Learning to Show Goodness

 I got home from work one day and asked Winston, "Were you a good boy today?" He paused, and then responded, "Why, what did you hear...?"

We're still in our series about the Fruit of the Spirit as we have been for the last few weeks. We're continuing to look at the qualities that we are supposed to develop as we grow in our relationship with Jesus. As usual, let's look again at our key passage. It really should be burned into your memory soon…

Galatians 5:22-25 (NIV)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (24) Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. (25) Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Today we're looking at 'goodness' which is the quality of 'being good'. I can remember when I was younger, my Grandpa Jones, every time I'd visit him up in Green Bay - the last words he'd say as I would leave - 'Be good!' As I reflect on his admonition to 'be good' – I think I did 'okay', most of the time.

As your preacher – you kind of expect me to 'be good', relatively speaking, don't you? That kind of seems like the minimum requirement for a preacher. As we look at the quality of goodness, I want to make sure we're clear about the Biblical concept here and ask…

I. What is good?

The term 'good' is rather subjective. Let's say I refer to someone as "a good man" but then comment on my lunch and say, "Mmm, good sandwich." Chances are pretty good that I mean two very different things. If I ask Erin about our five year old son and say, "Has Augie been a good boy today?", and then ask, "Is the turkey in the fridge still good?" There's a big difference in what I'm asking.

Last week, we talked about 'kindness' as being useful to God. The word 'good' is so overused, so it's a bit difficult to define. But for our purposes – when we talk about something that is good, I want to focus in on the idea of something that is pleasing to God.

For instance, there are movies or TV series that win multiple awards and are hailed by the critics as very good. But for our discussion, the question would be, are they pleasing to God? And that may not always be the case. If we look in the opening chapter of Genesis, we find…

Genesis 1:1-4 (NIV)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (2) Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (3) And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. (4) God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.

If you would continue and read that whole chapter, it becomes clear that those things that God deems 'good' are those things that are pleasing to Him. He created the dry land and the seas and said that they were good. He created the plants and the sun and the moon and stars and said that they were good. The things that He created were doing what they were intended to do. Those things were fulfilling the purpose for which God created them - so they were pleasing to Him, and He acknowledged them as 'good'.

So, might we infer that if a person is to be called 'good' – they would be acting the way God intended them to act and they would be pleasing to God? - But is it solely about actions, about doing good things? Can 'goodness' be exclusively defined by good deeds? Meaning, that if a person does something good – does that automatically make that person 'good'?

Let's say you had a flat tire and Osama Bin Laden had stopped to help you change it – would that 'good deed' make him a good person? If you ran out of change at a parking meter and Bernie Madoff, whose firm stole $19 billion from investors - if he popped a quarter into the meter for you – would that make him a good person? If you were caught in a rain storm and I gave you an umbrella – would that automatically make me a good person?

'Goodness' is not just about doing good things, but also about not doing bad things. Being good is about being pleasing to God. It's not about doing more good things than bad things as if we could somehow tip the scale more in our favor.

That would be like if someone was on trial for murder, and said – "Your honor, sure I may have killed that guy. But do you know how many homeless people I've fed over the years? Do you know how many dogs I've rescued from shelters? Your honor, do you know how many dollars I've dropped in the Salvation Army buckets over my lifetime?" And the judge responds, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize what a good person you are. Case dismissed!" - No, it doesn't work that way…

Developing the quality of goodness in our lives is far more difficult than we may like to believe. If we look at 'goodness' as being completely pleasing to God, we'd have to admit…

II. None of us are good

If you were to ask the average man or woman on the street if they were a 'good person' – they'd probably answer "yes". We compare ourselves to those around us and can always find someone 'less good' than ourselves and therefore conclude that we are indeed 'good'. But that's not how God defines 'good' - are you completely pleasing to God? We know that it's not about comparing ourselves to others, but how do we stack up when compared to Jesus?

When we look at the life of Jesus, we don't just see a larger than life 'do gooder' but we see that Jesus, in every situation, action and attitude, Jesus was most concerned with being pleasing to God. That sets the bar of 'goodness' pretty high. In fact, we see how Jesus felt about the concept of 'goodness' in Mark 10:17-18 (NIV)...

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (18) "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good - except God alone."

Notice that Jesus didn't deny being good, but Jesus wanted to make sure the man really understood exactly what that claim of being good implied. Jesus is the standard of goodness as God in the flesh!

Dave Noble was my friend. Dave was very generous with his time, he was a great guy. But, compared to Jesus – was he good? May Walker, she was undeniably one of the sweetest, kindest ladies around and she will be greatly missed. But again, compared to Jesus - was she good? - She was closer than me! I may study the Bible a lot and make hospital visits and preach – but compared to Jesus – am I good? No! Not a one of us by ourselves is good. Not a one of us is pleasing to God compared to Jesus.

