CARE GROUP LESSON LESSON 6 ACKNOWLEDGE THE GOOD

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1 CARE GROUP LESSON LESSON 6 ACKNOWLEDGE THE GOOD Psalm 34:1-10 I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad. 3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. 4 I sought the Lord, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears. 5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed. 6 = This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them. 8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! (NKJV) We are told here to "taste and see that the Lord is good." The English version says, Find out for yourself how good the Lord is. When somebody eats something that is really good and you hear how good it tasted, you will say, Give me some of it. Give me a bite. Don t just tell me how good it is. Let me taste it for myself. This how it should be when we acknowledge the goodness of God in our lives to unbelievers. In our lesson today, we will see how acknowledging the good helps make our witness more effective. Acknowledging the goodness of God leads people to repentance Romans 2:4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (NKJV) What leads men and women to repentance? The goodness of God. Have we known the goodness of God? Or have we not known it. Our church does not emphasize condemnation. We rather emphasize the goodness of God. Condemnation says, You are a sinner. You are going to hell if you don t change. God is mad at you because you sin. This is not true.

2 2 The gospel is not bad news. It is the good news of God s good things. We don t preach the gospel until we preach the good things. Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns! (AMP) Your good God who does good things reigns. Let us say out loud, The gospel is the good news of good things. What is it that turns man around? The gospel. What is it that gets me out of death and into life, out of sin and into the right living, out of bondage and into freedom? It is the good news of good things. Luke 4:18-19 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." (NKJV) What kind of good news does the poor need to hear? The good news of good things. God can do good things in your life so that you don t need to stay poor. The gospel is not bad news. The gospel is good news. The Bible says that when the gospel is preached to all nations, then Jesus will come back. What turns and leads men into repentance? Repentance does not mean responding to an altar call, crying and feeling bad. To repent means to change or to turn one way of living to another way of living. What has the power to do that? Somebody s life is being destroyed by drugs. And they are able to turn their life around. They were obsessed with drugs and now they are completely free from drugs and are full of God. Their life has been turned around. What has the power to do that? Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes the Jew first and also the Gentile. (NLT)

3 3 Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. (NKJV) The power of God is in the Good News. The power that changes man s life is in the Good News. You and I are proven living testimonies of this truth. We should proclaim the goodness of God. We don t have the attitude of trying to show off. We know in our own heart whether we want to proclaim the goodness of God or we want to show off. What are we going to tell people? We tell them that God is good to us. Share God's goodness with humility We must tell people with utmost humility. We don t talk about ourselves. We talk about God. Even if we speak about it with the right heart and in the right way, some people who are in darkness still cannot understand what is going on. They will think that we are bragging. They may persecute us. We may have to endure some persecutions in order to reap the harvest. But our testimony regarding the goodness of God will work on them. They will keep hearing about the grace and the goodness of God when they come around us. We say, God is so gracious and so good. He has blessed me beyond imagination. He has done exceedingly abundantly above all that I ask or think, according to the power that works in me. He is so good. His goodness will draw men in. They will turn and come to Him. Isaiah 63:7 I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the Lord has done for us-- yes, the many good things he has done for the house of Israel, according to his compassion and many kindnesses. (NIV) Be obedient to God's commands Deuteronomy 28:1-14 "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: 3 Blessed

4 4 shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7 "The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. 8 The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. 9 The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10 Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. 14 So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them. (NKJV) Deuteronomy 28:15 "But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: (NKJV) If we don t obey God, curses will come upon every area that good things should have happened. Bad things will be happening. Deuteronomy 28:44-45 He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. 45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed,

5 5 because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. (NKJV) Are we supposed to be under and go to somebody else for help? No! Are we supposed to be the head? Yes. Are we supposed to be able to help other people? Curses are not God s will. We should not be disobedient. Deuteronomy 28:45-46 Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever. (NKJV) To whom does God give a sign? People who are outside the covenant believers. Is it true that what happens in our life is a sign to those who are around us and don t know God. Unbelievers will see whether we obey God or we don t obey Him, whether we are blessed or we are cursed. Philemon 1:5-6 hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, 6 that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. (NKJV) We are supposed to acknowledge every good thing. Our communication of our faith may not be effective. Many are ineffective when they try to communicate their faith with unbelievers. Paul mentioned how to make the sharing of your faith effective. How? By talking about people s sins? No. By telling them all the rules that will keep them in heaven? By the acknowledging of every good thing which is in your life, in your home, in your ministry, in Christ Jesus. Philemon a good example Philemon 1:5-6 because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. 6 I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so

6 6 that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. (NIV) Philemon 1:6 talks about being a witness. How are we going to reach the lost? God has His program or His way. When unbelievers keep seeing day after day and hearing day and night how good God is in our life, it will make our sharing of our faith effective. Their heart and their mind will be open to Jesus. Unbelievers should hear the Good News about all the good things of the good, good God. They will be turned around. The goodness of God will grip their lives. We don t need to put pressure on them. We don t need to preach on them or push anything upon them. We are acknowledging, showing and telling every good thing that is in our life because of Christ Jesus. This is how we win the world for Christ. Let us show them the goodness of God. We spend substantial money on flowers. What do these flowers say? God is good. We spend money to evangelize by telling people that God is good and He has good things for them. Philemon 1:5-6 because I keep hearing of your love and trust in the Lord Jesus and in his people. 6 And I pray that as you share your faith with others it will grip their lives too, as they see the wealth of good things in you that come from Christ Jesus. (TLB) We don t share our faith mechanically or religiously. We don t say, Let me tell you the truth: if you are not saved, you will go to hell. God told us how to share our faith. We are fishing. We don t yell to fish, Bite it. We should not practice confrontational evangelism. If we do that, unbelievers will think, I don t know you. Get out of my way. If you want to catch a fish, you need to put something on the hook that the fish thinks it is good. You get to have good things. The fish will bite it.