have gone home to be with the Lord. Praise God. God is good. Some of them left before they should have left. That's okay. God is good. God is good. God is good. You can't pay your bills. God is good. Your water payment's a little bit higher than what you wanted it to be. God is good. Electric a little bit higher than you wanted it to be. Having problems with one of your kids? God is good. God is good. I'm saying it over and over and over because I want to ingrain it in your head to anything that comes up. Now let's take somebody comes and pays your car off. God is good. Well, of course you're going to say that. Praise God. I've got my religious hat on now. You know, I'm happy. Happy. You know, but you say it when it's good and you say it when it's bad. You say it all the time. Nobody wants a blown out tire. Nobody wants to be stranded on the side of the road. But you know what? Stuff happens. Stuff happens, things break. Nothing lasts forever. So there's things that's gonna come up and we have to decide. What do we say? What do we say? Well, this is an extra expense. Of course it is. That's why you're broke down on the side of the road. What do you say? God is good. But they're gonna do a. They gotta take my car and it's gonna cost 360. Stop it. You already got to pay it. You can't leave it there because the hypo is going to send you a bill for leaving it on the side of this freeway anyways. So you got to get it towed. It's part of it. It's part of it. Amen. To get to the promised land, they had to go through the desert. It's part of it. It's part of it. It's part of where you're going. Amen. Have you been helped? All right. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us@DefrainMinistries.org to learn of our upcoming meetings. Share your testimony, become a partner or visit our online store. This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of Dufresne Ministries.