The Fruit of the Spirit
Part 7 – Goodness
Rev. Bruce A. Shields
First Baptist Church Tawas City Michigan
www.TawasBaptist.org
WELCOME
We are continuing our Series on The Fruits of the Holy Spirit.
This morning I would like to talk about the Spiritual Fruit, or character of God we can develop, called Goodness.
PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT AND UNDERSTANDING
INTRODUCTION
As Gods people we are commissioned by Jesus to preach the Gospel to the entire world.
Jesus has given us our instructions, to make disciples, or followers of Christ, and to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Accepting Jesus Christ and receiving the free gift of Salvation is not the end of our journey in life, but the beginning of our everlasting journey for God.
You see, God has a destiny for you.
The scriptures tell us He knew us before we were formed in the womb.
We have a path God created for us in this life, a destination and purpose while we are here on earth.
And He wants to lead each one of us down that path.
Our Father in heaven, who loves us, has not just given us this duty as children of light, but He has equipped us to do His will.
He has equipped us with Himself.
Greater is He that is within us, than he that is in the world.
This is possible because of the Cross.
Jesus rose from the dead on the same day as the Jewish Feast of First Fruits, which was one of the seven feasts given by God to His people in Leviticus 23 nearly 1500 years before Christ.
This was God’s plan all along, for Christ to rise on the exact day of the Feast of First Fruits.
He gave the Israelites these celebrations to teach of the Messiah, His purpose and His coming.
In I Corinthians 15:20 Christ is referred to as the First Fruits of the dead.
Was this a coincidence?
No, everything God does is for a reason and serves a purpose.
Even if we may not understand what that purpose or reason is.
My Word will not return to me void, but will accomplish what I set it out to do.
It is fitting that Jesus be raised on God’s day, given to the Jews, as the Feast or celebration, of the First Fruits.
God’s people were also told to count 50 days from the Feast of the First Fruits, then have a Feast of Sha Vu Ot, or as we know it, the day of Pentecost.
This Feast of Pentecost to the Jews served as a reminder that God is the source of all blessings, power and authority.
In Esther 8:11-13, Pentecost was the day that the King signed a decree granting God’s people the authority to gather together and defend themselves by any means necessary against all the powers of those who would attack them. This statement was made so that all of God’s people would be ready to defend themselves against their enemies.
The Feast or Celebration of Pentecost served as a reminder that God is the source of all blessings, power and authority.
How fitting for us to receive our blessings, power and authority by the Holy Spirit on this day as well?
After Jesus’ resurrection, He breathed on the disciples, giving them the free gift of Salvation which comes from accepting the risen Lord.
Then He told them to wait for the power from on High that the Father had promised.
Before my understanding of the seven feasts of the Lord and their prophetic meaning, I asked myself, why did Jesus make them wait for the Holy Spirit?
I mean, He was there; they were there, what’s the hold up?
Because, He (the Holy Spirit) had to come on the Day that the Lord had given to the Israelites as one of the seven Feasts, the Day that would serve as a sign to the Jews, the day that celebrated and acknowledged that all blessings, power and authority comes from God alone!
After Jesus rose on the day of the Feast of First Fruits, He met with the Disciples.
Jesus breathed on the Disciples, and said, “receive the Holy Spirit”, and they had received at that moment the free gift of Salvation.
Mending what was broken in the fall; once again, through Jesus Christ and the Cross, man could have relationship with God.
Jesus then told them to wait in Jerusalem for the Helper the Father had promised, so that they would be equipped to do the work that Jesus had given them.
How were they equipped? They were equipped by obtaining God’s character and abilities through the Holy Spirit which gave those blessings, power and authority.
They waited, and on the Day of Pentecost, they received blessings, power and authority from God in heaven, through the Holy Spirit pouring down and covering them.
This served not just as an empowering to the Disciples giving them authority to defend themselves against their enemy, Satan, but it served as a sign to the Jews.
The Holy Spirit has so much to offer, and IS needed if we are to do God’s work.
How fitting.
Our King has given us blessings, power and authority, by His Word, to gather together, and defend ourselves against our enemy. Satan.
And it happened on the feast of Pentecost which celebrates this very thing!
If you do not have the Holy Spirit, you can do no good thing.
All of our Spiritual Gifts come from the Holy Spirit, which are distributed to all believers so that they may edify or build up and strengthen the body of Christ.
