Goodness FruitFull (Part 3)

0:27 See what you can say right now at Insurify.com. Well, as you all know, we're in the fruitful sermon series talking about the nine fruit of the Spirit. Our base scripture for this entire sermon series is found in Galatians 5, 22 through 23. If you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and turn there, get your smartphones out, something. Look at the scriptures. If not, we'll have them on the screen. It says, but the fruit of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control these are the nine fruits of the spirit now there are millions of things that god could have pulled to become fruit of the spirit but these are the nine that he felt most important for us to live out of a godly lifestyle this morning i'm going to talk about one of those fruit that you know honestly probably in the church is a little bit more of like a step fruit in a lot of ways right? When you talk about the fruit of spirit, you're going to automatically know love, joy, peace, patience. But the one I'm talking about today is one that really doesn't get as much clout or stage presence as it needs. This morning, we're going to talk about the fruit of goodness.

1:42 Okay, two people are excited. Two people are excited about this. We're going to talk about the fruit of goodness. There we go. So let me give you a basic definition of what the fruit of goodness is, and then I'm going to give you, I'll give you a fancy definition for all my fancy folks, and then I'll give you a simple definition of what it is, okay? Our fancy definition is, goodness is virtue or moral excellence, and holiness are total devotion to God in action. The fruit of goodness is not just something that you have on the inside. It is something to be seen in action, but it is twofold. Now we all know good people, people that are just good people. They may not believe in Jesus Christ, but they're just good people. They don't talk about people, don't cheat. They just are nice people. And that is a part of goodness, moral excellence, being morally excellent. But that's not the full portion of what goodness is.

2:44 Goodness is also total devotion to God. So I'm morally excellent because of my devotion to God. That is the fruit of goodness. A simple definition of what goodness is, now that we've done the fancy one, a simple one is doing good because God said so. Doing good because God said so. That is our simple definition of what the fruit of goodness is. And let me explain that because goodness is one of those words that really is just the definition of it is way more powerful than what we give it usually in the weight of our everyday language. But goodness is not one of those things that you just put in a fancy little box, put a cute little bow on it. Goodness is a lot more grimy than that. It's a lot more gritty than that. Goodness is being good when you don't feel like being good. Goodness is being good to the people that really do not deserve you being good to them. Goodness is not being good when you feel good to good people when it's good weather, good hair day.

3:45 That's not just goodness. Goodness includes those days that you wake up looking a little cray-cray, and then you're not feeling well, and your emotions are all over. And there are people at your office that you can't stand, and you still have to be good to them, and the weather is bad outside. Goodness is a little more gritty and grimy than what we give it clout for. So this morning, we're going to talk about goodness and what it looks like, not only in our everyday lives and in the doing, the behavior of goodness, but we're going to talk about the source of goodness, and we're going to talk about our identity, how it's linked to goodness, okay? Here's the truth about goodness. Everybody is attracted to good people. Everybody is attracted to good people. You can be Shady McShady all day long, but you're not going to marry Shady McShady girl. You're going to marry the good girl. You could be shady McShady all day long, but you don't want a crazy business partner. You're going to get the good business partner that you can trust, that has integrity. You may be shady McShady all day long, but that boy that was a nerd in high school, that's the one that you want to marry. Because the truth is everybody is attracted to goodness and good people. And the reason they're attracted to that is because ultimately everybody is attracted to God and God is good. So this morning, I want you to take goodness out of the step fruit category, like the fruit that's really not that important category and put it in the most, one of the most important fruit of the spirit that we have because goodness is what attracts people to the God inside of us. Now, Amberlee talked a lot last week about, you know, the jerks that are in church. This is the truth when it comes to the fruit of goodness. People don't want to serve our God if we aren't good people or if we aren't out doing good.

5:42 In Matthew, it says, let your light so shine so that people will see your good works and glorify your father. Without our good works, people will not be able to see our God and glorify our father. And so that's why goodness is so very important to us. So what we're going to do is we're going to start off talking about the source of goodness. And point number one, and I'm going to tell you straight up before we move any more forward, okay? These points are super elementary. They're super basic, okay? But I'm not basic, okay? The point is these are foundational truths that we can apply to our everyday life. And a lot of times we want to swim in the deep things, but we haven't really grasped the foundational things. And so this morning we're going to talk about some foundational, super basic stuff, but everything that we need in our everyday lives. So point number one is God is good.

