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I. The Goodness Desire
 What is a good
person? One of our deepest psychological and emotional
needs is to be good. God is good and we want to be. I
mean, it’s what it means to be created in the image
of God. Of all of creation, you and I uniquely have the
ability to know God and be like God. So we have this
inward drive to be good. We value goodness in other
people. Right? When you’re looking for someone to
get married to, you’re not looking for someone who
is a liar and a cheat. Right? I’ve met a lot of
people who have married liars and cheats, but I never met
anyone who was looking for a liar and a cheat.
 We
value goodness in others and we try to have an image of
goodness to other people. You know, around here, with my
friends around Tipp City, when we talk about someone
they’ll say ‘well you know, they’re good
people.’ It’s a high value that we have.
When
I was a kid in elementary school we used to sneak away to
the creek that ran behind our house and smoke, and one
day, one of the neighbor ladies called our parents. So my
dad was waiting. When we came in he confronted me with
what he heard, and I said, right away, you know how you
lie on your feet, I go ‘no dad, we were lighting
leaves and throwing rocks on them.’ And that was so
quick and such an unexpected answer that he believed me.
I
lied to appear good, you see, because it meant more than
just getting in trouble. I didn’t want to get in
trouble but I didn’t want my dad to think I was a
lying, cheating little sneak which I was. I lied to
appear good.
Psalm 51 - The Prayer of Pain |
Psalm 51:1
1: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new
and right spirit within me.
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 Oh,
Lord, have mercy. Psalm 51 is a prayer of pain. It is a
prayer of failure. And I’m not talking about failure
like missing a question on the quiz kind of failure,
I’m talking about inside kind of failure - failing
God. David blew it. David had an affair. And he used his
authority and power to try and cover it up which
eventually resulted in the murder of the woman’s
husband.
Now
you and I can try and rationalize and hide it like David,
but ultimately you’re going to have to deal with it
because God can see it. I want to tell you something,
Church. You can not b.s. God even though we try. Do you
hear what I’m saying? It will eventually catch up to
you. And David, who had known the power of God, he had
known the joy of living in God’s presence, and it
just doesn’t get any better than that, is now in the
middle of bone-crushing depression. |
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