GOD – PART 5 (HIS WORKS ARE GOOD) – SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE WITH PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL (GENERAL OVERSEER, INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL GOSPEL CHURCH (ICGC) CHRIST TEMPLE, ACCRA GHANA):11TH FEBRUARY, 2024

SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE WITH PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL (GENERAL OVERSEER, INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL GOSPEL CHURCH (ICGC) CHRIST TEMPLE, ACCRA GHANA)

TOPIC: GOD – PART 5 (HIS WORKS ARE GOOD)

DATE: 11TH FEBRUARY, 2024

BIBLE TEXT: GENESIS 1: 4-5

I am doing my Series: GOD – PART 5. And today my Subtitle is: “HIS WORKS ARE GOOD.”

We’ve talked about the fact that in Genesis 1:1, God introduces us to God – It is God’s Self Himself as an Eternal Creator, He existed before creation.

• He also introduces Himself as the Omnipotent Creator: The Creator who didn’t need anybody’s help to create all things.
• Then God introduces Himself as Spirit: God is Spirit. We looked at that in Part 3.
• And in Part 4 God is His Word: The Word of God is God.

Today we are looking at how God sees His work; how He approaches His own works – His attitude towards His work, which is Good.

So, we’ll look at Genesis 1:4-5, and let us hear the reading of God’s Word:

4 And God saw the Light, that it was Good; and God divided the Light from the Darkness.

5 God called the Light Day, and the Darkness He called Night. So the Evening and the Morning were the first day.

This is the first (1st) Statement in the Bible that talks about how God sees His own work – God has created some things, but how does He see His own works?

This is the first (1st) Verse in the entire Bible, introducing us to God’s attitude towards His own Work – Is God Purposeful? Does it serve any Purpose? Is there any real reason behind things that happen to us?

These are very important Questions, because when you are in this world things happen; People say, “Life happened.” And sometimes you wonder, is there any Purpose in the things that are happening? Is there any reason why the things should happen?

… And that is what we are going to try to discover from this series.

Now, when you look through Genesis Chapter 1, there is a Pattern beginning from Verses 3, 4 and 5, that is repeated throughout the Book of Genesis Chapter 1.

In other words, God says something will happen then the thing would happen. And He would see what has happened, and He would give verdict about the thing that has happened.

And then he would define what has happened.

Sometimes He would name what has happened and locks it into a Day.

There is a Process that starts and goes through the whole of Genesis Chapter 1 – God’s verdict about what he has created that is Good.

God saw the Light that is us Good.

The Question is: WHAT DOES THE WORD ‘GOOD’ MEAN?

What is ‘Good?’

It means that something is well, something is in order, something is beautiful.

So, when He says it is Good, it is not just Good because it is Morally Good; it is Good because it is in order and it looks nice.

God looks at His Work and He says, it is Good! It is in order, it is beautiful – This is what I wanted to do.

God called His Work Good!

And the Lesson we learnt here is that: God is the Judge of His own Work.

We do not determine the Value of God’s Work – He determines what His Works mean.

Because many times we feel we are the ones who must determine whether something God has done is Good or Bad.

You go through something in Life and you determine whether it’s Good or Bad.

But the Bible says we don’t determine it – God is the Judge of his Works; I am not the judge of God’s Work.

In our Local Parlance, there is a very Popular saying that, “The one who makes the Path does not know whether it is crooked or not”.

So, the idea is that, when you are doing something, you are not the one to judge it – Somebody else must evaluate it; because the Path you are cutting may be crooked.

*May I just let you know – It doesn’t apply to God as it applies to you (Humans). It doesn’t apply to God.

We cannot say that God is cutting a Path and He doesn’t know whether it is Good or Bad: and then you are the one to go and say whether it is Good is Bad. No!

God did His Work and then He judged His Work. God is the Judge of His Work – He determines what His work means.

So when you are going through some things in Life – Maybe a Challenge or something happens and you want to pass Judgement on it; God says, “No! You don’t have a right to do that: Because if it is happening in my world, I Am the One who determines what it is”.

… In the first (1st) instance, He says that His Work is Good – God’s Work is Good.

God is a “Good God”, and His Works are Good.

WHY DOES GOD SAY HIS WORKS ARE GOOD?

1. Because, His Works are in line with His Will.

The Word ‘Good’ means that something is in order. It is exactly as it was intended to be.

