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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
The Goodness Of God | Nancy Dufresne | Campmeeting 2024 | Monday PM
01:04:47
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. Hallelujah. As I was standing there, I was reminded. First Chronicles, chapter 16, verse 34. I'll read it to you. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, then. The Word is so specific, you know, if we're not careful, we're just reading things as poetic. It's a poetic phrase when it's. What did Brother Joel say? It's God speaking to us. It's God speaking to us. And so we don't want to just read it and say, well, this is just a nice poetic instruction here. But it's very specific. It says, oh, give thanks unto the Lord. And then it tells us why to give thanks. What are we giving thanks for? And the next phrase, for he is good. For he is good. And then Psalm 118, verse 1, says, oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good. But then in this verse, it says, why he is good because his mercy endureth forever. It's his mercy that makes him so good. God isn't just doing good. He is good. Any dealing with God with you is a good dealing, because anything he's involved in can't be anything but good, because he is good. So when God corrects you, he's being good to you. When God says, change this. It's his goodness, and his mercy has caused his goodness to reach you. Amen. So we need to give thanks when we're being corrected, because that's proper response to goodness. I said, that's proper response to goodness. I found. I saw a verse. I want to. I want to read it to you. Nehemiah rehearsed how God delivered his people from Egypt, how he provided in the wilderness for them, how he brought them into the promised land and delivered them from their enemies. In Nehemiah, chapter 9, verse 27, I want to read this to you. Nehemiah 9, verse 27. As he's rehearsing God's goodness to his people, it says, therefore thou deliverest them into the hand of their enemies who vexed them. And in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven. And according to thy manifold mercies. Manifold mercies, thou gavest them saviors who saved them out of the hand of their enemies. The English Standard Version says, according to your great mercies, you gave them saviors who saved them. So in the mercy of God, he sent men filled with himself. The pastor God sends to your life is the mercy of God being good to us. And these men show up as saviors and you'll notice little S, little S representing big S. When God sends someone to your life to speak the Word to you, regardless of whether it's instruction, teaching, correction, the Word here says they're saviors. Amen. And it's out of God's manifold mercies that he sends someone that's good. Meaning it matters how we treat the goodness of God sent to us. Amen. When someone brings us the Word and rescues us by that word. The Word is the rescue, not the person. The Word is the rescue. But how beautiful are the feet of the one who brings the Word. They are a flow of God's mercy to our life, and we honor them as such. Amen. Psalm 34, verse 8. We know this. O taste and see that the Lord is good. His goodness is so tasty. It's so tasty. And you decide how much of that goodness you partake. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusts in him. Okay, it's described him as goodness. So we could say, blessed is the man who trusts in his goodness. When we miss it, run to his goodness. When we go the wrong direction, run to his goodness. When we make a poor decision, we run to his goodness. David sinned with Bathsheba and then tried to cover it up by having her husband put on the front lines where he knew he would be killed. And that's what happened. And in that, God sent the prophet Nathan to address him. Notice God doesn't ever correct leadership except with someone of equal anointing or higher. He didn't use any of the those that were subject in David's kingdom under him to correct him. He sent someone of equal anointing or higher. So that means you're dismissed from ever thinking. You have to address it. Really? Really. Because God knows how to deal with this man. And God said, because you've done this, judgment's coming. And he gave him three different flows of judgment and said, choose. And it didn't just affect him, it affected his nation. And he chose one out of the three. And it said, because he trusted in God's goodness, he did not think, because of my sin, God's not good anymore. So the judgment began and then was stayed because of his goodness, even though David had missed it. David had sinned. He ran relying on God's goodness not because he earned it. He did not earn it not because he qualified for it, but because he knew the character of God, the nature of God was nothing but good. And he knew when he sees judgment, his goodness is going to rise up and stop this. And that's exactly what happened. I would dare to say that of all the 12 apostles that were all martyred except for John, he had such a revelation that God loves me. And when he was faced with martyrdom, he was not dismissed from those threats, but he faced it trusting in God, having a revelation of God that others did not express to the same degree. Because no one, no other disciple or apostle wrote of the love of God like John. It wasn't because God favored John. It's because John took a place. Let's talk about