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.
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
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.