Peeled 6

Goodness

Welcome to our series "Peeled."

We are examining the Fruit of the Spirit and discovering characteristics of a life changed by Christ.

Here’s what we know about fruit, fruit is never grown overnight, it must be cultivated.

Picture your life like a piece of fruit. When you are peeled is the fruit sweet or sour?

We are peeling back the layers of the Fruit of the Spirit.

Many say “fruits,” however there are not 9 “fruits” of the Spirit, the Fruit of the Spirit has 9 characteristics, 9 layers if you will.

One Fruit with 9 attributes.

These Fruit taken together make up the character of Christ.

Some people try to pick and choose their way through the Fruit of the Spirit. Many pray and ask God to “give” them the fruit of the Spirit. Gifts are given. Fruit is cultivated.

Galatians 5:22-23 NLT But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

The Fruit of the Spirit is a description of the character qualities found in Christ.

So far we have examined Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, and Kindness.

This week let’s examine Goodness.

Goodness is perhaps one of the most significant words used to describe God’s character.

1. God is Good.

a.) Goodness is Who God is. God’s Character.

The Hebrew word for Goodness (Chesed) is often translated as mercy or lovingkindness. Lovingkindness is unfailing love.

Chesed means loyal love – it refers to God’s loyalty and faithfulness to His covenant.

1 Chronicles 16:34 NKJV Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

Psalm 34:8 NIV Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Psalm 100:4-5 NKJV Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

⁵ For the LORD is good. His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures all generations

Exodus 33:18-19 NKJV And he said, “Please show me Your glory.”

¹⁹ Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

Exodus 34:5-7 NKJV Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. ⁶ And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, ⁷ keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

b.) Goodness is What God does. God’s attitude and practice.

Psalm 145:8-9 NKJV The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,

Slow to anger and great in mercy. ⁹ The Lord is good to all,

And His tender mercies are over all His works.

Psalm 119:68 NKJV You are good, and do good;

Teach me Your statutes.

James 1:17 NIV Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

God wants us to know Him as the source of all good things, and when He says no, He wants us to trust Him, that He knows what is best. He wants us to learn to take no for an answer instead of taking matters into our own hands.

2. A False Understanding.

Many today have a false understanding of what is good.

Psalm 73 begins and ends with the word good.

Asaph, the writer of Psalm 73, had a false understanding of what is good. He writes of his journey to understanding the goodness of God.

Asaph’s misunderstanding of the word good is the same misunderstanding of many people today.

Asaph is describing a season in which he was struggling mentally and spiritually.

His struggle was understanding the goodness of God. Particularly His goodness toward the people of Israel.

Psalm 73:1 NIV Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

To Asaph, this statement was a declaration that those who belong to the Lord would continually receive the Lord’s blessings.

And those who didn’t belong to the Lord would be the recipients of continued difficulties.

   

Psalm 73:2 NIV But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.

Asaph admits to his readers that he strayed far off course. He was so far from the truth that he came close to destruction. In his words, “his feet had almost slipped” (verse 2).

He seems to be confessing that he considered giving up the faith and forsaking the way of righteousness, supposing that it was of no real benefit.

3. A Distorted Perspective.

Asaph had a distorted perspective.

His perspective caused him to envy those who were wicked.

He didn’t hate their sin, he envied their success.

A). Envy.

Psalm 73:3-5 NIV For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. ⁴ They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. ⁵ They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills.

As Asaph looked around, all he saw was wicked people with great wealth. He saw people who apparently lived without pain seeming to enjoy the high life, fat with material blessings, always having all they could ever want or need.

What is envy? – RESENTING God’s goodness in someone else and IGNORING God’s goodness to me.

Envy thrives on the idea that “God owes me.”

Envy causes us to look at what others have that we don’t. Then we become jealous of the people who have what we want – beauty, abilities, possessions, etc.

We begin to tell God, “It’s your fault!” “If you’d have taken care of me the way you have taken care of them, I would be much better off.”

Our problem is not really with people whose things we envy. Our problem is with God. Envy has convinced us that God actually owes us something, and our sickness causes us to hold a grudge against God.

Envy begins to grow in our heart when we become jealous because we didn’t get what we wanted but someone else did.

