For the rest of us, we turn to Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 through 24, our series during this summer. concentrating on the fruit of the Spirit. I'm going to be reading. You're going to follow along. Galatians chapter 5, 16 through 24. I'm reading from the English Standard Version. Galatians chapter 5, 16 through 24. If you need a Bible, just walk toward the back. One of the guys will see you there and you can have a Bible that you can use. If not, you have your Bible app. Same thing. Here we go. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you're led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. Now the works of the flesh is the catalog of evil, are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Here's a catalog of grace, but the fruit of the Spirit is Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. We took a break from it last week because of July the 4th, somewhat weekend. We return today to the study of fruit of the Spirit. We've been at it for a few weeks now. And again, let me just remind you something I did about two Sundays ago. But I just want to remind you, lest if it's your first time here, lest you think that what we're after is just you striving harder, a greater morality. What Pastor Lewis is telling you is you got to do more. No, no, no, no, no. Listen, few things, just three truths to remember. One, This fruit is the product of the Holy Spirit ministry in the life of the child of God. I'm not calling you to greater self-effort. I'm not calling you to nine different ways of morality. What I'm saying is this is the product of life. is seen here. The product of God in your life. The Spirit of God being in your life and producing the character of Jesus in you. This is what the Lord is after. This is what He's busy doing. He is busy forming, creating the character of Jesus in your life. These are nine attributes that you and I can look at and know and see that the Spirit of God is alive and well in our lives. Number two, this fruit is evidence of the Christians abiding in Christ. If Jesus is at the center, if Jesus is the true vine, then you and I, by virtue of connecting to the vine, this is the fruit that's on the vine. This is what it means to abide, this is what it looks like, to abide means to remain in union, to maintain a living communion, to maintain unbroken fellowship. It's that choosing to be yielded to Jesus Christ. You do that. This is where you and I need to do that. This is how we cooperate with the work of God. Salvation is one-handed, one-directional. The big theological term is monergistic. One way. Sanctification, your growth in Christ, is synergistic. That's a corporate thing. Synergy. You cooperate. It's two-handed. It's God doing His work and we doing ours. We cooperate. That's why you and I need to choose to abide. You and I need to abide by choosing to read His Word. We choose to abide by praying, responding to the spoken Word in our lives. We speak right back to Him. We abide by choosing to be here on the Lord's Day. In South Florida, there's many good things to do on a Sunday morning. Good is always the enemy of best, or great. The best thing you and I can do as the children of God is to come together on the Lord's Day to make much of Him. You and I need to choose to align our affections, our decisions, to His standard of holiness. So much of our daily lives are spent in trying to make excuses so we can accommodate sin. Instead of striving after holiness, grace-driven effort, to make adjustments to reflect the holiness of Christ and the Lordship of Christ in all areas. You know when you're a child of God, when you're going to have the greatest problem? When you go against the work of God in you. This is God waking up, this is you waking up. God doesn't sleep. This is you waking up and saying, I am not going to do it God's way. God is going to say, I am going to do it my way. And you know who's going to lose? We are. Because yes, He loves us just as we are. But He loves us too much to leave us just as we are. That's the beauty of it. So this fruit is the evidence. And lastly, the fruit is produced in all parts. Okay, this is a collective noun. The fruit of the Spirit. It's not the fruits, like there's only one book of Revelation, there's not Revelations. 