What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God?

It means that, above all else, the Fruit of the Spirit will be increasingly apparent in your life. The more I mature in the Christian life, and the more I study the Scriptures, the more persuaded I am that the Fruit of the Spirit is the primary indication of God’s presence in the believer’s life. It is not so much preaching and teaching or ministry that communicates Christ’s life to the people around us, but our rootedness in the Spirit. It’s the Fruit of the Spirit that are the true indicators of our transformation in Christ.

The Fruit of the Spirit is always generated completely in every believer, no matter how faintly evidenced its various characteristics may be. What do I mean by that? I mean that when you’re saved and the Spirit comes to indwell your life, at that moment you get, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The Fruits of the Spirit are a package deal. You don’t get, love, patience, and kindness one moment, and then – if you’ve developed those over several years of faithful Christian living – get joy, faithfulness, and gentleness some time later. You get all of the Fruit of the Spirit because you get all of the Spirit.

Our job is to cultivate each of the attributes of the Spirit’s fruit so that they become increasingly obvious in our lives.

Tonight, I want to preach on goodness. “Good” is one of those words that is difficult to define. Like the word “love,” we use the word good in so many different ways that it is hard to get a handle on what the word truly means. Webster's dictionary gives seventeen different uses for the word good.

We use the word in so many different contexts: We use it to indicate competence – “You’re good at math.” We use it to indicate reliability – “The car has good brakes.” We use it to indicate strength – “You have good eyesight.” It can mean kindness – “It was good of you to come.” It can mean moral excellence as in performing good deeds or good works. It can refer to behavior – “You’ve been a good child.” We use it to indicate enjoyment – “Boy, that was a good party.” It can mean thoroughness – “Give it a good washing.” It can mean immensity of number as in a good many people. We use it to indicate soundness as in good reasoning. We use it to indicate expedience – “I thought it good to have a try.” It can even mean freshness as in the bread is still good. It can mean worthiness – “Good ol’ George.” It can refer to attractiveness – “Wow, you sure look good.” It can refer to a desirable end – as when we sacrifice the present for future good. We use it as a noun, and advective and an adverb.

So then, when the Apostle Paul writes that goodness is one of the attributes of the Spirit, what does he mean to tell us?

I. THE WORLDLY VIEW OF ‘GOOD’ – IT’S ALL ABOUT THE GOOD LIFE

the predominate philosophy that governs western culture’s concept of goodness can be distilled down into one phrase – “If it feels good, do it!”

our cultural theme-song is the chorus to Debbie Boon’s hit You Light Up My Life
the chorus says, “How can it be wrong when it feels so right?”

there was a time in western culture when goodness was all about character and the principles of integrity and rectitude that went into developing a good character
today, goodness is about feeling and feeling good instead of being good

as long as I feel good about life, life must be good and I must obviously being good
most Americans spend an extraordinary amount of time and effort and money trying to make ourselves feel good

A. FOR SOME FEELING GOOD IS ABOUT LOOKING GOOD

for some folks, appearance means everything

if you can look like you’re living the good life you must have

our society place a high priority on our looks

the right body weight
the right hair style or the right hair color
the right look and all that goes into that

ILLUS. Americans spent $10.4 billion on cosmetic surgery in 2011.The American Society of Plastic Surgeons said plastic surgery spending is up 3 percent over 2010, powered in part by a 71-percent uptick in chin augmentations. 20,680 Americans forked over more than $38 million on chin jobs last year. While chin jobs seem to be all the rage, breast implants were still number one with 307,180 surgeries. The five top reasons for having plastic surgery include: 1) Heath reasons, 2) Accidents, 3) Self-esteem, 4) Re-constructive surgery, and 5) Vanity.

add to this the extraordinary amount of money our culture spends of cosmetics and fashions
for many in our culture, the focus is on ‘it’s all about me’ and ‘how do I feel?’, and ‘am I validated?’, ‘am I okay in the world?’

to one degree or another, we've become a narcissistic culture excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity.

B. FOR OTHERS FEELING GOOD IS ABOUT HAVING THE GOODS

for a large segment of our society, feeling good about life means having all the things of this world

whatever the latest and greatest gadgets are, we’ve gotta have ‘em

feeling good, if it means anything, means most of all—prosperity

it means having all the things that are likely to fulfill and satisfy our desire to acquire

and if someone has more than we do, it is patently unfair!

this means a constant procurement of new things and more things, believing that they will provide us good living

II. THE BIBLICAL VIEW OF ‘GOOD’ – IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CHARACTER OF GOD IN US

what is goodness all about?
we get a clue from Jesus in Matthew 19 in the incident with the Rich Young Man

the rich young ruler came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

to which Jesus replied “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good.”
in Mark’s gospel it’s a little clearer: He says “No one is good—except for God alone.”

why does Jesus answer the young man that way?

because he needs to remove the misconception that we as human beings, on our own without the grace of God, can know what good is and can do good

A. GOD SAYS THAT GOODNESS IS CHARACTER ENERGIZED BY HIS SPIRIT

to understand goodness, and what good is, we must come to know God

"For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations." (Psalm 100:5, NASB95)

in the English language, the word good has a multiplicity of meanings
in the Greek language, the word translated good in the New Testament indicates one particular quality

it refers to energized character that expresses itself in active, and beneficial – even aggressive – goodness

the word goodness in the Scriptures literally means, an uprightness of heart and life
this uprightness leads to a life of doing good for others even when others don’t deserve it

goodness is about being good and doing good because God has made us good

the divine goodness that God implants within you though His Holy Spirit needs to be released

