WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.440 So this evening we're going to look back at the next of the fruit of the Spirit that we've 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:12.160 been looking at in our evening worship, and this evening the fruit of the Spirit we're 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:14.839 looking at is goodness. 00:00:14.839 --> 00:00:23.480 So before I begin, because really I was looking at the theme of good and I guess evil as well. 00:00:23.480 --> 00:00:30.600 So sometimes I think the Lord, just to help you get a better handle on your own heart 00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:36.679 and on what you're going to say, gives you some experience that makes you rely afresh 00:00:36.679 --> 00:00:37.679 on Him. 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:43.480 So I was in Camelton on Thursday and Friday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday preaching in 00:00:43.480 --> 00:00:46.760 the evenings, and in the mornings I thought, well that's when I'll do my sermon, I'll 00:00:46.760 --> 00:00:47.840 prepare my sermon there. 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:52.760 So Thursday morning, did all the ground work, spent a lot of time, went up a bit of quiet 00:00:52.759 --> 00:00:58.559 peace and got it all down in my iPad, great technology, tremendous. 00:00:58.559 --> 00:01:03.879 And then Friday I spent the home where you're praying and then honing it down, changing 00:01:03.879 --> 00:01:10.680 it, just getting it exactly as I wanted with a spectacular conclusion to it that I was 00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:12.319 really looking forward to preach. 00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:23.399 And then I went into the computer today this afternoon at the church and the Google Doc 00:01:23.399 --> 00:01:24.399 had not downloaded. 00:01:24.399 --> 00:01:31.399 Well, it had downloaded, but it had downloaded an early rubbish version. 00:01:31.399 --> 00:01:39.479 And so I got my iPad and the original was still in the iPad, it's great. 00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:48.040 And then I emailed the original back to the computer and in so doing lost the original 00:01:48.040 --> 00:01:52.880 and lost it on my iPad and on my computer. 00:01:52.880 --> 00:01:59.840 So very many evil, wicked, wicked, horrible, black, dark thoughts came into my heart about 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:05.040 iPads and about stamping on top of them and beating them up and viciously throwing them 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:09.800 into the water because my sermon had been ruined. 00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:14.439 So I spent the last half hour before the evening service praying to be good and also trying 00:02:14.439 --> 00:02:17.800 to get the sermon together as I had originally intended it. 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:24.200 So it probably isn't, it's a rough rubbish kind of draft version that you're getting 00:02:24.200 --> 00:02:25.200 this evening. 00:02:25.200 --> 00:02:30.879 So you need to be praying even more than you normally do for the service this evening. 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:36.159 In fact, the first thing I had in my sermon notes was that I was tempted to use the sermon 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:43.919 from two weeks ago on kindness and simply replace the word kindness with goodness because 00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:49.479 then actually there's a lot of similarity between the two words and between the two 00:02:49.479 --> 00:02:51.439 concepts and ideas. 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:56.840 And we can clearly see that our similar principles involved in working out kindness in your life 00:02:56.840 --> 00:02:58.599 and working out goodness. 00:02:58.599 --> 00:03:05.079 So there may be for you this evening a degree of meaningful repetitiveness and hopefully 00:03:05.079 --> 00:03:10.439 when there is such repetitiveness it's because God wants us to remember something. 00:03:10.439 --> 00:03:13.400 But kindness and goodness are different. 00:03:13.400 --> 00:03:15.000 They have their own particular emphasis. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:20.199 They're not going to go back into the whole kind of idea of kindness this evening, but 00:03:20.199 --> 00:03:22.840 they're like sweet twins. 00:03:22.840 --> 00:03:27.400 There's a lot that's similar about them, but there's different emphasis and they're unique 00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:32.520 in their own character, these characteristic fruit of the Spirit. 00:03:32.520 --> 00:03:37.879 Goodness is really a broader concept than kindness biblically. 00:03:37.879 --> 00:03:43.800 It's really, kindness is more, yes it does stem from our hearts, but it's more about 00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:45.599 the acts that we're engaged in. 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:48.280 Now, so is goodness to a degree, but it's wider. 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:54.360 It involves our moral consciousness as it's played out in the physical world. 