for a moment. At the Last Supper, Jesus was so peaceful. He knew he's getting ready to be offered up. And he's so peaceful that John wanted to recline upon him. Notice this. The others could have. John took it. John reclined himself. It doesn't say that Jesus reclined on him. He took a position. He took a place and reclined on him. I can't tell you the number of times when in the natural and in the mental, the pressure and the overwhelming moments, and the only place of rest I could find was, I'm just going to lay here and lean. I'm not going to quote a scripture. I'm not diminishing the scripture. I'm going to do what John did. I'm just going to lay here and lean and say, you know, you know, amen, and I'm safe. Leaning here. Yes. Talking about leaning on his goodness, leaning on love. While he's leaning, Jesus begins speaking. And he said, one of you is going to betray me. They didn't know who. And if you ever read that, you read that passage and you go, jesus said, they said, who is it that's going to betray you? And Jesus dips some bread, calls it sop, and then hands it to the one who's going to betray him. And you think, judas, don't take it. You're announcing. He just announced, the one I'm going to hand it to is the betrayer. And you just reached out and took it. Right? Right. It doesn't make sense because it didn't happen that way. Let me tell you how it happened. John is leaning there. Jesus said, one of you is going to betray me. And the others that were there turned to John and said, ask him. John's in proximity that they're not. John turns to him and has a private conversation as he's leaning there, who is it? And Jesus answers to John, the one I hand the Salt to. That's why Judas took it. He didn't hear what Jesus heard or what John heard. John heard because he was leaning in proximity. You know this. The space to repent is so great. The space to get it right is so great. For three years, Jesus knew. It says, Jesus knew from the beginning who would betray him. For three years, he's letting this man in proximity. He's not, if I could say this, showing him any different treatment than the others because of what he knows. So for three years, he's giving him opportunity, space to repent. Make a different choice. Make a different choice. Make a different choice in his goodness. He's offering him chance after chance after chance after chance to make a turn. The mercy of God that makes him so good to someone who's going to betray him. For three years he's teaching and preaching. For him, also for the crowd, but for him. 2. Now Jesus is getting ready to leave. The space to repent is closing. And it's to me, as I read that it's like when he hands him that sop, he's saying, it's over, I'm leaving. There's no more space because my moment is coming. That means your moment too. So I release you from my care. I release you from my goodness. And within hours, he's committed suicide. Once the goodness of God was rejected. The goodness of God for three years lived with a man who was a violator and kept offering him chance after chance after chance after chance. Amen. The goodness of God. He was good to Judas every day. He made him a partaker. He sent him out with his divine anointing with the message, and let him be a carrier of the message. Go, go. Proclaim the kingdom to the people. Lay hands on the sick. Cast out devils. Raise the dead. He let him be someone who tastes of that. Yeah. But John heard something because of his proximity. He leaned there. He leaned there. John took that place. It wasn't that Jesus just offered him something different. John took something more. And when he himself was faced with the tragedy of potential martyrdom, I mean, they put him in a pot of boiling oil and different things. They couldn't kill him. Why? Because God so loved John, and he knew that the force of love was greater than the force of destruction that was working against him. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is. We need a further revelation. Amen. We partake of it all the time without really recognizing the wealth of the goodness, God and the mercy of God. Right. You say what? What got you going this direction? Correction. Rebuke? Yeah. Anybody ever been there? Have you ever noticed that it seems like there are seasons of correction? It seems like every time you turn around, every time, like for days, weeks and sometimes months, it's just like one thing after another. Why? Whom the Lord loves, he corrects. We can't just choose to be agreeable with the love that provides and the love that heals and the love that delivers. We also have to be welcoming to the love that corrects because we want to be right with God. And ain't none of us, all of that, none of us right. And I was going through what I would call one of those seasons of correction. And when you go through the season of correction, when you're sincere in your heart about wanting to please God and it's not just, you're not just playing church, but on the inside, you really want what God has for you, you really want to obey him. The devil will especially take those people and make them fearful if they're not careful of disobeying God, of missing God because he plays off their sincerity and gets them to turn in upon themselves that they're afraid of displeasing God. And then they, they open the door to all kinds of troubling on their mind. The devil did some turning in upon themselves because