If you’d like to know more about our ministry please visit us at transformchurch.us. And if you have a testimony of the amazing things that God is doing in your life through our ministry, please email it to [email protected].

well as you all know we’re in the

fruitful sermon series talking about the

nine fruit of the Spirit our base

scripture for this entire sermon series

is found in Galatians 5:22 through 23 if

you have your Bibles you can go ahead

and turn there and get your smartphones

out something look at the scriptures if

not we’ll have them on the screen but it

says but the fruit of the Holy Spirit

but the Holy Spirit produces this kind

of fruit in our lives love joy peace

patience kindness goodness faithfulness

gentleness and self-control these are

the nine fruits of the spirit now there

are millions of things that God could

have pulled to become fruit of the

Spirit but these are the nine that he

felt most important for us to live out

of a godly lifestyle this morning I’m

gonna talk about one of those fruit that

you know honestly probably in the church

is a little bit more of like a step

fruit in a lot of ways right when you

talk about the fruit Spirit you’re going

to automatically know love joy peace

patience but the one I’m talking about

today is one that really doesn’t get as

much clouds or stage presence as it

needs this morning we’re going to talk

about the fruit of goodness okay two

people are excited

two people are excited about this we’re

gonna talk about the fruit of goodness

there we go so let me give you a basic

definition of what the fruit of goodness

is and then I’m gonna give you I’ll give

you a fancy definition for my fancy

folks and then I’ll give you a simple

definition of what it is okay our fancy

definition is goodness is virtue or

moral excellence and holiness our total

devotion to God in action the fruit of

goodness is not just something that you

have on the inside it is something to be

seen in action but it is twofold

now we all know good people people that

are just good people they may not

believe in Jesus Christ but they’re just

good people they don’t talk about people

don’t cheat they just are nice people

and that is a part of goodness moral

excellence being morally

excellent but that’s not the full

portion of what goodness is goodness is

also total devotion to God

so I’m morally excellent because of my

devotion to God that is the fruit of

goodness a simple definition of what

goodness is now that we’ve done the

fancy one a simple one is doing good

because God says so doing good because

God said so that is our simple

definition of what the fruit of goodness

is and let me explain that because

goodness is one of those words that

really is just the definition of it is

way more powerful than what we get it

usually in the weight of our everyday

language but goodness is not one of

those things that you just put in a

fancy little box put a cute little bow

on it

goodness is a lot more grimy than that

it’s a lot more gritty than that

goodness is being good when you don’t

feel like being good goodness is being

good to the people that really do not

deserve you being good to them goodness

is not being good when you feel good to

good people when it’s good weather good

hair day that’s not just goodness

goodness includes those days that you

wake up looking a little quick right and

then you’re not feeling well and your

emotions are low are over and there are

people at your office that you can’t

stand and you still have to be good to

them and the weather is bad outside

goodness is a little more gritty and

grimy than what we give it clouds for so

this morning we’re going to talk about

goodness and what it looks like not only

in our everyday lives and in the doing

the behavior of goodness but we’re going

to talk about the source of goodness and

we’re going to talk about our identity

how it’s linked to goodness okay here’s

the truth about goodness everybody is

attracted to good people everybody is

attracted to good people you can be

shady mix shady all day long but you’re

not gonna marry shady shady girl you

don’t marry the good girl you’re gonna

be shady make shady all day long but you

don’t what a crazy business partner

you’re gonna get the good business

partner that you can trust that has

integrity you may be shady McShea all

day long but that boy that was a nerd in

high school that’s the one that you want

to marry

because the truth is everybody is

attracted to goodness and good people

and the reason they’re attracted that is

because ultimately everybody is

attracted to God and God is good so this

morning I want you to take goodness out

of the step fruit category like the

fruit that’s really not that important

category and put it into the most one of

the most important fruit of the Spirit

that we have because goodness is what

attracts people to the God inside of us

now Amberly talked a lot last week about

you know the jerks they are in church

this is the truth when it comes to the

fruit of goodness

people don’t want to serve our God if we

aren’t good people if we aren’t out

doing good immaculate says let your

light so shine so that people will see

your good works and glorify your father

without our good works people will not

be able to see our God and glorify our

Father and so that’s why goodness is so

very important to us so what we’re going

to do is we’re gonna start off talking

about the source of goodness and point

number one and I’m going to tell you

straight up before we move any more for

okay

these points are super Elementary

they’re super basic okay but I’m not

basic okay the point is these are

foundational truths that we can apply to

our everyday life and a lot of times we

want to swim in the deep things but we

haven’t really grabs the foundational

things and so this morning we’re gonna

talk about some foundational super basic

stuff but everything that we need in our

everyday life so point number one is God

is good basic right okay but this is so

very important because I know we say it

all the time god is good all the time

and all the time that’s right one of the

truest cliches we say in church this is

the truth of God but I believe that as

believers oftentimes we question God’s

goodness oftentimes when life throws a

curveball or when something happens

