The Sixth Fruit: Goodness
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
It is hard to believe we are half through with our fruits of the spirit already. Today we find ourselves on Goodness.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
By this time I love the fact that most of us have this now memorized and pray that we continue in this. I want to remind us of the goal of digging into the fruits of the spirit being that we know the ways we are called to live. Last message we looked into Kindness which we found was not the exact meaning of the word in the Bible but Kindness was closely related to Benevolence. We find ourselves in the same position this morning. When we read the word goodness we think of good behavior. Being nice, being good, not being on the naughty list. However the word in the Scripture for Goodness is :
20 ἀγαθωσύνη (agathōsynē), ης (ēs), ἡ (hē): n.fem.; ≡ DBLHebr 3208; Str 19; TDNT 1.18—1. LN 88.1 goodness (Ro 15:14; Gal 5:22; Eph 5:9; 2Th 1:11+); 2. LN 57.109 generosity (Gal 5:22+), for another interp, see prior
Agotasinea is the pronunciation. This word directly translated means generous. The act of goodness is the act of generosity. There is likely no better scripture for us to look into for this idea of generosity than 2 Corinthians 9: 6-15.
While you turn in your Bible to 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 I want to tell you a joke.
A group of men is at the gym club when a cellphone rings. One of the men answers:
"Yes?" he answers
"Hun, is that you? I can hardly hear you."
"Hello!"
"Are you at the gym?"
"Yes!"
"I'm in front of the fur shop and they have this beautiful mink coat. Can I buy it?"
"How much is it?"
"About five thousand dollars."
"Okay, but buy a matching purse that goes with it too my love."
"Well, it also turns out that I stopped by the car dealership today saw they have a brand new BMW on sale, it's the last one."
"How much is the sale?"
"Only sixty thousand dollars!"
"Fine, buy it, but you have to get it with all of the accessories, and if it costs a little more, I won't get mad."
The woman, realizing all of her requests were being approved, decided to take a risk.
"Honey, remember that I told you that my mother wants to come live with us? Is it okay if I invite her over for a month, just to try it out, and after a month we can talk about it again."
"Okay, fine, but don't ask me for anything else okay?"
"Yes, yes, I love you so much baby."
"Love you too, bye."
As soon as he hangs up the man turns to look at the group and asks:
"Does anyone know whose cellphone this is?"
Generosity is alway easier when it is someone elses time, money, and effort. God calls us to live a life of generosity. Today we will see three aspects of generosity. First Generosity is led by the spirit. Second generosity is provided by God. Third generosity is multiplied.
6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 9 As it is written,
“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.”
10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. 12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. 13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, 14 while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. 15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!
We continue to search for how the Spirit will call us to live and with that in mind lets seek the Spirit this morning in prayer.
Generosity is led by the Spirit
Generosity is led by the Spirit
7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
The concept of something coming from your heart is the idea that is is neither reluctant or compulsive. The spirit of God will draw you to have a heart that is generous. This idea of generosity being planned from the heart is not that you are not so planned that you cannot give when the spirit leads you to but are also not compulsive and giving because of an emotional draw to do so. In this idea of generosity first we must ensure that it is being led by the spirit. We could spend time this morning digging into what someone who gives reluctantly is and what someone who gives out of compulsion is but the purpose of this scripture is to lead the believer to allowing the spirit to lead you to generosity. The fact is that without the spirit you are either a reluctant giver or you are a compulsive giver. We are to listen to the Spirit. The Spirit leads us to make wise choices with the blessings God has given us to bless others with. You know which person you are. Some of you begin the process of recalculating all of your lifes expenses from the time you were born and calculate what giving someone $10 will do over the next 30 years. The some of you are on the other side of this and every time a sad dog shows its face on tv you are writing a check. A believers life should be noticeably marked by being led by the spirit.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
The believer is one that is guided by the Holy Spirit. We make decisions based on the spirits guidance and not based on emotion.
Author Jamie Buckingham once visited a dam on the Columbia River. He'd always thought that the water spilling over the top provided the power, not realizing that it was just froth, that deep within turbines and generators transformed the power of tons and tons of water to electricity--quietly, without notice, not like the flashy froth on top.
