Goodness – the Fruit of the Spirit

 Study Series on the Fruit of the Holy Spirit

Galatians 5:22,23

 

I.         Introduction

 

A.      There are NINE fruits placed in the life of the believer at salvation.

 

1.        On the very day you got saved, the Holy Spirit indwelt you (1Cor 6:19).

2.        On that day, God put His Holy Spirit in you and there He will remain.

3.        But He doesn’t sit idly by. He does two things

 

a.       Changes you from the inside out

b.       Exchanges your old works, with something he calls FRUIT! The fruit of the Spirit

 

B.       These are God’s replacements for the seventeen WORKS of the flesh as listed in Gal 5:19-21.

C.       The fruit of the Spirit is a direct result of my personal walk and relationship with Jesus Christ in His word – it’s not complicated. It just takes effort and focus (Gal 5:25) on your part! God help us ALL to have personal love-life with the God of this Book!

D.      So far, we have studied the fruits of Love, Joy, Peace, Long-suffering, and Gentleness

E.       None of these are not natural in our lives – not like anything this world has to offer – but completely supernatural!

F.       This message will focus on the sixth fruit of the Holy Spirit: Goodness!

 

II.       Message

 

A.      The Meaning of Goodness (Jer 4:22)

 

1.        Not just “good” but “good-NESS”

2.        We know how to do evil – but to do GOOD? Well, we need a lot of help!

3.        Goodness is the act of “Being good” or “righteousness”

4.        And even more than that!

 

a.       Doing good – out of a good heart

b.       Goodness is the good things we do for another person

c.       Benevolence is a good Bible word

d.       Kindness

e.       Decency

 

5.        The meaning of GOODNESS is much like GODLINESS

 

a.       Godliness is “being LIKE God”

b.       Goodness is “being GOOD like God”

c.       Without God as our standard, we would not have any sense of whether we are doing any good at all!

 

6.        In simple terms, Goodness is: Doing right and living godly and separated from sinful activities


7.        The opposite of Goodness

 

a.       Badness, evil, doing wrong, sinful

b.       And immorality, brutality

 

B.       The Goodness of God

 

1.        God, is good – end of story (Ps 34:8)!

 

a.       He is ONLY good (Ex 33:18,19; Ps 107:8,15,21,31).

b.       Even the unsaved can see this about God (Ex 18:9)

c.       If the world thinks otherwise, it is only because “christians” have been giving out the wrong signals to this world with our complaining

 

2.        Not only is God good, but He is good for a reason – to get people saved (Rom2:4)!

 

a.       If things are good in a person’s life, it probably is because God is trying to gently get them to repent before they split hell wide-open

b.       If things are bad in a person’s life, and yet still breathing, God may just be being GOOD to let them have another chance to get saved before it is too late!

 

3.        God works ALL things out for WHAT? For GOOD (Rom 8:28)

 

a.       What things?

 

1)       Everything!

2)       The hard times are for our good

3)       The tough times

4)       The good times – handfuls on purpose as Ruth calls it!

5)       The lonely times

6)       The war times as well as the peace times

 

b.       How does He work everything out for good?

 

1)       He changes us IN the middle of wherever we are at

2)       THAT is how He makes everything beautiful in His time

3)       All so that we come out GOOD in the end! AMEN!

 

4.        The Goodness of God is promised to ALL believers (Ps 23:6) – claim it!

5.        The Goodness of God is something you should start enjoying HERE and NOW (Ps 27:13; 31:19; 33:5)!

 

C.       Examples of Goodness

 

1.        By to God Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Gen 32:12) – God was just plain GOOD to them, and they knew it!

2.        By Jesus to EVERYONE around Him (Acts 10:38)

3.        The Proverbs 31 woman shows goodness is important in the home (Pr 31:12)

4.        How about Jonah? Even when Jonah was NOT good (internally he had a very bad attitude), Jonah did GOOD to the people of Nineveh, just by doing what God said do (which was right), and delivering the message God said to deliver!

