GOD IS GOOD

4 G’S DISCUSSION GUIDES

HEAD

Q: What do we mean when we say “God is Good?”

He is all-satisfying

Q: What Does the Bible Teach Us About God’s Goodness (Satisfaction/Comfort)?

In Creation? (Genesis 1:31; 2:9 - 18, 25) God is the designer and creator of comfort and satisfaction in creation and in humanity. He knows what satisfies us best. He created us to and wants us to enjoy physical, emotional, sensual, relational, and chemical pleasure, peace, satisfaction , and comfort. Yet created from Him and for Him all the comforts and satisfactions in life are best enjoyed when He is most enjoyed. And God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him!

In the Fall? (Genesis 3:1 - 7) Humanity falls as they believe the lie that the creation will be better enjoyed apart from God and His design. Temporary satisfaction is “real” but it is not fulfilling and is fatal. Living for the moment independent of God leads to dying forever independent of God.

In Redemption? (Israel, Jesus)

Israel often turns to broken cisterns and empty wells (Jeremiah 2:13). They are called to see God as the God of the highest pleasures (Psalm 16:4 - 5, 11). They are commanded to joy in Him (Psalm 34:8; 37:4)! What a great command!

Jesus trusts God’s satisfaction above the enemy’s offer of immediate gratification through the path ofleast resistance in the wilderness. At the same time, Jesus makes the party better! (John 2; Matthew 9:9 - 13) He shows us what it’s like to be truly human!

To the Samaritan woman who has lived for her own comfort and satisfaction, which has only led to brokenness and isolation. (John 4:13 - 14; 7:37 - 39)

Jesus embraces a world of thorns and thistles instead of living in denial. Jesus embraces the cross, not as a rejection of joy, but for the joy set before him. (Hebrews 12:1 - 2) He is the better Moses! (Hebrews 11:24 - 27)

In Restoration? (Church, Return)

The church is called to show the world how to really enjoy life! We have mission of Joy! Not through taking the bait of immediate gratification and the path of least resistance, but following Jesus in the often hard fought joy of God! They are commanded to rejoice. To enjoy the physical pleasures of life in the greater pleasure of God. (1 Timothy 4:1 - 5) Eternity will not be boring! Eternity will be the unending holistic (physical-spiritual-emotional) best of peace, pleasure, satisfaction, and comfort!

HEART

Q: What is the idol we worship that calls us away from trusting God as GOOD?

COMFORT

Q: What is the desire at the center of the COMFORT idol?

easy life, lack of stress, freedom, privacy

Q: What is the price a COMFORT idolater willing to pay?

ineffectiveness, selfishness, no deep relationships

Q: What is the greatest nightmare for a COMFORT idolater?

stress, demands, pain or loss

Q: How can a COMFORT idolater make others feel?

hurt, not cared for

Q: What is the problem emotion of a COMFORT idolater?

discontentment, boredom

Q: What is the fruit of worshipping COMFORT?

Complain of work, quit easily, runs to comfort related sins (examples), Boredom, discontent.

Q: When are you most tempted to worship the idol of COMFORT? Why is it so appealing?

Q: How do we try to overcome the problem of worshipping COMFORT?

Will power, telling ourselves how bad it will hurt us, etc.

Q: Why doesn't it work?

We can only defeat pleasure with pleasure (the expulsive power of a new affection)

Q: What is a COMFORT idolater really believing about God, the gospel (Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, reign, and return), themselves, and others?

God may save, but He can’t satisfy. Jesus’ death is good for later, but not now. I am incomplete if I am having to sacrifice present pleasure. Others are only as good as the comfort they bring me.

Q: What is the gospel to a COMFORT worshipper? How would you share it to one?

True and better satisfaction is found in God, the giver of life. Jesus has lived, died, rose, and given us full access to Him and enablement to enjoy Him by the Spirit. (John 10:10; 15:11)

We have been saved from the penalty of our idolatry of comfort worship.

We are being saved from the power of comfort worship.

We will be saved from the presence of comfort worship!

We have been called into a story where all the sacrifice is worth it now and forever without regret! The invitation of the Bible is not to dreary abstinence. It’s a call to find in God that which truly satisfies. It’s believing that we find lasting fulfillment, satisfaction, joy, and identity in knowing God, and nowhere else. Whatever sin offers, God offers more, for God offers us himself. God isn’t just good, he’s better— better than everything else— and the true source of all joy. Do you really believe God is good?

Q: How can we talk realistically about God giving a better satisfaction than “comfort” sins?

Ice Cream, Netflix, adultery, drugs, and escapes offer immediate gratification that will take time to be replaced, but we can cultivate a better “palette” by the Spirit that will lead to better pleasures at the moment. One of our problems is that we think only of moments. In the moment, we think the pleasures of sin are real and the joy of God is insubstantial or distant. But in truth it’s the other way around: every joy we experience is but a shadow of the source of all joy, which is God.

Marriage, for example, is a reflection of the joy of union with God, adultery a distorted reflection. If you idolize marriage or commit adultery, then you’ve settled for less than living water. Sin is like the distorted reflection of a beautiful sunset that shifts with every movement of the breeze across the water. God is the sun itself in all its beauty and glory and energy.

This is why nothing but God satisfies— only he satisfies in a true and lasting way. If you look for satisfaction or fulfillment, meaning or identity, anywhere other than in Jesus, you’ll be left empty. There may be a moment of refreshment or pleasure, but you’ll soon be thirsty again. Jesus asks the woman to fetch her husband. This looks like a tangent, but in fact, it leads straight to her heart. The truth is that she’s had five husbands and the man she’s now with is not her husband. She’s been looking for meaning, satisfaction, and fulfillment in marriage, sex, and intimacy. But they’re like water that leaves her thirsty again. No doubt there was a real pleasure. But it didn’t last. It wasn’t the real thing. It left her thirsty.

HANDS

Q: How would your life be different if you really believed (if this truth were explosively alive in your heart?) that God is GOOD?

Q: What specific step of obedience in faith that God is GOOD the Spirit calling you to now?

Q: How can you cultivate a growing faith in God as Good (better!) How can we cultivate a pleasure “palette” that believes and experiences that “God is Good”?

Q: How can we as an MC cultivate a growing faith in God as GOOD together?

Q: How would our MC be different if we really believed that God is GOOD? As family? As missionaries? As servants?

Let’s pray together in view of God as GOOD (popcorn style)

• Adoration: God you are Good because this is true of your character . .

• Confession: God you are Good even when I sin like this . . .

• Thanksgiving: God thank you for showing your goodness in Jesus by . . .

• Supplication: God you are Good so help me trust you and change when/with .

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