00:03:54.360 --> 00:04:00.200 Now, I just want to say a couple of things by way of a longish introduction and then 00:04:00.200 --> 00:04:05.520 move into one or two thoughts about goodness. 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:10.040 But I'm going to mix it up a little bit this week because if you know what we've done, 00:04:10.040 --> 00:04:14.960 if you've been here in the last number of weeks, we've used a structure for going through 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:16.720 the fruit of the Spirit. 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:18.720 We've asked the questions, what is it? 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:19.720 What it's not? 00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:22.280 What's its counterfeit and how do we get it? 00:04:22.279 --> 00:04:26.519 I'm not going to do that this evening, I'm going to kind of blend these questions into 00:04:26.519 --> 00:04:32.319 the study, but not clearly define them in such ways. 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:34.719 But I want to look at a couple of things by way of an introduction. 00:04:34.719 --> 00:04:42.399 The first is to look at goodness philosophically and then practically, very briefly of course 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:44.119 in doing so. 00:04:44.120 --> 00:04:55.319 But I think that if we are to recognize that good exists and its opposite evil exists, 00:04:55.319 --> 00:05:01.560 however we choose to define these things, then it really, it must be the case that we 00:05:01.560 --> 00:05:07.920 have a conscious and a moral and a personal source for that. 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:19.960 So that goodness, a good and evil, don't simply exist in a world without a moral reality 00:05:19.960 --> 00:05:21.480 and without consciousness. 00:05:21.480 --> 00:05:29.240 The greatest question in fact for the secular atheist is where good and evil and conscious 00:05:29.240 --> 00:05:35.680 come from when there is no personal God or personal being from which they are derived? 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:42.959 Where do they come from in this world that is purely materialistic? 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:50.439 If they deny any kind of moral absolutism and a personal God, then it's very hard to 00:05:50.439 --> 00:05:57.560 posit the whole idea of good and evil in any meaningful sense. 00:05:57.560 --> 00:06:03.960 At best, without God, what we do is we make up our own definitions of what is good and 00:06:03.959 --> 00:06:09.639 what is evil, without even thinking of their origin or where they come from. 00:06:09.639 --> 00:06:13.799 But we know that it can only therefore ever be relative. 00:06:13.799 --> 00:06:22.359 If that is what we consider as the universal universe without moral absolutes or without 00:06:22.359 --> 00:06:29.240 a personal moral creator, then good and evil can only ever be the sum of what a group of 00:06:29.240 --> 00:06:35.639 people decide that good and evil is going to be, usually based on power or influence 00:06:35.639 --> 00:06:39.000 of a particular group or society. 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:47.639 Or it becomes radically individualistic, which is the direction in which we're going, where 00:06:47.639 --> 00:06:55.199 society is derided and decried and community is less and less important when what is right 00:06:55.199 --> 00:07:01.680 in my own eyes is the only ultimate authority, but the end game of such thinking will always 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:06.039 be chaos and anarchy. 00:07:06.039 --> 00:07:11.680 So philosophically, there's issues that you would need to spend a great deal of time thinking 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:14.519 about on this issue. 00:07:14.519 --> 00:07:23.819 But also practically therefore, without God or without considering God, what is goodness 00:07:23.819 --> 00:07:26.079 and where does goodness come from? 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:31.680 Is it my idea of goodness or is it your idea of goodness? 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:34.120 Whose version of goodness do we believe? 00:07:34.120 --> 00:07:40.240 There's a way of thinking today, which is, well, surely I can do what I want and I regard 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:44.360 that as good as long as it doesn't harm anybody else. 00:07:44.360 --> 00:07:48.800 But the question arises then, what do you mean by harm? 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:51.600 And whose harm is involved in that? 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:55.680 And there's all kinds of difficult questions with regard to that. 00:07:55.680 --> 00:08:01.520 So that often people regard what is good as simply something that they regard as good 00:08:01.520 --> 00:08:08.240 and evil is whatever we think is not good. 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:13.640 So in a society, maybe that loving your enemy is seen as something that is evil. 00:08:13.640 --> 00:08:16.879 Resisting revenge is not a good thing. 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:24.199 Resisting gossip, recognizing marriage between a man and a woman, not necessarily agreeing 00:08:24.199 --> 00:08:29.480 with gender fluidity, seeking to protect the most vulnerable in society. 