Fruit of the Spirit | Goodness

Main Point: Doing what is right and loving others for the Glory of God

Christmas:

- It is amazing how the promise of a pile of gifts can cause children to behave.

Main Point: Goodness is doing what is right, while loving others.

- During the month of December, in different places around the world children all of a sudden begin to listen to their parents, stop fighting with their siblings

Today, we are continuing our series on the Fruit of the Spirit

Our new fruit today is Goodness

For the longest time, Goodness was very difficult for me to wrap my head around.

Why? Well, What did we talk about last Sunday?........ Kindness

Kindness was

When I began studying, I wanted to make sure I had a good understanding of Goodness

So like many preachers, I looked in several dictionaries

When I looked I kept finding a word in common

You know how sometimes dictionaries will give you another word to help explain the word being defined

Who can guess what word kept showing up when was looking at Goodness?

KINDNESS!

I was like, “Dang it, Am I going to preach the sermon that John taught”

But Then I kept thinking, Why would Paul put goodness and kindness in the same verse if he was talking about parts of the Fruit of the Spirit?

As I dug deeper into this word Goodness I realized that there is a difference

Although Goodness has a lot to do with Kindness there is something there that we cannot miss

Goodness is this....

Goodness: Doing what is right and loving others for the Glory of God

Transition:

There are similarities when it comes to Kindness and goodness, but there is something different that we need to understand.

There is also a great danger that we need to be aware of and to watch for in our lives

I have three points for you today

These three points are g

Doing what is right

Loving others

The Self-Righteous Side-Effect

1.) Goodness: Doing what is right

Christmas:

It is amazing how the promise of a pile of gifts can cause children to behave. During the month of December, in different places around the world children all of a sudden begin to listen to their parents, stop fighting with their siblings

The biggest difference between between goodness and kindness is this idea of Moral Excellence

Moral Excellence or Doing what is right

Basically it means to do good things

As believers in Jesus Christ our lives have been transformed

Our hearts have transformed

Our desires have been changed from wanting to obey sin

To wanting to obey Jesus Christ

This means that we live by the commandments the God has set up for us

God is the ultimate example of goodness

4 How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You To dwell in Your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple. 5 By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation, You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea;

68 You are good and do good; Teach me Your statutes.

God is the standard of Goodness

He is perfectly holy, righteous, and just

We say that part of Goodness is Moral Excellence

Well, God himself defines what is moral and what is not

It is all based on his character, Who he is

When we say The Fruit of the Spirit, We are talking about qualities that God, the Holy Spirit has

And one of the great promises that we are given as Christians is the God, The Holy Spirit lives within us

So we get these qualities

One of them being Goodness

The bible tells us that, for us who have been saved, God has created us to do good things

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Here are some questions for you guys

Are you walking in the good deeds that you were created for?

Are you seeking what is good?

Are you the one to comes to someones aid when they are wronged

Someone being made fun of

Someone being bullied

Someone being Gossiped about

Some of you may ask, how do I know what I should seeking?

Does evil make you

8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Transition:

The first part of Goodness is this idea of Moral Excellence

We know that God is the prime example of goodness, in that he defines what is right and what is wrong

We also know that God allows us to be Good through the holy spirit living in us

The next part of Goodness is just as important as the first part we talked about

Goodness is not all about being “Morally Righteous” but it also involves how we interact with others

2.) Goodness: Loving others

- I have been blessed with some pretty awesome friends in my life

- There is one person that sticks out in my mind when I think about “Loving others”

- This person is Ryne Tokunaga

- From the beginning of our friendship Tok has always been this ball of energy and excitement (As you all know)

- As our friendship developed and we got to know each other more and more, I found out something.

- Tok LOVES People

- Tok is always looking out for the interest of others and how he can serve them

- When Tok found out I would joining Jr High he drove all the way from Corona, at night, to encourage me

- Just last night Tok sent me a super encouraging text message

- Tok Loves people, and he is great at demonstrating how we as Christians are to be loving others

What does Goodness have to do with Loving others?

While studying Goodness I found a common theme in the definitions

John MacArthur defines it like this:

“Moral and spiritual excellence manifested in active kindness” (MacArthur, 2006)

Another Commentator says this:

“It conveys the idea of benevolence and generosity toward someone else, a going the second mile when such magnanimity is not required.” (George, T, 1994)

It conveys the idea of benevolence and generosity toward someone else, a going the second mile when such magnanimity is not required.

Along with doing what is right, our goodness needs to be focused towards others above the norm

10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

The goodness that comes from us is to be directed towards other people, and its degree should be greater than expected

This is the part of goodness that shares qualities with kindness

“Going the second mile” to serve someone and show them love

Lets look at that Ephesians passage again:

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

We have good works prepared for us

What are these good works?

