Fruits of the Spirit 07 - Goodness

Reading: Titus 2:11-15
who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. Titus 2:14 (NIV)

I.   My Goodness!

     A.  Falling short

           1.  Read Psalm 53:1-3

                 a.  There is no one who does good, not even one.

                 b.  The fool says in his heart, There is no God.

                       (1)      In our foolishness we live as if God weren’t watching or didn’t care.

           2.  Romans 3:23: For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.

           3.  Sin means “miss the mark.”

                 a.  We miss the mark and fall short of the goal. We don’t even hit the target.

     B.  The inner Battle

           1.  Read Romans 7:14-23 (from The Message)

           2.  I try and I fail. Parts of me are at war with other parts of me.

           3.  The harder I try to do it by just following the rules the harder it gets to keep the rules!

     C.  My perfect Mask

           1.  As a piece of fruit still in need of a lot of maturing, I choose to pretend.

           2.  I paint myself red, I wear clothes to make me look bigger than I am, and I take sugar substitutes to at least taste sweet.

                 a.  I am a piece of plastic fruit.

                 b.  I might not go bad, but beyond being something to look at, I’m not worth much.

           3.  I wear my mask because I want to hide the truth about myself from you. The truth is my fruit of goodness is still green and small and sour. What should I do?

II.  Get it? Got it. Good!

     A.  We need to get Rescued

           1.  We need to be rescued from the consequences of our sin — namely punishment.

           2.  We need to be rescued from the stranglehold that sin has on us.

                 a.  We need forgiveness and healing.

           3.  We do not need better masks!

     B.  God rescues us

           1.  What Paul told the Romans he instructs Titus to tell the folks in Crete: Jesus rescues us from wickedness and purifies us (v.14)!

           2.  Romans 3:24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

           3.  A woman drove around a barrier into a flooded river. She was stuck in her car, surrounded by water, which was even crashing over the top of the car. Besides that she couldn’t swim. The Phoenix fire dep’t still rescued her, at the risk of their own lives, because that is what they do.

                 a.  God sees us stuck and sinking, dying in our own sins. He reaches out to rescue us.

                 b.  Will you take His outstretched hand?

     C.  God Makes us good

           1.  Unlike the Phoenix fire dep’t, God not only gets us out of our jam, He works in our hearts to help us do better.

                 a.  The rescuers could only say “Don’t do that again.”

                 b.  God says “I’m going to help you not fall into that trap again.” (And even if we do, he’ll rescue us again!)

           2.  What does doing good look like?

                 a.  It’s not simply keeping rules.

                 b.  As Paul put it in another place: The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.(Galatians 5:6b)

           3.  God wants to “purify for himself a people that are his very own.”

                 a.  We may not look like much, but we “clean up good.”

                 b.  Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise — don’t let anyone tell anyone else otherwise (v.15)

                 c.  Don’t let anyone despise you. After all, you know what God is making you into! (v.15)

III. Getting good and Excited! (v.14)

     A.  Just say “No!”

           1.  Say no to (reject) ungodliness — literally an attitude of disregard for God: to live as if God doesn’t matter.

           2.  Say no to “worldly passions” — to desires that don’t get off the ground, that look around but never up, that are stuck to the planet and never reach to the stars.

     B.  An awakening Desire

           1.  Something else happens: God makes us into a people “eager to do what is good” (v.14)

           2.  God’s grace teaches us to say no but also to say yes to self-control, uprightness and godliness.

     C.  Doing good Imperfectly

           1.  Have we gotten there yet?

                 a.  Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phil.3:12-14 (NIV)

           2.  Eager to do good, means I try even if I’m not going to be perfect. Even if I mess up. Even if what little good I do is still marred by my imperfections. I’ll do the best I can because God working in me excites me to strive for more — like running ahead for the finish line (I’m not there yet, but I’m doing all I can to get there.)

           3.  What do we do if our goodness fruit is still too green and too small and too sour?

                 a.  Are you brave enough to stop being plastic?

The Bottom Line:

.