The Fruit of Holy Spirit – 6

The Fruit of Holy Spirit – 6

Subject: Walking in the Fruit of the Spirit - Goodness

By Rick Welborne

Galatians 5:22-26 (NKJV)
²²  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
²³  gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
²⁴  And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
²⁵  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.  

²⁶  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

--We have already looked at the fruit of the Spirit…love, joy, peace, longsuffering, and kindness…tonight we will be looking at goodness. 

The Fruit of the Spirit - Goodness

Goodness – the state or quality of being good. Moral excellence, virtue. Kindness, generosity. Excellence of quality. The best part of anything. Essence or strength.

Biblical goodness - in man, goodness is not a mere passive quality, but the deliberate preference of right to wrong, the firm and persistent resistance of all moral evil, and the choosing and following of all moral good.

--From this Biblical definition of goodness I see three things I want us to look at. 

A Deliberate Preference of Right, A Persistent Resistance of all Moral Evil, and The Choosing and Following of that which is Good. 

1. A Deliberate Preference of Right. 

--It sounds like God expects us to make a willful choice to do what is right and what is virtuous in His sight…really what is in His Word. Paul says it like this. Look at the two translations.

Ephesians 5:7 (NKJV) ⁷  Therefore do not be partakers with them. 

Ephesians 5:7 (NCV) ⁷  So have nothing to do with them.

--If we will walk in righteousness and if we will have the fruit of the Spirit ‘goodness’ we will have to be deliberate in all of our ways and all of our choices. 

--As far as people who are choosing to do evil and to live contrary to God’s will and Word, we must not partake with them, we must have nothing to do with them. 

--Probably the thing that has been most difficult to understand as a pastor is seeing people who know better, partake, fellowship with, become partners with, participate with people walking in darkness. 

--If that is not enough, they try to convince me that God is okay with what they are doing because now is their time to be happy and to enjoy life. 

--Please show me in the Bible where God gives any of us a pass to live anyway we want to and have the audacity to think or believe God is okay with that. Come out from among them and be separate! 

Galatians 5:19-21 (NLT2)
¹⁹  When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,
²⁰  idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,
²¹  envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

--Maybe we should pause and ask this very important question…why or what would be our motivation to make a deliberate choice or to have a deliberate preference to do what is right?

Ephesians 5:7-8 (NKJV) ⁷  Therefore do not be partakers with them.
⁸  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light…

--As a believer, do I really have to ask why I need to be deliberate about living for God. I did not go down a rebellious road, I didn’t smoke, drink, or do drugs. All of us are still in darkness until Jesus.

 Psalm 18:28 (NIV) ²⁸  You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. 

--So because I was once darkness and because God has turned my darkness into light, I should make a deliberate choice or have a preference to do what is right.

--God deserves all the glory and deserves for me to want to or prefer to follow Him instead of the things of this world. One brought me liberty and freedom while the other held me in chains of darkness. 

Psalm 37:3 (NKJV) ³  Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

2. A Persistent Resistance of all Moral Evil

Ephesians 5:11-12 (NLT2)
¹¹  Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them.
¹²  It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.

Resistance - the refusal to accept or comply with something; the attempt to prevent something by action or argument. Synonyms: opposition to · hostility to · aversion to · refusal to accept. The ability not to be affected by something, especially adversely.

--Verse 11 says take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness. In other words, we refuse to accept them or comply with them. We oppose them…we refuse to accept them.

--I am so afraid that the Church has bought into this idea of tolerance and hate speech. We are not to confront anyone with their evil ways. Ridiculous! The Bible says to expose them.

--Resistance to evil is not just doing the evil but also talking about evil and sin with great affection…¹² It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.

--We have all heard people talk about their past with such longing that they sound like Israel when God brought them out of Egypt…they complained so much that God killed some with fire. They continued.

Numbers 11:4-6 (NKJV)
⁴  Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: "Who will give us meat to eat?
⁵  We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic;
⁶  but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!"

--Careful, Christians, when you say that Jesus, the Bread of Life is not enough to satisfy the desires of your heart and you start looking back at the world desiring to go back. 

--It takes tenacity and fortitude to resist the evil of our day. We and our children, our grandchildren are being attacked from so many directions. Our advancement in technology has made us vulnerable. 

 James 4:4 (NLT2) ⁴  You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 

--Many seem not to understand this principle of God but nevertheless it is true…God will help us through whatever we are facing but we have to work with Him. 

--It takes us humbling ourselves, resisting the devil, drawing near to God, having clean hands, having pure hearts, being broken and repenting…this is our part!

--God’s part…to give favor to the humble, to come close to you, and to lift you up! See how we work with God at resisting evil and drawing near to Him. As we do, He comes running!

3. The Choosing and Following of that which is Good. 

--The choosing and following of that which is good leads us to a place where we need to just Stop It! Video

--If you have been noticing we have referred back to the Apostle Paul in Eph. 5 again and again. Paul is showing us in these verses how to have the fruit of the Spirit…goodness!

--Goodness as a fruit of the Spirit is A Deliberate Preference of Right, A Persistent Resistance of all Moral Evil, and The Choosing and Following of that which is Good. 

Ephesians 5:14-20 (NLT2)
¹⁴  for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”
¹⁵  So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.
¹⁶  Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.
¹⁷  Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.
¹⁸  Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,
¹⁹  singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts.
²⁰  And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

--Paul is saying ‘Wake up!’ What a great message for the church! Christ will give you light that will lead you to goodness. Be careful how you live…don’t live like fools.

--Give thought to the will of God for you. Don’t be intoxicated by this world but be filled with Holy Spirit! Be a worshiper, Give thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! Find goodness!

--Choose to be filled with Holy Spirit and to walk in the fruit of the Spirit – goodness!