22 laps, one for every chapter in the book if you say Revelations. All right? This is the fruit of the Spirit. Yes, they're the works, plural, of the flesh. But it's the fruit, it's nine traits, multifaceted. And that's what makes it challenging, because as the Lord uses His Word to shine upon our lives, it's almost as if our lives are bare before Him. And we get to see now metrics. Is there love? Is there joy? Is there peace? Is there patience? Is there kindness? Is there goodness? Is there faithfulness? Is there gentleness? Is there self-control? And to what degree? That is not, yes, we might be prone to one area versus the other. We may be a little more here than there. But He doesn't want us to be deformed. He wants to form us completely. And these are just what we look at here. So far we've studied five of these aspects of the fruit. We've looked at love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness. In their book, The Fruit of the Spirit, Becoming the person God wants you to be the authors tell the following story some of it I'm gonna read it then the last part will be on the screen. So just hold on Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Don't don't get ahead of me because they won't listen to me. Okay, they won't listen to me I've learned that from school. Okay, the teacher that hands out the The paper loses the students. I mean you guys just listen to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so Listen to me. Here we go The Southern California radio announcer kept listeners aware that a flower was about to bloom. I thought, why all this fuss over a flower? I mean, I love flowers, but announcing the blooming of a flower on the news seemed a little extreme. But not for this flower. I've never heard of anything like this before. The flower, native to Indonesia, was billed as the world's largest and could grow more than 6 feet tall. It had bloomed previously only 9 times in the 20th century. And any day, bloom number 10 was about to appear. People flocked into Huntington libraries, art collections, and botanical gardens. to watch and smell. The expectation of many who enjoy smelling flowers may have been the larger the flower, the better the fragrance. This flower, however, had the unusual distinction of being the world's stinkiest. A vile scent is emitted when it fully blooms. A reporter for the USA Today wrote the following, this flower is distantly related to the Kala lily but it looks more like something out of Little Shop of Horrors. It emits an odor that smells like rotting flesh, hence its Indonesian name, bunga bankai, I'm pretty sure I mispronounced that, or corpse flower. Kathy Musical, the library's plant collection curator, explained, the fetid stench is to attract pollinators. It smells like a dead animal to attract dung beetles and carrion beetles. They crawl into the flower and pollinate it. Ain't nature grand? Yeah, yeah. But then they go on to say this, and apply it to you and me on the screen. This flower reminds me of some people. Though they may appear bigger than life because of their financial success, societal status, material possessions, or educational development, when you get near them, they surprise you by emitting a bad attitude, compromising lifestyle, or hardness toward others. What you discover when you begin to know them is different from what seems apparent at a distance. Their stench makes you want to run away from them as quickly as you can. The fruit of the Spirit, on the other hand, has incredible drawing power. Though some of us believers may not be particularly attractive, these incredible God-given attributes make people want to be around us. Whether we're tall, short, wide, thin, rich, poor, famous, or unknown, our godly fruit is a pleasant surprise to those around us. And may the Lord empower us and grant us the ability to be that fragrance that draws people and not repels. May people count it a blessing to know us because of who we are in Christ. This morning we turn our attention to the spiritual fruit called goodness. Goodness and and it's it's you know, it's almost like a first cousin to the one we did studied before which is kindness But goodness, you know deals with the word good and you we like many words in the English language We've taken this word good and just we sort of just use it around like hey you good How you doing today good I bump into someone I go excuse me, what do they tell me you good I And, you know, how were the movies? Good. How are you feeling today? Good. Talk to Asher. Yeah, Asher. Every time I see him. Asher, how's it going? I'm good. So I try to beat him to it. Every time I see him, I go, Asher, I'm good. How are you? Hey, how's that slice of key lime pie? Really good. Oh, we use it for people. So and so is such a good person. Daniel is such a good guy. Handsome, strapping young man. Okay. How about this girl? She's good. How about these guys? They're good. They're good. And when we use that word good with people, we're referring to both their character as well as their behavior. And we begin to understand a little bit how the word good is used in the scriptures. On the screen you'll see, goodness in the Bible refers to uprightness of heart and life. It is good and fitting behavior. It is a matter of integrity and righteous living, where you do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do. The next slide is the Greek word translated goodness is a rare word that combines being good and doing good. It means kindness in actual manifestation, virtue equipped for action, a bountiful propensity both to will and to do what is good, intrinsic goodness producing generosity. It's