Keith Battle - It's All Good

I want to use the subject today: it’s all good, it’s all good. Tell two people it’s all good; you’re gonna help me preach this. Yeah, it’s all good. Even if you don’t believe it, you’ve got to say it by faith: it’s all good. All of it’s good: the pain, the disappointment, the setbacks, the shifts, and the heartaches are all good. It’s all good; it’s all good. The financial trouble is all good, the misunderstandings are all good, the relationship trauma is all good, and the tragedy and loss are all good. Why is it all good? Because all things work together for good. It’s gonna come out good. I’m just speaking those things that are not as though they are; I’m speaking in advance. It’s gonna be good, even if it isn’t good right now; it’s all good, it’s all good. And every trial in your life is good—not because the trial is good, but because of God’s purpose in the trial. In James chapter 1, verses 2 to 4, James starts off by saying something that is absolutely ridiculous. He says, «Consider it pure joy when all hell breaks loose in your life, when you go through all kinds of trials.» He says, «Consider that pure joy.» That doesn’t make sense; it sounds like church people saying stuff that doesn’t make sense. Why would I be happy about trials? And watch this: he doesn’t just say one trial; he says all kinds of trials. Some of you know what it’s like; you’re not just going through one thing. That would be nice, but some of y’all have a combination of troubles going on right now. You have a four-piece and dirty rice situation happening. It’s so much stuff popping off that you can’t even keep up. Remember that game where you hit things and every time something pops up? What’s that called? I only know… huh? One person knows—whack-a-mole! That’s what your life is like. Every time you get one thing under control, another thing pops up, and while this one pops up, two more things pop up. You don’t know what to hit; you’re just in a panic.

Sometimes, you just have to step back and say, «God, what are you up to, and what are you trying to show me in the midst of it?» James says to count it all joy, consider it pure joy. Watch this, knowing something: the reason why you can look at trials differently when you’re in faith is because we know that the trials we face are producing something called perseverance. Some translations call it patience. The Greek word, I’m sorry, is hupo, h-u-p-o, and meno. Hupo means «under, ” and meno means „to abide, ” „to stay.“ It means to stay under something. What God says is, „I’m using the trial to give you the tenacity to stay up under things and not keep squirming out when it gets uncomfortable.“ Then, after I finish giving you the perseverance you need, in verse 4 he says, „Perseverance makes you mature and complete, lacking in nothing.“ God can use trials to make us persevere and use that perseverance to make us mature and complete, so maturity is the end goal of a trial. Even though it’s not good, it’s all good because of how God intends for it to turn out. If I come out of it with more tenacity, more perseverance, and I come out more mature, then it worked out for my good, even though it may not have been pleasant. That’s how you have to look at trials.

I want you to leave this service today not just tolerating difficulty in life but actually celebrating it to be able to say, „It’s rough, but you know what? I’m gonna be better because of this.“ I’m gonna be better if I look at it the right way. Now, let me tell you where this message came from. This message came out of my own personal flaws and failures of late. I have to be careful; I’m telling you a story. My wife and I were out recently. I can’t say when exactly—it’s more recent than I care to admit. With the advent of technology, you can’t always say where you were and who was there, because then people are going to see it, and they’ll know I’m talking about them. I’m trying to keep it covert while still testifying at the same time. That’s tricky; it’s a little dangerous to be in that zone between your testimony and telling too much. But really, the blame is all on me; it’s not about the people, it’s about me. And that’s what I discovered. We were out at a restaurant, and while we were there, the way I was sitting, I was not facing the door. Vicky was facing the door, and she saw a family come in that we knew. She told me so-and-so was here, and I said, „Really?“ You know, we hadn’t seen them in a long time. We’re not really close, but we hadn’t seen them in a while, and they hadn’t seen us in a while. I immediately started thinking to myself, because I’m a thinker. I thought, „Should I go over there? Should we just say hi, or should we act like we didn’t?“