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b'SERVICE VIDEO (link)TEXT: Psalm 100; John 10:11-15; Romans 12:1-2\\n\\n\\n\\n\\u201cGod is great, God is good\\u2026\\u201d \\u2013 Christy asked the children what it means that God is great, that God is good. That\\u2019s just what we are also going to talk about this morning. Two other sayings come to mind as well.\\n\\n\\n\\nOne is the call and response \\u2013 see if you know it: GOD IS GOOD [all the time!]\\xa0 ALL THE TIME [God is good!]\\n\\n\\n\\nAnd then this one, which has an entirely different cast to it: \\u201cIf God is good, why do bad things happen?\\u201d\\n\\n\\n\\nThat last one is a deeply philosophical and theological question and not one I\\u2019m going to try to answer today. I\\u2019m not sure that\\u2019s a question that can be answered satisfactorily by human argument. It\\u2019s what I call one of the \\u201cbig questions\\u201d that people wrestle with when they wrestle with faith. If that\\u2019s one you\\u2019d like to talk about, I\\u2019d invite you to reach out to me. It\\u2019s much better addressed in conversation than in a sermon.\\n\\n\\n\\nHowever, there is something close to that big question that today\\u2019s texts will proclaim: \\u201cGod often shows His goodness in the midst of bad things that happen.\\u201d I hope to touch some on that today and maybe that will be a good starting place on the other question.\\n\\n\\n\\nThe Lord is Good (Psalm 100)\\n\\n\\n\\nOur Call to Worship was Psalm 100, which is a Psalm or song of praise. It especially lifts up several traits of God in verse 5, saying:\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nThe Lord is good\\n\\n\\n\\nHis lovingkindness is everlasting\\n\\n\\n\\nHis faithfulness to all generations.\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nWe\\u2019ve looked at God\\u2019s LOVINGKINDNESS and FAITHFULNESS in previous weeks, and those traits join GOOD in this verse. And for these traits, for who God is, the Psalm invites us to shout to, serve, come before, and know the Lord. We are to give thanks and bless God\\u2019s name, praising and worshiping.\\n\\n\\n\\nBesides declaring that the Lord is good and inviting our praise and worship, this Psalm introduces the imagery of sheep and therefore indirectly, the Shepherd. Though it doesn\\u2019t use the phrase, this Psalm calls to mind God as the \\u201cGood Shepherd\\u201d when it calls us \\u201cthe sheep of His pasture.\\u201d And that\\u2019s the image I want to focus on this morning to help us understand God\\u2019s goodness. You may also remember Psalm 23, which also portrays God as a Good Shepherd, providing water, pasture, protection, and guidance. Let me remind you of those verses:\\n\\n\\n\\n1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;He leads me beside quiet waters.\\n\\n\\n\\n3 He restores my soul;He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name\\u2019s sake.4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,I fear no evil, for You are with me;Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.\\n\\n\\n\\nThere in verse 4 is that distinction I made earlier. It doesn\\u2019t say \\u201cI will never walk through the valley of the shadow of death\\u201d or \\u201cthere is no evil\\u201d \\u2013 bad things do happen. We do and will walk through those valleys. We will face evil in the world; there is evil in the world. The goodness of God the Shepherd is not demonstrated by pulling us out of the world or putting some kind of invulnerable shield around us, but by the WITHNESS and the PROVISION in the midst of suffering, evil, and death. God leads, restores, guides, and is with us. The rod and staff, tools for protecting and correcting, offer comfort in those dark places.\\n\\n\\n\\nThe Good Shepherd (John 10)\\n\\n\\n\\nJesus picks up this same Shepherd imagery from the Psalms in John 10. He has already claimed that \\u201cI and the Father are one\\u201d and now he puts himself into the role that the Psalms used to describe the goodness of God. So, John 10 helps us understand the goodness of God the Father, expressed through the person and work of Jesus the Son.\\n\\n\\n\\nIn John 10 Jesus is in the midst of some of the so-called \\u201cI am\\u201d sayings, where he is identifying with God by using an intentional reference to the holy name of God, Yahweh, which means \\u201cI am who I am.\\u201d The Gospel of John records some 20 times of Jesus using that phrase to describe himself and his role, and because'