6:38 Basic, right? Okay. But this is so very important because I know we say it all the time. God is good all the time and all the time. That's right. One of the truest cliches we say in church. This is the truth of God. But I believe that as believers, oftentimes we question God's goodness. Oftentimes when life throws us a curveball or when something happens that's unexpected, we question whether or not our God is good. And the truth is, if we want to ever fulfill and walk out the fruit of goodness in our lives, we have to believe in the source of goodness. We have to believe in God as the source of our goodness. And if we have trouble believing that God is good, how can we ever be good? How can we ever live out goodness in our lives if the God that we get the goodness from, we don't believe that he's good? And so it is very important to us, before we move into doing good and what doing good looks like, to really examine, do we believe in the source of goodness?

7:44 Do we believe that God is good even when life is bad? Do we believe that God is good even when we are bad? God is good. In Psalms 119 and 68, it says, You are good and you do only good. It speaks to both God's identity and his character. You are good. It is the essence of who you are. But you also only do good. His behavior lines up with his identity much as with us. Our behavior always lines up with our identity. So our God is good. And the scriptures talk about it all over about how God is good. But it's do we really believe it in our everyday lives? Do we really believe it? And how we know whether or not we believe that God is good is to ask ourselves, how well do I trust him?

8:35 How well do I trust God when life is not going my way? How well do I trust God when I leave this building and go to another one? How well do I trust God when my bills, I don't have enough money to pay my bills? How well do I trust God? In Psalms 37 and 3, it says, trust in the Lord and do good. That's a compound. In order for us to do good, we have to trust in his goodness. This morning we sang Good, Good Father, and everybody was engaged and involved in that song. And it is one of the truest songs that we sing. But do we believe that when we leave this building? Do we believe it in our everyday life? All we have to do is look at our trust factor. How well do I trust God? Because if I trust God, I'm trusting in his goodness. And if I trust in his goodness, then now I can do good.

9:32 Because it's the source of our goodness. There are many, many, many different words and names that there are to describe God. And we've heard a lot of them before in church. Jehovah Jireh, our provider, Jehovah Shalom, our peace, Jehovah Siknu, our righteousness. But there's one that I want us to focus in this morning, and that is Jehovah Shama. And that means the Lord who is present or the Lord who is there. How do we know that God is good? because he said he'll never leave us nor forsake us. And he literally meant that because God is so good that he knew we would be powerless without him. So he decided to live inside of us. That's how good our God is. And the truth is this, have you ever, okay, so let me ask you this. Have you ever gotten a toy for Christmas and your parents didn't realize that there was batteries that go along and on the box it says batteries not included?

10:31 Okay, so I've had that before. In my household, if that was the case, it was probably going to be a good four to six months before you actually played with that toy because it was about to take forever to get those batteries. They didn't put that in the budget. You see what I'm saying? And so when we think about that, when we think about the fact that a toy has so many different things that it can do, it can make noises, run around, whatever the case may be, but without batteries, it's powerless. God, just like a toy without battery, knew that we would be powerless without him. So even though he is king of kings and lord of lords and sits on the throne of heaven, he decided to live inside of us. That's how good our God is. And here's the thing about it. When God lives inside of us, that changes our identity. When we decide to receive salvation, the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit, becomes alive on the inside of us. We are adopted into the family of God.

11:31 But that also means that we now adopt the character of God. It usually goes against all of our history, all that we know, all that we've done, all of our experiences. But now we have the character of God living inside of us. So it changes our identity. In order for us to live out goodness, we have to, number one, trust that God is good. But we also have to trust that you are good.

12:32 Point number two, you are good. Now listen, I know this is going to take some convincing for some people, okay? Because you was that kid that nobody wanted to date their daughter. You were that one that nobody probably invited over to play with their kids because you was always in some trouble. You was always in in-house, whatever the case may be. Okay. Maybe you've made some horrible mistakes and really hurt some people. Maybe that you really haven't been there for people like you needed to be. But what I'm telling you is when you are adopted into the family of God, you adopt the character of God. And now all of that from the past is scratched and you are good. that's how good our God is. He doesn't, when he comes into our lives, he doesn't make us do it on our own. We now have a helper living on the inside of us. And I believe that oftentimes we have a hard time holding on to God saying that we're good because we're trying so hard to be good enough for somebody else. Trying so hard to be a good enough mom, a good enough wife, a good enough husband, a good enough CEO, a good enough whatever, that oftentimes it's hard for us to hold on to the truth of God's word because we're so worried about what everybody else thinks of us. And that's tiring. I mean, shoot, that's too many people. I ain't even got no kids and I feel like that's a lot of people. I mean, wife, people you work with, the church. I mean, that's just too much. We don't have to focus on that because when we really find out who we are in God, even if other people don't agree with it, it's still the truth. It's still the truth.