The whole armor of God is available through the Holy Spirit for the daily spiritual battles we will (not may) encounter.
And the Spiritual Fruits, of God’s characteristics, will begin to develop in us as we grow in the Holy Spirit.
And we will begin to behave and think more and more like our Father in heaven.
Thus, becoming a reflection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and drawing others to Him.
One of God’s characteristics that is supposed to develop in us is the character of Goodness.
Goodness is defined as being “generous of self and possessions.”
SCRIPTURE READING
Acts 20:32 – 35
“32 Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. 35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ’It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ "
This is benevolence in its purest sense.
This is generosity of self and possessions, which is known as Goodness.
When called good, Jesus corrected the man by saying “Only our Father in heaven is Good.”
In doing so, He gave God the credit for the character trait of goodness which He was showing through the Holy Spirit.
This is a characteristic of God.
When we are generous, we show the Holy Spirit working and growing within us.
The outreach committee over the past year has excelled in this Characteristic of God.
Praise God for the Outreach Committee’s free garage sale, which allows anyone to come and get things for FREE!
Praise God for the Outreach Committee’s Food Bank which has helped many families over the years with FREE food to those in need!
Praise God for the Outreach Committee’s Christmas Drive, which for the past couple years has given Christmas baskets full of presents for single mothers and needy families!
Praise God for our Deacons fund which has helped many in need!
This was also called the benevolence fund for a while.
Praise God for our Missions Committee, who has offered financial support for many missionaries over the years!
Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give, than to receive.”
He also said, “What you do to the least of these, you do unto me.”
We are commanded by Jesus to do these things, and when you have the Holy Spirit, it is natural to give of yourself and your possessions to help those in need.
As Paul said in the scripture reading today, “I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak”.
Goodness.
Not ours, but God’s within us.
Goodness includes hospitality and all acts of goodness that flow from the unselfish heart that is more interested in giving than receiving.
Paul told Titus that he should preach that, “they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.” – Titus 3:8
Man is so selfish by nature that he needs to be reminded by the Word of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to occupy himself with goodness.
Otherwise, all that would matter is himself.
Selfishness.
The selfish man would say;
“Why collect a deacon’s fund?”
“Why give food to people?”
“Why give money to missionaries?”
“Why give gifts to children on Christmas?”
These are the thoughts of selfishness.
If they are your thoughts today, you need the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is goodness, and Jesus Christ is giving.
“It is more blessed to give than receive”
“We must help the weak”
And Jesus said, “What you do to the least of these, you are doing to me.”
James 2:15 – 17
“15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
We are commanded over and over again to be doers of the word!
It’s great that we have committee’s in the church, but WE are supposed to be living this way!
When you stand before Christ, are you going to say, Lord, Lord, didn’t my church give food to the needy? Didn’t my church witness to the lost? Didn’t my church take care of the hungry? Didn’t my church have lots of great programs?
Your faith, without YOUR action is dead.
What praise is it for you that others are doing the work of God, and you claim its rewards because you sit in a pew in the same building as the laborers?
A spirit filled person is more interested in doing God’s word, than making sure that others are doing it correctly.
A spirit filled person is more interested in doing for others than for themselves.
There is something that you do receive when you do for others.
A blessing from God for your obedience and Love.
Proverbs 14:21
“He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who is kind to the needy.”
Something that is almost therapeutic about it.
When you do for others and cultivate and grow your Spiritual Fruit of Goodness, it lifts you out of the rut of self-thought.
That rut which goes in a circle, keeping you always focused on yourself and what you want.
This constant selfishness sets you up for envy, strife, bitterness, resentment, depression.
We need to put others first, as the scriptures tell us.
In doing this, we remove the focus from ourselves.
We become humble, and then, and only then, can God use us.
We are told in the scriptures that “God resists the proud, but seeks the humble.”
We are also told that those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
As soon as we die to selfishness, our humility opens the door for the Lord to work in us, and use us.
And when God uses us, and we act out His characteristic of Goodness, we are blessed for our unselfish act.
Many a Christian has cheated themselves out of the blessing of the Holy Spirit’s inspired impulse to do something good or kind for someone else by not obeying that urge.
Instead of bringing joy to someone else’s life by that act of kindness, the self-centered person stifles the impulse and sinks deeper and deeper in the marsh of hopelessness and gloom.
There is nothing more discouraging than disobeying the Holy Spirit.
Jonah was miserable until he answered the Holy Spirit’s prompting.
