A Better Way - Overcoming Goodness (Fruit Of The Spirit - Goodness)

Galatians 5:22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness

Goodness = Agathōsynē - Uprightness of heart and life.
Root Word = Agathos - Morally honorable, pleasing to God, and therefore beneficial. 

We are told to prove the goodness of God, cleave to it, to do it, to work it, to follow after it, to be zealous about it, to imitate it, and to overcome evil with it.  

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

Goodness is not the underdog fruit. Goodness is the overcoming fruit.

1.Only God is Good and God is Only Good

Matthew 19:16-17 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. 

2 Corinthians 4:8–10 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

We experience darkness because creation has turned from God, not because He has turned from creation.  

Psalm 40:1-3 I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.

2.  You are Good 

Ephesians 2:1-6 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil… But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 

John 1:43-46 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.” …Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.” “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” “Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.

Can anything good come from me? 
Yes, if it’s no longer YOU who live, but Christ who lives in you. 
Yes, if you live and move and have your being in Christ. 
Yes, if you count yourself dead to sin, but alive in Christ. 
Yes, if you recognize you are a fellow citizen with the saints. 
Yes, if you realize God has qualified you and prepared GOOD works for you to do. 
Yes, if you identify as a chosen, royal priest, holy, special possession of God called out of darkness and into His marvelous light. 

How you identify will determine whether or not you bear the fruit of goodness.

3. Do Good

Do the kind of good that you could never do if Jesus were not alive in you. 

“For a long time I lay silent in the huge shadowy barracks restless with the sighs, snores, and stirrings of hundreds of women. Once again I had the feeling that this sister with whom I had spent all my life belonged somehow to another order of beings.”  
- Corrie ten Boom