So God says, “what I have done is exactly as I intended it to be – It is Good, it is in order. That is what I wanted.”

That’s a very Powerful Concept!

Because things happen in your Life you think God has made a mistake and so you ask, “why me Lord?”

And normally, when you say ‘why me Lord?’ it means, why not Him? Why should it happen to me? It shouldn’t have happened to me – Why me Lord?

But everything God does fits into His Will – It is according to His Will.

He Charges what He does, He determines whether what is happening to you is Good or not Good. He is the Judge of His Works; His Works are in line with His Will.

2. It also means that His Works are Purposeful and Pleasing to Him

God’s Work is Purposeful – He delights in His Work and He Celebrates His Work.

What you read in Genesis 1:4 is that, ” And God saw the Light, that it was Good;”

It is like somebody who has accomplished a task and after he has done the task he says, Woow! You are saying, “this thing is exactly how I wanted it to be and it looks Good; and it is Purposeful. It is doing what I want it to do.”

God’s Work is Purposeful.

There is nothing happening in your Life, as a Child of God that has no Purpose.

When you are an Unbeliever, you can say, “I don’t even know what’s going on.”

But when you are a Child of God, nothing happens in your Life that is not Purposeful – It may not seem Good, it may not feel Pleasant or it may not be what you wished would happen;

… But God never makes mistakes with His Works.

So, he looks at what He has done and He said, it a Good!

And it is interesting as you read Genesis 1:3-4, the Bible says, Then God said, “Let there be Light”; and there was Light. And God saw the Light, that it was Good; and God divided the Light from the Darkness.

But He didn’t banish the Darkness forever – It is not that Light came and Darkness disappeared, and there was no more Darkness. The Light came and Darkness also was there and He appointed Spheres for them.

• So, can God use Darkness to accomplish Good? Yes!
• Can He use Light to accomplish Good? Yes!

So, there will be some Darkness in your Life.

The fact that you are Light, does not mean Darkness would never come – Darkness would come!

Light comes, Darkness comes; but God remains the same – He is Good all the time!

If you are going through a dark Path in Life, God is Good!

God is Good in the Light as well as in the Darkness.

That’s where our Christian Faith starts – Our Christian Faith is not just Positivism.

Christianity is not Positivism – Meaning everything is okay.

*But the Bible clearly teaches us that sometimes Darkness comes – Even after God has brought Light, sometimes Darkness comes but God is constant.

He is Good in the Light, He is Good for in the Darkness.

Interestingly, if you read the Passage (Genesis 1:5) the Bible says, God called the Light Day, and the Darkness He called Night. So the Evening and the Morning were the first Day.

He called the Light ‘Good’ but He didn’t call the Darkness ‘Good’ and neither did He call it Bad. He just left the Darkness to be what it wants to be.

But the Constant there is not even the Light or the Darkness; because God overrules both the Light and the Darkness – The Constant is God:

• He is Good in the dark, He is Good in the Light.
• He is Good when you are down, He is Good when you are up.
• He is Good when everybody turns against you, He is Good when everybody is Praising you.
• He is Good when you are happy, He is Good when you are sad.
• He is Good on Pay Day, He is Good on Broke Day.

Everytime He a Good: That is why we say, “God is Good – All the time!”

It is a nice Slogan!

But when you are going through Life, it doesn’t feel that way. Because sometimes when you are going through Life, you are like, God is not Good. You say, “God, as for this one, I will mark and fail You.”

Unfortunately, He doesn’t give you the right to mark Him – He marks Himself.

And He says, whatever you are going through, He is Good. Because we see Life only from a short time. The oldest Person on this Earth at this time (I think) is about one hundred and fourteen (114) years. That’s not too old.

Even that Person, looking at Life, he or she has a hundred and fourteen (114) years Perspective. Whereas God has an Eternity Perspective.

And if you squeeze one hundred and fourteen (114) years into Eternity, it disappears!

Because, we see Life only from our Point of view and expands of our lives; we can charge things now and not know how they will be five hundred (500) years from now. And they will be a thousand years from now.

But God looks at something from now and He sees how it will be a thousand years from now; five hundred (500) years from now.

So, when He says “it is Good”, His Perspective is far wider than your Perspectives.

There are actions you are taking now, the consequences will be for a thousand years but you don’t even know;

There are People you are talking to now; and the effect that conversation is having on those People can be for a thousand years.

