Sermon Tone Analysis

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Introduction

Today, in our fruit of the Spirit series, we are looking at two aspects of the fruit of the Spirit - two related, and kinda two sides of the same coin.

And not only two sides of the same coin, but two practical aspects of the Fruit of the Spirit.

At the very start, we looked at love - the skin which holds the inner segments together... but we looked at it from a theoretical stance…today we see the outworking of this love in the aspects of kindness and goodness - and you can see how these are two very similar aspects of the fruit of the Spirit.

And the reason why they are together isn’t just because I didn’t take into account that we took 1 week as an intro and so we ran out of weeks…although that was part of the reason...

However, the main reason why these are together is because they are linked to each other.

A commentator wrote that kindness is the quality of heart and emotions and goodness is the quality of conduct and action...

In other words, put simply...

Goodness is kindness in action.

Here’s an example....

Let’s say I’m walking down the road and I see an elderly lady struggling to get across the road with her shopping.

And I stop and help her across the road with her shopping.

And then she turns to me and says, ‘Thank you.

You’re so kind.’

Now, how does she know that I am kind?

She knows that I am kind because of the ACT of kindness that I showed towards her…in other words, the good deed.

Kindness isn’t something somebody can tell about someone until they see it in action…and what they see in action is the goodness.

So I can be a kind person.

I can be a really kind person…but if I don’t actually DO any acts of kindness then am I really a kind person?

So Kindness is a personality trait - a person can be a kind person…that’s their personality.

But goodness is the act of being kind.

And in the bible, it’s not just the act of doing good - although it is that - goodness encompasses more than that.

And when you put them together, it’s like the kindness is the manifestation of the Spirit in us that makes us alert to the needs of others - because that’s what kindness is.

So it’s like an alarm that goes off inside us when we see a situation or an issue where we can step in and do something good.

That’s the kindness that comes from the Spirit - a supernatural radar, so to speak.

The goodness is when we follow through and do whatever it is we need to do in order to address the situation or the issue.

[Radar Pic]

If you’ve seen war films, you may have seen a situation where there’s a submarine and there are enemy ships on the surface.

And there’s a man inside the submarine who’s looking at the radar, and these dots and bleeps are popping up…and when they are within range the big red button is pressed to fire the torpedo and destroy the enemy ship.

That’s kinda like the relationship between kindness and goodness, but in a good way.

We’re talking restoration rather than destruction…but the Spirit alerts us to places where we can show our kindness…but once we know where we need to act, we need to follow through and press the big red button to do those good deeds for the kingdom of God.

Pause

The best biblical example of this is in 2 Samuel 9, which we read earlier...

In this example, David is the newly crowned king because Saul is dead.

And as you know from the story, Saul was David’s enemy for the latter part of Saul’s life.

There was a death threat on David’s head by Saul, who devoted his latter years hunting David down.

And yet, when Saul Died, David mourned and wouldn’t have anyone be happy that Saul was dead.

In fact, anyone who celebrated the fact that Saul had died would be killed themselves - such was the respect that David had for God’s anointed.

Anyway, Saul had a son, Jonathan, who was best friends with David.

And Jonathan had also been killed.

So Saul’s grandson, a boy called Mephibosheth, who also happened to be lame, was left fatherless.

And David says in 2 Samuel 9...

And the reply comes back that there is Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, David had him brought to his palace.

And when he met him he said this...

And from that time on, Mephibosheth ate at David’s table and stayed with him.

This was an act of kindness on behalf of David.

This was an act of grace.

Mephiosheth didn’t deserve anything from David - he had done nothing to deserve it and in fact, being Saul’s grandson David wouldn’t have been expected to show any kindness to him.

Mercy perhaps, but not grace like this - not bringing him into his palace and letting him eat at his table.

...But that’s what goodness is…this fruit of the Spirit is more than being good - this is a gracious goodness that goes beyond what is fair or deserved.

Pause

You see, in the bible, God’s goodness is closely linked with righteousness or justice.

You would hear phrases like, The Lord is good and just.

For example...

And the word upright means level or straight or fair.

And one commentator I looked at put it like this…God is just and good.

He is good and upright… and the justice part means that he is fair - we get what we deserve to get…and that’s fair.

You can’t argue with that.

But God is also good… which means that even though we get what we deserve to get, God also goes beyond what we deserve and he is good - he gives us MORE than we deserve.

Because the Greek word for Good is also linked with generosity, which leads us to our other example which we read earlier...

Pause

In Matthew 20, Jesus tells the story about the workers in the vineyard.

We’re not going go into the detail or culture background to this, which is kind of fascinating.

But to sum up the parable...

A landowner went to get some workers for his vineyard so he goes to find some workers.

These would be people that hung around certain places looking for work - like the marketplace.

People could hire these people for a day’s contract.

And the days wage was 1 denarii, which after last week we know is, on average, about £80 in today’s money.

So the landowner goes out and finds some workers and they start working.

Some time goes on and he goes out again and finds some more men and he has them work for him too, but with these men he didn’t tell them what he’d pay them.

He just said he’d pay them whatever is fair...

Which is fair enough.

If you work half a day you’d only expect to be paid half a day’s wages - around £40.

And he does this at noon, at 3 and at 5 in the evening - he goes and gets more people to work in his vineyard.

And at the end of the day, he’s dishing out the wages, starting with those hired last - the ones at 5 in the evening, and he gives the evening workers 1 denarii....£80 - a whole day’s wages for working a couple of hours.

These guys must have been elated.

But he didn’t say how much he’d pay them, so they never knew what they’d get.

He gives those at 3 o’clock £80.

And those at noon he gives £80.

Again - these guys must also be happy for getting a full day’s work for working half a day or so.

And then the people who worked all day, he gives them £80 - 1 denarii…the payment for a day’s work…the amount he agreed to give them at the start.

The amount that they ALSO agreed to work for.

The amount that, at the start of the day, they would have been more than happy to accept at the end of the day.

But they weren’t happy, because they expected to get more... because the other guys got a day’s wage they thought they’d get more than a day’s wage.

Now, I’m not getting into the theological implications here - but my point today comes at the end of the parable...

There’s the justice of God and the goodness of God in action… The workers who worked for the full day got the wage that was agreed, but the other people got more than they expected.

And the word for generous is the same word for good that we’re looking at today.

God is generous with us - he is GOOD towards us, giving us not what we deserve, but more than that.

Pause

Do you remember the definition of grace…unmerited favour from God.

Getting something that we don’t deserve.

Mephiosheth didn’t deserve to be brought into the palace and allowed to eat at the king’s table.

David was good to him - he was gracious to him.

He gave Mephibosheth something he didn’t deserve.

He went BEYOND justice and showed grace.

That’s the goodness we’re talking about here.

Pause

Now, put the kindness and goodness together with respect to God himself, and you see how it works together.

Because God, in his kindness, saw the need that we were in.