00:08:29.480 --> 00:08:34.080 We find that there will be different measures of what is good and what is evil and what 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:37.399 is accepted and what is not. 00:08:37.399 --> 00:08:44.200 But we also give thanks that there is still goodness at a moral level in the society, 00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:49.040 even when God is rejected, we rejoice in that and we give thanks that there is a moral 00:08:49.040 --> 00:08:54.800 consciousness in people, even though it's tainted. 00:08:54.800 --> 00:09:02.960 But what we do recognize, even when that is the case, that often evil and good and the 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:08.400 definitions of evil and good are being turned on their head. 00:09:08.400 --> 00:09:13.440 God says in Isaiah chapter 5, what do those who call evil good and good evil, who put 00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:18.280 darkness for light and light for darkness? 00:09:18.280 --> 00:09:26.800 Very often in that definition of goodness and definition of evil, it will be externalized 00:09:26.800 --> 00:09:32.800 to other people, sell them, internalized, which gives us what we often find is a blame 00:09:32.800 --> 00:09:34.640 culture. 00:09:34.640 --> 00:09:36.920 Everyone else is wrong. 00:09:36.920 --> 00:09:39.240 Everyone else is evil. 00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:44.480 And we know that that is often the case in our own hearts as well. 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:49.080 It's often the case in a church community context. 00:09:49.080 --> 00:09:54.519 What is it that we most often do when we're challenged with what we think is not good 00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:58.840 in a church or in a Christian community? 00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:00.759 We blame others. 00:10:00.759 --> 00:10:03.440 We think they don't know what is good. 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:05.840 We think they're doing what is bad. 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:18.639 Maybe not in a deep-seated evil way, but in reality there's this temptation for us to 00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:20.960 constantly be blaming other people. 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:28.840 We recently had the Presbyterian oversight visit and they put questions in about church 00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:33.840 life, which is great, and the responses were really interesting and helpful. 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:38.879 But one question I would always put in a questionnaire about a church community like 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:44.240 that as a matter of course, which is never in it actually. 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:47.680 It's usually, you know, what do you think of the church and what do you think needs 00:10:47.680 --> 00:10:51.480 to change in the church and what's not so good about the church and what is good about 00:10:51.480 --> 00:10:52.480 the church? 00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:57.879 One thing I would always put, or two questions I would put, what is it in your heart that 00:10:57.879 --> 00:11:01.000 needs to change to make things better in this church? 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:06.919 Or what do you need to repent of to encourage goodness to flourish in this church? 00:11:06.919 --> 00:11:12.720 So there's a move sometimes away from the external and what everyone else needs to do 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:19.200 and a recognition of, as we'll come on to see in God's economy, that there's often, 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:24.840 in terms of goodness, a lot of change that we need to make in our own lives. 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:32.080 Our natural and our worldly response to what you would change in your life or your family 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:39.759 or your church to make it good, to make it better is never usually me. 00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:44.000 It's usually always somebody or something else. 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:49.639 And that is fundamentally not biblical goodness. 00:11:49.639 --> 00:11:55.080 What else is fundamentally not biblical goodness? 00:11:55.080 --> 00:12:01.600 When we say, others need to make my world good. 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:05.519 External realities need to change to make my world good. 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:11.720 That is not primarily understanding biblical goodness, but rather goodness as a fruit of 00:12:11.720 --> 00:12:24.000 the Spirit is me being made new by a good God, is me being changed and transformed by 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:26.800 a good God into His image. 00:12:26.800 --> 00:12:34.600 And it always, the fruit of the Spirit will always be primarily a recognition, a morally 00:12:34.600 --> 00:12:35.800 of our need to change. 