When you give according to how the spirit leads you too you will also be a cheerful giver.
A mother wanted to teach her daughter a moral lesson. She gave the little girl a quarter and a dollar for church "Put whichever one you want in the collection plate and keep the other for yourself," she told the girl. When they were coming out of church, the mother asked her daughter which amount she had given. "Well," said the little girl, "I was going to give the dollar, but just before the collection the man in the pulpit said that we should all be cheerful givers. I knew I'd be a lot more cheerful if I gave the quarter, so I did."
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
The generosity of believers is caused by the following of the Holy Spirit, it is also funded by God.
Generosity is funded by God
Generosity is funded by God
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 9 As it is written,
“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.”
10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
When being generous many people think about what they can give. Generosity in faith is dependent on what God funds in your life. Notice what the scripture stated. It states that God is able to make all grace abound to you so you can abound in every good work. God is the one who supplies the seed and he will multiply your seed based on how you sow the seed. Are you sowing the seed with the anticipation that God will provide?
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
Missionary statesman Hudson Taylor had complete trust in God's faithfulness. In his journal he wrote:
Our heavenly Father is a very experienced One. He knows very well that His children wake up with a good appetite every morning... He sustained 3 million Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. We do not expect He will send 3 million missionaries to China; but if He did, He would have ample means to sustain them all... Depend on it, God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
It is God who funds our good works. If you are looking at what you have to bless others then there is an end to the good you can do. God will provide what is necessary for you to be a blessing to others. Blessings from God are for blessing others and using for His kingdom. God does not give us blessings to hold to ourselves for ourselves. We should constantly look for ways to bless others with the blessings we have. As we listen to His spirit and use the blessings in the way He desires for us to He will fund more blessing for more blessing. The generosity of the believer is led by the spirit, funded by God, and multiplied in its effects.
Generosity is multiplied
Generosity is multiplied
11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. 12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. 13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, 14 while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. 15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!
The generosity of the believers will lead to multiplied effects. Through your generosity people will bless God and be thankful to God. You will be thankful to God for using you. The world will see that God is good. The effects of one generous act is multiplied by God to impact the world. Every act of generosity you perform being led by the spirit and funded by God will lead to a multiplied effect of worship to our God.
17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,
19 Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving,
and the voices of those who celebrate.
I will multiply them, and they shall not be few;
I will make them honored, and they shall not be small.
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
God is the source of our blessings and the reason for these blessings being multiplied is that we can make Him known to the world.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
There were once two young men working their way through Leland Stanford University. Their funds got desperately low, and the idea came to one of them to engage Paderewski for a piano recital and devote the profits to their board and tuition. The great pianist's manager asked for a guarantee of two thousand dollars. The students, undaunted, proceeded to stage the concert. They worked hard, only to find that the concert had raised only sixteen hundred dollars. After the concert, the students sought the great artist and told him of their efforts and results. They gave him the entire sixteen hundred dollars, and accompanied it with a promissory note for four hundred dollars, explaining that they would earn the amount at the earliest possible moment and send the money to him. "No," replied Paderewski, "that won't do." Then tearing the note to shreds, he returned the money and said to them: "Now, take out of this sixteen hundred dollars all of your expenses, and keep for each of you 10 percent of the balance for your work, and let me have the rest." The years rolled by--years of fortune and destiny. Paderewski had become premier of Poland. The devastating war came, and Paderewski was striving with might and main to feed the starving thousands of his beloved Poland. There was only one man in the world who could help Paderewski and his people. Thousands of tons of food began to come into Poland for distribution by the Polish premier.
After the starving people were fed, Paderewski journeyed to Paris to thank Herbert Hoover for the relief sent him. "That's all right, Mr. Paderewski," was Mr. Hoover's reply. "Besides, you don't remember it, but you helped me once when I was a student at college and I was in a hole."
When you follow the spirit in goodness you will be a generous person. That generosity will be led by the Spirit, funded by God and lead to multiplying effects. Don’t believe me? Most of you are here this morning because Jesus was led by the Spirit to give His life and it has multiplied blessings to the entire world.