Fruit of the Spirit - Patience and Goodness
Notes
Transcript
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
The fruit of the Spirit is....SLIDE patience.
We live in a world that is anything but patient. Here are some examples, and I have to confess that I have done some of these myself:
Starbucks - I love my Starbucks, but sometimes the lines in the drivethroughs are horrendous. So I order on the app… order before I get there and If it’s not ready when I get there… I’M MAD WHILE WAITING.
High speed internet… just isn’t fast enough… watching a moving and it starts buffering… I’m frustrated or mad.
Have you ever looked at your phone… and your facebook page takes to long to come up!!! Not a good enough signal???
Ever wondered the answer and asked Google to get a quick answer?
Artificial Intelligence… tell me what I want before I want it.
We live in an instant gratification society, far from patient. You see fast is not always better. With the speed of information we see how much easier it is for misinformation to spread, or how quickly a video can go viral. It takes too long to spend a few minutes fact checking something.
Ever been driving in your car and wish you weren’t stuck behind the slow person who is driving well below the speed limit? Or get caught behind a tractor on a double yellow line? The point is we are impatient so much of the time, that we forget how to be patient, especially when we are waiting on God to answer.
All of us one time or another have prayed and asked God for something and have had to wait on the answer. Sometimes it was hours or days, but maybe we are still waiting on an answer to a prayer that we have been praying for many years! Waiting is perhaps one of life's most difficult tasks. We hate the fact that we have to wait for something. We live in a society where everything is instant. We have instant potatoes, we take instant digital pictures on our phones, we have instant credit and we have instant pudding. All of this simply says you can have what you want without the wait. We expect instant results, no matter what the situation. We have become a society where delays are not accepted or tolerated. We have become a society that expects things to change instantly, even if we know it will take time to make the change. We have become a society of impatient people and now it is pouring over into the church.
But the fact of life is delays are an everyday occurrence. We hate to admit it but we all face delays in our lives. If you go to the doctor you have to wait in the waiting room for your turn to see him. If you go shopping you have to wait in a line. If you go out for fast food you have to wait in a slow line to get your fast food. When we are facing delays it is easy to become discouraged and give up on what we are waiting for. As it relates to your life in the Spirit things don't always happen at the snap of a finger. Sometimes God does something instantly and at other times He say's wait. You must understand that waiting time is testing time and not wasted time. Anytime that you spend waiting on God is never wasted if you do it wisely. (Just a note for those of us who are stubborn and hard headed. Sometimes it's God that does the waiting. He's waiting for us to obey Him so He can bless us. God will not bless us if we are living in disobedience.
This morning, I want to us consider the story of Noah. Many of us know the story, God told him to build an ark in the middle of the desert and to bring 2 of every kind of creature on board with him. Only he and his family were on the ark. Being obedient sometimes causes us to do things that seem ridiculous. Imagine the scorn and abuse that Noah endured building this huge ark in the middle of the desert! However, this is not the part of the story I want us to focus on today. Turn with me to:
For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits., Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.
But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
Let’s put ourselves in Noah’s situation. First, forty days of rain. Forty straight days, no breaks. I don’t know about you, but that sounds a bit depressing. But then he gets to the point of sending our the raven and the dove, but they kept coming back. It seems he continued to send the birds out every few days, but kept getting the same results, until finally one day he gets a olive leaf from the bird. Imagine the joy and celebration that had to have happened that dry land was appearing again! The next time he sent out the bird it didn’t come back.
Talk about needing SLIDE patience. I have to imagine that after several times of sending out the bird that Noah and his family would have been discouraged. Wondering if God was going to keep his promises. If God had forgotten about them. They had to exercise patience and rest in God’s promise that he would bring them through for 150 days. That’s almost four months of not leaving this ark. Imagine the smell, the mess, and the conditions inside!
When we face times of delay we can become frustrated, discouraged, and even angry. All of this combined together can become a breeding ground for the enemy to tempt you to quit and give up.
Listen, something actually happens while it seems nothing is happening. God uses waiting to change us, but often times we go ahead and find ways to accomplish what we want to happen without waiting for him.
Throughout the Bible, God does amazing things. However, few people realize that the things He does don’t actually happen quickly. Look at the life of Noah that we just touched on and realize that God telling him to build a boat because there would be a flood. The flood didn’t actually happen until 120 years after God instructed him!
God promised Abraham and Sarah a child (Isaac), but they waited 25 years before he came into this world.
What about the Israelites? They waited 440 years before entering the Promised Land.
Listen God is in no hurry. He’s not trying to get you to go faster, but instead farther.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
The fruit of the Spirit is......SLIDE goodness.