14:21 In Ephesians 2 and 10, it says we are God's masterpiece. I love that. He created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. In other words, for us to move on and do good things in our life, we must believe that we are God's masterpiece, that I'm a gift to everybody that comes into contact with me, that I am good, that I am enough, that I am worthy of love, and I don't have to hustle for it because God really gives it to me. we have to believe in the source but we have to believe in ourselves god lives on the inside of us i'm not good on my own i'm good because goodness lives in me So this morning, I know, I know that there's some people that's like, okay, I'm trying to, you know, feel it. Get what you're saying here. Okay. I'm good. I get it. Okay. I'm not saying that you're better than anybody else. I'm saying you're no less than anybody else.

15:30 There's a big difference in that. It's a balance in that knowing that I'm good, but I'm not better than you, but I'm also not less than you. So I don't have to tear myself down. And I don't have to be around people that will tear me down because God created me as a masterpiece. In grad school, me and a friend went to Europe and we got to see Mona Lisa. And Mona Lisa, y'all know, is considered a masterpiece, right? It's behind a glass casing. And then on top of that, it's like five foot of rope around her. So you can't even get close to her because the truth is they know the worth of Mona Lisa. Do you know your worth in God? Do you know that you are so worthy that he sent his only begotten son to die on the cross even if it was just for you? You are good. God created you good. You are a masterpiece and you are a gift to those around you. I'm not saying you're better. I'm saying you're no less. I'm also not saying that you're good at everything, okay? Good at doing things doesn't equate your identity, okay? For instance, I'm good, but I'm not necessarily a good cook, okay? Ask my husband. It's about three dishes I can do, okay? And then after that, it's Chick-fil-A all day. Chick-fil-A all day long, okay?

16:52 I'm also, I'm good, but I'm not necessarily a good dancer, okay? Yes, I am black, and I am not a good dancer, okay? I'm still working on heel toe. I can't even get that down right now. So, you know, I'm still working on some stuff, okay? I'm good, but I'm not necessarily good at being quiet, okay? I grew up in a very loud house. My husband, bless his heart, he don't know what to do with me sometimes. We are just two feet away from each other, and I am screaming. I'm just not good at being quiet. Okay. It's not my thing. All right. But that does not mean that I am not good by my identity, my core, the God in me. I am good. We don't have to be perfect to be good. All we have to do is have God living on the inside of us. We are good. God created you good. David even knew it. In Psalms 139, 13 through 14, he said, oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out. You formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, high God, you're breathtaking.

18:07 Body and soul, I'm marvelously made. I worship in adoration. What a creation. do we have those thoughts about ourselves like when the kids aren't acting the way we want them to act do we still have those thoughts about ourselves what a creation when the husband or the wife decides to to nag all day or only tell you what you've done wrong can you still think of yourself as what a creation when you think of the creation that god made in you does it make you worship him, we are good. And everything in society is telling us, do better, get better. You're not enough. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't work on ourselves. But what I am saying is, at your core, do you believe that you are a gift on this earth? That when God formed you in your mother's womb, he's looked at that and said, what a creation. I am about to bless everybody with this one coming to earth. It doesn't matter how you got here. It don't matter if your mom and daddy wanted you here. It doesn't matter what kind of childhood you had and what was said to you.

19:25 And if they told you, you weren't good enough. And your teacher told you, you'll never be nothing. And your mama told you, you always act like your daddy. None of that matters. None of it because God is the only truth teller. And the truth is, if we believe anything other than we are good, we're believing a lie. And now we're living out lies in our life because other influences have told us that we're not good enough. But I'm here to tell you today, you are good. you are good and here's the thing about identity identity changes our behavior once we really figure out something about ourselves it'll change the way we act i'll never forget one day the first time i heard god say you are a gift to me it was during a quiet time and i was really kind of beating up on myself and specifically i was talking to god about me being a wife i'm a little bit of a nag. I'm loud. You know, there's some other things I can work on. And so I was talking to God and I was like, you know, I just want to be better. And am I really helping my husband?

20:31 And like all this stuff. And God told me, you're a gift. And I am not kidding. When I had that moment with God where he told me you are a gift, that day, it's like all the nag I had in me couldn't even come out. Because in my mind, at that point, and I got some, okay? At that point, I realize if that's who I really am, then I can live a different way. My behavior doesn't have to be the way that it used to be because I'm somebody different than who I thought I was. So now my behavior can line up with that. Here's the thing about goodness. Being good works in tandem with doing good. When you really believe that you are good and you are a gift to those around you, your behavior will line up with it. And so point number three is do good. This is more of a charge than anything.