00:12:35.799 --> 00:12:42.279 Yes, it will involve community change, but it always begins with a recognition of our 00:12:42.279 --> 00:12:44.839 need and of our hearts. 00:12:44.839 --> 00:12:52.599 So goodness as a fruit of the Spirit recognizes in the first place God as its source. 00:12:52.599 --> 00:12:59.679 All of the fruit of the Spirit are a fruit of the Spirit, of the Spirit of God. 00:12:59.679 --> 00:13:01.879 A reflection of His character, of His being. 00:13:01.879 --> 00:13:06.320 All these characteristics reflect the being and the character of God. 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:12.279 And God in His moral being and in His activity is a good God. 00:13:12.279 --> 00:13:19.200 That's the definition that we have in His justice, in His righteousness, and in His intentions. 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:22.080 He's the Father of goodness. 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:25.600 He is the one who has originated goodness. 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:27.919 It's defined by Him. 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:30.440 He is the definition of goodness. 00:13:30.440 --> 00:13:41.760 It evil, evil only exists in the context, in the reality of a living good God. 00:13:41.760 --> 00:13:47.200 It only exists in opposition to a great and good God. 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:57.720 Now beyond that, beyond that the genesis of evil is an unrevealed mystery. 00:13:57.720 --> 00:14:05.720 But it only exists in contradiction to a good and holy and righteous God. 00:14:05.720 --> 00:14:14.399 We know that evil was spawned in the heart of Satan as a fallen angel. 00:14:14.399 --> 00:14:15.920 He's the opposite of God. 00:14:15.920 --> 00:14:20.399 He is the Father of lies in John 8.44. 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:22.519 I think we have these words. 00:14:22.519 --> 00:14:29.039 You are of your Father, Jesus says, the devil, and your will is to do your Father's desires. 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:30.439 You are a murderer from the beginning. 00:14:30.439 --> 00:14:33.360 And there's nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in Him. 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:38.319 When He lies, He speaks out of His own character for He is a liar and the Father of lies. 00:14:38.319 --> 00:14:46.960 So we see evil and its darkness and the opposite of good comes from the Father of lies as opposed 00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:52.079 to goodness, which comes from God as our Father. 00:14:52.080 --> 00:15:02.400 And we recognize that evil in this world is not a vague ethereal, mysterious and impersonal 00:15:02.400 --> 00:15:03.920 force. 00:15:03.920 --> 00:15:14.120 It is morally linked to the hearts and minds of every single individual, whether it be an 00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:17.360 angel or a human being. 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:24.120 Only responsible individuals are those who reflect the goodness of God or the reality 00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:26.240 of evil. 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:32.360 So God is its source, both in His being and His creativity and we'll also see in His redemption. 00:15:32.360 --> 00:15:39.720 So in His being, in Mark 10, 18, Jesus said interestingly to the person who came up to 00:15:39.720 --> 00:15:44.120 Him and said, Good teacher, why do you call me good? 00:15:44.120 --> 00:15:50.600 No one is good except God alone and indeed in an inverted way He was claiming divinity 00:15:50.600 --> 00:15:54.279 there as He makes this statement about God. 00:15:54.279 --> 00:16:01.480 God is just and God is perfect, God is holy and loving and all of these characteristics 00:16:01.480 --> 00:16:04.399 define the parameters of His goodness. 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:07.679 Evil never comes from the heart of God. 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:14.759 Now that's an important practical reality for us as we consider blaming God for evil 00:16:14.759 --> 00:16:20.079 that happens in our lives or evil that happens in this world and many people do that. 00:16:20.079 --> 00:16:26.919 We can't because God is the author of good and we can never blame God for the reality 00:16:26.919 --> 00:16:27.919 of evil. 00:16:27.919 --> 00:16:35.000 It is the deception of the Father of lies and you must tread carefully when you seek to 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:44.559 accuse God of evil because the reality is if God is evil then we are all damned and 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:46.080 there is no hope. 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:50.360 In His being, therefore He's good, also in His creativity. 00:16:50.360 --> 00:16:54.600 We know from the very beginning that He created the world and He created the world and said 00:16:54.600 --> 00:16:55.600 it is good. 