The fruit of goodness, which is sometimes interpreted generosity, is essentially synonymous with the fruit of kindness. Jesus claims that no one is good except God (Mark 10:18 and Luke 18:19). In order to be truly good, this can only be accomplished through the Spirit living and working through us.
Corrie Ten Boom wrote, “Often I have heard people say, "How good God is! We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!'" Yes, God is good when He sends good weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp. I remember one occasion when I was very discouraged there. Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart. I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us. "No, Corrie," said Betsie, "He has not forgotten us. Remember His Word: 'For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him.'" Corrie concludes, "There is an ocean of God's love available--there is plenty for everyone. May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love--whatever the circumstances."”
When we strive to be “good” only for our own benefit, it is not truly goodness that we possess. In Greek, the word goodness, “agathosune,” means “an uprightness of heart and life”.
When we act out of true goodness of the heart, we are obedient to God’s commandments and seek the benefit of others. Our actions come from a place of selflessness and not selfishness, thus placing the needs of others before our own.
The life of Jesus Christ is the perfect example of goodness, as He died on the cross for the sins of humanity in order to give us the gift of eternal life. His ministry, sacrifice on the cross, his resurrection and his ascension is an example of God’s goodness toward mankind. After all, the term “gospel” means “good news.” Jesus is called the “good shepherd” in Scripture, because He laid down His life for His sheep.
Peter, talks about the goodness of Jesus’ ministry in
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
We are called as Christians to live in a way that reflects the character of Christ.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
SLIDE Goodness is not about doing elaborate things to gain recognition. Oftentimes, it is the small acts of goodness we do throughout our day that mean the most to those around us. Goodness results in genuine care for others that shows throughout our lives in the way we interact with those we come in contact with.
Goodness whispers into the lives of friends, strangers, and enemies alike. Goodness longs for that whisper to echo throughout the person’s life and into their thoughts, feelings, and actions.
We have opportunity to practice these whispers of goodness in day-to-day life.
Is your friend having a bad day? Write them a note to let them know how much you care about them. Is someone putting you down? Pray for them. Is someone feeling lonely? Give them a call or a text and let them know you are thinking about them, and that you care.
It is in these acts of goodness that we reflect Christ’s character. While it may seem like no one notices, God does. Ultimately, when we show goodness, we bring glory to God’s name.
I think when we hear the word goodness, we tend to think about it as something being “good,” just like when our parents told us to be good as children. However, goodness doesn’t mean naively calling everything good in the sense of “just” or “right,” because as a result the Fall back in the Garden of Eden causes us to make choices that are just not right. Rather, goodness means participating with God in the kingdom work of calling everything back to good.
Paul confirms for us the expectation and hope that he has in
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
The fruit of SLIDE goodness is found in the persons who live in the light, live a life of love and allow God to work through them in the power of the Spirit. So it may be true, as Jesus said, that no one is good except God, but as Christians seek to imitate God, live in His presence, and do the acts of love prompted by God’s Holy Spirit, goodness is produced in the Christian’s life.
These are great days for the church of Jesus Christ. These are great days to be bearing the fruit of the Spirit to a world looking for hope, to a world looking how the church reacts. We need to be patient in the storm, and let goodness flow through us from God as we work in cooperation with him to restore everything back to good as God intended.
CLOSING SONG
Closing peom:
WAIT
by Russell Kelfer
Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried.
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, He replied.
I pleaded, and I wept for a clue to my fate,
And the Master so gently said, “Child, you must wait.”
“Wait? You say wait?” my indignant reply.
“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why.
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I’m claiming your Word.
“My future, and all to which I can relate
Hangs in the balance, and you tell me ‘wait’?
I’m needing a ‘yes,’ or a go-ahead sign,
Or even a ‘no,’ to which I can resign.
“And Lord, you have promised that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:
I’m weary of asking: I need a reply!”
Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
As my Master replied once again, “You must wait.”
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut
And grumbled to God; “So I’m waiting, for what?”
He seemed then to kneel and His eyes met with mine
And He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens, darken the sun,
Raise the dead, cause the mountains to run.
“All you see I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want, but you wouldn’t know Me.
You’d not know the depth of My love for each saint;
You’d not know the power that I give to the faint.
“You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You’d not learn to trust, just by knowing I’m there.
You’d not know the joy of resting in Me,
When darkness and silence was all you could see.
“You would never experience that fullness of love
As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you’d not know the depth and the beat of my heart.
“The glow of My comfort late in the night’
The faith that I give when you walk without sight;
The depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinate God who makes what you have last.
“And you never would know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’
Yes, your dreams for that loved one o’ernight could come true,
But the loss! if you lost what I’m doing in you.
“So be silent, my child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft’ may My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all…is still…wait.”