21:28 Now, as you get to believe your identity in God, eventually what's going to happen is the things that you do will change. But it's about first starting with identity. A lot of times in church, we want to start with behavior. Change the way you talk, change the way you dress, change the way you, and I'm not saying that you shouldn't. But what I am saying is that is temporary if you don't believe your identity has changed. If you don't believe who you are has now changed because you've come into Christ. So point number three is do good. And I want to read a passage of scripture, Romans 8, 9 through 14. This is a little bit longer of a passage of scripture, but I really want you to tune in to what God is saying through these scriptures. And this is a message translation. It says, but if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about.

22:29 But for you who welcome him and whom he dwells, even though you still experience all the limitations of sin, you are still a human. You yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive and present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive in himself. when God lives and breathes in you and he does as surely as he did in Jesus you are delivered everybody say delivered delivered from that dead life with his spirit living in you your body will be alive as Christ so don't you see we don't owe this old one we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red scent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is to give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons there are things to do and places to go. The message Bible just gives it, I mean, just black and white, okay? Black and white. In other words, what this passage is saying is that God's Spirit lives in you. Once you receive salvation, God's spirit becomes alive in you and because God's spirit has become alive in you he has given you power over your old lifestyle the holy spirit that literally physically raised Jesus from the dead now lives inside of you so he gets surely your old lifestyle your old sin your old habits your history. He gives you power over all of that. So in other words, bury the old life and get on doing good. That's basically what this passage is saying. And here's what I want to say to you.

24:28 If you are a believer and you are not living a spirit empowered life, you are living beneath your privilege. It is possible to receive salvation, to come to church every single week, and your lifestyle never change. It is possible because that is when we don't live a spirit empowered life. The Holy Spirit inside of us gives us the ability and the power to live beyond ourselves, beyond our history, beyond our habits, beyond our hangups. The Holy Spirit is what gives us that power. But if we aren't tapping into that and we aren't screaming help when we need help, the Holy Spirit is arrested until we allow it to do that.

25:23 There is, in 2 Timothy, it actually tells us to stay away from people like this. And believe it or not we've all been these people at one point or another. But the second Timothy tells us to stay away from those who have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. Or in NLT version, it says they act religious, but they reject the power that could make them godly. the fruit of goodness will never ever be activated in our lives until we tap into the holy spirit that lives on the inside of us because the truth is there are so many things telling us that we are not good and that god is not good if we flow in that way then we'll never be able to produce the fruit of goodness in our lives it's when we look beyond our situations say my God is good, he created me good, and he lives on the inside of me so that I can do good, that we actually live out the fruit of goodness in our lives.

26:59 Personally, I was here, and it was probably maybe 2011, and we had a young adult ministry here at this church called SoFly. And so Fly took a trip to Baton Rouge for a leadership conference one year. And I had kind of just gotten on the team, the leadership team at that point or whatever. And we went to go to this conference. And there was a women's session that all the girls went to. We were so giddy about it. And at the end of that session, they had prayer. And you can come up and give prayer. And so I was like, I'm going to go up and give prayer. Because at that time, I felt like God told me that I had the gift of teaching. and I wanted someone to just cover it. I'm not really for sure what I was going up for, honestly, because I don't know what I meant by them covering it. But like, I just wanted to get a blessing, you know? And so I went up to this lady, beautiful African lady, and was just like, you know, I just want a blessing over my gift that God has given me.

27:57 And that's really all I'm asking for today. And when I tell you, that woman started to read me like a book. she started telling me all the things in my heart that were crooked and the crazy thing is I grew up one of those good kids right so I did everything my mom and dad said do I mean I just wasn't really attracted to whoopings like that and so I mean my brother he he must have had a thing for him I don't know but that wasn't me I mean I didn't like physical pain so I was a good kid and because of that there wasn't many people that came to me and said hey you need to work on this hey you need to check this. So when I went to this lady and got prayer and she started reading me like a book, I was like, what's she talking about? What's she doing here? I'm saying, you know, and she went on to tell me you're jealous. You are discontent. You want attention. You are prideful. I mean, all of these things that were actually really true, but no one had ever said them to me. So it was like shocking at the same time. And so I was like, okay, you know, so after she's done prayer for me, I'm literally crying in a pool of tears. I'm on my knees and she just walks away like her and her armor bearer. They didn't even try to lift me up or give me a tissue, y'all. It was the saddest thing in the world. My friends came and got me, and I was like looking like I had just gotten a wreck, and I'm like, you know, going back to my seat and stuff.