 

D.      The Source of Goodness

 

1.        Is not of ourselves (Rom 3:10-12; Ps 144:1,2). Believe it or not, it takes a miracle from God to establish goodness in the heart of a man (Jer 17:9).

2.        It begins at Salvation (Philp 1:6) – no sooner! All the “good works” that a person did were wasted before salvation occurs!

3.        The Holy Spirit comes along, and places in me GOODNESS (Eph 2:8-10)

 

a.       We are Christ’s handiwork in the new birth

b.       We were saved from our sins

c.       We are now enabled to do GOOD WORKS – to be kind, and to do GOOD things, instead of evil things, and selfish things!

 

E.       The Purpose of the Fruit of Goodness

 

1.        So that we can be good towards others – again, this fruit is not for us!

2.        So that Christ can be good through us

3.        To overwhelm the two natural works of the flesh that we normally struggle with (see chart of comparison between fruit and works):

 

a.       Strifes (contention)

b.       Seditions (the desire to take over, or to take charge of as in seeking revenge)

c.       Always ends up in fights and seeking to overthrow the controls in our lives

d.       God gave us the fruit of Goodness so that we could conquer evil, not with FORCE but with Goodness (Rom 12:19-21)

 

4.        So that God gets some glory because it will soon be evident that any goodness that we have, or good things that we do, actually are not US – but are of God!

 

F.       The Christian’s Goodness

 

1.        We should seek to be FULL of it (Rom 15:14; 1Tim 6:8)

2.        We have to make sure we DO it – not just HAVE it (Ps 34:14; 37:3,27,33-35)

3.        Goodness begins right here, in our little church (Gal 6:10; Heb 10:24)

4.        Goodness extends to your enemies (Mt 5:44)

5.        Anything other than doing good, is a sin (Jam 4:17) – Tough verse! If you know what you are supposed to do, and yet won’t do it, your NOT doing it has become a BIG sin!

6.        Goodness in your life actually enables you to live long, and enjoy living long (1Pet 3:10,11)

 

G.       The Twist About Goodness – there is something wrong with “goodness”

 

1.        None here, or anywhere on this planet are good (Rom 3:10-12)

2.        Even those are do good, and maybe seem good, are not good enough (Eccl 7:20)

3.        So, goodness is not the issue for us to settle

4.        Jesus, and HIS perfect life – now THAT is something we can settle

 

a.       Only HE was all good

b.       Only in HIM was all goodness, kindness, and benevolence

c.       So, when HE died, all that goodness died with Him

d.       He was the standard to judge ourselves by

e.       To become good, especially “good enough” to get into heaven, you will need HIS goodness, HIS righteousness placed IN you

f.        That’s what the Bible calls being born again – it is the life of a sinless Saviour being placed into YOU a sinful wretch!

g.       If you have all the religion that there is to have in the world, you have only wasted your time

h.       You simply need Jesus!

 

5.        Then, and ONLY then, will  you start doing real good

6.        Because the Holy Spirit will plant GOODNESS in you, and out it will come!

 

III.     Conclusion

 

A.      In order to keep your goal from producing the fruit of Goodness in your life, the world offers you and me two things:

 

1.        Immorality

2.        And uncontrolled entertainment and excitement

3.        These two things fuel our anger and discontentment, and cause people to have no mercy when seeking revenge for all the wrongs that ultimately occur because of all the immorality

 

B.       How to Nurture Goodness in your life

 

1.        It starts with the new birth – are you born again? There is no other starting point!

2.        After that, Always do right – there is NEVER any fear in doing right!

 

a.       Christ Jesus MAKES us right

b.       The Holy Spirit IS right, in us

c.       What I have to do is ALLOW Him to do that good THROUGH me – even when I feel like doing BAD, or evil

d.       Especially in the area of seeking revenge!

 

3.        By always doing right in your life, you are acknowledging that the good you are doing is coming from God, though you, and to others – even when you yourself are not very good (see again the thought on Jonah)!

4.        If you are a long way off, then you need to repent of NOT doing good (James 4:17), and get with it! The Holy Spirit will do the rest!