Goodness (Fruit of the Spirit Part 6)

So I hope you grabbed a note sheets bulletin on your way in

this morning. As usual, there's a lot of

passages there in the note sheets, so we'll be covering a

good amount of ground this morning.

And obviously today we're diving into an essential aspect of the

Christian life, goodness. Goodness isn't just about being

nice. In a world often marked by

division, selfishness and a lack of integrity, goodness stands as

a light. It's a witness to the

transformative power of God at work in our lives.

Goodness is a lifestyle. It's about living in such a way

that our choices, our attitudes in our relationships all point

back to the nature of a loving, generous and righteous God.

Brendan, I think I'm going to make a change here.

Is it OK if I ditch this mic and switch to this one?

OK, Because I feel myself already pushing pretty hard and

so I don't want to completely lose my voice here.

So as we reflect, I guess that means I have to stand still.

I don't make any promises, you know that the camera guys will

appreciate it though, if I stand still.

I know. So as we reflect on this fruits,

we'll first explore God's goodness and then we'll look at

our own goodness. What's the purpose of it and

what does it look like in our lives?

Goodness is more than just doing good things.

It's about becoming a reflection of God's heart.

When we yield to the Holy Spirit, He transforms us into

people whose very presence brings the goodness of God

wherever we go into this broken world.

So let's pause for a moment of prayer to open our hearts to

receive and cultivate, cultivate this fruit in our lives,

allowing God to shape us more into His image.

So let's take a moment to go before Him.

Father God, we submit ourselves under your rule and reign.

God, we say we're here for you. Would you speak to us, teach us

from Your Word that we would be changed and transformed by the

power of the Holy Spirit's working in US?

I thank you for this time and the privilege of sharing Your

Word and God, I pray that you would empower me for these next

moments to bring Your Word. It's in Jesus name we pray these

things. Amen.

Psalms 100 and six, 100 and seven, 118 and 136 all open with

the same phrase, and I know you could finish it if you weren't

looking at it. Give thanks to the Lord, for he

is good. Yes, God is good, and His

goodness pervades all that He is and all that he does.

Psalm 65, four said, Blessed is the one you choose and bring

near to dwell in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the

goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple.

Satisfaction, true satisfaction is rooted in God's goodness.

He pours out blessings on His people who He has brought near

to His presence. Then Titus three.

I mentioned this verse last week, but for a different

reason. Titus 3-4 says, But when the

goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He

saved us. It's the appearance of God's

goodness that made a way for our salvation.

If I were to try to summarize God's goodness into a single

word, I think it would be blessing.

God pours out His blessings on us through His character as well

as through His actions. His character serves as the

basis for our faith. It's the foundation on which all

other attributes are built. God is good.

That's a fact. And when that fact is

established, we can look at all other aspects of God through

that lens. Knowing God is good means that I

understand all of His actions to be good, even the actions and

decisions that I don't understand or agree with.

Knowing God is good allows me to trust Him and remember, even

when our circumstances may change, God has not changed and

God is still good. Goodness flows from God's

nature, but that's not where goodness stops.

We're examining the fruit of the Spirit here, so that same

goodness is to be reflected in US, right?

The question before us this morning is, what does it look

like for God's goodness to be revealed in my life?

First of all, a basic definition of goodness.

Goodness is uprightness of heart and life.

It's uprightness of heart and life.

It is both holiness and virtue. Goodness is fueled by high moral

character and the desire to be a blessing to others.

It's not simply goodness just for the sake of showing myself

to be virtuous. Virtue signalling, if you will.

No, the primary word used here, agathosene, is goodness for the

benefit of others. And and this goodness is

directly related to benevolence. Someone with agathosene

selflessly acts on behalf of others.

They'll go the extra mile. And this goodness can be

manifested in a million different ways.

Giving to the poor, providing for our children, visiting the

sick, volunteering to clean up after a storm, praying for an

enemy, even confronting sin can be a demonstration of goodness.

2nd Corinthians 98 tells us where this goodness comes from.

It says God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that

having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may

abound in every good work. God is the source.

He abundantly pours out His grace into our lives, and His

grace then becomes our sufficiency.

We've been equipped by God for the good works that He has

prepared for us. I'd like to remind you that

we're filled with grace and and out of grateful hearts for what

we've received. We we do good works, not the

reverse. We don't do good works in order

to receive grace. That's not how God works and

that's actually not grace if you're working for something

because grace is a free gift. So goodness is uprightness of

hearts and life. Next, goodness is a witness to

the world and it glorifies God. It's a witness to the world and

glorifies God. Now some of you might be

thinking, well, didn't Matthew 6 tell us, don't let your left

hand know what your right hand is doing?

