Open with audience reciting the following verse: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control...” Galatians 5:22-23a
OPEN: A preacher once spoke of the fact that some of the people in his congregation had gotten in the habit of shaking his hand after the sermon and then telling him “Now be good!”
He got to thinking about that… and one day he began responding to “Now be good!” by saying “Hey, in my profession - it’s hard to be anything else.”
Now think about that, it’s true isn’t it? I’m a preacher… you expect me to be good!
You might even say “I’m paid to be good.”
But now, by contrast, you folks are (pause…) good for nothing.
APPLY: God has always wanted His people to be “Good”. He places such a high priority on it that he repeatedly requests and commands that His people do just that.
For example, in Galatians 6:9 to God encourages us to "… not become weary in DOING GOOD, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
In his third letter, John tells us "Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but WHAT IS GOOD. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God." 3 John 11
And Romans 2 even says: “God will give to each person according to what he has done… for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger… but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good…” Romans 2:6, 8 & 10
But, as I was preparing for the sermon this morning, I encountered an intriguing story in the book of Matthew:
“… a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
Jesus replied “Why do you ask me about what is good?. There is only One who is good…” Matthew 19:16-17a
I. (pause…) Well… now I’m confused
In one place I’m told that God wants me to be good… but then, in Matthew, Jesus says there is only One who is good… that’s God.
In fact, Romans 3:10 tells us "There is no one righteous, not even one”
No one…
No one is INHERENTLY good…
There is no one is BASICALLY righteous
ILLUS: In Japan, there was a group of tourists wanted their picture taken and observing another tourist carrying what looked like a camera case, they asked him if they would take their picture.
Somewhat taken back, the other man quickly recovered and said, "But I’ve already taken your picture," and removing a Bible from the case he read from it:
"Romans 3:23 says ‘… all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.’"
But, if that’s true… if we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. If it is true that none of us are inherently good or righteous… why do many people think of themselves as basically good?
ILLUS: How many of you have had your picture taken down at the license branch?
How many of you don’t like the picture that was taken????? (practically everyone raised their hand)
It is almost a universal complaint that those photographs don’t do us justice!!!
And, you know what bothers us about those pictures… they’re not glamour shots. They’re not taken by experts who know how to pose us to our best advantage.
The problem isn’t IN the picture… it’s IN us.
One well known photographer said: “There are very few beautiful women OR handsome men in the world. It takes careful lighting and posing to make most people appear attractive. Many do not know they have a crooked nose, one small eye, a lopsided jaw, or some other flaw.
Unfortunately, when they look into a mirror, they are usually engaging in some type of activity like shaving or combing their hair.
This is deceiving, for when a person is in motion physical defects are not noticeable.
But when he is still - as in a photograph - his undesirable features become obvious.”
What the Bible teaches us is… we have a flaw in our souls. And when we are “still”… when we sit down long enough to examine our lives and meditate on the things we’ve said or done or said over the past week… we would see that flaw for ourselves. Because there are things we’ve thought, said and done that – if known to those around us – would make us slink away in shame. The flaws would be apparent. Because we all have a defect that would make us less appealing to God = it’s called SIN!
Now… the Bible ISN’T saying we can’t do good things.
What the Bible is saying is that the sinfulness that resides within us taints the flavor our good deeds.
ILLUS: (I pulled out a cold unopened can of Pepsi).
How many of you are a little thirsty this morning? I have here an unopened can of pop. How many of you would like to have this can of Pepsi? It’s ice-cold and absolutely untainted by human hands. There’s not a thing wrong with it.
(if I didn’t get a volunteer… I volunteered someone).
You know, it’s only right, that if I’m going give someone a drink that I be courteous enough to pour it into a glass for them to drink out of.
(produce a drinking glass that had been used for a chocolate milk the night before, and slowly pour the soda into it while explaining:)
I must apologize for the condition of the drinking glass however. I drank chocolate milk out of it last night and didn’t have a chance to wash it this morning.
Now, how many of you would willingly drink out of such a glass?
But the drink was pure and untainted. It was fresh and cold. Why would you reject this offer?
That’s right… none of us would drink from that glass because it’s impurity tainted the “goodness” of the drink.
Likewise, our sins ruin the flavor or our good deeds Sin makes whatever goodness we have in us become warped and deformed and weak.
One man put it this way: God FORMED us;
sin DEFORMED us…
But there’s good news: Christ can TRANSFORM us
II. And, THAT’S the good news of Galatians 5
God doesn’t say we’ll be FILLED with goodness because we’re nice people…
God says that we will be FILLED with goodness because we’re filled with His Spirit
The FRUIT of the SPIRIT is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness… GOODNESS.
In other words… as long as I’m walking in the Spirit, these fruit will grow in my life. If I’m walking in the Spirit of Jesus, then I will produce a GOOD crop.