29:17 Well, that night, when we went back to the hotel, I really felt like God was telling me I need to have a conversation with my best friend, because my best friend was one of those cute girls that could always get a man any time of the day, okay? Me, on the other hand, I don't know if they thought I was like, I got crazy or what? But like, nobody's looking my way ever. And so I had some jealousy towards her and she was actually in a relationship that seemed like it was going towards marriage. So we sat down and I told her, you know, hey, I'm jealous. I want to be free from this, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Because this is the truth. The word of God says this. We confess our sins to God for forgiveness, but we confess our sins to one another for healing. and so even though I spent some time repenting y'all know I was very repentant after that prayer I needed to go and confess this to my friends so we can work through it so anyways after that I felt like God healed me I was set free it was wonderful move on a couple of months later after that few months it was her day of engagement now of course she didn't know she was getting engaged but I knew that and this engagement was going to happen at a major church event some of y'all know who I'm talking about. Okay. It was a major church event about to happen. And I was coordinating that major church event. And so I woke up that morning and I am not kidding. A feeling that I had not felt in months of jealousy was overwhelming me. I mean, I woke up and was like, so discontent, no joy, just really down about the whole day. Cause I'm like, she about to move on another season of life. I ain't even got nobody looking my way. You know, I went all the way back to the thing that I really believe that God healed me from. And so as I'm laying there in bed, I have a to-do list out the wazoo. So many things I needed to do to make sure that that event was going to go well. And I laid there and what usually I would allow to have its way with me and jealousy, I couldn't do it anymore. I laid in that bed. I am not kidding. And I said, God, I have a lot of stuff to do today. Like I have a, you know, my to-do list, you know, my thoughts are far off.

31:25 so you know what I got to do today. But I will not get out of this bed and act like I'm okay when I'm dealing with something on the inside of me. I want to be free from this feeling because I'm not going to go and let jealousy have its way with me again. And I'm not kidding, in a matter of minutes, it's like a spirit of peace and contentment began to come over me. I am not kidding. I'm laying in that bed, y'all. And I don't care if this takes all day. I'm gonna call somebody and say hey I'm not gonna make it to the event tonight because I'm not gonna allow myself to live a life without being spirit empowered I want to live beyond me jealousy had had its way with me for years before then it could do whatever it wanted to do with me had me depressed had me sad whatever the case may be and I said no longer it ain't happening no more not today and that's exactly what we have to do in our lives almost on an everyday basis it's live beyond ourselves to live out the fruit of goodness don't let the things of your past and mistakes and what people say be able to tell you who you are and what you can do god tells us who we are he empowers us to do what we can do in him and that day was one of the few days that I can remember like a monumental day in my life where a shift happened in my mind where I realized I don't I don't have to live that way like I know that that's normally what happens I know normally when we're jealous we just let it do what it want to do but I don't have to live that way and you don't have to live that way because God created you good God is good he created you good and you can do good I really hope that I'm speaking to somebody today that, like, maybe you need to go apologize, even though it's not your fault. You know, maybe you need to go tell the truth to somebody you've been lying to. Whatever the case may be, God is saying, I've empowered you to do that. The Holy

33:35 Spirit literally, physically raised Jesus from the dead. Your sin is nothing for him. Your ways are nothing for him. Your thoughts are nothing for him. But it's about us tapping into that spirit that lives on the inside of us. Being good and doing good work in tandem. You can't believe one without doing the other. If you believe you're good, it changes your behavior to do what's good. And this morning, somebody, you know, you may be struggling a little bit because you feel like, I have been doing good. I've been doing a lot of things really well, but it's not necessarily going my way. In Galatians 6 and 9, it says, let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. I don't know what kind of harvest you're looking for in your life. I don't know if you want a healthy marriage. Maybe you want a thriving business. Maybe you just want some joy and some peace, some contentment in your life. I have no idea what the harvest is that you're looking for in your life. But what I do know is that we only get that harvest from continuing to do good. Do good. Okay. Don't look good. Keep doing good. Okay. They don't receive it. Keep doing good. Okay. I don't feel like it today. Keep doing good. Because if you continue to do good and you don't give up, there's a harvest waiting for you. And it's not our motivation. It's not why we do good, but it is a promise in God's word that we can stand on.

35:22 so this morning as we talk about the fruit of goodness it's you know maybe it moved from step fruit category for you to really important fruit i hope so because the truth is goodness is what we all are here for to be light in this world so that people will see our good works