Yes, it does say that, but but here's what Jesus is getting at

in the Sermon on the Mount. He was cautioning people,

especially the Pharisees. He was cautioning them against

doing their deeds in order to be seen by others.

Performing your good deeds in order to receive recognition is

pride and it's vanity, and this is not what Jesus wants.

In fact, earlier in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 516,

Jesus said in the same way, let your light shine before others

so that they may see your good works and give glory to your

Father who is in heaven. Our good works will will be

visible to others around us. That's when you do something

good. Often it's visible to others.

The key here though, is our motive.

When we let our light shine, we're not doing it for

ourselves, but rather we shine the light back on Jesus.

Goodness points back to God and not to ourselves.

As our goodness is viewed by others around us, it causes them

to wonder what is it that is working inside of us?

As people wonder and are amazed at what God is doing inside us

that brings glory to God. The next points, Goodness also

benefits others and ourselves. Goodness is a benefit to others

and ourselves. So are we being self-serving

when we do good things? Well, that's actually between

you and God. I can't tell you that's whether

you're trying to serve your own purposes, but you can examine

yourself and, and, and determine what are my motives in doing

good? Do I do good in order to help

other people? Or am I doing good in order to

draw attention to myself and and get them to think that I'm

wonderful and great and do all these good things?

Proverbs 11/25 reads. Whoever brings blessing will be

enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.

So how does our own blessing of others serve to bless us?

There are a few ways that this happens.

And I wish I would have given you room to write.

But you see, I have to turn in the sermon note sheet on Friday,

and there's still a lot of work when I turn in the sermon note

sheet. There's still a lot of work that

happens when I turn it in. So.

Yeah. But OK, so how does our our

blessing others bless us? First of all, when we bless

others, we are releasing control from the objects and the money

and the resources that can hold us in their grip.

I'm controlling my resources, not allowing my resources to

control me. Another thing, benevolence

reorients my perspective on what I have.

When I give more freely of my resources, I adopt the

perspective that I have plenty in life and God has given me all

that I need. Which leads us to my third

thought. When I bless others, it

increases my faith and trust in God.

Now, conversely, the person who acts in a miserly, stingy manner

is always in need. They see someone's need, but

they'll just turn away from it. This person never has enough.

Even when they shouldn't have a care in the world, they're still

consumed by accumulating and hoarding resources.

One such person was J Paul Getty.

J Paul Getty back in the 60s was the richest man in the world.

He was an oil tycoon whose net worth soared into the billions,

and that was in yesteryear dollars, not even current

dollars. He had everything that money

could buy, including a beautiful German Shepherd, apparently a

little inside secret. Our household has this thing

about German shepherds because we have a dog that masquerades

as a German Shepherd, but we say that she's broken.

She's only 40% German Shepherd but there's also a quarter pit

in there so her ears do this thing and if her ears pointed up

then all would be right. But no, we love her.

She's fun and dumb. But he had everything money

could buy, multiple estates, priceless art, and businesses

all around the world. But despite all his wealth,

Getty was famously stingy. Even in his dying days, he

lamented the medical bills that he was receiving.

His stinginess was most illustrated in one particular

story. In 1973, one of Getty's

grandsons was kidnapped in Italy, and the abductors

demanded a ransom of $17 million.

They were not messing around, $17 million.

At first, Getty refused to pay, he said.

I have 14 other grandchildren. If I pay 1 penny now, then I

will have 14 kidnapped grandchildren.

OK, he has a point, but that's not where it stops, as after the

kidnappers cut off the boy's ear and sent it to a newspaper.

Yet he finally agreed to pay, but only 2.2 million because

that was the amount that he could get the maximum tax

deduction on. And then?

And then 2.2 is certainly not 17, right?

He loaned the rest of the money to his son.

The grandchild's father loaned the rest of the money to him at

a rate of 4%. It's sad.

Can you imagine a man with all the money in the world?

It's his heart was completely bankrupt with greed.

He'd gained the whole world, but his legacy became a warning, not

a model to live by as he certainly didn't understand the

value of benevolence and goodness in one's life.

So goodness is a witness to the world and glorifies God.

It's also a benefit to others and ourselves.

As we continue on through this message, we're going to dive a

little deeper into that definition of a brightness of

heart and life. So a brightness of heart, I

would say this is goodness in our attitude, goodness in our

character, in our in our inner being.

It's the general disposition with which we approach life, in

both of its highs and it's lows. Are you generally a good person

or are you generally a bad person?

I do hope that nobody here says, well, generally, no, I'm really

bad. I'm an evil person.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that your

presence here this morning is a strong indicator that you're

probably a decently good person. Sure, you may have some growth

edges, but otherwise you're upright in character.

Typically, bad or evil people don't find themselves sitting in

a church service. Now, as we talk about character,

I think we can learn something from the world a botany.