ILLUS: Now… we’re going to talk about fruit for a few minutes. Name me a fruit that you’d buy in the grocery store. (banana, orange, kiwi, apple, etc.)
(Pull out a bunch of grapes and set it on the communion table)
We’re going to have these grapes represent the fruit of the Spirit. The Bible tells me that these fruit must grow in my life. So (turning to grapes) “GROW! PRODUCE FRUIT” (keep ordering grapes to produce)
Why won’t this bunch of grapes produce more grapes???
Ahhhh… because they’re not attached to the vine anymore.
Jesus said “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” John 15:4
What Jesus is telling us is this: If I want to have the kind of goodness that God desires in my life I MUST to remain in Jesus. I must get so close to Him that His thinking bleeds over into mine. I must get so close to Him that I produce a fruit that pleases Him
III. So- how do I produce the kind of crop/ fruit that would be pleasing to Him?
Let’s look together at Luke 6:43-45
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers.
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”
So, producing a good fruit means that I must STORE UP that good inside of my heart. But, how do I do that?
The first thing to do… is what we’re doing right now. We’re in church. Hebrews 10 says:
“let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another— and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24-25
God designed the church to be a place where we challenge each other to do good things for Jesus
MY JOB is to challenge you from the pulpit… but a church really grows strong when you folks within the congregation:
· Find a person you think could teach… and spur them on to teach
· Find a person who’s good at praying… and spur them on to pray
· Find a person who’s good at serving God or the church in some way… and spur them on
We all should look for good qualities – untapped potential - in the people around us and make those people our personal projects to encourage, and challenge so that they serve God.
The 2nd thing we can do to produce a GOOD crop is found in 2 Tim. 3:16, 17
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
We need to constantly find ways to expose ourselves to God’s Word.
· Sunday School
· Mid-week Bible studies
· Personal Study time
John F. Brand once said: “The Bible is meant to be bread for daily use, not cake for special occasions”
Or, as another said: “A Bible in the hand is worth two in the bookcase”
The Bible helps us to do good things, because it changes how we think. And even pagans understand this concept.
ILLUS: Some time ago, the State of Kentucky had a law that every classroom in its in public schools had to post the 10 Commandments.
The Supreme Court ruled against the state of Kentucky ordering it to take down all copies of the Ten Commandments from the walls of its schools saying: “Having the commandments on the wall may induce a student to read, meditate upon, and actually obey what is therein written.”
I recently read in Reader’s Digest a report bemoaning the fact that there is increased cheating going on inside the nation’s high schools… and they wondered why!!!
God’s Word changes our hearts… it makes us into better people. And the more we expose ourselves to God’s prescriptions written in the Book the more of CHRIST’S goodness we’ll have in our hearts and lives.
IV. Now… the value of Christ’s goodness (rather than my own) abiding in my heart…
Is that His goodness will bear fruit that will last.
Eph. 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
In other words… God has prepared good things for me to do. He has prepared those things in advance. These are good things which He knows will have lasting effects beyond anything our own mortal efforts could ever accomplish.
Just as an example Acts 11:24 tells us that “Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith - and many people were added to the Lord through him”
· It wasn’t Barnabas’ great doctrine that drew people to Jesus
(altho’ his doctrine probably was impeccable)
· And it wasn’t his speaking style that drew large crowds for God
What drew people to Jesus was the fact that Barnabas was that he was a good man. He did good things. And because he was a man’s whose goodness was driven by the Holy Spirit, people came to God because of him.
Jesus said that was how things would work: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16
ILLUS: A little girl who, on the way home from church, turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, the Preacher’s sermon this morning confused me."
The mother said, "Oh! Why is that?”
The girl replied, "Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?"
"Yes, that’s true," the mother replied.
"He also said that God lives within us. Is that true too?"
Again the mother replied, "Yes."
"Well," said the girl. "If God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn’t He show through?"
When God dwells solidly within us by our constant fellowship with each other AND by our constant exposure to His Word… then HE begins to show through in every thing we do and say.
This is how I can produce the kind of fruit that God would desire in my life
CLOSE: But fruit needs to be attached to the vine or the tree to grow. And if you don’t belong to Jesus right now you’ll not be able to produce the quality of goodness that you’d really want
The only way to be part of Jesus, is to attach yourself to His tree. It’s a tree He planted years ago on a hill called Calvary.
(Sing)
On a hill far away, stands an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain
So I’ll cherish that old rugged cross til my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown.
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
The Unknown Quality of Love = Galatians 5:22-5:25
Plugging the Leak in your Joy = Galatians 5:22-5:25
The Prescription for Powerful Peace = Phil. 4:1-4:9
The Puzzle of Powerful Patience = Galatians 5:13-5:26
God’s Idea of Kindness = Luke 6:25-6:42
The Tree Of Goodness = Galatians 5:22-5:23
Getting A Booster Shot Of Faith = Galatians 5:22-5:23