that’s unexpected we question whether or

not our God is

good and the truth is if we want to ever

fulfill and walk out the fruit of

goodness in our lives we have to believe

in the source of goodness we have to

believe in God as the source of our

goodness and if we have trouble

believing that God is good how can we

ever be good how can we ever live our

goodness in our lives if the God that we

get the goodness from we don’t believe

that he’s good and so it is very

important to us before we move into

doing good and what doing good looks

like to really examine do we believe in

the source of goodness do we believe

that God is good even when life is bad

do we believe when life is good that God

is good even when we are bad God is good

and Psalms 119 and 68 it says you are

good and you do only good

it speaks above God’s identity and his

character you are good it is the essence

of who you are but you also only do good

his behavior lines up with his identity

much as with us our behavior always

lines up with our identity so our God is

good and the Scriptures talk about it

all over about how God is good but it’s

do we really believe it in our everyday

lives do we really believe it in how we

know whether or not we believe that God

is good is to ask ourselves how well do

I trust him how well do I trust God when

life is not going my way how well do I

trust God when I leave this building and

go to another one how well do I trust

God when my bills I don’t have enough

money to pay my bills how well do I

trust God in Psalms 37 and 3 it says

trust in the Lord and do good

that’s a compound in order for us to do

good we have to trust in His goodness

this morning we thank good good father

and everybody was engaged and involved

in that song and it is one of the truest

songs that we sing but do we believe

that when we leave

this building do we believe it in our

everyday life

all we have to do is look at our trust

factor how well do I trust God because

if I trust God I’m trusting in his

goodness and if I trust in His goodness

then now I can do good because it’s the

source of our goodness there are many

many many different words and names that

there are to describe God and we’ve

heard a lot of them before in church

Jehovah Jireh our provider Jehovah

Shalom our peace Jehovah sick new our

righteousness but there’s one that I

want us to focus in this morning and

that is jehova shamma and that means the

lord who is present or the lord who is

there how do we know that God is good

because he said he’ll never leave us nor

forsake us and he literally meant that

because God is so good that he knew we

would be powerless without him so he

decided to live inside of us that’s how

good our God is and the truth is this

have you ever okay so let me ask you

this have you ever gotten a toy for

Christmas and your parents didn’t

realize that there’s batteries that go

along and on the box it says batteries

not included

okay so I’ve had that before in my

household if that was the case it was

probably be a good four to six months

before you actually playing with that

toy because there was not take forever

to get those batteries they didn’t put

that in the budget you something saying

and so when we think about that when we

think about the fact that a toy has so

many different things that he can do it

and it can make noises were running

around whatever the case may be but

without batteries it’s powerless God

just like a toy without battery knew

that we would be powerless without him

so even though he is king of kings and

Lord of lords and sits on the throne of

heaven he decided to live inside of us

that’s how good our God is and here’s

the thing about it when God lives inside

of us that changes our identity when we

decide to receive salvation the Holy

Spirit God’s Spirit becomes alive on the

inside of

we are adopted into the family of God

but that also means that we now adopt

the character of God it usually goes

against all of our history or that we

know or that we’ve done all of our

experiences but now we have the

character of God living inside of us so

it changes our identity in order for us

to live out goodness we have the number

one trust that God is good but we also

have to trust that you are good

point number two you are good now listen

I know this is going to take some

convincing for some people okay because

you is that kid that nobody wanted to

date their daughter you were that one

that nobody probably invited over to

play with their kids cuz she was always

in some trouble he was always in in

house whatever the case may be okay

maybe you’ve made some horrible mistakes

and really hurt some people maybe that

you really haven’t been there for people

like you needed to be but what I’m

telling you is when you are adopted into

the family of God you adopt the

character of God and now all of that

from the past is scratched and you are

good that’s how good our God is he

doesn’t say when he comes into our lives

he doesn’t make us do it on our own we

now have a helper living on the inside

of us and I believe that often times we

have a hard time holding on to God

saying that we’re good because we’re

trying so hard to be good enough for

somebody else trying so hard to be a

good enough mom a good enough wife a

good enough husband a good enough CEO a

good enough whatever that oftentimes is

hard for us to hold on to the truth of

God’s Word because we’re so worried

about what everybody else thinks of us

and that’s tiring I mean shoot that’s

too many people I don’t even got no kids

and I feel like that’s a lot of people I

mean why people you work with the church

I mean there’s just too much

we don’t have to focus on that because

we

we really find out who we are in God

even if other people don’t agree with it

it’s still the truth it’s still the

truth in Ephesians 2 in 10 it says we

are God’s masterpiece I love that he

created us anew in Christ Jesus so we

can do the good things he planned for us

long ago in other words for us to move

on and do good things in our life we

must believe that we are God’s

masterpiece that I’m a gift to everybody

that comes into contact with me that I

am good that I am enough that I am

worthy of love and I don’t have to

hustle for it because God freely gives

it to me

[Music]