he plays off their sincerity. And I've been there, I've been there. And during this one season particularly, it was like, listen, the word tells us it is he who is working in us both to will. That's the insides, the will to will and to do, that's the obedience out here of his good pleasure, not our good, his good pleasure. Why? Because he's constantly working to bring us into the fullness of the stature of Christ. So as long as we're on this earth, he's going to be dealing with us about something. And that's his goodness. When he quits dealing, you better say, what have I done to displease the goodness of God? Because it's his goodness that deals with me. It's very dangerous to become hard hearted and stiff necked. Tests and trials will do one of two things. They'll either close you up or they'll open you up. And it's your choice of how that opposition leaves you. Does it leave you stiff necked like I'm, I'm done and offense gets in and unforgiveness gets in. Or does it make you more tender toward God? Yeah, it matters. It matters how we respond. And so I, I was going through this season and I Don't know how to say it, other than I would sense the presence of God. And God taught me this years ago. He said, when I speak to you, I send an influence with that dealing to help you receive my. To receive the words.
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Yes, yes, amen.
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It's called the anointing. Haven't you. When God speaks to you, don't you sense his presence? You sense his anointing? He said, that's my influence, his divine influence to help us to receive what he's going to say. And he said this to me. He said, but when the devil accuses you, he also sends an influence. It's fear, it's panic, anxiety. It's all of these things that are the outgrowth of fear. And you can tangibly start feeling your heart, the body responding. But just because you can feel the influence, the devil sends that to make it feel like it's so real, what he threatens you with feels real when that influence shows up. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, just stay around a while. You'll find out at some point. Don't believe the influence. Dad Hagin was walking through as a young minister, he was walking through his living room at home one day, and there was something that. Some situation that he was facing that was evidently serious. And as he's walking through, he said, the enemy spoke to me and said, I've got you now because you're in fear. And he said, I stopped and he said, I looked down and my hands were physically shaking from the influence of the situation, the influence of the accusations and the threats that were part of that test. And he said, my body was physically shaking. And he said, that's when the devil said, I've got you because you're in fear now. And dad Hagin said, devil, my body may be shaking, but my spirit is the real me, not my body. And my spirit's not shaking. That's why we don't walk by what we feel. Because the devil will cause. He will send an influence for you to feel something, to trouble you, torment you, to make you think that what he threatens with it feels real. It feels like it's going to happen. If he says, you're going to lose your home, when those words are spoken, it feels. Feels like that you're going to lose your business, your children are going to miss out on God's best. It fills with those words. And God said, that's because the devil mimics how I operate. There's nothing original in the devil. There's nothing creative. In him, all he can do is mimic. God sends an influence called the anointing. The devil sends an influence called fear. And I had, in that season I had turned the wrong way. Not against God, but defensive. Because when I would sense God deal with me or talk to me about something, I'd sense that anointing and I knew it was him grateful for the anointing. But when I would sense that, because it was like it was day after day after day after day, a season of correction, when I would sense his presence, I would automatically draw back and go, now what? What have I done now? Not mad at him, but I took a posture of defense instead of posture of open. Because goodness is dealing with me. Goodness is dealing with me, Mercy is dealing with me. And to become stiff necked or hard hearted or defensive and put up a wall and is dangerous against goodness because there's no other flow of goodness out there coming. And if you reject that goodness, where you're going to go to find it. So I, for several months, every time he would deal with me, I'd go, I know, I'm not, I know I, you know, he was so specific in his dealings and it landed because you're aware, right? And you want to please him and you don't want to displease him and so you get disappointed in yourself for him having to deal with you. You know, on one occasion I said to God, I said, here I'm repenting for the same thing for the thousandth time. So sorry. No, not some deep dark sin. Don't you know what's she doing? You know? No, I'm talking about an inward dealing that you're not succeeding at, you know, And I was talking to God, I had brought that up and I said, I, Jesus, you said, when the disciples asked you how many times do we have to forgive? Seven times, you said, no, seven times 70. That's 400 something. And I said, I haven't hit that today, I haven't hit that today. But I don't want to hit that.
