Goodness

Intro

We are in this series that we are doing because of the toxic culture we are in and that we are in an election season. People are going around with bad attitudes and tempers flare up.

We seem to have los the ability to disagree without being disagreeable.

so during this emotionally charged season, we wanted to talk about these values. Jesus’s values.

I believe it’s important for us as Christians to live out our values. It’s important for others when they look at us to see Jesus in us. Anybody agree with me?

That’s why our attitude is important. Make sure to go vote… 32-40 million Christians are going to sit out. That’s terrible. Listen, Christians have the ability to determine the direction our nation is moving and all we have to do is to vote.

Remember, fruit lets people know how well our Christianity is doing. It’s like a test… is my Christianity working.

God has so much more he wants for each of you… more love… more peace…

Galatians 5:22–23 NIV84

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

IOW, a law can’t make you be like that. It has to be inside. Jesus said you will be born again and we will become new people. When we follow Jesus, we have these fruit that comes out of us.

Goodness is maybe the hardest of the fruit. I mean, how can you be good?

Let’s look at the Greek.

For those of you who have been told that the bible has been diluted with so many modern translations, they are wrong. We don’t translate off of the last translation, we translate of of the original manuscripts which were written in Hebrew and Greek.

Here is the greek definition of Goodness.

Uprightness of heart and life.

It begins in the heart. You cannot have an upright life without an upright heart.

The devil comes along in our lives and knocks down a lot of things. Goodness is when God has been good to us and he takes all of the places that have been knocked down and sets them right back up. He takes all of the bad places and makes them good, and takes all of the wrong places and makes them right.

There are Christians helping in the damaged hurricane areas that are taking things that have been knocked down and helping people put them back up. You are supporting that effort through your support of Samaritans Purse and Billy Graham Chaplains.

So the question we have to each answer is…

What does God need to make right in my life?

Maybe something has been knocked over… and it may not have been your fault. Maybe you are stuck in a bad job, bad marriage, bad family growing up, bad health, bad finances, addictions… Tonight you need to know that God wants to make it right.

This is where we get the word righteousness from. Righteousness is a Bible word that means that when God gets involved in your life, he makes things right.

2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT

21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

He took on your sin… whether it was you or someone else. He did that to make you right… right with God. Everything you have ever done was forgiven…

Ephesians 2:8–9 NLT

8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

Salvation is not a reward for your goodness. You cannot do this on your own.

There is part of goodness that you don’t have anything to do with. Jesus death and resurrection, if you accept it, makes you good in a spiritual sense. God did it. He made you right.

So, You may be asking, then Robert, why do I have so many areas in my life that are not good. That’s because that even though your sins have been paid for and God sees you as good, and you can step into heaven perfectly good, He wants you experience some of that goodness in your life here.

This is called regeneration or sanctification. This doesn’t determine heaven or hell, because Jesus took care of that. But this will determine your quality of life and your usefulness here on earth.

2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

So that we might become the righteousness of God. There is an instant righteousness but then once you are saved and going to heaven, God will take you through a process because of what you might become. He doesn’t leave us where he found us.

That’s what we are going to talk about. You can be a Christian going to heaven, but still not experience the goodness here. I believe that God wants you to experience goodness and victory.

Righteousness is the state of a person as they ought to be; integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking, feeling and acting.

God wants to change us to people of virtue.

This is what our faith journey is all about. We don’t need guilt or shame because Jesus paid for our sins, but at the same time, we are not satisfied where we are.

God has more for me.

God has more… He is the God of more.

If you learn anything here at River Church… Know that Jesus paid the price for your sins when you could not. Receive it.

Now let’s go on a journey. Sins are paid for and we are going to heaven.

When we celebrate Communion we do it with the little cups. You may see some with the one cup or chalice. But what Jesus and the disciples did wasn’t like that. Jesus and the disciples were celebrating the Passover Sadir meal. In that meal there were 14 things they did including singing songs and reading scriptures.

I this meal there are four cups and every cup corresponds to a scripture the Jewish people had been reading for years. They called this the 4 I will’s.

Exodus 6:6–7 (NIV) “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

Exodus 6:6–7 NIV

6 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

so let’s look at these and how they correspond to the four cups of the Passover meal.

The Cup of Sanctification.

I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians

I will relocated you geographically. This is an OT picture of NT salvation.

At Salvation, God pulls you and me out of the world and into his kingdom.

Then he says he will bring them out of slavery. I will free you from being slaves to them

How many of you know that you can be out of Egypt and still be a slave to Egypt? That’s why they had the cup of

The Cup of Deliverance.

This is the process where we can spit out the fruit of goodness. This is where god gets the Egypt out of you.

The Cup of Redemption.

I will redeem you

Once he has gotten us out of Egypt, and gotten the Egypt out of you, now he can help you find your redemption calling.

Now you can drink the

The Cup of Praise.