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:56.600 It is good. 00:16:56.600 --> 00:16:57.600 It is good. 00:16:57.600 --> 00:16:58.600 It is good. 00:16:58.600 --> 00:17:02.440 And then He says it is very good. 00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:07.880 He saw the world and the humanity that He made in His own image and the creativity of 00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:13.759 what He had made and the provision and food and drink and relationships and society has 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:18.519 been good, really good, very good. 00:17:18.519 --> 00:17:27.440 And His creative genius is an expression of His goodness not only in itself but in the 00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:31.400 provision that is made for us now. 00:17:31.400 --> 00:17:37.680 We all know, we all know that that creation is tainted and broken and subject to death 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:47.600 and decay and it's in shadow and in confusion and in doubt and in darkness as humanity rejected 00:17:47.600 --> 00:17:55.240 the good Father in creation and the Lordship of God and His reign and wanted their own 00:17:55.240 --> 00:17:56.240 independence. 00:17:56.240 --> 00:18:04.720 But He is good in His creativity and in His being and He's good in redemption in the gospel 00:18:04.720 --> 00:18:05.720 story. 00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:06.720 What does the gospel mean? 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:08.559 The gospel simply means good news. 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:13.799 We've been celebrating that today, celebrating at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper which 00:18:13.799 --> 00:18:19.559 is always about not only the death but the resurrection of Jesus, celebrated in our own 00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:27.279 salvation, celebrated in all that He has done for us, celebrated in the links between 00:18:27.279 --> 00:18:33.720 the Passover and the Lord's Supper and all it speaks of, of freedom and of goodness and 00:18:33.720 --> 00:18:36.279 of grace and of hope. 00:18:36.279 --> 00:18:45.039 The greatest, so what we have is the greatest act of evil, the taking of the life of the 00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:50.159 only good and perfect human being who was also God in the flesh. 00:18:50.159 --> 00:18:55.960 The most evil, the darkest moment when even the sun wouldn't shine for these three hours 00:18:55.960 --> 00:19:04.480 on the event of the cross becomes also the greatest good where sin and rebellion and 00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:11.480 the wrath of God is taken and defeated, where forgiveness is offered, where God opens up 00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:19.680 His welcoming good arms back into fellowship with Him, to belonging and to a good life and 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:23.440 to a good future with Him. 00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:29.200 So God is its source and that's very important when we're thinking about goodness. 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:36.240 It's not simply what society thinks is goodness, it's not simply what we think inherently is 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:37.240 goodness. 00:19:37.240 --> 00:19:39.839 It is external to us at one level. 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:44.439 It is primarily God being its source as we see. 00:19:44.439 --> 00:19:52.039 But can I say secondly and finally and briefly that Christ buys it back for us. 00:19:52.039 --> 00:19:53.439 Christ buys back goodness. 00:19:53.439 --> 00:19:56.839 It's a fruit of the Holy Spirit. 00:19:56.839 --> 00:20:04.279 As we trust in God, He gifts us His Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Holy 00:20:04.279 --> 00:20:11.879 Spirit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit are these characteristics that reflect the transformation 00:20:11.879 --> 00:20:15.039 in our lives. 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:23.680 So Christ buys back goodness for us all in our definition, in our appreciation and in 00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:25.279 our lives. 00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:29.879 So in our definition we recognize God is its source. 00:20:29.880 --> 00:20:35.960 For we worship Him and we can worship Him because of His grace. 00:20:35.960 --> 00:20:42.760 So primarily the goodness that's spoken of here is reflected in a heart transformation. 00:20:42.760 --> 00:20:49.640 Luke 6.45, the passage we read before that Cori read earlier, it's the good person out 00:20:49.640 --> 00:20:52.880 of the good treasure of his heart produces good. 00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:56.080 The evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil. 00:20:56.079 --> 00:21:01.759 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks and again and again and again the key 00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:06.639 to our understanding of the gospel and of the fruit of the Spirit is where our heart 00:21:06.639 --> 00:21:15.000 lies, where our trust lies and our definition of goodness as it comes from the source which 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:18.759 is the living God and our dependence on Him. 00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:26.879 So our definition of goodness is molded by and is defined by our experience of His goodness 00:21:26.879 --> 00:21:33.180 in salvation and redeeming and forgiving us and giving us new life. 00:21:33.180 --> 00:21:40.200 And then in our appreciation also of what He calls good. 00:21:40.200 --> 00:21:48.240 So we of all people should be those who live with gratitude for all His great gifts, His 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:50.599 great gifts of food and drink. 