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I don't want to hit that.
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I don't want that. It seems like it looks like I'm making that my goal. And I don't mean. What happens is when you're sincerely wanting to please God, you get, I don't have problems forgiving other people. Why? Because I just don't care enough about what people. I just don't. It's kind of a built in temperament. It's okay when it's good when you're pastoring, but not Good when you're a child because you don't care what your parents do. And then you get in more trouble because they just don't care. And it works at sometimes, but it doesn't work good for you at other times. I was such a loner anyway, so I don't even know who you are that doesn't like it, you know, so. So I've not had problems forgiving other people because if they knew me, they'd like me. The problem is you don't know me. If you don't like me, you don't know me. I'm sorry you're deprived. Because I'm nice. I'm very nice. This is how they get front row seats. They agree. And so I. So I said to God, I have difficulty forgiving myself. I don't have difficulty forgiving others. The other is the accuser of the brethren. That brings your flesh back to you, your natural back to you. And one day I was again, I had repented to God for it seemed like the umpteenth time. And then I feel bad that I'm, you know, I'm not making progress in that way. And I pick up a dad hagin book. You know, it sounds like home. And when you feel beat up, you need to hear from home. I picked up that book and I was reading it about five minutes and on the inside of me the spirit of God said, get on your knees. And the moment my knees touched the floor, Jesus stood in of you front and he said to me, you have failed many, many times. And I thought to myself, I am so glad I brought this up first. And he didn't leave me hanging there. And he said, but I never have. So I share my success with you. Meaning you don't succeed because you've done it right. You succeed because I did it right. And I gifted you my rightness. Because that was the big thing the devil used against me. When you're sincerely wanting to please him and you really do just want the plan of God. I just don't have time to form my own plan. I don't have time for it. I just don't have time for it. And so he said, I share my success with you. So when the accuser starts in on you, start talking about your success, I'm right with him because he did it all right and then credited it to me as though I did it right. That's what the blood of Jesus does, it puts it back as though you never miss. That's what the blood does. And the devil Wants to make you sin conscious so that you constantly draw back from the goodness of God, that you draw back from his goodness. This is why baby Christians, when they miss God, their first knee jerk response is don't go to church. And it's our privilege and job as pastors. Teach them when you miss it, get here first. Get here first. This is the place to help you get past that which tripped you up. Because the local church and the pastor is a savior, a messenger of God's goodness and mercy to people and, and fivefold ministries, not just pastors, but especially the pastor, because he lives with you. He lives where you live. So here I had, in going through that season and I was just, I had built up this wall. And every time God would, I'd sense his presence, I'd go like this. Because I thought, what's coming? Because it was just one dealing after another, wrong thinking, wrong thinking. Why would he have to say, praise him for his goodness if there's going to come a time that you're going to think goodness isn't in your direction anymore? So one day I remember clearly, I'm in my bedroom and God said to me, I want to talk to you. And this time it was firm and I hit the floor. And I said, yes, sir. And he said, I don't appreciate how you deal with me. And I didn't at first recognize what he was referring to. And he said, when my presence comes and you immediately put up a wall of what? Now you take a victim posture like this. All right, I know, I know I don't do this. I know I don't. Anybody ever been there? You fall into that mindfulness of self. That's not what his presence is for. To make you mindful of you and where you missed it. But that's what I was doing. And if I could say it this way, the only way I know to say it, it was like I was waiting for the other shoe to fall. You know what that phrase means? I don't know if that's strictly a colloquial phrase, but I know what that means. I don't know how to explain it other than that you're just the one shoe fell and you're just. When the other shoe falls, it's like it's over. It's like I was just