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3rd September 2006

GOD IS SO GOOD  Pastor Colin Meadows

Bible Readings: Genesis 1:31, Psalm 23:1-6, Psalm 100:1-5

Romans 12:1-2,21,  Eph 5:8-10

· Father’s Day 2006! Yes, another Father’s Day has come. Reminded of a competition held for kids a few years ago with the caption “What is the nicest thing your dad has done?” One of the best responses was from a young girl who said “The nicest thing my dad did was to marry my mum!”  Fathers need to keep learning and growing to better help their children, but it not just them who need to keep growing. We all do!

· Let’s keep growing!

God’s desire for his children is that they continue to grow. He doesn’t want us to remain as spiritual midgets for the rest of our lives. We are to produce growing fruit that reflects his character to others.

Gal 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

So far we have considered the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience and kindness. Today we move on to the fruit of goodness. We want to explore what goodness really is and how we should display goodness in our lives.

· What is goodness? People have different ways to thinking of what is good. We can see it in the way that money is spent. Some people see ultimate good as the eradication of pain and the maximizing of pleasure. Thus today we spend billions on leisure pursuits, health and welfare services, recreational and other drugs and many other things in chasing after the pleasant life.

For others, they see ignorance as the greatest evil and thus focus on education as the ultimate good. Thus billions are spent in the desire for the good by maximizing of knowledge.

For yet others, the good life is measured by the number of ‘goodies’ that you have collected. Life is good if we have been able to accumulate things, the maximizing of possessions. Like the T-shirt that reads “He who dies with the most toys wins”.

Each of these approaches has serious shortcomings with the focus being largely self-centred.

The Biblical picture of goodness is quite different. It speaks of goodness as being that which is complete, beautiful and perfect. To be good is to be morally honorable. A good person’s life will produce positive benefits for others. Goodness in other words is love in action.

In order to understand what goodness is, we must begin with God, for he is the essence of all that is good.

· God is good

Psalm 100:5 ‘For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.’

God, not us, is the true yardstick of goodness. God in his very essence is good. He is complete and perfect and lacking in nothing. In fact, only God is good in the full sense of the word.

Because God is good, then all that he does is good. He is love in action to the full. After each day of his creation, God was very satisfied with what he saw.

Genesis 1:31 “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”

There was a sense of wholeness and completion in all that he did in his creation. As someone has said, God never needed to say ‘oops!’ Instead it was all as he desired. God in turn wants us to live lives of goodness. For this to happen we need to do what God would do. Goodness is thus the outward visible expression of the will of God. When we obey God in this way then we show the fruit of goodness. But such has not been the case, right from the earliest days.

· Humanity chose evil against good

In the Garden of Eden, our forefathers were given the choice of good or evil, of following God’s will or not.

Genesis 2:17  “…but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Adam and Eve were given the choice and they chose to disobey God, eating from the forbidden tree. They chose to follow their own will and experience evil and not God’s will and do good. We have been reaping the consequences of their actions ever since. However, God has acted to restore the situation by sending his Son Jesus. By faith, we can be made right again before God. What must we do? Listen to the words of Jesus for he has good news for us:

Mark 1:15 “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

To repent is to turn from the way we are going and believe the good news about Jesus. He came and died for our sins and then rose again. Because he lives, we too can live by faith, empowered by the Holy Spirit to produce the fruit of goodness in our lives. God wants to change our hearts and empower us so that we can live a life of goodness, a life of obeying his will.

· Goodness is doing the will of God

Goodness is what flows from our lives as we do the will of God.

Rom 12:1-2 ‘Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.’

To do God’s will is to do good. Seek to follow what God desires for your life for in doing that you will produce the fruit of goodness. Obedience means to choose to go God’s way, to choose that which is good. There will be however the continuing daily battle in our lives between good and evil. Each day we need to make choices about that which is good or evil. Press forward in the strength of God’s Holy Spirit to choose that which is good.

Romans 12:21 “Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Choose each day to follow God’s way and thus do good. Seek to do that which will bring goodness and wholeness to others, just as God brought wholeness to his creation. Goodness is love in action, meeting the needs of others, responding in ways that brings good to others. This may take many forms as you seek to act to bring good. Listen to the quiet voice of God’s Holy Spirit and follow his leadings.