we have to believe in the source but we

have to believe in ourselves God lives

on the inside of us I’m not good on my

own I’m good because goodness lives in

me so this morning I know I know that

there’s some people that’s like okay I’m

trying to you know feelings get what

you’re saying here okay I’m good I get

okay I’m not saying that you’re better

than anybody else I’m saying you’re no

less than anybody else this is a big

difference in that it’s a balance in

that knowing that I’m good but I’m not

better than you but I’m also not less

than you so I don’t have to tear myself

down and I don’t have to be around

people that will tear me down because

God created me as a masterpiece i

engraft school me and a friend went to

Europe and we got to see Mona Lisa and

when Mona Lisa journalism it’s

considered a masterpiece right it’s

behind a glass casing and then on top of

that it’s like five foot of rope around

her so you can’t even get close to her

because the truth is they know the worst

of Mona Lisa do you know you’re worse in

God do you know that you are so worthy

that he sent His only begotten Son to

die on the cross even if it was just for

you

you are good God created you good you

are a masterpiece and you are a gift to

those around you

not saying you’re better I’m saying

you’re no less I’m also not saying that

you’re good at everything okay

good at doing things doesn’t equate your

identity okay for instance I’m good but

I’m not necessarily a good cook

okay ask my husband it’s about three

dishes I can do okay and then after that

it’s chick-fil-a all day yeah all day

long okay

I’m also I’m good but I’m not

necessarily a good dancer okay yes I am

black and I am NOT a good dancer okay

I’m still working on the heel toe I

can’t even get that down right now so

I’m you know I’m still working on some

stuff okay I’m good but I’m not

necessarily good at being quiet okay I

grew up in a very loud house my husband

bless his heart I don’t know what to do

with me sometimes we are just two feet

away from each other and I am screaming

I’m just not good and being quiet okay

so my theme all right but that does not

mean that I am not good by my identity

my core the God in me I am good we don’t

have to be perfect to be good all we

have to do is have God living on the

inside of us we are good God created you

good David even knew him in Psalms 139

13 through 14 he said oh yes you shaped

me first inside then out you formed me

in my mother’s womb I thank you high god

you’re breathtaking body and soul I’m

marvelously made I worship in adoration

what a creation do we have those

thoughts about ourselves like when the

kids aren’t acting the way we want them

to act do we still have those thoughts

about ourselves what a creation when the

husband or the wife decides to to nag

all day or only tell you what you’ve

done wrong can you still think of

yourself as what a creation

when you think of your creation that God

made in you does it make you worship Him

we are good and everything in society is

telling us do better get better you’re

not enough and I’m not saying that we

shouldn’t work on ourselves but what I

am saying is at your core do you believe

that you are a gift on this earth that

when God formed you in your mother’s

womb he’s looked at that and said what a

creation I am about to bless everybody

with this one coming to earth it doesn’t

matter how you got here

you don’t matter if your mom and daddy

wanted you here it doesn’t matter what

kind of childhood you had and what was

said to you and if they told you you

weren’t good enough and your teacher

told you you’ll never be nothing and

your momma told you you always act like

your daddy none of that matters none of

it because God is the only truth teller

and the truth is if we believe anything

other than we are good we’re believing a

lie and now we’re living out lies in our

life because other influences have told

us that we’re not good enough but I’m

here to tell you today you are good you

are good and here’s the thing about

identity identity changes our behavior

once we really figure out something

about ourselves it’ll change the way we

act I’ll never forget one day the first

time I heard guys say you are a gift to

me it was during a quiet time and I was

really kind of beating up on myself and

specifically I was talking to God about