This is highly complex here, so I hope you can track with me.

If I have an apple tree, what kind of fruits is the apple tree

going to produce? A what?

You always have one, right? An apple?

If I live down South and I have an orange Grove, what kind of

fruit is it going to produce? Oranges.

If I have a tomato plant, what do I do with it?

Well, actually I ripped that sucker up and give it to someone

else who can enjoy it. Luke 643 through 45.

For no good tree bears bad fruits, nor again does a bad

tree bear good fruits. For each tree is known by its

own fruits. For figs are not gathered from

thorn bushes, nor grapes picked from a Bramble Bush.

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces

good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil.

For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.

This isn't rocket science, right?

It's logical. It makes sense.

The apple tree gives us apples. The orange tree gives us

oranges. Even the tomato plant yields the

right fruit. And yes, tomato is fruit,

botanically speaking, because it does have seeds, making it a

fruit. That's weird to me.

But yeah, it is considered a fruit.

So the fruit that's produced is consistent with the character of

that tree or plant. No, the apple tree does not give

us pears, Jeremy, It gives us apples.

We don't go to thorn bushes looking for grapes.

No, the thorn Bush's character is not not such that it produces

the the fruit of the vine. Goodness begins in our hearts

attitude and posture. If the heart isn't properly

oriented, then goodness will not likely follow.

In First Timothy, Paul begins by addressing false teachings,

teachings that straight from the truth of the gospel and had

caused people to run headlong into different myths and novel

ideas. As a response to these

teachings, Paul said in First Timothy 15, the aim of our

charge is love, the issues from a pure heart and a good

conscience and a sincere faith. His aim was love, but not just

any love, love characterized by inner purity, moral integrity

and genuine belief. These qualities are the

foundation for the Christian's life.

So this logically needs us, leads us to the next point.

After looking at goodness and attitude, we have goodness in

action. This I would characterize as the

uprightness of life. The Christians godly good

character leads to a visible demonstration of uprightness of

life. Their goodness is put into

action as it doesn't only exist in some theoretical place deep

in the heart of the Christ follower.

No goodness has to come out of our hearts.

It has to make its way out into visible demonstrations and

actions. So how do we do this?

Well, first of all, we can look for opportunities to to serve,

to speak life, and to help others.

This means we're continually on the lookout for opportunities.

How can I serve? How can I speak life to someone?

How can I show benevolence and lend a helping hand?

This often necessitates stepping outside of my comfort zone.

The United States as well as the Western Church have become

enamoured with comfort. We're driven by a desire to be

comfortable, and we highly value leisure, pleasure, and fun above

nearly everything else in life. This desire for comfort means I

I loathe any sort of discomforts.

For example, going a night without AC is practically

unimaginable to me. However, I will say for many

years I've driven vehicles that did not have AC and and I'm only

just now getting an upgrade to AC in the vehicle here in the

next couple weeks. Maybe.

Depends on how the learning how to drive a stick shift goes with

Mica and then he can be the driver of a car without AC.

We have faithfully handed that on to both kids.

Aria grew up with a car without AC and Micah will be doing the

same. But comfort creates in US and

unwillingness to move beyond ourselves, to think outside of

ourselves when we're comfortable.

Spiritual complacency is the byproduct.

Try witnessing to to the affluent person, generally

speaking, they're convinced that they don't need Jesus because

they have everything they want. They can buy everything that

they need. The drive for comfort, even it

impacts us here inside the church walls.

Engaging in deeper discipleship is out of vogue because it asks

something of us. It takes extra time to invest in

other people and to make myself available.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it, engaging in discipleship costs

us something. Otherwise, we're engaging in

cheap grace, receiving forgiveness without true

repentance and life change. That's what cheap grace is.

It's important for us to castaway our comforts and pursue

true discipleship, giving up so we can gain all that there is to

be had in Christ. In order for us to be

benevolence, whether with our time, our money, or other

resources, we have to be intentional the majority of the

time. We don't just fall into

benevolence, We're not usually coerced into benevolence.

It it happens when we see a need and we step in to help fulfill

that need. The prophet Amos was called to

speak to the northern Kingdom of Israel.

God was unhappy with his people and and he had planned to punish

them. They were doing evil and God

wanted them to give up their evil ways and get right with

him. Amos 514 says seek good and not

evil that you may live. God's word to his people was be

intentional, seek out good, look for opportunities to do good to

people and not evil. His call was for them to turn

away from the evil ways that were popular in their time and

instead look for ways to demonstrate righteousness and

goodness to their fellow Israelites.

Also, as we look for opportunities to help others,

it's important to clarify that goodness isn't out of

compulsion. It's it's voluntary.