Sometimes you will be called to do acts of kindness as you do good, while other times you may need to say or do some hard things. Each of these has the potential to do good to others. It is a bit like medicine in earlier times – my mum would say to me “This is not going to taste good but it will do you good”. Sometimes the way to bring good to others will mean some initial pain and sorrow but the long term impact will be for their good. The fruit of goodness is thus often exercised in difficult circumstances. Parents know this as they seek to discipline their children.

To help us see these truths lived out let us look briefly at the lives of three men whom we find in the Scriptures. Firstly, King David sought to live that way. In spite of his failings, he deep down wanted to follow God and produce the fruit of goodness.

· David’s Story – Psalm 23

King David at one point stopped to reflect on God’s goodness to him. As his thoughts went over all that had taken place, he found himself returning to his youth as a shepherd boy. David thus spoke of the Lord as being his shepherd, and not just any shepherd. There was a very strong personal relationship going on here. Jesus later took this name upon himself, calling himself the good shepherd

John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Do we really know the Good Shepherd whom David spoke of? If we do then we can have confidence, like David did, that we will lack nothing that is needed to walk in obedience to him. He will nourish us with his word, the Bible, and replenish our thirst through the Holy Spirit. He will guide us in paths of righteousness, as we seek to follow God’s will in doing good. Even if the road is dark and tough, he will sustain us. Our security lies not in our own strength and abilities but in the Shepherd. We will thus experience in his presence neither want nor fear. The Lord will sustain us, no matter what the circumstances. The overall impact of this will be the presence of God’s goodness and mercy in our lives:

Psalm 23:6 “Surely goodness and love (kindness) will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

God is the source of all goodness and love in our lives. As we receive from him them we pass from the surplus to others. Goodness and mercy will be our constant traveling companions as we walk closely with the Shepherd. Here we have the picture of God’s goodness and love pursuing us through life. They flow out of lives focused on obedience to God’s will.

But for some of us, life has been tough. We have struggled with difficult relationships and failure. How can we possibly think of good coming out of that? David had his tough times, but let us look to the testimony of Joseph for he had it really tough.

· Joseph’s Story – Genesis 50:20

Joseph had a very tough life. Periods of happiness were quickly over turned by long dark days. His father’s love in early days soured his relationship with his brothers. Sold into slavery in Egypt, he had an initial positive experience in Potipher’s house before being thrown into prison. Gifted in interpreting dreams, it seemed like he was about to be released but then was forgotten. Good and bad times, one after the other.

Later when his brothers came to him in great fear, guilty about what they had done, Joseph could look them in the eye and see God in the good times and the bad, bringing about his purposes.

Genesis 50:20 “You intended to harm me but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

God worked in Joseph’s life to produce goodness, in spite of difficult circumstances. God is able to do the same in our lives. No matter what is happening around us, let us keep focused on walking in obedience and then we will see God at work, bringing about good.

· Paul’s Story – Romans 8:28

The Apostle Paul had a similar testimony. As he reflected back over many years of difficult yet fruitful ministry, he could see the hand of God bringing about good.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

The Message translation puts it this way:

Romans 8:28 “That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”

As we seek God’s will in our lives, no matter what is happening around us, we can rest in the confidence that God is at work, bringing about the good that He desires. Then through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit we can produce the fruit of goodness and thus touch the lives of others.

Paul Makai, young African musician we knew in Kaoma, Zambia, was one day contemplating the goodness of God. Slowly a song came to him and he wrote it down. Later he put it to music. We will be singing it in just a few minutes and it goes like this:

God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He’s so good to me.

He took my sin, He took my sin, He took my sin, He’s so good to me.

Now I am free, Now I am free, Now I am free, He’s so good to me.

God is so good, He took my sin, Now I am free, He’s so good to me.

Let us seek in the power of the Holy Spirit to live lives that display the goodness of God towards others! Goodness – living in obedience to God. Goodness – love in action. All in the power of God’s Holy Spirit at work in our lives.

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