goodness is kindness in action. Because there's such an overlap between kindness and goodness, the best way to understand it is, goodness is kindness in action. It's not only delivering that which is good, but doing it in a good way. So there's intrinsic value and there's a goodness about it. A few months back, I had a colonoscopy done. 56 years of age never done one. I'm ready for the next five It was the best guys here in the church like dude is the best sleep It's the best sleep and if you've had it look at these guys You know everybody who's had a colonoscopy right now every man's going like this Drinking the stuff wasn't as bad as I thought you know and all the prep work and and I got there and the doctor's good and the anesthesiologist Gets me and and she's kind and she's delivering something that is good. I needed the anesthesia and Because without it, there ain't going to happen no colonoscopy. I'll tell you that much. All right? She's going to deliver through my hand that which is good. But she did it in a very good way. She looked at me and said, Mr. Acosta, listen, we're going to be using Propofol. Propofol and Michael Jackson. Just keep that in mind. That's what did him in. He abused it, and it killed him. So he said, but listen, it's okay. We're going to use a lot less. And I said to them, thank you. All right. Because I do want to wake up. And they said, listen, we're going to put it, and when you feel it, you're going to feel a little burn, and then you're going to go out. And I go, oh, thank you. This mass right here went down like this. But here's the kicker, this is where it applies. She was delivering, the anesthesiologist was delivering something good, intrinsically good. She delivered it using a 23 to 27 gauge needle, not a 60 gauge needle. A 60 gauge needle is a lot different than a 23 to 27 gauge. So she could have delivered something very nice, very good, needed, but in a very drastic way. Child of God, you and I are called to be intrinsically good, and when we act, to do good. Not to be 50 gauge needles in people's lives. That's the catch here. So it's not just, Oh, I'm doing good. Yeah. How are you doing it? Because if nobody wants to be around you, it doesn't matter what you're delivering, whether it's the good news of Jesus or the good news that they got some money. If you're an ogre and you're a 50 gauge needle, who wants you in their life? That's the catch here. So now you know, every time you see goodness, you'll think of my colonoscopy. All right. Goodness in the Bible is not simply who you are, but what you do and how you act, and it's done. The goodness, what's intrinsically good, is delivered in a good way. That's goodness. So let's take a closer look at this goodness, this fruit of the Spirit called goodness. So number one, goodness in relation to God. What does the Bible tell us about goodness and God? Well, number one, God is good. Yeah, I was waiting for some Pentecostals in here. Come on, man. Let's go some Bapticosals. Feel it. Feel it, baby. God is good. And all the time? Yeah, you see? You guys have been there. Get rid of that kind of stuff, okay? Maybe you can keep a beat next time we sing, all right? That's right. God is good. And that's what the Bible says all the time. I'm not never going to stop. All right. It's like now you're the broken record. All right. Now you're the 50 gauge thing here. Okay. Psalm 34, a taste and see that the Lord is good. Blesses the man who takes refuge in him. Psalm 145, nine. The Lord is good to all. He has compassion on all that He has made. And we see His goodness displayed in creation. We see His goodness in His care for His people, the Israelites, as they go through the Exodus and beyond and throughout the Old Testament Scriptures. We see His goodness by sending His Son to provide salvation for His own. We see His goodness by Him sending the Holy Spirit on the day of ascension. We see that He is good because of the coming eternal glory that awaits the people of God. God is good. 1 John 1, 5 tells us that God is light, in Him there is no darkness at all. And light is a symbol of all that's good and true and pure. And what the Bible is declaring is that God is good. And let me tell you, you and I need to understand this because when life gets hairy, when life gets painful, when the diagnosis is not what we're expecting, when the The circumstances change to what you and I call bad, sad. When you and I are busy with aging parents, and parents that are aging, and not only aging, but they're also sick. And it's just a long and extended goodbye. Are you feeling that? It's just a long and extended goodbye. You still got to remember that God is good. He meets you there. He was not good before and now He's good now. Or He was good then and not now. Even during the valleys, God remains good. Therefore, number two, only God is good. Not only is God good, the Bible says that only God is good. When you define it that way, that's why when in the New