Envy begins to grow in our heart and feeds on our jealousy over others

The real problem with envy is that we are trying to find fulfillment in things that were never meant to bring fulfillment.

We’re jealous because others have things that we think could make us happier, or could make our life easier.

If left unchecked our desires can grow into serious sins.

The longer you cultivate feelings of jealousy, the harder it is to uproot them. The time and place to deal with jealousy and envy is when you notice yourself keeping score of what others have and you don’t.

Asaph was keeping score. And he thought he was losing out!

Psalm 73:3-5 NIV For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. ⁴ They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. ⁵ They are free from common human; they are not plagued by human ills.

B. Poor Me!

Not only did Asaph envy the wicked, but he was self-righteous and consumed with self-pity.

Psalm 73:12-13 NIV This is what the wicked are like — always free of care, they go on amassing wealth. ¹³ Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; and have washed my hands in innocence.

Asaph begins to feel that his righteous lifestyle was pointless.

This is where Asaph almost slips into sin! His sin was believing his sufferings were unfair punishments from God.

He is basically saying, “I’ve done everything I am supposed to do. I’ve done everything right, even enduring hardships – for nothing! I’ve done everything right and yet I am still suffering.

Psalm 73:14-15 NIV All day long I have been afflicted; and every morning brings new punishments. ¹⁵ If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children.

Asaph’s suffering brought him to the brink of a deadly sin: accusing God of being unfaithful or unconcerned!

When calamity falls on us, when trials come our way or when we are grieving, we must guard our hearts from slipping into unbelief.

According to our human thinking, life should be like this:

If we give everything to God, we should have a clear path to glory, with no obstacles to slow us down or block our way. No trials, no suffering.

Yet the truth is… when you look at trials and suffering through human eyes, they never make sense.

4. Trust God is Good.

What are we to do when our dreams are crushed and die right in front of us? We are to trust God is good.

When it seems those who are evil and wicked have more success and prosperity that we do. Trust God is Good.

A. What changed Asaph’s perspective?

Psalm 73:16-17 NIV When I tried to understand all this,

it troubled me deeply ¹⁷ till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.

As Asaph thought about the Lord and all His goodness, he began to realize, “I’m not the one who is slipping, they are!”

To guard our hearts from slipping into the sin of unbelief, we must get alone with God!

James 4:8-10 NIV Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Exodus 33:3 NIV Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

Hebrews 10:22-25 NIV let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

²³ Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. ²⁵ not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

B). The strength of our life.

Psalm 73:23-28 NIV Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. ²⁴ You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. ²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. ²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. ²⁷ Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

²⁸ But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.

As Asaph waited before the Lord, he began to see the whole picture.

Yes you may be suffering. Yes you're strength may be failing. Yes you are enduring a great battle with many afflictions.

But you’re not alone in your struggles. You have a loving Father in heaven that watches over you.

When Asaph realizes that God is his refuge, he is able to rest. He had almost slipped, but he’d held on.

2 Timothy 1:8-14 NIV So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. ⁹ He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, ¹⁰ but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. ¹¹ And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. ¹² That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

¹³ What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴ Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Closing:

Now Asaph understands the “goodness” of God in a different way. He has a new definition for “good.”

In verse 1, “good” really meant the absence of pain, difficulty, trouble, sorrow, poor health, or poverty.

In verse 28, “good” means something far better than physical prosperity:

²⁸ But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.

Nearness to God is our highest good. 

When God brings suffering and adversity into our lives, our confidence in His goodness should not be undermined. Instead, we should be reassured of His goodness to us.

As we allow the Holy Spirit to cultivate the fruit of Goodness in our lives, we will begin to see others as God sees them.

We will live to let His love live through us.

We will serve others and seek to lead them to know Christ as their Lord and Savior.

We will live with the purpose of being available to meet the needs of others.

How? Through fellowship, hospitality, benevolence, encouragement, and most of all love.

Have you been testifying of God’s strength in your life? Or have you decided the devil has more power than the Spirit of God who lives in you?

We must get our eyes off of people and focus of the Lord. He is our strength. He is goodness.

He has reasons for everything He allows in your life. He may not always tell you the reason, but He promises to be the strength of your heart through it all.

Psalm 135:3 NIV Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant.

You Are Good - Bethel