00:21:50.599 --> 00:21:54.559 That's why I think it's nice still to say grace and significant still to say grace 00:21:54.559 --> 00:21:58.799 before a meal, except one of these recognitions of His goodness. 00:21:58.799 --> 00:22:00.279 We appreciate creation. 00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:02.359 We seek to protect creation. 00:22:02.359 --> 00:22:03.599 We love His good things. 00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:05.120 We love His good gifts. 00:22:05.120 --> 00:22:12.440 We appreciate what He has done for us and we seek to live in accordance with His will 00:22:12.440 --> 00:22:17.279 because of gratitude for His goodness. 00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:28.920 The Christian life for us therefore can never be moralism and be moralistic and simply acting 00:22:28.920 --> 00:22:34.879 outwardly in a certain way because it meets certain parameters of living. 00:22:34.879 --> 00:22:41.000 It must always come from a changed heart, a heart of gratitude that is learned to appreciate 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:44.200 God for who He is and live in goodness. 00:22:44.200 --> 00:22:53.319 So we define it in terms of God, we appreciate it from God and we live it as it is characterised 00:22:53.319 --> 00:22:54.920 in the Bible by God. 00:22:54.920 --> 00:23:05.759 We become Holy Spirit intentional and intentionally seek to follow God in His way. 00:23:05.759 --> 00:23:15.559 We recognise that goodness is defined by God and we do good simply because God says 00:23:15.559 --> 00:23:17.480 it is a good thing to do. 00:23:17.480 --> 00:23:24.400 We obey Him and we say no to what is evil. 00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:33.180 We learn to hate the things God hates and we seek to love the things God loves. 00:23:33.180 --> 00:23:40.720 We don't seek to do good things simply so that other people will do good things back. 00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:48.320 We don't seek to do good things simply because someone will do as a favour in return. 00:23:48.320 --> 00:23:55.920 We recognise that we do good things and we do good to our enemies and we do good because 00:23:55.920 --> 00:23:59.400 God has shown us what goodness is. 00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:05.140 It's never for popularity that we do these things but we love what God loves and we stand 00:24:05.140 --> 00:24:10.640 up for what is right and what is just and what is good. 00:24:10.640 --> 00:24:16.080 And I want to finish with this paradox about goodness. 00:24:16.080 --> 00:24:26.400 I think it's one of these things that we're kind of tempted to compare ourselves a lot 00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:29.519 with other people in terms of goodness. 00:24:29.519 --> 00:24:34.519 I'm better than the next person or I'm good in the context of this church or I'm better 00:24:34.519 --> 00:24:38.759 than others in the context of church. 00:24:38.759 --> 00:24:50.600 And it's a really difficult thing to live out self-unconsciously. 00:24:50.600 --> 00:24:54.680 But can I finish this with a paradox of being truly good? 00:24:54.680 --> 00:25:02.240 I think being truly good has two dimensions to it. 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:03.680 Being truly good has two dimensions. 00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:11.560 One is that if you're truly good by grace, you're truly good unconsciously. 00:25:11.560 --> 00:25:17.720 In other words, there's a sense in which you don't know and you don't sense that you're 00:25:17.720 --> 00:25:19.320 good. 00:25:19.319 --> 00:25:28.159 It simply happens when your roots spiritually are in the right place, when you're rooted 00:25:28.159 --> 00:25:31.679 to the Spirit of God and to the character of God. 00:25:31.679 --> 00:25:33.879 It's like, you know, the Bible speaks about a seed. 00:25:33.879 --> 00:25:35.399 We don't know how it grows. 00:25:35.399 --> 00:25:38.919 It just grows. 00:25:38.919 --> 00:25:43.599 And you know that a child, some people were in church this morning who used to come to 00:25:43.599 --> 00:25:47.559 this church and I haven't seen them for a while. 00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:50.319 And one of the boys is about six feet high. 00:25:50.319 --> 00:25:52.679 And the last time we saw him, he was about two feet high. 00:25:52.679 --> 00:25:53.679 They just grow. 00:25:53.679 --> 00:25:55.000 They just grow. 00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:56.799 They're unselfconscious about it. 00:25:56.799 --> 00:26:00.440 They don't spend their life thinking, I've grown. 00:26:00.440 --> 00:26:02.799 I'm growing a little bit more. 00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:11.119 It's hugely, it's a mystery and growth simply happens when they're in the right place and 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:14.000 they're eating the right foods and they're healthy. 