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” KJV

there is a major problem with being good and letting goodness flow from our lives

the problem is this: we have not been born with a nature that seeks to do good

we have been born with a nature that is prone toward evil

we are not naturally good
we do not have it within ourselves naturally to respond in goodness to the people around us or the situations we find ourselves in

we are born with a selfish inclination, with a selfish nature that views goodness as “What’s best for me?”

a lot of people go through life wondering, “Why was I born? What am I supposed to do in life? For what reason was I created?”

the lost person will continually search and never find the answer to that question until he or she finds Christ
the saved person has the answer for those questions

we know from the Scriptures that we were created to do good works – God’s works – in this world
we are not saved by our good works, we cannot receive forgiveness for our sins or salvation because of our good works, but once we’re save, our life is to be lived doing good works

we can only do the works of God because the Spirit gives us the right motivation for doing them – out of a pure and good heart

III. CULTIVATING GOODNESS

here is the fundamental question of the evening

how can you become a good Christian?
how can you grow the fruit of goodness of God's Spirit in your life?

let met suggest six things you can do that will help you grow in goodness and become a good person

A. ACCEPT GOD'S GIFT OF GRACE

you must begin by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior

this is the starting point of experiencing and knowing God's goodness
it is the beginning of living the good life

Ephesians 2:8,9 "For it is by grace you are saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast."

God has provided you and me an incredible gift, it is a gift of goodness

He wants to give us his goodness so that we might become good
it is the kind of thing you cannot earn
goodness is simply a gift that we must receive

when we receive his gift, our nature is changed

our physical nature is prone toward sin, selfishness, evil and rebellion against God
but when you receive God's gift you are born again and you start all over as far as God is concerned
when the Holy Spirit comes into your life He brings His fruit—including His goodness

you can't know the good life until you receive God's gift
you can't have a changed life until you receive God's gift

once you have done that, then you begin to grow in goodness

B. MASTER YOUR BIBLE

if you want to grow in goodness, become a student of God's Word

begin to know what God says about how to live your life, and how to respond to people and circumstances

if you are going to do good, if you are going to be good, you have to know what God says about goodness and His definition of good

we have been so conditioned by our world that if we are going to live a good life, we have to learn what God says

C. GUARD YOUR MIND

Proverbs 23:7 "For as a man thinks in his heart, so he is."

we have to protect what we are thinking
the things that we think about will eventually lead the way we live our lives

what is on the inside will eventually become visible in our lives

therefore, we have to guard what comes in our minds

it’s absolutely amazing to see the spiritual junk food that Christians will feed on
no wonder so many believers struggle in the Christian life

sin always begins in the mind

if we can guard our minds, we can keep ourselves from sin

D. DEVELOP CONVICTIONS

if you want to do good, you have to have convictions in your life

what is it that you stand for?

ILLUS. Someone said that if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything.

that’s especially true in American today

the number one virtue that we are taught in our society today is tolerance, to have an open mind, be open to all kinds of lifestyles and all kinds of beliefs
the problem is that we’ve become so open minded that our brains are in danger of falling out
because tolerance is the most important virtue in our society today, we have tossed aside morality and discretion and intelligence in our attempt to be “broad minded”

we need to learn to have convictions in our lives if we are going to be good people, if we are going to live and do good things as God intends for us to do

ILLUS. Do you know the difference between an opinion and a conviction? An opinion is something that you hold on to; a conviction is something that holds on to you. It controls your life. An opinion is something that you will argue about but a conviction is something that you will suffer and die for.

Jesus Christ had convictions, He did not just have opinions

because he had convictions he changed the world

if we are going to stand up for Christ and be good people in our society, we need to have Rock solid convictions

Jesus is a model of a person who was good, who stood up for the things that was right and stood against the things that were wrong
we need to follow in his example

goodness demands guts in our society today

it takes a lot of guts to be a good person in the way God intends for us to be good
it takes a lot of guts to stand against for what is wrong and immoral in our society today

things like child abuse, abortion, pornography, corruption, prejudice, and homosexuality

but a person who is committed to doing good is a person of conviction, a person who is willing to suffer even if it means to make a stand for what is right

E. HAVE THE COURAGE TO BE DIFFERENT

we are to have the courage to be different.
if you are going to have convictions it will take courage

3 John 11 "Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.” KJV

F. MEET REGULARLY WITH OTHER BELIEVERS

we need the encouragement of each other
it encourages me when I hear you testify about how you share Christ or how you stood up for your convictions; how you were a light and a witness in your workplace, family or neighborhood
this is an encouragement to me to continue to press on, to be strong
when you pray for me, this encourages me

I need that just as much as you need me praying for you

this is why we need to meet together as a body of Christ

this is why watching church on television just does not make it
we need each other in flesh and blood
we need to be together, encourage on another, love one another, pray for one another

Goodness is not something that come naturally to men —especially the kind of goodness God expects from us. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit and must be cultivated in our lives. When we are being good for goodness sake, it is then that we know we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great English Baptist preacher of the 19th century said: Do all the good you can, to all the people you an, in all the ways you can, as often as ever you can, as long as you can. That’s a good way to live your life.

Attributes of the Spirit-filled Life: Goodness