Why is called the cup of praise? It’s not because you drank 4 cups of wine… It’s because you can now live a life of fulfillment.

I will take you as my own people,

Chris Hodges wrote a book about this called 4 cups. He said no one bought it. So he rephrased it in different language. I have heard him teach it a few times.

This is what God wants for us, but most of us don’t understand it. so these four I wills have been rephrased.

Know God

In a second you are made perfectly good in God’s sight. But he is not done with you.

Find Freedom

You can find freedom. You can have goodness progressively happen in your life the more you know God so that you can…

Discover your purpose

and along with a group of people,

Make a difference

This is the journey I have adopted in my life and here at River Church. We want you to not just get saved and come on Sunday. We want you deal with the things that hold you back… or are knocked over, and let God put them back upright.

So while Knowing God takes no work.

Freedom takes a lot of work. In fact Paul said,

Philippians 2:12–13 NLT

12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

We are to work to show the results that we are saved. IOW, we actually live like we love Jesus. And that takes some work.

God is working in us… giving us the desire to do what he wants and the power to work it out.

So here is how that can happen.

1. Goodness happens in Relationships

He always uses godly people to help you.

Life change happens in the context of relationships

Church will not change your life… not even my awesome preaching will do it. You have to take another step and work it out in relationships.

Proof - name me the last 10 sermons I preached… you can’t and I can’t.

But name 10 people who have impacted your life - you can.

Your life is shaped by your relationships. That’s why the Bible can say this…

Proverbs 27:19 LBP

19 A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.

Which is why we don’t just say come to church, we want you to have a

Relationship with God.

Relationship with a Church.

Relationship with a Small Group.

We have done this teams…

Relationship with a Team.

Get into the game with a ministry team. This will help goodness pop out of you. How, because if you get a little edgy, you need someone who can call you out on it.

Maybe you are lonely… needing real friends.

Ecclesiastes 4:8–9 NLT

8 This is the case of a man who is all alone, without a child or a brother, yet who works hard to gain as much wealth as he can. But then he asks himself, “Who am I working for? Why am I giving up so much pleasure now?” It is all so meaningless and depressing. 9 Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.

Solomon was lonely… he was miserable. He was all alone

Two are better than one… We are inviting you into a relationship with God, with the church and others. I guarantee… life is better when you are connected.

Goodness pops out also because of the value of

2. Honesty

If you want the fruit of goodness to ooze out of you, you have to talk about it to God and to God’s people.

If you try to conceal it or do it on your own… you will fail. God loves it when we come to him for help.

God deals with people differently. You can see that in the Bible. Some he just cuts off and others he give chance after chance.

The difference is that the ones who he keeps giving a 2nd chance to are the ones who are saying… Oh God I need you… the ones who do not receive mercy are the ones who say, I got this…

King David did all sorts of horrible things. But after each time, he would repent and run to God and God would forgive and restore him. Read Psa 51… vs 6

God is attracted to honesty, not perfection.

Have you ever had one of your kids that did something wrong confess to doing something when they did it? When that happens, you feel this overwhelming love and forgiveness .

me with the train.

God is the same way… but you have to be honest.

1 John 1:9 NLT

9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

There is more.

God will forgive you but it may not keep you from doing it again and that’s why we need people in our lives to pray with.

James 5:16 NLT

16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

We go to God for forgiveness. We go to God’s people for healing.

I am trying to help us all… Your life can change.

It will change when you have relationships. It will change when you are honest and confess to God and people. And it will happen through the work of …

3. The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit’s Role is to teach us all these things.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 NIV

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

He will soften our hearts. Then he puts His Spirit in us and he moves us to follow his decrees.

Here are three prayers that change your life.

Holy Spirit show me.

is there something in my life you don’t like that I don’t see?

Psalm 139:23–24 NLT

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

If you pray this… Search me… is there anything in me that offends you? Show me what it is and lead me in your way…

Then once you show me…

Holy Spirit change me.

I want to be transformed. If it’s been a while since the HS changed anything in your life, you need to pray these. God always wants to change and transform us.

2 Corinthians 3:17–18 NIV

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

If something hasn’t changed in a while, that’s a warning flag.

I have had people ask me if they came to church, am I going to try to change them? YES… and change me too. That’s the Gospel. It just keeps getting gooder and gooder…

Holy Spirit fill me.

Ephesians 5:18 NLT

18 Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,

He wants us all to be filled with the HS.

The Holy Spirit wants to put a holy spirit in me.

and when this happens, goodness, uprightness begins to come out of us.

Prayer

Help us to reflect the Spirit of goodness today.

If you are here today and you don’t feel close to God. If you feel God kind of knocking and you are feeling that it’s time… do it tonight.

Pray this. Jesus I need you. I want you. I’m asking you to forgive me. I’m changing my direction to follow you. Now be my Savior and my Lord. Thank you for saving me.