Testament, in Mark chapter 10, and the other parallel passages of the New Testament, when Jesus meets the rich young ruler, and the rich young ruler says, good teacher, what should I do to inherit the kingdom of God? And Jesus goes, why do you call me good? There's only one that's good, and that's God. Don't think that Jesus is saying, don't call me God. The contrary, He's saying, do you understand what you're declaring when you say good teacher? The Scriptures, the Hebrew Scriptures declare that only God is good. And if you can address me as good, then I will take it because I and God are the same. Me and God are the same. That's what he's after. Why do you call me good unless you are also willing to call me God? That's what he's after. See, when it comes to you and me, we're not good. If Michelle Bellamy was here, she would say, no bueno. And if you're listening, watching, no bueno. Put it there on the thread there, okay? No bueno. The Bible says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So God is good, only God is good. Number three, God only does good. Psalm 119, 68. You are good and what you do is good. Teach me your decrees. Not only is He intrinsically good, but what He does is good. That's why you and I can find comfort in Romans 8, 28. It'll be on the screen there. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to His purpose. Whatever God is doing in your life is for your good. Whatever work He's busy creating and doing in your life is for your good. He gets the glory, you get the good. We don't think that way. See, that's why you got to read the dead guys. The big guys are people who lived many years ago, most of them are called Puritans, alright? They understood some things about God, that you and I, living in the United States of America in this 21st century of shallow Christianity, we just don't wrap our heads around sometimes. But Thomas Watson said the following, If it's good for us, we shall have it. If it's not good for us, then the withholding of it is good. Park there! Park there! When was the last time you said to the Lord, thank you for answering prayers? No. Watson is right. If it's good for us, we shall have it. God doesn't play our tricks as parents. Maybe, maybe you got to earn it. Do you really want that phone? Do you really want that data plan? How are you going to get that? Do you really want that subscription? And we play this, we barter for good behavior. If it's good for us, we shall have it. If it's not, the withholding of it is good. Paul goes before the Lord with a thorn, what he describes as a messenger of Satan. A thorn in the side. And we don't know, and scholars will go back and forth, was it an ailment to physical, his eyes, his stomach? Was it spiritually oppression because it's a messenger of Satan? Or was it in-laws? We really don't know. All we know is that he says to the Lord, three times, take it away. What did God say three times? Talk to me. Yeah, that's a nice fancy way to say no! And Paul was still at the center of God's will even when God answered no. Child of God, you and I need to take that with us. There are days, seasons, times of our lives where the withholding of something is God saying, that's how much I love you. And by doing so, I keep you close because you and I know that when life is good, God is optional. When life is good, God is optional. When life gets a little tough, then all of a sudden He becomes essential. It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be. God only does good. That's why James 1.17, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. He is good and He does only good. So that's goodness in relation to God. How about goodness in relation to you and me? To us? To us? What can we say if good fruit comes from a good heart and bad fruit comes from a bad heart? What do we need to understand? We need to understand the concept of heart. Before we can say anything other. We need to understand that the Bible addresses the heart, not so much the physical organ. In short, the heart is the core of our being. It's holistic. The Hebrews looked at it holistically. This term stood for the inner part of a person, referring to the will, the mind, the consciousness, emotions, understanding. Yes, primarily of the mind. That's why it's guard your heart, guard your mind. But it's much more than that. It refers to the person's moral character and determination. And this is why you and I need to understand heart, goodness and us in relation to us. What about that heart? Well, number one, good and evil both come from the heart. Matthew 15, 19 says, for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. Evil just doesn't happen. They spring from the heart. And the heart can spring with good, and from the heart can come also evil. Evil. In fact, in Luke 6, it'll be on the screen there, Jesus says, For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble brush. The good person, out of the good treasure of his heart, produces good, and the