Date: August 16, 2015
Series: The Fruit of the Spirit
Title: Goodness
Teacher: Jacob Bender

scriptures: Ezekiel 22:30, Genesis 1:3-4, Genesis 1:27, Ephesians 2:10, Genesis 2:9, Genesis 3:5, Genesis 6:9, Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3, Exodus 32, Genesis 6:17-18, Genesis 18:22-33, 1 Peter 2:20-22, John 8

Goodness.

I like to think of goodness as integrity, but with a little more punch. Typically when I think of integrity, one of the main words that comes to my mind is the word consistency. The person that you are in your home when nobody is around and nobody can see, is the same person that we see. You don’t put on a new self for the sake of the public.

But goodness adds on to that in several ways. Goodness is consistently doing the right thing, not just the same thing. It is doing the right thing when you are by yourself, and doing the right thing when you are in public. But it goes even beyond and strikes an even deeper core.

It is doing the right thing whether it is what is best for you, or it its not. Its making the right decision even when its not what you want, and even when it may have a negative affect on your life.

Goodness, as Paul uses it when he is listing the Fruit of the Spirit, is the Greek word agothosune and it means “Uprightness of Heart and Life.” Your noble heart is matched identically by your noble way of life.

As simple as this may sound as you read it in a few short sentences, there is a lot to this concept, and I encourage you to join us as we journey through it in our series “Fruit of the Spirit”

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