Be Careful Who You Repeat – Is God Really Good All the Time?
June 21, 2026 | Series: Be Careful Who You Repeat | Pastor Mike Boyle
God Is Good — All the Time
We open every service with a simple declaration: God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good. But do we really believe it? Not just as a call-and-response phrase we recite on Sunday morning, but in the quiet moments when life is hard, when God’s will feels inconvenient, and when obeying Him costs us something we really wanted? The question of God’s goodness is not a minor theological footnote. It is the question. It is the question that unraveled the Garden of Eden, and it is the question that continues to unravel lives, families, and entire civilizations today.
We rarely come at it directly. Very few people look up at the sky and say, “God is evil.” That would feel arrogant and absurd. But we accept the same conclusion through the back door. We say things like, “Doesn’t God want me to be happy?” or “His plan is just too difficult for me” or “Surely He will forgive me this one time.” These are not innocent musings. They are the ancient question dressed in modern clothes: Is God really good?
Has God Said? — Genesis 3:1
In Genesis 3:1, the serpent approaches Eve with what seems like a simple inquiry: “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” Notice what Satan does not do. He does not tell Eve that God is a liar. He does not command her to sin. He simply asks a question — but embedded in that question is a poisonous assumption. The frame of the question implies that God’s command might be unreasonable, excessive, or not quite what Eve understood it to be. And that frame, once accepted, is deadly.
Eve’s response in verses 2 and 3 reveals a second mistake. She engages. She begins to negotiate and clarify God’s command with the enemy — and in doing so, she actually adds to what God said, claiming they could not even touch the fruit. God doesn’t need us to defend Him in a debate with the devil. The moment you step into that argument, you have already conceded ground you were never meant to give up.
The Serpent’s Two-Part Strategy — Genesis 3:4–5
Satan’s strategy unfolds in two clear moves. First, he attacks God’s Word directly: “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). He takes the explicit promise of God and calls it a lie. Second, he attacks God’s motive: “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). In other words, God is holding out on you. He doesn’t have your best interests at heart. His commands are not for your protection — they are for His control.
This is the complete package of deception. Once you doubt what God said and why He said it, you are completely unmoored. You have no anchor left. You are now navigating by your own instincts in waters you were never designed to sail alone.
The Woman’s Defeat — Genesis 3:6
Genesis 3:6 records the tragic result: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.” Eve did not eat out of random impulse. She looked at the tree and evaluated it — but she evaluated it through her own value system rather than through the Word of God. She had quietly appointed herself as the final authority on what was good, what was pleasant, and what was wise. She had become her own god. And Adam, standing right there with her, said nothing and ate.
The fall of humanity was not primarily an act of rebellion. It was an act of redefinition. They redefined goodness on their own terms and rejected God’s definition. The consequences were catastrophic and are still unfolding today.
The Antidote: A Settled Confidence in God’s Goodness
The answer to Satan’s oldest strategy is not more arguments or better theology alone — it is a deep, settled, unwavering confidence that God is good all the time. His Word is trustworthy. His commands are not burdens; they are guardrails placed by a loving Father who sees what we cannot see. When His will is difficult, that does not mean His will is wrong. When His way is narrow, that does not mean His way is cruel.
Be careful who you repeat. Be careful whose voice you allow to frame your understanding of God, His Word, and His character. The serpent is still asking questions. Make sure you know whose answers you are living by.