me being a wife I’m a little bit of a

nag I’m loud you know some other things

I can work on and so I was talking to

God and I was like you know I just wanna

be bad Aaron am I really helping my

husband and like all this stuff and God

told me you’re a gift and I am not

kidding when I had that moment with God

where he told me you are a gift that day

it’s like all the NAG I had in me

couldn’t even come out because in my

mind at that point and I got some okay

at that point

lies if that’s who I really am then I

can live a different way my behavior

doesn’t have to be the way that it used

to be because I’m somebody different

than who I thought I was so now my

behavior can line up with that here’s

the thing about goodness being good

works in tandem with doing good when you

really believe that you are good and you

are a gift to those around you your

behavior will line up with it and so

point number three is do good this is

more of a charge than anything now as

you get to believe your behavior

identity in God eventually what’s going

to happen is the things that you do will

change but it’s about first starting

with identity a lot of times in church

we want to start with behavior change

the way you talk change the way you

dress change the way you and I’m not

saying that you shouldn’t but what I am

saying is that is temporary if you don’t

believe your identity has changed if you

don’t believe who you are has now

changed because you’ve come into Christ

so point number three is do good and I

want to read a passage of scripture

Romans 8:9 through 14 this is a little

bit longer of a pastor description but I

really want you to tune in to what God

is saying through these these scriptures

and this is a message translation it

says but if God himself has taken up

residence in your life you can hardly be

thinking more of yourself than of him

anyone of course who is not welcome this

invisible but clearly present God the

Spirit of Christ won’t know what we’re

talking about but for you who welcome

him and whom he dwells even though you

still experience all the limitations of

sin you are still a human you yourself

experience life on God’s terms it stands

the reason doesn’t it that if the alive

and present God who raised Jesus from

the dead moves into your life he’ll do

the same thing in you that he did in

Jesus bringing you alive and himself

when God lives and breathes

you and he does as surely as he did in

Jesus you are delivered everybody say

delivered delivered from that dead life

with His Spirit living in you your body

will be alive as Christ so don’t you see

we don’t owe this old what we don’t owe

this Oh do-it-yourself life one red cent

there’s nothing in it for us nothing at

all the best thing to do is to give it a

decent burial and get on with your new

life

God’s Spirit beckons there are things to

do and places to go the mrs. Bible just

gives it I mean just black and white

okay black and white in other words what

this passage is saying is that God’s

Spirit lives in you once you receive

salvation

God’s Spirit becomes alive in you and

because God’s Spirit has become alive in

you he has given you power over your old

lifestyle the Holy Spirit that literally

physically raised Jesus from the dead

now lives inside of you so he gets a

surely your old lifestyle your old scene

your old habits your history he gives

you power over all of that so in other

words bury the old life and get on doing

good that’s basically what this passage

is saying and here’s what I want to say

to you if you are a believer and you are

not living a spirit-empowered life you

are living beneath your privilege it is

possible to receive salvation to come to

church every single week and your

lifestyle never change it is possible

because that is when we don’t live a

spirit empowered life the Holy Spirit

inside of us gives us the ability and

the power to live beyond ourselves

beyond our history beyond our habits

beyond our hangups the Holy Spirit it

was is what gives us that power but if

we aren’t tapping into that and

you’re screaming help when we need help

the Holy Spirit is arrested until we

allow it to do that there is in second

Timothy it actually tells us to stay

away from people like this and believe

it or not we’ve all been these people at

one point or another but the second

Timothy tells us to stay away from those