Now let me be clear, this is not a judgment, but the truth. I don't say these things to condemn anyone, but I want to make it very clear that God's idea of goodness is a lot higher than ours. I don't want anyone to confuse what the quality of goodness actually is with some watered down version of 'goodness'. All that does is lead to a feeling of self sufficiency or self righteousness. Let's turn to Romans 3:19-20 (NIV)...

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. (20) Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

If we do an honest appraisal of our entire lives and actions – the good days and the bad - compared to God's perfect law – we fall far short. But understand this; it's not God's intention to point out our failures just so we can walk around feeling guilty. Our 'lack of goodness' is pointed out, not to condemn us - but to point us to Jesus! There's hope immediately in the next verse in Romans, chapter 3…

Romans 3:21 (NIV)

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

That righteousness from God is Jesus Christ! 'Goodness' doesn't come from our actions, but 'goodness' comes as a result of following Jesus! We can do good things, but can only become good when clothed in Christ! Let me assure you - Dave, May or myself may not be 'good' on our own – but in Jesus we will all be made perfect and we will have eternal life!

So - if we can't ever do enough good things to earn Heaven – what's the relationship between doing good things and being good..?

III. Inner 'goodness' brings outer 'good'

I suppose 'goodness' is about consistently doing the right things for the right reasons. If I'm doing good things to earn the praise of men or to somehow obligate God into letting me into Heaven – I've missed the boat. Why should we do good things? – Because of what has been done for us by Jesus! When we realize that we have been made clean on the inside by the sacrifice of Jesus, the outside 'good actions' should follow.

To truly be grateful for the gift we have been given in Jesus, we need to understand, that for us - grace is passive. We can never actively do a thing to earn God's grace, to earn God's favor, to be pleasing to God. As a baptized believer - there is nothing you can ever do to make God love you any more than He does right now! Think about that... For us, grace is passive – we just have to humbly accept it.

Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - (9) not by works, so that no one can boast. (10) For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Notice that the good works come after grace, not before. Of course Jesus had to be active in sacrificing Himself for us – but for us, grace is passive. That takes us to our part - our faith must be active.

I'm going to apologize here - it wasn't that long ago that we all took down our Christmas decorations. Well - again - I apologize, but I'm going to turn our thoughts back to Christmas here. Just indulge me, I've done this in the past, but I think it's helpful...

"Oh, You better watch out, You better not cry, Better not pout, I'm telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town." I'm going to skip ahead in the song a bit, "He sees you when you're sleeping, He knows when you're awake, He knows if you've been bad or good, So be good for goodness sake!"

Why did I sing that? I think that sometimes Christians may subconsciously confuse their relationships with God and Santa. In the song, why are we supposed to be good? - For 'goodness sake' because Santa is watching and he'll catch us if we're bad. But if we're caught being good – then we get presents.

But it doesn't work like that with God! God isn't watching us just to call us out when we mess up! We've already been given the best present in the world! Jesus died to save us from Hell! We got the present while we were still bad and now, because of that present we are supposed to be good! Grace comes from God first and then we are to put our faith into action – we're to respond!

James 2:14-19 (NIV)

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? (15) Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. (16) If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?

(17) In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (18) But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. (19) You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder.

Grace comes to us free of charge. It's our faith in Jesus that's supposed to motivate us to do good works. I don't want to sound negative about Santa, but I like God's way of handing out grace better. If I had to earn it – I'd never make it to Heaven. But now, because I know I have God's grace – and especially because I know I don't deserve it – I want to do whatever I can to show my gratitude.

So What?

Why am I encouraging you to do good; to be good? - First and foremost, because it's pleasing to God. - Secondly, because we have a job to do. If we don't develop 'goodness' in our lives, if we are not most concerned with pleasing God – the Church just becomes another social club and people never hear the truth of the "Good News" of the Gospel message.

In the book of Matthew, the 25th chapter, we find what's called the Parable of the talents. Jesus was explaining to His disciples what it will be like in the end times; what it will be like when He comes back to take the faithful home to Heaven. In the story, the master leaves and gives each of his servants a responsibility in his absence. On the master's return, we see that one of the servants did nothing and was cast out – he wasn't pleasing to his master. I want to focus on what is said to the servants who were faithful and did what was expected of them.

Matthew 25:21 (NIV)

His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

It took hard work, but the master was pleased with His servants' efforts. We have already been given the gift of grace – a gift we didn't earn or deserve. How will you respond to that gift? Will you do what God has asked you to do until we are called home? Only by developing 'goodness' and by becoming more like Jesus do we have any hope of one day hearing, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"

Don't let your Christianity just be a title you wear, make it something you live out. Go be pleasing to God!