evil person, out of his evil treasure, produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. In other words, our words and actions show us up. People can tell by the way we behave, what our affections say about us. Not just our decisions, our affections, the why that drove you here this morning. Why are you here this morning? Not the what that you're here this morning, the why, what woke you up. Do you understand? There's so many other things you could have done. For me it's the beach, it's that... An hour in the beach is better than long hours at the office, I'll tell you that much. Okay? But why? Why? What gets you here three out of four Sundays? What gets you here? What keeps you from being distracted and dissuaded so easily? See, the Bible says that goodness can come from the heart, both evil and good. But here's the catch. Number two, our hearts outside of Christ are desperately wicked. This is what would be a biblical position on humanity. You only use the big words for a Scrabble game, okay? Biblical anthropology. Who are we as humans? Are we born good? Are we born neutral? Just like we said last Sunday, neutrality is a myth in culture. Neutrality is a myth in humanity. We're not born like little saints. Listen, you might think your child is an angel, that child dropped the halo and the wings a long time ago. Okay? So the reality is that we are outside of Christ, outside of Christ. Yes, we need to deal with our individual sinful acts, but more than that, we need to deal with the fruit of corruption that we inherit from Adam, our forefather. That's what's at stake. That's why we do what we do. We sin because we're sinners. Not so much sinners because we sin. The dog barks. If the dog meows, we got a problem. Okay? If your big husky dog comes up to you and goes, meow, we got a problem. He's not behaving according to his nature. But when sinners sin, they're behaving according to nature. That's just how it works. Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it? See, you'll meet people and you sometimes will ration it out, because you compare yourself horizontally and you go, I'm not that good, I'm not that bad, I got a good heart. Well, of course your heart would tell you that, why? Because it's deceived. The sinfulness of sin has caused you to look this way and compare yourself to someone worse than you. Have you ever noticed you always compare yourself to someone worse? You never look at someone that's better and go, I'm the worst guy. No, no, you always go like, look at that snake in the grass. I'm sure glad I'm not that snake in the grass. But the minute you go from horizontal to vertical, it's all, you all fall short. I fall short. Romans chapter 3 verses 10-12, as it is written, none is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. In our character we are corrupted. Our conversation, if you read the rest of that Romans 3 passage, our conversation is corrupted. Our conduct is corrupted. It was Lord Acton, I think, that said that power tends to corrupt. An absolute power, what? Corrupts absolutely. Well, here's the Bible. The Bible says that sin corrupts. An absolute sin, what? Corrupts absolutely. And outside of Christ, you and I have no desire to do it God's way. Oh, we may put on a little mask of doing it God's way on a Sunday, but when the ethics of Jesus, of what it means to belong to Him, and what it means to believe and live for Him, are impressed upon our lives, like we've said here before. We love to count on the promises and stand on the promises of God, but to live under the authority of God's Word, a whole different story. Whole different story. See, goodness can only be measured by God. God is the standard of goodness. If you start comparing, oh, I'm not as bad as Martha, because listen, can you imagine? Oh, and Eddie, oh my gosh. Zadie? Rasta. Forget that. He's wearing a pink shirt, for God's sake. OK? So as long as I'm going this way, it's a false standard of measurement. It's like the little boy comes up to his mom. He's about four foot tall. He says, hey, mom. You know I'm 8 foot tall. Any mom worth her salt is not going to just crush him. She goes, really? How do you think? He goes, because I measured myself. I'm 8 foot tall. He's 4 foot tall. She goes, and what do you use to measure? He looks into his pocket and goes, this right here. A 6 inch ruler. But it's a false standard because he thinks 6 inches is 1 foot. Therefore, 8 of these make me 8 feet. In reality, he's only what? For you, my friend, outside of the grace of Christ, we're using the wrong standard. We love to measure ourselves in relation to others, but we dare not, we don't measure up before God. We're using the wrong one. That's what happens outside the grace of Christ. Thanks be to God that He doesn't save us because we're good. He saves us because He is good. That's the beauty. Our hearts outside of Christ are desperately wicked. They're without remedy beyond cure. To do good deeds that are pleasing to the Lord, we need not just a heart worked on, we need a heart transplant. We need to become new, regenerated. That's exactly what the Lord provides. Number three, God gives you a new heart so you can trust in Christ. That which He promises, He delivers. That which He promises in the New Covenant. Ezekiel 36, 26. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. See, God knows that we need a new heart because our hearts naturally don't want to follow after Him. Our hearts naturally don't beat after the things that please the Lord. Our hearts naturally beat after the things that we find. Delicious. We find pleasing. We don't care how God finds them. See, He provides a new heart to replace your new one. This is the spiritual biography of every child of God. If you want to read your spiritual biography, go with me in your Bible, Ephesians. That's the next book to the right. You're in Galatians, right after Galatians comes Ephesians. Okay, chapter 2. Chapter 2. This is your spiritual biography, child of God. Chapter 2, verse 1. Here's the bad news. And you were dead. Not sick, dead. That means unable to respond to external stimuli. You're dead. In the morgue, everyone's dead. There might be degrees of, you know, just the bodily decomposing. But everybody's dead. It's not like you're going to tickle this person under the arm and go, oh my gosh, I woke up. They're dead. You are dead. in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." Bad news! Here's the best word, but! Circle it. I have it circled in my Bible. Circle it in yours. Circle it in your neighbor's Bible. Make a friend. Highlight it on your Bible app. But! But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive, regenerated, gave us a new heart, together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that, purpose clause, in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace. Kindness towards us in Christ Jesus in every testimony who's who's who gets the glory God has to get the glory If God is not the hero of your story, you don't got a story God has to be the hero of your story of your testimony He's the one who makes difference you're born this way But God intervenes if God doesn't intervene you don't change you don't turn you love it. We're not victims of darkness We're lovers of darkness We don't want people knowing who we are in private. When God shines His light on us, we go like roaches. We run and we make excuses and we blame this one and that one and our upbringing and because of here and the white guy and the powers and this one and that one. for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of work so that no one may boast verse 10 this is where you and I are spiritual biography what we were how Christ changes us where we are today we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in him in them see elsewhere the Bible says this on the screen Therefore, if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. God grants you a new heart, changes you, regenerates, gives you life so you can respond through repentance and faith. He replaces that with a heart then that beats after his. He empowers the heart to produce good deeds that glorify God out of the goodness of a new heart. God is the one who does that. God gets the glory. So when it relates to God, God is good. Only God is good. And God only does good. When it relates to you and me, yes, our hearts could produce good and bad. The problem is outside of Christ, we're idol-making factories. We love to worship ourselves. We love to sing the song, not how great thou art, but how great I art. And then God has to intervene. He has to provide the remedy to the situation by giving us a new heart so we can trust in Christ. So now we got goodness. Now there's this possibility for goodness to flow and to blossom and to flourish in our lives. How do we grow? How do we grow in that goodness? How do we grow? Let me give you some steps as we start our descent. You felt it? We're descending. We're almost done. You'll hear the wheels come out soon. Number one, confess your sins and seek to live a holy life for God. Confess your sin. Psalm 51 verse 10, creating me a clean or pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Only God can create a new heart for us, and only God can renew our hearts as many times as we need it. We need to pursue it. That's why David, you know it, if you know the history behind or the story behind Psalm 51, David has committed adultery, David has committed murder, David has broken many laws. He is guilty. But because of confession of sin, he now is restored. And that's what He says, create in me. And when He uses the word create, He acknowledges that we are indebted, He is indebted, you are indebted, I am indebted, we are indebted entirely to the grace of God. Not only for our right standing before God, that's justification, that's the right standing before God. Not only do we owe that to the Lord and to Jesus and His work on the cross, but also