Fruit of the Spirit

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness

Goodness
How do you define good?
 Good
(1) denotes the conduct that should be preferred when
posed with a choice between possible actions, (2) that
which is morally right; righteousness; (3) to be desired
or approved of.
Good has always been relative, but
nowadays, good is TOO relative.
What is good to me may not be good to you and vice versa.
So what should be the real basis and
foundation of our good?
Go back to His Word.
Go back to Him.
God is good.
God is good all the time.
How do we know that God is good?
 Psalm 34:8
O, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man
who takes refuge in him!
 God is good.
• God is good by definition. God is goodness itself. Anywhere you find
goodness you will have God, and vice versa. He is the source of all
goodness: Every good that is good comes from the He who is Good. God is
the maker and sustainer of all created goods
• In a world of relative definitions, God is the definition of good.
• You can’t have God without goodness, and you can’t have goodness without
God. This is the teaching of the whole of Scripture.
• No one is good except God. (Mark 10:18).
• All things work together for good for those who love God (Ro. 8:28).
• Those who seek Yahweh lack no good thing (Psalm 34:10).
God is good all the time.
How do we know that God is good all the
time?
 Psalm 34:8
O, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man
who takes refuge in him!
 Psalm 34
• This psalm is titled A Psalm of David when he pretended madness
before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.
• King David was a fugitive from Saul. David went to the Philistine city of
Gath but found no refuge there and narrowly escaped. Following that,
David went to the cave at Adullam where many desperate men joined him.
This joyful and wise psalm seems to have been written from that cave, and
sung in the presence of those men.
Taste and See.
If bad things happen to me, is the Lord still
good?
 Yes. God is good all the time.
• The goodness of God is one of those things we affirm happily when things
are going well, and find rather tricky when they aren’t. It’s easy to affirm the
goodness of God in the abstract.
• We may well not understand why bad things happen to us and that’s okay.
We’re not meant to answer all the whys in the world, but here’s the thing:
God has never been faced with a situation where He was forced to choose
between the lesser of two evils, or into a decision that was anything less
than completely good.
• Therefore — and this bit is both the hardest, and the most powerful, When
we’re suffering — if God has done something, it is good. End of story.
Even when the we do not understand,
the Lord is good.
 Short Testimony:
A Friend Passing Away
 1 Corinthians 1:25
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human
wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human
strength.
 1 Corinthians 1:27-29
27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame
the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame
the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and
the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify
the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him
Not Why But What
If the Lord takes away everything, is the
Lord still good?
Story of Job
 Job 42:1-3
Then Job replied to the Lord:
2 “I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
 Job 42:1-3
3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without
knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
Not Why But What
If the Lord takes away everything, the
Lord is still good.
Taste and See. Trust in Him.
 Our foundation of the Lord’s goodness has to
be solid because in Him comes all the goodness
we can share.
If our Lord is good, then we are called to
do good.
If you are a follower of Christ, God intends for
you to do good in this world.

He intends for you not only to taste and see God

and His good work in you, but for you to also do
good in your various aspects of your life.
 Goodness In Works

1 2 3

The Warnings The Whys The Hows

01 The Warnings
Psalm 16:2, Ephesians 2:8-9
 The Warnings of Good Works
• Now, to be clear, no one earns God’s favor by doing good. No one earns
his/her own way by doing good. To do good is not some man-centered,
works-based gospel that decides to be good for God.
• This is also not our way to compare our goodness to others and say we are
better than them. This is not the way to self-righteousness.
• On the contrary, doing good is God’s intended result for those who know
that we are decidedly not good, but that God has been good to us through the
life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
• The moment, however, that we begin to suggest that trusting in Jesus’s good
work for us replaces or reduces the good works that He calls redeemed
people to do, we have missed his point.
Good works will never save you.
Self-righteousness will never be the way.
 Psalm 16:2
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart
from you.”
We are no good. We are sinners.
 Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this
is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of
works, so that no one may boast.
02 The Whys
Ephesians 2:10
Why do we have to do good?
 Ephesians 2:10
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we
should walk in them.
 Created To Do Good Works!
• The saving work of Jesus for us doesn’t replace or reduce the good works
he has planned for us.
• The good news of forgiveness and grace isn’t meant for us to slack off and
not do good. The gospel creates the opposite effect. The gracious work of
Jesus and the Spirit produces growth in us that results in good through us.
• Jesus’ saving work actually inspires and unleashes them.
• We, the receivers becomes a reflectors. We, the beneficiaries, become
benefits to others.
• When God saves people, he means for them to become a blessing to the
world and do good!
 James 2:14
14 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say
you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that
kind of faith save anyone?
 James 2:17
17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it
produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
A faith not producing good deeds is dead
and useless.
03 The Hows
2 Corinthians 9:6-8
 2 Corinthians 9:6-8
6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap
sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap
bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his
heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God
loves a cheerful giver.
 2 Corinthians 9:6-8
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so
that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you
may abound in every good work.
Goodness/Generosity
 To Do Good.
• The call to do good isn’t merely to do some occasional and random acts of
kindness. The call to do good is an everyday decision.
• The call to do good is not just for those whom we love, but for all.
• The call to do good is a decision of the heart. You should want it. It should
not be done out of reluctance and compulsion.
• The Lord will give us grace to do every good work at all times.
• We are all meant to do good for the rest of our lives and in every area of our
lives.
 Practical Applications of Doing Good
• Mouths: speaking only what builds others up and gives grace to those who
listen
• Eyes: looking not only to your own interests, but actively looking to the
interests of others
• Feet: meant to be a force for good, bringing the good news of Jesus to those
who have not heard
• Ears: morning by morning listening to the words of God
• Hands: doing honest work so that you may have something to share with
those in need
• Heart: transforming you into a kind and forgiving person
• Mind: considering how you can encourage others to love and do good
 Luke 10:30-37
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test
Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit
eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you
read it?”
 Luke 10:30-37
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and
with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this
and you will live.”
 Luke 10:30-37
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from
Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers.
They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away,
leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going
down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed
by on the other side.
 Luke 10:30-37
32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw
him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he
traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him,
he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his
wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on
his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of
him.
 Luke 10:30-37
35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to
the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I
return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may
have.’
 Luke 10:30-37
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to
the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy
on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
Neighbor
 Neighbor
not of your own choosing; the needy, different mess of a
person in front of you.
The Good Samaritan Did Good.
It is a privilege to represent our Good Lord
through goodness/good works. Everything
goes back to Him. Through and through, we
can only do it by His sustaining grace and
power.
 Discussion Questions
• OPEN: In your own words, how would you define Good?
• DISCUSS: What are the things that hinder you from doing good to others?
• DISCUSS: Recount a time when you failed to show Goodness in a
situation which you should have.
• ACTION: Think through the steps you need to take to put Goodness into
action this week. (e.g. learning to be good to people who are rude to you or
not letting your circumstances get in the way of the way you treat others)