in those dealings, just waiting for the next shoe to fall. And God said, I don't appreciate that. And he said, since when have I ever been anything but good to you? And I said, never. Have you ever been anything good but good to me. And he said, then what warrants your response in my presence like that? I said, nothing you've done warrants that. It's just wrong thinking that warrants that. That's wrong thinking. And then he taught me. He said, that's the exact response Adam and Eve gave me. And he said this to me. He said, when I came down to fellowship with them and they were hidden, I knew they had sinned and I gave them opportunity to repent. They didn't. They blamed each other and then blamed the devil when it was all their choice. It was their choice. He said they hid from me. And he said, what had I ever done to them that warranted them hiding from me? And I said, nothing. And he said, the reason they hid from me was not because of listening to me. The reason they hid from me was because of who they had been fellowshipping with. They had just come from the presence of the serpent. And because they listened to him, they responded to me as though I wasn't good to them. And they hid from me not because of me, but because of who they had been listening. He said, you're doing the same thing. You're listening to the accuser, the brethren. Then when my presence comes, you draw back from me as though I'm someone to be feared when I've done nothing but been good to you. I don't like that. David had more revelation of God's goodness under the old covenant than me under the new right. He believed in the goodness of God in the face of when he had just violated God, violated his nation, violated his authority, violated his authority as king for his own personal pleasure. And when judgment was called for and God had to meet that call. And David said, I choose this third flow of judgment because perhaps the goodness of God will step in and stop it. Well, when the devil tells you, you've earned the hard road you're on, when the devil tells you, see, you've done such a bad job with your children, that's why you got that. Well, we may have missed it, but I believe in the goodness of God more than my miss. I believe in the goodness of God that will step in for three years. Goodness offered Judas the right way to think. Judas thought wrong all along, but goodness was offering him right. Thinking right thinking every day, right offering the word, hearing the word, right thinking right thinking. I can't tell you how many people would receive healing so easily if they'd go thinking wrong about how they've missed God. How many people would receive the provision that they need so much if they would quit thinking that they earned the problem. Oh, give thanks to the Lord and this is why for he is good. He's good. Think about the woman caught in adultery. And the religious leaders brought her alone. I've always been a little da hoo, da hoo. It takes two to tango. How come one showed up? Right, David, where was he? We don't know. Religion will excuse some and not others. God's good to all. But the religious leaders deceit decided one was more guilty than the other. And how did they catch her? Was somebody willing to go undercover? You know, it's just like, how did they catch her? We won't go there. Don't erase that. Because the scripture didn't record it. Because it doesn't matter, I guess. But, you know, you just have to wonder. It was a religious leader that caught her. I'm just. And this is not a woman or male thing, has nothing to do with it. I just say there's one's missing, one's missing. I can count. That's all it is. They came expecting. They came expecting judgment. And they were so disappointed because goodness met her and they did not know how to respond to that. They didn't know. They were disappointed that judgment wasn't dealt out. She did not come and repent on her own. She was caught. But in the catching, she caught herself. And she was broken before him. And he made this statement. All right, you rock throwers, right? Go ahead. If you haven't done anything wrong. Well, of course they. They have to. They have a memory. The genius of heaven that day. The genius, the wisdom of heaven that day. The answer to that very critical moment in her life was one word. Goodness. Amen. Goodness met her. Jesus was not quick to jump on the team of the accusers. Why he won't be found there. He doesn't accuse you. And I want you to know if you'll stop accusing yourself, you will start to have an enjoyment of God you've never realized before. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. Amen. Because all that accusation is to rob you of the enjoyment of God so that you cower with him instead of lean on him. And goodness didn't just forgive her, but told her, don't do it anymore. He didn't. Don't do it anymore. It wasn't an ultimatum. It was a look what that did for you. Don't do that anymore. The goodness, the mercy in that instruction. When he corrects us and instructs us, it's mercy talking. It's his goodness. To talking to us when you miss it, run to God instead of draw back when you miss it. God. Because you know you'll be met with goodness. You will be met with goodness. You now listen. Sincerity can only receive goodness because God offers us goodness. But you have to be sincere to receive that goodness. Right? You can't be. If I could say this flippant about wrong, God, I missed it. And I come to you because I know I'm going to be met with goodness that's going to strengthen me and enable me for next time. Amen. Do you see how easy it is to flourish in fellowship with God? Flourish in fellowship with God. And the devil uses all of these things. Our sincerity of really wanting to please God. And he turns us against ourselves, accusing us so that we draw back from God expecting God's displeased. God's displeased when God is good. I'm not saying that everything pleases God. I'm saying that if you will be sincere and come to him, he can't help but meet you with goodness. That's right. Amen. Because the number one thing God wants you to have in this life is the enjoyment of him. Everything flows out of that fountain. You have no problem receiving healing when you enjoy the healer. You have no problem receiving prosperity when you enjoy the provider first. That's the fountain of everything. And the devil uses all of these things of ourselves to accuse God of being less than good to us. And that's really when we draw back. That's what we're accusing God of. I won't be met with goodness. That's why I'm drawing back and walking away and not spending time with you today. Because, Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is so good. He is so good. When I haven't been good, he has always been good. When I haven't been good in my faith walk. He's always been good in his faith walk toward me when I haven't been good in my obedience. I haven't been good at obeying him. He's still good in directing me of how to get back into obedience. Amen. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord. He's good and his mercies are new. How often every morning before your eyes wake up, Mercy is waiting for you to open your eyes. And sometimes people wake up under a cloud. They wake up under a sense of guilt. They wake up under, if I could say, this luggage baggage of the past when mercy was waiting to deliver them from all of that at the moment they opened their eyes. But because we don't focus. And if I could say this, magnify his goodness. Magnify his goodness. I can't fail because he's too good. And it's not because I'm educated. It's not because I know how to do everything right, or I have all knowledge or revelation. No, his goodness will not let me fail. If I will stay leaning upon the good one, if I will keep leaning when I don't have all the revelation I need, if I will just keep leaning on the good one, he will send saviors in his mercy, teaching me the word, preaching to me, helping correct me. You know, in 25 years of pastoring, there were times that God would have me to correct in a sermon because God wants to. It pleases God. When we hear a sermon and we catch that for ourselves and we go, oh, that's me. God's dealing with me about that. I don't have to be pointed out and singled out for God to say, that's you. I just hear it and go, you know what? I haven't been right about that. But I can't tell you, in 25 years of pastoring, there were numerous times, times someone would go out in the foyer and say, in the hearing of others, she's just hard. She's just hard. I can be frank. I make it clear. It's unfair to be unclear and expect results. But if you would have just been quiet, no one would have known it was you. But when you find fault with the goodness, now we know who God was trying to reach and God was trying to rescue. And you went out and announced, it's wrong thinking. It is wrong thinking. No preacher that God puts in my life offends me. They're His Savior. To me. They're his goodness. They're his mercy talking to me. And I won't walk out because I'm offended and say, they just don't feed me anymore. If the word doesn't feed you, you quit eating. You quit eating. You can't say, they don't feed me anymore. But we. The devil dupes us into these phrases, into these ways of thinking, so that we really are drawn back from the goodness of God. And if you're not, if we're not going to respond to his goodness, what's left to respond to? Nothing. Good. Because only goodness comes from