How do we know what they are?

Look at who you are and what you have

Look at who you are and what you have

Practical Goodness

It is using what God has given you, and where he has placed you, to serve others and bring him glory:

You guys are all students:

Doing good looks like going to school, working your hardest, and when people see it, to Glorify God

Along the way, doing good would be, helping students who are struggling in classes

Helping the teacher when other students are being disrespectful

Being friends with the new kid because they don’t have any friends (even here)

You guys are all children (You have parents)

Doing good looks like obeying your parents when they tell you to do things

Even doing things before they ask you

Going above and beyond, doing things you know will help them

Staff:

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

We have good works prepared for us

What are these good works?

How do we know what they are?

First:

Look at who you are and what you have

Who you are

Transition:

Goodness: Doing what is right, loving others, and glorifying God

We have seen what goodness looks like in our lives, and how we can show goodness to others

There is a big danger when it comes to "doing good”

I want to make sure we understand what this danger is and how can we avoid it

3.) Goodness: The Self-Righteous Side-effect

​ ESV They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

- I want to tell you guys a story about a man named Sam

- Sam was a stinky man

- Once upon a time there was a guy named

- This problem

- Sam thought that he was perfect

- Sam did not see a single thing wrong with his life

- But Sam would always stop and notice the bad things that other people did and judge them for it, even though he does those same things

- When people tried to talk to him about the bad things he was doing, we would refuse to see it

- Sam also did not see a need to shower

- “I don’t know what you’re talking about” Sam would say

- One day, there was a fire in Sam’s Neighborhood

- He thought that all he needed to do was to spray himself every morning with Axe body spray

- Sam woke up, smelt the fire and said, “OH Dang, there is a fire I need to help put it out”

- Everyday he would wake up, spray himself and go about his day

- Sam grabbed the water hose and ran to his neighbors house and began spraying the fire

- Because of this people would straight up avoid this guy

- People would go up to him and tell him… “Sam, you stink… Take a shower”

- As he was spraying, a small fire started on his bathrobe

- Sam would always respond, “nah, I’m good, Thanks for the advice though”

- As he moved onto the next house his neighbor said, “Hey sam, you’re on fire”

- Sam would respond, “Yeah, no, i’m good”

- Sam would see commercials about cool new showers, and new soaps, but he would always think to himself, “I’m not dirty, I don’t need those things”

- Every house Sam would try to help put out

- Sam went his entire life not ever showering

- Sam began his life looking like Trev

- Sam ended his life looking like me

- The end

Thats a pretty nasty story

But here is the sad truth

A lot of you guys are like sam

Not that you don’t shower (well some of you guys really don’t shower as much as you should)

But, you guys think that you are “good” when you’re really not

There students in here who will go to church all their lives, and hear the story about Jesus Christ

But when they are presented with the Gospel, they will think to themselves, “I’m good, I believe in Jesus, I go to church, I’m definitely going to heaven when I die”

When in reality they have never given their lives to Christ

You see,

The danger of doing good deeds is that you can get caught up in the good deeds

And when you think about your salvation, it is grounded in those “good deeds”

You become convinced that you are going to heaven because of those “good things” that you are doing

How do you know if you are self righteous?

If every time you listen to a sermon and you think “I don’t need to listen to this”

If when one of us, or even Christ mueller is preaching, and you think I’m already doing good in this area, I don’t have to pay attention

another way?

If you were to die right now, and stand before God, if He was to ask you “Why should I let you into heaven?” what would you say? What would be the response you would give him?

A self righteous person would say

“Because I went to church all my life”

“Because I memorized these bible verses”

“Because I was a good person”

The Christian would answer “Only because Jesus Died on the cross for my sins”

The Bible tells us that there is no one who does good ()

There is none who seek after God

They have all gone astray

Here is another question?

Can a non-believer do “good things”?

Can a non-believer donate to charity?

Can a non-believer give to the homeless?

Can a non-believer sacrifice their lives for someone else?

So what is the difference between good deeds done by a non-believer and a true Christian

Read this Verse Matthew 5:16:

(NASB95)

16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

This is the key

This is the difference

This is the question you need to be asking yourself when you show “goodness” to others

“Am I doing these things so that God would be Glorified?”

The non-believer will have a bunch of reasons to do “good deeds”

But only true believers will have this as their main focus

“Am I doing these things so that I would honor God, or people watching would praise God?”

Here are some questions for you:

Why do you do the things you do?

Why do you do “good things”?

Why do you treat others well?

Why do you obey your parents?

Goodness: Doing what is right and loving others for the Glory of God

Are you making a habit of obeying God’s commands?

Are you displaying goodness to others?

Are you doing this all for the Glory of God?

Sources Cited

George, T. (1994). Galatians (Vol. 30, p. 403). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.