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:15.000 They simply grow. 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:16.799 There's a mystery to it. 00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:19.319 And that is true about goodness. 00:26:19.319 --> 00:26:21.319 The key is where our heart is. 00:26:21.319 --> 00:26:27.399 And in a sense, when our heart's in the right place, there's such humility and self-forgetfulness 00:26:27.399 --> 00:26:34.119 that we don't appreciate that we are acting in a godly or in a good way. 00:26:34.119 --> 00:26:37.839 It's a little bit of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. 00:26:37.839 --> 00:26:41.519 Bit of self-unconsciousness in our lives. 00:26:41.519 --> 00:26:50.240 It becomes the instinct of grace that is simply how we react because we are rooted to the 00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:51.839 Holy Spirit in our lives. 00:26:51.839 --> 00:26:54.960 So you do unconsciously. 00:26:54.960 --> 00:27:00.599 In other words, you don't do it and then say, well, that was pretty good. 00:27:00.599 --> 00:27:01.920 And I'm glad I did that. 00:27:01.920 --> 00:27:05.879 And I feel quite proud about what I did there. 00:27:05.879 --> 00:27:09.559 So that's what I mean by being self-unconscious. 00:27:09.559 --> 00:27:16.679 So this paradox of this, of being truly good, I think, is also is that you're conscious 00:27:16.679 --> 00:27:19.639 of always needing to learn. 00:27:19.639 --> 00:27:22.559 You never stop learning about goodness. 00:27:22.559 --> 00:27:28.399 Yes, it becomes instinctive, but it is always about learning. 00:27:28.399 --> 00:27:32.440 And the Bible is full of teaching to us about goodness. 00:27:32.440 --> 00:27:39.119 Ephesians 2 verse 10 says, For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. 00:27:39.119 --> 00:27:44.159 For good works which God prepared for that we should walk in them. 00:27:44.159 --> 00:27:47.039 So He's given us a way to walk. 00:27:47.039 --> 00:27:54.879 And Galatians 6, 9 and 10, Don't grow weary of doing good for in due season we will reap 00:27:54.879 --> 00:27:56.619 if we do not give up. 00:27:56.619 --> 00:28:00.519 So then as we have, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household 00:28:00.519 --> 00:28:01.519 of faith. 00:28:01.519 --> 00:28:05.079 So there's things to learn about doing and about being good. 00:28:05.079 --> 00:28:07.319 And Micah 6 verse 8, My favorite of all. 00:28:07.319 --> 00:28:12.399 He's told you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice 00:28:12.399 --> 00:28:17.639 and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. 00:28:17.639 --> 00:28:27.319 And these are really significant and important lessons we learn about how to live not just 00:28:27.319 --> 00:28:32.679 instinctively but consciously disciples learning about goodness. 00:28:32.680 --> 00:28:37.320 And that also comes into play when we are faced with evil in our lives. 00:28:37.320 --> 00:28:43.360 In Romans 8, 28, we have these words for, we know that for those who love God, all things 00:28:43.360 --> 00:28:48.400 work together for good who are called according to His purpose. 00:28:48.400 --> 00:28:53.200 So there's reality that we can see goodness even in the darkness of our experiences. 00:28:53.200 --> 00:28:56.759 And that's a non-stop learning experience. 00:28:56.759 --> 00:28:58.920 That doesn't come instinctively. 00:28:58.920 --> 00:29:03.720 That is not an unconscious reality for it's something we need to keep learning. 00:29:03.720 --> 00:29:07.039 Real intentionality for us always learning. 00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:13.240 It's not natural, it's not a given, it's not genetic. 00:29:13.240 --> 00:29:17.560 We are constantly needing to go to our source to the Lord Jesus Christ for that. 00:29:17.560 --> 00:29:19.400 We're always falling short. 00:29:19.400 --> 00:29:20.600 We are always building. 00:29:20.600 --> 00:29:27.360 We're always ripping down and building up and changing. 00:29:27.359 --> 00:29:36.240 We came here 17 years ago, about 16 years ago, they closed the quarter mile, or they 00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:38.240 kind of opened I guess the quarter mile. 00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:41.919 They closed the hospital that was there and they started working on the quarter mile. 00:29:41.919 --> 00:29:44.679 Now 16 years on they're still working on it. 00:29:44.679 --> 00:29:46.919 So work in progress. 00:29:46.919 --> 00:29:48.399 And they're constantly building. 00:29:48.399 --> 00:29:49.399 They're constantly updating. 00:29:49.399 --> 00:29:55.399 They're constantly renewing and refreshing and making it better, making a beautiful place. 00:29:55.400 --> 00:30:00.880 And I do wonder sometimes, it's the very first glass building that they did beside the middle 00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:01.880 middle walk. 00:30:01.880 --> 00:30:06.000 If they now look at that and think, oh, it's a bit old hat now, we should maybe rip it 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:07.519 down and start again. 00:30:07.519 --> 00:30:11.759 And all the things we've learned as we've gone along, we can maybe put it into this 00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:13.000 building again. 