who have a form of godliness but denied

the power thereof or in NLT version it

says they act religious but they reject

the power that could make them godly the

fruit of goodness will never ever be

activated in our lives until we tap into

the Holy Spirit that lives on the inside

of us because the truth is there are so

many things telling us that we are not

good and that God is not good if we flow

in that way then we’ll never be able to

produce the fruit of goodness in our

lives it’s when we look beyond our

situations say my God is good he created

me good and he lives on the inside was

inside of me so that I can do good that

we actually live out the fruit of

goodness in our lives personally um we

took a I was here and it was probably

maybe 2011 and we had a young adult

ministry here at this church called soul

fly and so fly took a trip to Baton

Rouge for a Leadership Conference one

year and I kind of just gotten on the

team the leadership team at that point

or whatever and we went to go to this

conference and there was a women’s

session that all the girls went to were

so giddy about it and at the end of that

session they had prayer and you could

come up and get prayer and so I was like

I’m gonna go up and get prayer because

at that time I felt like God told me

that like I had the gift of teaching and

I wanted someone to just cover it I’m

not really for sure what I was going up

for honestly because I don’t know what I

meant by them covering it but like I

just wanted to get a blessing you know

and so I went up to this lady’s

beautiful African lady and was just like

you know I just want a blessing over my

gift that God is giving me

and that’s really all I’m asking for

today and when I tell you that woman

started to read me like a book she

started telling me all the things in my

heart that were crooked and the crazy

thing is I grew up one of those good

kids right so I did everything my mom

and dad said dude I mean I just wasn’t

really attracted to weapons like that

and so I made my brother he must have a

thing for him I don’t know but that

wasn’t me I didn’t like physical pain so

I was a good kid and because of that

there wasn’t many people that came to me

and said hey you need to work on this

hey you need to check this so when I

went to this lady and got prayer and she

started reading like a book I was

talking about we stood here you know and

she wouldn’t want to tell me you’re

jealous you are just continued want

attention you are prideful I mean all of

these things that weren’t actually

really true but no one had ever said

them to me so it was like shocking at

the same time and so I was like okay you

know so after she’s done pray with me

I’m literally crying in a pool of Tears

I’m on my knees and she just walks away

like her in her armor Barry they didn’t

even try to lift me up or give me a

tissue y’all it was the saddest thing in

the world my friends came and got me and

I was like look my god just got in the

rig I’m going back to my seat and stuff

well that night when we went back to the

hotel I really felt like God was telling

me I need to have a conversation with my

best friend because my best friend was

one of those cute girls that could

always get him in any time other day

okay me on the other hand I don’t know

if that I was like I got in crazy or

whatever and so I had some jealousy

towards her and she was actually in a

relationship that seemed like it was

going towards marriage so we sat down

and I told her you know hey I’m jealous

I want to be free from this bah bah blah

whatever because this is a true the Word

of God says this we confess our sins to

God for forgiveness but we confess our

sins to one another for healing and so

even though I spent some time repenting

your nose very repentant after that

prayer I needed to go and confess this

to my friend so we can work through it

so anyways after that I felt like God

healed me

I was set free it was wonderful move on

a couple of months later after that a

few months it was her day of engagement

now of course she didn’t know she was

get engaged but I knew that and this

engagement was going to happen at a

major church is it something on the

hometime mouth okay it was amazed to

heard she’s been about to happen and I

was coordinating that major church is in

and so I woke up that morning and I am

not kidding a feeling that I had not