Him. There's no other goodness apart from Him. Him. There's no other goodness apart from Him. No. No. Because people's goodness to you will run thin after they've dealt with you a Long time. God's goodness does not run low. So now I get up and I. Instead of first thoughts of what I did wrong and what I'm not, I get up and say, for the Lord is good. He is so good to me. It was so sweet. I was doing some business, and I called Brother Jesse and Pastor Kathy Duplantis the other day, and they sent me a picture. I loved it, of them in their new jet. I go, oh, baby. I was so thrilled for them. Just so thrilled. And Brother Jesse was sitting there, pleased as punch, sitting in the plane. And they're precious, precious, precious. You know, I, like, people have no idea when they hear the front story, they don't know the back story. Can I tell you the testimony of the goodness that this man has? This couple, they were in a restaurant once. What? What? Did I do something? You hear my thing popping? Is that what. It's all right. I'll let you pop it. I'm being good to you. You're being good to me, Right? Okay. Because I'm probably. Anyway, and so he's in a restaurant one day, and the waitress comes and. And God says to him, pay for her college. He doesn't know her. He doesn't know her. He calls her over and says, you going to college? She said, well, she says, I've just gone through a divorce. I'm a single mom, and I'm just. I'm working here to try to save money to go back to college and get my life back on course. And he said, I'm paying for it. She starts crying. Of course, she calls her dad. Her dad comes down. Her dad introduces himself to Brother Jesse and says, I've been a partner with you for decades. Wow. Glory to God. And then people have a problem with what I'm just saying. The goodness of God can far exceed your calculations. It can far exceed your calculations when you see certain levels of goodness that people have moved into. I said that to say this. Pastor Kathy texted me back and said, jesse just said, I want to put a plaque in my plane that says, Jesus is so good to Jesse. And I texted her back, and I said, that's good, but make the plaque read this. Jesus is show good to Jesse, but he's better to Catholic. If you ever listen to Brother Jesse, he says it all the time. Jesus is good to me. He talks, he magnifies the goodness of God. People think he's just dropping catchphrases, he's dropping revelation. He's speaking out that he realizes it's not because I'm a good preacher. It's not because I've been in the ministry. It's the goodness of God. It's the goodness of God. It's the goodness of God. Every single one of us can look back and see the goodness of God tangibly in our lives. We can calculate it. We can calculate it. And if we will magnify it, we will take the limits off the flow of it. You understand? We will take the limits. Flow of it. Tell me, David, tell. Come grab a microphone and tell them, because I don't. We were. I think we were in Canada and we were talking about something and you said how your dad. Can you share? Is that okay to share it publicly? You know what I'm talking about, How God tried. Yeah, sure. Come down. Grab it and come down here. That's going to confine you up there.
- [56:30]
B
There. Most of you know, I grew up. My dad's a pastor. Grand. Grand. Granddad. Great granddad. All pastors. We're Church of God, Pentecostal, Cleveland, Tennessee. And to say that we didn't major in prosperity would be an understatement. No, we could major in running around the room shouting tongues, but not so much prosperity. So I don't know what prompted the story, but while you were talking at one of the restaurants with you guys, I was just sitting there thinking story after story. Time after time that God kept trying.
- [57:13]
A
In goodness.
- [57:15]
B
Yeah, in goodness. Not because, oh, we're.
- [57:18]
A
We sowed a seed and we're believing.
- [57:20]
B
Yeah, we're blessed in the city field storehouse. No, we major in frying chickens and selling donuts to put up buildings. You know, many a chicken gave its life to build our sanctuary. We didn't know Jesus had died to provide. We thought we had to kill chickens. I'm just. Many of you know that point of reference. Does anyone kind of understand? So what pastor's saying there is the truth. It wasn't because, you know, they were expecting blessing or they were confessing increase or knew that part of the covenant, just, you know, ignorance of it. And so even in ignorance, yeah, goodness still works. Kept trying time and time again to bless my dad and the ministry if I could. You want me to give a few.
- [58:19]
A
Yes, I do.
- [58:20]
B
Okay. I've always been a car guy, and.
- [58:21]
A
So, you know, that's an understatement.