If you're forced into something, then it's not actually goodness.

If you're forced into it, then that's more of a tax or or a

punishment, a penalty, if you will.

When Paul wrote his second second recorded letter to the

Corinthians, Paul wrote a number of letters to the church at

Corinth, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, or maybe about half

of what he wrote to that church. When he wrote the letter 2nd

Corinthians, he explained to them how the churches in

Macedonia had sought to give to the church in Jerusalem.

This was something the members in the church had desired to do.

The church in Macedonia had heard about the needs in

Jerusalem, and so then the church in Macedonia spent a year

compiling their resources, collecting their funds in order

to send them to Jerusalem. Were they rich?

No, far from it. In fact, 2nd Corinthians 8 two

tells us they were deeply impoverished.

And 2nd Corinthians 8, verses 3 and 4 says, For they gave

according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their

means of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the

favor of taking part in the relief of the Saints.

They didn't have the means to give, but still gave even beyond

what we would think would be reasonable.

They literally begged Paul to be able to participate in this good

act. They weren't content to let

their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem suffer, but they want

to help them out as much as they possibly could.

This is what it's like to be intentional and to seek out

opportunities for goodness. They didn't have to give to the

Jerusalem church. They could have just sat on

their resources. But the Holy Spirit was working

then in them, bringing about the fruits of goodness and

generosity. I do want to say I think it's

worth mentioning that some people naturally excel here.

There's a spiritual gift of acts of service as well as a love

language called acts of service. People who have this as part of

their natural makeup are are more in tune to seeing

opportunities to demonstrate goodness and to step in and show

benevolence. This is just part of who they

are. But that doesn't let the rest of

us off the hook. If we're not naturally inclined

towards acts of service, then we need to have our eyes open so we

can see the opportunities to serve, so we can see the

opportunities that God has placed before us.

The last points for our message this morning is overcome evil

with good. We overcome evil with good.

This isn't natural. Our natural inclination when

we're hurt is to lash out. But Romans 12/21 says do not be

overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The church in Thessalonica was experiencing significant

persecution and this was causing them to waver a bit in their

faith. What would happen if they died

before Jesus returned? Would they still get to

experience the resurrection? Would they get to go to heaven?

What? What would life be like?

Their faith was waning and they needed to be supported and

reminded of God's plan. Near the end of his first letter

to the church in Thessalonica, Paul said, See that no one

repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one

another and to everyone. This was counter to what the law

said, Exodus 21 verses 23 through 25 reads.

Exodus 21:23–25

But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for

eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for

burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

And of course, this is where that famous saying an eye for an

eye comes from. Now, principles of retribution

likely existed before Moses recorded it in the law, but

Moses recording it brings a bit of clarity to the principles of

justice. I think you could say that the

idea here is to is to minimize the punishments, to make sure

that the person who is handing out the punishments, the penalty

isn't going too far. It's tempting to want to be a

vigilante and enact justice with our own hands.

If we do that, then we can become blinded by our own

emotions or even by rage, and there's there's a risk of going

too far. So God's desire and having Moses

write this down was to, in a sense, make the punishment fits

the crime. Now, I'd initially planned to

use Luke chapter 6 here. You see it listed there in your

Luke 6 · chapter mention

notes. But I actually decided that I

like better how Matthew records these thoughts in the Sermon on

the mounts. There, Jesus flipped the notion

of an eye for an eye on its head.

Jesus says you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye

and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist

the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the

right cheek, turn to him the other also.

And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have

your cloak as well. With this in the background,

Paul was able to tell the Thessalonians.

He says see that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always

seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

Repaying an eye for an eye is completely natural, but when the

Holy Spirit is transforming us and changing us, then doing good

to others becomes more innate. As we close today, I want to

remind you that goodness isn't something we manufacture on our

own. It's not just about doing good

deeds or trying to be a better person, but true goodness is the

result of a life surrendered to the Holy Spirit.

This flows from a heart that's been transformed by the grace of

God. The world doesn't need more

people who look good on the outside and needs people who are

full of God on the inside, People whose goodness is not

performance, but rather a demonstration of the Holy

Spirit's transformative power. So let's the goodness of God

overflow from your life this week.

Be the hands that help, the words that heal, the the hearts

that gives, not because you're trying to earn something, but

because you've already received everything in Christ.

Bow our heads and close our eyes.

This morning, as we've examined this goodness, we've looked at

our attitude, our character. We've looked at our actions.

God, I pray that you would open our eyes to see opportunities

around us to extend goodness, to grow and exhibits this fruit of

the Spirit to serve people, to speak life into people's lives

and to help others to overcome evil with good.

Would your Holy Spirit do amazing things in US, transform

us by your power working. It's in Jesus name we pray,

Amen.