the work of forging Christ in us. the work of sanctification, of growing in the character of Jesus, that we're indebted to grace. From start to finish, it's a work of grace in our lives. Take this with you, it's on the screen from first to last. The Christian life is a matter of grace. Grace initiates our salvation, it sustains our salvation, and it will complete our salvation. That's three tenses. Justified, sanctified, glorified. You have been saved, you are being saved, and you will be saved. That's the Bible. That's the salvation that God provides. That's why you don't have to worry about losing what you've never earned. When God has you in His grip, even when you release it, He still has you in His grip. That's the beauty of it. That's the beauty. So confess it. Pursue holiness. Number two, seek to glorify God by doing good works. We looked at Matthew 5.13-16 last time, last Sunday, and we learned that we were called to be. We're called to be salt. We're called to be light. And both have one thing in common. Talk to me. Make me proud right now. What do they have in common? They are what? Say it a little louder, lady. Influence. One is hidden. One is visible. Influence. Matthew 5.16 says in the same way, let your light, because a city and a hill can't be denied, because you don't get something that provides a light to the entire household, you don't put a light in the center of the home and cover it with a bowl, because of that, in the same way, verse 16, in the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. 1 Peter writing to the diaspora, those folks that are dispersed, Christians in the first century that were dispersed because their faith in Christ caused the emperor to blame them, and they were the scourge. They had to run for their lives. 1 Peter, Peter's writing to them, and in his first letter, he writes the following, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles... Can we just stop there? Child of God, this is not your home. Stop treating this passing world as the only world you're living for. At best, we are sojourners and exiles. Oh, if God would help us to remember that we're sojourners and exiles. I'm the son of an exiled Cuban family. And to the day that my dad went home to be with the Lord, He longed to go back to Cuba. Did he enjoy the U.S. of A? Yes. Did he say thank the Lord for U.S. of A? Yes. But did he long for his patria? Did he long for his motherland? Yes. Child of God, enjoy the good gift that God gives you here on this side of heaven. But please, please, please don't think that your identity is tied into this fleeting world. We're sojourners and exiles at best. Therefore, Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Stop finding ultimate satisfaction in this fleeting world. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles, the non-Jews, okay, the Gentiles, those that don't know God, honorable, so that then when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Take this with you this morning. At best, you and I are sojourners and exiles. We will leave everything, all this kingdom that we think is a kingdom, we're gonna leave it behind. You may think that you reach this level and that level and this level and I got this type of house and I live in this kind of place and I drive this and I sail this and I drive that and it's all gonna be left behind. Doesn't mean you can't have it. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, please, you're a sojourner in an exile at best. Steward it according to the purposes of God. The Bible says we're created for good works. We're called to imitate good and not evil. We should never tire of doing what is right. Romans 12, 21, overcome evil with good. On the screen, Galatians 6, 10. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are the house of the faith. Are you looking out for one another? Are we looking out for one another so we can do good to one another? Do we know enough about each other that we can do good to one another? Because that's what it's saying. So then, look for ways. Instead of being so me-centered, it's all about me and my thing-dom. Are we looking for ways? Or we just want everybody to focus on me? Those who always complain that they never think about me, I've noticed that the tendency is that they're not looking after everyone else either. And you and I need to come against that thinking. Yes, we are mutually inter... well, mutually dependent or interdependent on one another. And there are going to be times where I'm going to be the focus, and there's going to be times when I'm not going to be the focus. And I need to focus on others. That's the thing was here. So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially to those. But if you're going to do good to everyone, especially to those who are on the faith, you better be on the lookout. You look at families and you go, what's going on in that life? What's going on in that life? That can be exhausting, pastor. Yeah, it is. It