felt in months of jealousy was

overwhelming me I mean I woke up and was

like so discontent no joy just really

down about the whole days I’m like she’d

like to move on another season of life I

ain’t even got nobody looking my way you

know I went all the way back to the

thing that I really believed that God

healed me from and so as I’m laying

there in bed I have a to-do list out the

wazoo so many things I needed to do to

make sure that that event was gonna go

well and I laid there and what usually I

would allow to have its way with me and

jealousy I couldn’t do it anymore

I laid in that bed I’m not kidding and I

said God I have a lot of stuff to do

today like I have a you know my to-do

list you know my thoughts are far off so

you know what I got to do today but I

will not get out of this bed and act

like I’m okay when I’m dealing with

something on the inside of me I want to

be free from this feeling because I’m

not gonna go and let jealousy have its

way with me again and I’m not kidding in

a matter of minutes it’s like a spirit

of peace and contentment began to come

over me I am not kidding I’m laying in

that bed y’all and I told if I don’t

care if this takes all day I’m across

somebody saying hey I’m not gonna make

it to the event tonight cuz I’m not

gonna allow myself to live a life

without being spirit empowered I want to

live beyond me jealousy had had his way

with me for years before then and to do

whatever I wanted to do with me had me

depressed had me sad whatever the case

may be and I said no longer any happen

to no more not today

and that’s exactly what we have to do in

our lives almost on an everyday basis

it’s live beyond ourselves to live out

the fruit of goodness

don’t let the things of your past and

mistakes and what people say be able to

tell you who you are and what you can do

God tells us who we are he empowers us

to do what we can do in him and that day

was one of the few days that I can

remember like a monumental day in my

life what a shift happened in my mind

where I realized I don’t I don’t have to

live that way right I know that that’s

normally what happens

I know normally when were jealous we

just let it do what I want to do but I

don’t have to live that way and you

don’t have to live that way because God

created you good god is good he created

you good and you can do good I really

hope that I’m speaking some to somebody

today they’re like maybe you need to go

apologize even though it’s not your

fault

you know maybe you need to go tell the

truth to somebody you’ve been lying to

whatever the case may be God is saying

I’ve empowered you to do that the Holy

Spirit literally physically raised Jesus

from the dead

your sin is nothing for him your ways

are nothing for him your thoughts are

nothing for him but it’s about us

tapping into that spirit that lives on

the inside of us being good and doing

good work in tandem you can’t believe

one without doing the other if you

believe you’re good it changes your

behavior to do what’s good and this

morning somebody you know you may be

struggling a little bit because you feel

like I have been doing good I’ve been

doing a lot of things really well but

it’s not necessarily going my way in in

Galatians 6 and 9 it says let us not

grow weary of doing good for in due

season we will reap if we do

not give up I don’t know what kind of

harvest you’re looking for in your life

I don’t know if you want a healthy

marriage maybe you want to thrive in

business maybe you just want some joy

and some peace some contentment in your

life I have no idea what the harvest is

that you’re looking for in your life but

what I do know is that we only get their

harvest from continuing to do good do

good okay don’t look good keep doing

good okay they don’t receive it keep

doing good okay I don’t feel like it

today keep doing good because if you

continue to do good and you don’t give

up there’s a harvest waiting for you and

it’s not our motivation it’s not why we

do good but it is a promise in God’s

word that we can stand on so this

morning as we talk about the fruit of

goodness it’s you know maybe it moved

from step fruit category for you to

really important through I hope so

because the truth is goodness is what we

all are here for to be lights in this

world so that people will see our good

works and glorify our Father