Sermon Tone Analysis

Main Point: Doing what is right and loving others for the Glory of God

Christmas:

- It is amazing how the promise of a pile of gifts can cause children to behave.

Main Point: Goodness is doing what is right, while loving others.

- During the month of December, in different places around the world children all of a sudden begin to listen to their parents, stop fighting with their siblings

Today, we are continuing our series on the Fruit of the Spirit

Our new fruit today is Goodness

For the longest time, Goodness was very difficult for me to wrap my head around.

Why?

Well, What did we talk about last Sunday?........ Kindness

Kindness was

When I began studying, I wanted to make sure I had a good understanding of Goodness

So like many preachers, I looked in several dictionaries

When I looked I kept finding a word in common

You know how sometimes dictionaries will give you another word to help explain the word being defined

Who can guess what word kept showing up when was looking at Goodness?

KINDNESS!

I was like, “Dang it, Am I going to preach the sermon that John taught”

But Then I kept thinking, Why would Paul put goodness and kindness in the same verse if he was talking about parts of the Fruit of the Spirit?

As I dug deeper into this word Goodness I realized that there is a difference

Although Goodness has a lot to do with Kindness there is something there that we cannot miss

Goodness is this....

Goodness: Doing what is right and loving others for the Glory of God

Transition:

There are similarities when it comes to Kindness and goodness, but there is something different that we need to understand.

There is also a great danger that we need to be aware of and to watch for in our lives

I have three points for you today

These three points are g

Doing what is right

Loving others

The Self-Righteous Side-Effect

1.) Goodness: Doing what is right

Christmas:

It is amazing how the promise of a pile of gifts can cause children to behave.

During the month of December, in different places around the world children all of a sudden begin to listen to their parents, stop fighting with their siblings

The biggest difference between between goodness and kindness is this idea of Moral Excellence

Moral Excellence or Doing what is right

Basically it means to do good things

As believers in Jesus Christ our lives have been transformed

Our hearts have transformed

Our desires have been changed from wanting to obey sin

To wanting to obey Jesus Christ

This means that we live by the commandments the God has set up for us

God is the ultimate example of goodness

4 How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You To dwell in Your courts.

We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple.

5 By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation, You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea;

68 You are good and do good; Teach me Your statutes.

God is the standard of Goodness

He is perfectly holy, righteous, and just

We say that part of Goodness is Moral Excellence

Well, God himself defines what is moral and what is not

It is all based on his character, Who he is

When we say The Fruit of the Spirit, We are talking about qualities that God, the Holy Spirit has

And one of the great promises that we are given as Christians is the God, The Holy Spirit lives within us

So we get these qualities

One of them being Goodness

The bible tells us that, for us who have been saved, God has created us to do good things

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Here are some questions for you guys

Are you walking in the good deeds that you were created for?

Are you seeking what is good?

Are you the one to comes to someones aid when they are wronged

Someone being made fun of

Someone being bullied

Someone being Gossiped about

Some of you may ask, how do I know what I should seeking?

Does evil make you

8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Transition:

The first part of Goodness is this idea of Moral Excellence

We know that God is the prime example of goodness, in that he defines what is right and what is wrong

We also know that God allows us to be Good through the holy spirit living in us

The next part of Goodness is just as important as the first part we talked about

Goodness is not all about being “Morally Righteous” but it also involves how we interact with others

2.) Goodness: Loving others

- I have been blessed with some pretty awesome friends in my life

- There is one person that sticks out in my mind when I think about “Loving others”

- This person is Ryne Tokunaga

- From the beginning of our friendship Tok has always been this ball of energy and excitement (As you all know)

- As our friendship developed and we got to know each other more and more, I found out something.

- Tok LOVES People

- Tok is always looking out for the interest of others and how he can serve them

- When Tok found out I would joining Jr High he drove all the way from Corona, at night, to encourage me

- Just last night Tok sent me a super encouraging text message

- Tok Loves people, and he is great at demonstrating how we as Christians are to be loving others

What does Goodness have to do with Loving others?

While studying Goodness I found a common theme in the definitions

John MacArthur defines it like this:

“Moral and spiritual excellence manifested in active kindness” (MacArthur, 2006)

Another Commentator says this:

“It conveys the idea of benevolence and generosity toward someone else, a going the second mile when such magnanimity is not required.”

(George, T, 1994)

It conveys the idea of benevolence and generosity toward someone else, a going the second mile when such magnanimity is not required.

Along with doing what is right, our goodness needs to be focused towards others above the norm

10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

The goodness that comes from us is to be directed towards other people, and its degree should be greater than expected

This is the part of goodness that shares qualities with kindness

“Going the second mile” to serve someone and show them love