00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:15.519 And in a sense our Christian lives are like that. 00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:16.519 We're always learning. 00:30:16.519 --> 00:30:18.400 We're always developing. 00:30:18.400 --> 00:30:27.680 We're always kind of renewing and being matured and becoming more and more like God in goodness 00:30:27.680 --> 00:30:30.640 as we rely on Him. 00:30:30.640 --> 00:30:35.560 So in conclusion, the question is a very simple one. 00:30:35.560 --> 00:30:41.840 Is the fruit in your life and in my life falling near to the tree, or falling far away from 00:30:41.840 --> 00:30:42.960 the tree? 00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:51.440 Well, in this week that we've entered, you'll have many spur of the moment moments when maybe 00:30:51.440 --> 00:30:57.360 trouble will come, or you'll have choices to make, or you'll be tempted to lose your 00:30:57.360 --> 00:31:05.039 temper, or you'll have a decision that's important. 00:31:05.039 --> 00:31:06.039 What will be your instinct? 00:31:06.039 --> 00:31:10.920 What will be your spiritual instinct when you're faced with trials or difficulties or 00:31:10.920 --> 00:31:15.240 extremely bad news medically? 00:31:15.240 --> 00:31:20.480 When someone wrongs you, what will be your instinctive response? 00:31:20.480 --> 00:31:23.560 Will you be tempted to be bad in return? 00:31:23.560 --> 00:31:32.039 Will you sense, like I sensed with the iPad, this evil, vicious, destructive desire coming 00:31:32.039 --> 00:31:34.160 up from within? 00:31:34.160 --> 00:31:35.840 What will it come to mind? 00:31:35.840 --> 00:31:38.000 Will you respond prayerfully? 00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:44.880 How will goodness reveal itself in your life and in my life this week as we are faced with 00:31:44.880 --> 00:31:49.640 a myriad of darkness and evil and temptations and difficulties? 00:31:49.640 --> 00:31:53.920 What will be the evidence that you and I are born anew? 00:31:53.920 --> 00:31:58.920 Because it should be that we bear the fruit of the Spirit more and more. 00:31:58.920 --> 00:32:03.720 This morning we had the Lord's table and kind of in an inverted way, we were encouraged 00:32:03.720 --> 00:32:08.559 always to examine ourselves before sitting at the Lord's table. 00:32:08.559 --> 00:32:13.319 Well, maybe this evening it's a good thing to do as well in the light of God's Word, 00:32:13.319 --> 00:32:18.079 in the light of Scripture, to be examining ourselves as to the fruit of the Spirit that 00:32:18.079 --> 00:32:19.079 we are bearing. 00:32:19.079 --> 00:32:21.160 Not in church. 00:32:21.160 --> 00:32:23.880 Not when everything's going well, not when it's easy. 00:32:23.880 --> 00:32:26.039 That's no problem. 00:32:26.039 --> 00:32:34.319 Not when we are tested and tried, are we bearing His fruit and also as a Christian, take great 00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:37.960 comfort where your roots are. 00:32:37.960 --> 00:32:43.240 Take great comfort in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the gift of the Spirit and in the transforming 00:32:43.240 --> 00:32:49.720 power He has to make our ugly and dark and evil and bad hearts good. 00:32:49.720 --> 00:32:52.359 Let's pray. 00:32:52.359 --> 00:32:57.879 God help us, we pray, to know you and to love you and to serve you better. 00:32:57.879 --> 00:33:04.879 Help us to understand goodness as it is defined in your word through your character. 00:33:04.879 --> 00:33:07.000 Keep us from moralism. 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:15.679 Keep us from that horrible, merely outward parameters of living which are legalistic 00:33:15.680 --> 00:33:26.840 and are never sufficient to suppress the darkness of our own heart. 00:33:26.840 --> 00:33:35.160 Remind us that we can't possibly simply live as Christians with an exterior holiness. 00:33:35.160 --> 00:33:43.000 Help us to recognize and know and understand and confess our own need of renewal and our 00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:49.759 own heart that needs to be changed and the transformation that needs to be wrought within 00:33:49.759 --> 00:33:53.599 us before a holy God. 00:33:53.599 --> 00:34:01.200 Remind us that your goodness is simply too great to look on and your holiness and your 00:34:01.200 --> 00:34:11.360 purity is impossible for us to reflect or to in and of ourselves enter into your presence. 00:34:11.360 --> 00:34:19.519 We thank you that through Jesus Christ and His goodness and His holiness and His righteousness 00:34:19.519 --> 00:34:26.680 we are brought into that place where we can stand before God as our Father and know His 00:34:26.680 --> 00:34:29.960 love and His grace and His goodness. 00:34:29.960 --> 00:34:36.599 So we thank you for Jesus Christ who is the great example for us but also the great atoning 00:34:36.599 --> 00:34:44.880 sacrifice for our sins and we rejoice in His goodness and pray and seek that we might reflect 00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:49.920 His goodness through the Spirit in our lives into this week we've entered. 00:34:49.920 --> 00:34:51.719 We ask in Jesus' name. 00:34:51.719 --> 00:35:07.799 Amen.