David was defeated until he responded to the Holy Spirit’s call to repent.
When we ignore God, we are outside of God’s will.
And being outside of God’s will is not comfortable for the true believer.
Just the opposite, it is quite unbearable.
But it is one thing to get good impulses from the Holy Spirit, it is quite another to transmit them into acts of kindness.
D. L. Moody, the American evangelist who founded the Northfield Schools, Moody Church and Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, once stated that it was his custom, after presenting himself to the Holy Spirit and asking to be led of the Spirit, to act upon those impulses which came to his mind, provided they did not violate any known truth of scripture.
Generally speaking, that is a very good rule to follow.
How many of God’s blessings have we missed out on in our lives because we didn’t listen to the Holy Spirit’s prompting us to do something good for someone?
I think sometimes that we complicate things, or don’t speak with God enough to know when He’s speaking to us.
How can God speak to you if you don’t speak to Him?
How can God tell you anything if you do not pray?
How can you have a relationship with someone you never talk to?
How would you know what God is saying if you never read His word and know who He is.
To hear the Holy Spirit’s leading, you have to seek it.
Knock and the door will be opened, seek and you will find.
When the Holy Spirit does speak to us, we sometimes question it.
Was that God?
Was it just me?
Was it the devil?
This is why you have to read your Bible.
You will know its God because it will line up with His word.
You will know its God, because it will sound like God.
How do you know what God sounds like?
Read His word. He’s speaking through out it.
If you get anything that does not line up with the Word of God, it is not from God!
Sometimes we try to dissect and understand His promptings, and in the confusion, perhaps we lose what His original intent was.
His ways are above ours, we need to stop thinking we can ever fully understand the mind of God.
Sometimes God will ask you to do something that doesn’t make sense.
But it will not contradict the truth of His Holy Word.
God knows what He is doing.
He wants you to be a blessing to others, and in doing so, your obedience will bring you blessings from God.
“I have blessed you so that you may be a blessing.”
I remember once;
Terri was praying a few years ago, and she came to me and said;
“I think I heard God, but I’m not sure?”
And I asked, “Why aren’t you sure?”
She said, “Because it didn’t really make sense?”
So I asked what He had said, and she told me, “Well your mother told me the other day that she wants to buy this wallpaper, but its $100, and she doesn’t know if she’s going to get it. But she really needs it because it’s out of print, they don’t make it any more and her bedroom is half finished.”
“I think God wants me to buy it for her, but I’m not sure?”
So I said, “Well, it’s better to assume this good thing is from God and do it out of obedience. If it’s from God, you will be blessed. If it’s not from God, my mom still gets her wallpaper.”
Either way, someone is getting blessed here.
So we gave the money to my mother, thinking it was a little silly, and not really understanding why God would want mom to have wallpaper of all things?
It didn’t make sense, but we did it anyways.
So we went to her house after church one day, and gave her the money, and she tiered up and was about to cry, and said, “I almost didn’t give my tithe this week because I wanted that wallpaper so much.
But I knew that wallpaper was not important, and although I struggled with it, I gave my tithe, and said to God, if you want me to have that wallpaper, I’ll have it.”
Do you know, to this day, my mother reminds us of what God taught her that afternoon?
That she is loved by the Father, and He cares about her. And He cares not just about the big things, but she is so important to Him, that He cares about the little things too.
I would have never fathomed the lesson nor the impression God would make on my mother over wallpaper?
A seemingly ridiculous request by the Holy Spirit for something which seems materialistic and unnecessary in light with the Kingdom of God and eternal things, yet, This act of Goodness, which was prompted by the Holy Spirit, spoke volumes of God’s love and concern to someone who was obedient and gave her tithe which is required by God to the church instead of selfishly spending it on herself.
My mother’s unselfish act of tithing was blessed by God getting her, not what she needed, but what she wanted, because she was obedient.
And God blessed her through another believer.
Do you see how God works through each of us?
Psalm 37:4
“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
2 Peter 1:3
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”
God wants you to have His goodness.
He wants you to be His presence here today, now.
If you feel you need to develop this fruit of God, or perhaps you’ve never accepted the Lord, come forward during the last song and we will pray with you.
If you have another concern, or would like healing, The Book of James tells us to go to the Elders of the church and let them anoint you with oil, lay hands on you and pray for you.
Let’s do this now, and listen to the Holy Spirit prompting you, and be doers of God’s word.