For you, you are just living your Life but God sees the end from the beginning – That’s why, He says, “I Am in it, it is Good!”

Somebody say: God is Good!

THREE (3) ACTONS OF GOD IN GENESIS 1:4-5.

When you look through the Passage, there are three (3) Actions of God that we are going to look at in that Passage (Genesis 1:4-5);

1. God “saw” the Light He has made.

“God saw” – What does it mean? It means God is aware of what He is doing.

You may not be aware, but He is aware of what He is doing. He saw the Light that He had made.

God does not hide from His Works – He is aware of His Works. He is Present before His Works.

… He saw the Light.

And just get this: God is aware of what He is doing in your Life – He is aware of it.

There are things that have happened in your Life – At the time they happened in my Life I thought it was the most horrible thing to ever happened in my Life; most horrible!

I would never say, God is Good – I would rather say God is wicked; He is terrible. What can come out of this?

1975 I lost my mother; 1976 I lost my father.

Of course, when you lose your Parents in one (1) year, what are you going to do?

We didn’t own the house we were in, we were tenants in the house. All kinds of trouble came!

And because we were Young and Poor, Relatives came to pick all of us – My siblings and I were scattered to Relatives.

And I was sent to my Aunt in Accra who lived in Kanda Estate. And in that Estate I found other Believers, and we started a Christian Fellowship called, “Kanda Estate Christian Fellowship.”

And out of that Kanda Estate Christian Fellowship came something called, “International Central Gospel Church (ICGC).”

Now, I cannot say God killed my mother; but if she had not died, there was no way I would live in Kanda Estate. And there was no way I could meet the People I met in Kanda Estate. And there was no way I would have started a Church!

Because, my mother would have told me, “Mensa don’t!” – She would never have encouraged me to start a Church. Never!

I can almost imagine what she would have said if I told her God has called me – She would say, “No! God hasn’t called you, be Patient.”

Was it God who killed her? I don’t know! But now I can look back and say, it was tough and it was Good because God had something in Mind that I could never ever had anticipated.

If I had to make a Choice, I would never make that Choice – Who would make a Choice to kill their mother?

So, when God does something and He says it is Good; you may not see it but God sees His Work, He is aware of His Work, He knows what He is doing. He is not crazy, He is Purposeful.

Somebody say, God knows what He is doing in my Life! I don’t know it, I don’t understand it all.

But God sees what He is doing. He is aware of it. He is not an absentminded God!

… The Second (2nd) Action is that:

2. He separated the Night from the Day.

He divided it – He set things in their rightful Place.

God is a God of order – He separated the Light from the Darkness. He brings order out of chaos. But the Light did not abolish the darkness – It didn’t!

• So, God is saying: there are moments in your Life, you are going to experience Darkness. And there are moments in your Life, you are going to experience Light.
• There are times you can’t see your way clear and there times you can see your way clear.
• There are times you can get confused and there are times you can get clarity.

But in both Seasons, God is Good!

If you are going through divorce, it’s a dark spot. You think ‘No Good can come of this.’ But God sees the end from the beginning.

He sees things and outcomes we don’t see.

He sees things far into the distance.

And He is able to Position you in Places you would never have chosen to be – Left to you, you would never choose it.

But in His Big Scheme, He needs you to do it. So He is going to contrive and create the right circumstances to Position you where He wants you to be because ‘Greater Good’ comes out of what He does in your Life.

When He says, it is Good, it is ‘Greater Good’.

It may be Good for you as an individual – It benefits only you.

God wants what He does, not just to benefit you, but to benefit ten thousand (10,000) People. And benefiting ten thousand (10,000) People is more important than benefiting one (1) Person.

In God’s Providence, He is going to Place you in a Place where you can be of more benefit to your children and grandchildren.

Some of you, what God is doing in your Life is not for you, it is for your children;

Because your children need certain impetus – And He is going to create it because of the Purpose He has for them twenty (20) years down the line. And you would never make that Choice if you were given that option.

Even if you were told the benefit of it, you won’t choose it – Thank God for His Mercy!

… God divides and sets things in their rightful Place.

The Third and final action we see in the Passage is that;

3. God called the Light Day, He called the Darkness Night.

I like the Final Declaration – He saw that the Light is Good and called it Day. And He called the Darkness Night.

… He didn’t call it evil; He called it Night!

