Fruitful Goodness
Fruit Bearing • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
There is no doubt God’s children are to produce good fruit in their lives.
35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.
Luke 6:35 (ESV)
35 But love your enemies, and do good…
One cannot be good however, unless they first understand the difference between…
Good & Evil
Good & Evil
This Sounds Simple.
This Sounds Simple.
I complete get that this concept of understanding good from evil sounds simple and most think they understand it, but I’m here right now to explain that most simply do not.
The reason for this is simple, most have no earthly idea what is “good and evil” from God’s perspective and yet if we are going to bear the fruit of goodness in our lives we must.
This is evident by the amount of people that think they are “good people” yet have never actually studied to determine what God considers a good person to be.
There are so many people that think “if others just judge me as a good person I will make it to heaven.”
How many funerals have you heard wherein you know that person never was a Christian but heard it stated over and over how “good of person” so and so was and that they are in heaven?
You might say, how is it that most don’t understand the difference between good and evil and the reason for this is because most don’t understand what the word “good” actually means.
Today, people will say everything from “this slice of pizza is good” to “I had a good cry” to “I met a good person.”
In each instance the word good is used differently and means something different.
God’s Definition.
God’s Definition.
We certainly find the word “good” used throughout the scriptures.
So how do we find God using the word good?
In the very beginning we see God using the word good concerning his creation.
With each of the first five days of creation In Genesis 1 God we read, “And God saw that it was good.”
10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
With the sixth day completed, we read…
Genesis 1:31 (ESV)
31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
It is clear that God is declaring that what was created and how it was created “pleased him.”
It certainly should be said that, that which please God is good then.
We also find God is good.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Notice, that the characteristic of the Spirit is goodness.
What makes God good?
God is pure.
5 Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.
God is holy.
2 “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
God is forgiving.
31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
God is generous.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
It is clear then that what ever comes forth from God is good.
1 Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
Summary
Summary
Goodness is that which comes forth from God and therefore is pleasing to God.
So then what makes…
A Good Person
A Good Person
Seeking To Please God.
Seeking To Please God.
The apostle Paul gives us a great synopsis of this in Romans 12:1.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Being a good person by seeking God is presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice.
39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Being a good person by seeking God is presenting our bodies as holy.
Leviticus 11:44 (ESV)
44 For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves…
15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Being a good person by seeking God is presenting our bodies as acceptable to God.
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Summary
Summary
When we seek to please God, as God wants to be pleased, we will develop the characteristics of God and be “a good person.”
Being a good person is not based on what other people might consider about you as being good.
Being a good person is not based on what you “want God to say is good about you.”
No, being a good person is please God as God wants to be pleased which is only done by doing God’s will with the right heart.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
Conclusion
Conclusion
As William Tyndale once stated…
“God’s goodness is the root of all goodness; and our goodness, if we have any, springs out of his goodness.”
In other words, one can only be good and be fruitful in goodness if God’s goodness is springing forth through us the branches.
I’m so thankful for the church here in Ramona and I’m reminded of Paul’s words in Romans 15:14…
14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.