- [58:25]
B
Yeah.
- [58:25]
A
And when you're a car guy, you're a car guy of someone else's car.
- [58:31]
B
Well, when you're too young to buy.
- [58:32]
A
One, you just borrow somebody else's.
- [58:35]
B
I returned them. It's no big deal. And so, you know, 1966, I'm like 5 years old and, you know, there wasn't an abundance of Cadillacs or Lincolns in our. You know, that was the top deal in that day. And this lady, her name was Beulah Cook. I mean, I don't forget you if you drove a Lincoln in that day. And so her sister Cook, she had a Lincoln. She came to my dad after service and said, I want to give you my Lincoln Continental. No pastor should be driving a Rambler station wagon without air condition. I was like, amen. My God, I'm just like five or six. But, man, radar, if you lived a little higher level than we did, okay. So my dad said, oh, I can't. I'm like, oh, yeah, you can. I can't. Wouldn't it? So. So a few years goes down the road, that's a small thing, like a little better car. One thing after another, it kept escalating and elevating till the early 70s. My dad's church in Jacksonville, Florida, took off just from like 150 to 600, 700 people. That's a large church for a church of God. In that day, he was on the local television station. His radio program was taken because of his radio program. It went from being a country station to a gospel station, largely because of his influence. One thing and another, There was a man that came to him and said, I want to put you on tv. I want to build you a studio. I want to get property for you. I'll pay for the cameras. And my dad's like, I just couldn't. I couldn't take that. It went from there to. To the largest landowner. His name was Mr. Stevens. Everybody knew Mr. Stevens. He was the wealthiest man in Jacksonville, Florida. If you know anything about Jacksonville, that right across from what was Regency Square on South side Estates, said, leon, I want to give you 50 acres here of prime property, and I want to build a building. What did my dad say? I can't do it. So when God. Back in the early 60s, and there's probably stuff I don't even know about, it started with little things, cars or people trying to bless him financially. Well, he had no idea that the opportunity. So I didn't tell you this part of the story. When he said no to the television station, the guy said, okay, if you don't want it, then I'm calling a man named Rex Humbard.
- [61:37]
A
And he took it.
- [61:38]
B
And he took it. Rightfully so. Yes, rightfully so. The point of it is, it wasn't that we were believing for, wasn't that he was preaching it every Sunday. And to cut my dad some sleep. You've got to realize it was the predominant thinking of the denomination. It would be wrong for the preacher to drive anything better than a Chevrolet or a Rambler. My God, you couldn't even go Oldsmobile. Or you're pushing it at Oldsmobile. Cadillac, straight to hell, but off the deep end. But the. And I. I could tell you that story with houses. People tried to give him houses. No, the parsonage is good for us. I don't think my mother knew about that one. But it was time and again and my sister and I talk about it all the time. God tried over and over again to bless my dad and for some reason he couldn't take. But I can.
- [62:43]
A
Well, and see, we sit and we go, oh, that's an obvious miss. But what's been an obvious miss in our life? What's been an obvious miss? You know, I don't have a problem. People say I don't have a problem being generous to someone else, but I have problem, you know, being generous toward myself. That's still poverty. And you will never hear me say that. I have never said that. I will never say that. Because when I was little, I didn't even think like that. My thought was, if somebody else can have it, so can I. That was always my approach. The goodness of God has probably tried to manifest for us, apart from sowing seed, just his goodness. Just his goodness. And we have limited. But can I say this? The greatest thing tried to make us a partaker of is Himself, the enjoyment of Him. And how many times we have stepped back because of shame, because of a bad self image. Oh, give thanks. For the Lord is good and his mercy, because his mercy endures forever. So can I give you a new thing to try to be mindful of in your day? Father, I give you thanks because you're always so good to me and your goodness won't lead me where I've been. Amen. Stand with me to your feet. Hallelujah. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us@DefrainMinistries.org to learn of our upcoming meeting. 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.