He says, there’s going to be a Day Season and there’s going to be a Night Season – A Night Season is not necessarily an evil Season; it’s just a Night Season. A Day Season is just a Day Season.

And if you’ve lived on this Earth for a while, you know that, no matter how long the Day is, Night will come – No matter how Prolong the Day is, Night will come.

And no matter how Prolong the Night is, Day will come.

God says, the Light is just a Day, the Darkness is just a Night.

“Weeping may endure for a Night, But joy comes in the Morning” – Psalms 30:5B

Don’t throw away your Life because you are in the Night Season – The Day Season is going to come, because of the Goodness of the Lord. He can show you Mercy in the Darkness, and in the Night. He can show you Mercy in the Light, in the Day.

… God is God of both during the Day and the Night; His Works are Good!

And this is how the Apostle Paul reflects on what Genesis 1:3-5 means to Believers. This how he puts it in 2 Corinthians 4: 6-9:

For it is the God who commanded Light to Shine out of Darkness, who has shone in our Hearts to give the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this Treasure in Earthen Vessels, that the Excellence of the Power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are Perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

He is drawing it in the New Testament Era, how we see what God did n Genesis 1:3-5; Then God said, “Let there be Light”; and there was Light. And God saw the Light, that it was Good; and God divided the Light from the Darkness. God called the Light Day, and the Darkness He called Night. So the Evening and the Morning were the first Day.

What is Apostle Paul saying? He is saying, the same God who said, let there be Light, and there was Light, is the same God who said let there be Light in our Hearts.

When we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, He brings Light into the Darkness of our Hearts.

*If you are a Child of God and you are Born Again, you have received God’s Light in your Life; and He says, because of that, we are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are Perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

*The intended Purpose of what is happening to us doesn’t happen – In other words, we got a big blow from Mike Tyson; we were strucked down. But when we went down in the Boxing Ring and Probably for a moment, we were counted out!

But have you noticed that People who were counted out in a Boxing Ring don’t die? They get up and continue living.

It’s not as if when they count one (1) to ten (10) – Knock out!

For your Life you are knocked out – No! You can get up after that, go and continue with your Life.

Apostle Paul says we are strucked down but we are not destroyed. Why? Because the same God who said let there be Light, has given us Light in our Heart.

If you are a Born Again Believer, you have the Light of God inside you. And because of that, you cannot lose in the battle of Life.

Because of that, you will never fail in the battle of Life.

Even when People think you have failed, God will find a way to turn your Failure into Success – Amen.

You can have somebody who Probably doesn’t have a child and may never have Biological children. But who has influenced and trained somebody – A Nephew, a Niece, a child from the Children Church, a Student, etc

And that Person they have trained and influenced would Probably be the most influential Person fifty (50) years from now. And Probably, if they had children, they would never have taken care of that Person.

God has a way of turning your Darkness into Purpose.

And this Morning, we want to trust Him with our lives: that He knows what He is doing, and He is aware of what He is doing.

Please, let’s get up on our feet – We are going to Pray shortly before we close.

PRAYERS

1. Lift up your hands to God and Thank Him for your Life.

Thank Him for the Darkness, Thank Him for the Night Seasons.

Thank Him for things you don’t understand – Things you are going through that doesn’t make sense to you.

Thank Him that He is working out His Purposes, He is bringing beauty out of it.

He says you are in the Night, but He would bring you out of it.

Romans 8:2 says, And we know that all things work together for Good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His Purpose.

Lift up your hands and Thank Him for your Life – Thank You Lord!

2. Ask the Lord to help you to see and Understand His Purposes for your Life.

Tell Him: I am not a Mistake, I am not a disgrace, I am not a failure – You are working Your Purposes for my Life.

In Your Scheme of Things, I fit on well. I am not a misfit; I fit into God’s Plans, into God’s Purposes.

Thank You Lord!

CLOSING PRAYER

Father, Thank You that You see what You have made and You call it Good.

You see us, You made us in Your Image; Patterned after Christ Jesus, with the Light of Christ and You say, it is Good.

We declare Lord, that You are Good; Your Works are Good, and our Experiences are Good.

And You are Working out Good in our lives – It’s all working together for Your Purposes.

You are bringing it together that we may experience the Fullness of Your Purpose and Plans for our lives.

And help us always to keep this Perspectives, that Your Works are Good.

In Jesus’ Name – Amen.

Thank you so much for staying all through to read.

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