is. It's exhausting. You know why? Because you're giving away that which is most precious, your time. Your time. You can always make money. You can't make up your time. Lastly, focus on things that are good and pure. Romans 12.9, love, be genuine, hate what is evil, cling to what is good. Philippians 4.8, finally brothers, it's on the screen there, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Focus. You want goodness to thrive in your life? The goodness that the Spirit produces? Then keep your focus on the Lord. Keep your focus on things that provide and yield goodness in your life. What can we take with us this morning? That's the key phrase. We hit the tarmac. We're taxing to the gate now. God is good. Amen? Let me try it again with you Baptists. God is good. All the time? Amen. And His goodness and His kindness is seen in creation. You and I can walk out and we enjoy. But His goodness and kindness is seen in greater than creation, salvation. The revelation of God through His Son. God the Father gave God the Son and He comes in human flesh. And what do we see Him doing good? Read the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. What do you see Jesus doing? Large-hearted, generous. He turns water into wine at a wedding. He touches a leper, makes him clean. He approaches an adulterous woman who was an outcast and tells her where to find living water. He resurrects a man from the dead. Ultimately, He gives Himself over to death on behalf of sinners. And when you and I understand this, then you and I can come with Paul, the author of Galatians. And in chapter 2 verse 20, we can all say what's on the screen. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith in the Son of God who loved me. and gave himself for me." At the cross, at the cross, Jesus takes the penalty. Jesus suffers the sins of everyone who would ever believe in Him and He suffers the misery of that. He suffers the severity of God so you and I can turn around and by faith in that finished work we can enjoy the goodness and kindness of the Lord. He's been so good to us and kind, shouldn't we do the same? You need some help in that area? On the screen. Let me give you a goodness self-examination questionnaire. I picked it up. So this is not me. Somewhere on the world wide web. Is the good I do based on God's standards in His Bible or society's standards and the standards I've created? How do you define good? How do my actions show God's right way of life? How do my actions show God's goodness in and through my life? Would God call what I'm about to do good? Woo! Stop right there. It's Friday night. It's Saturday night. Is God going to call good what you're about to do? If yes, what evidence from the Bible shows it? You better use that verse in context. Am I just? Am I fair? Am I obedient to God's commandments? Am I generous in doing good to others? Child of God, these are challenging words. I leave you with this quote from the book again, Goodness. It flows from our good God, who is full of mercy, kindness and love. Goodness is something we decide to do because we belong to Him. In a world full of pain, heartache and hatred, we are asked to be good and demonstrate God's love. Although this may be difficult, it will show those around you that the gospel really does make a difference in a person's life. And may the Lord grant us the opportunity and the strength and the boldness to be good. Amen? Let's close our eyes and bow our heads for just a moment. Before we sing, we sing that song, Yet Not I, But Christ. We sing it and we're mindful. It is the Lord who's at work in our lives. My friend, if you're here this morning and you have not trusted in Christ, that's step one. Step one, trust in Christ. For if you choose not to, the day will come where you need to face a holy God, the divine judge. And you will fall short. You will be deemed guilty and you will receive punishment. God has prepared a place, an eternal conscious place of torment for the rebellious. And if you continue to rebel, you will end there. in the same way He has prepared a place of bliss, of beauty, for those who surrender, who turn to Him through Jesus Christ. They give up the delusion of self-worship, recognizing they fall short, and they come to God on His terms through the Lord Jesus Christ. And for you, child of God, are you being stiff-necked? Are you fighting God along the way? You're not trusting His goodness in your life. If God was really good, I wouldn't be facing this. If God was really good, I wouldn't be in this situation, in this station in my life, in this situation or circumstance. Child of God, repent. God is good all the time. And what is good, He will grant to you. And if He hasn't, it's good that you don't have it right now. Lord God, do your work. Spirit of God, do your work. Help us to respond now to your prompting, to your calling, to manifest the fruit of the Spirit called goodness. And to you alone be the glory, in Jesus' name, and God's people said,