Cultivating Goodness

All right, well, good morning. Everybody can take a seat. That would be awesome. I Love this part of the service you guys get to see each other hang out talk chat Grab a neck hug and it just lasts way too short, but it is what it is We can see each other outside these walls. We came to claim the name of the Lord and to Relish it as goodness like Brian seven. My name is Mitchell Cooper I've been a partner here across point for the last three years with my wife and me and our family We moved down here from the Boston area where I was in grad school Going to seminary to learn how to do all sorts of things move down here to to work with a group called third millennia Ministries that produces biblical education for the world for free Started as a curriculum right of its transition to their online learning administrator not too long after that So I'm heavily involved in education in the ministry that seeks to train pastors To do the good work the crisis called us who around the world at the same time. I'm also a Professor of Christian worldview studies with a University out in Arizona called Grand Canyon University, so That's who I am that's who what we've done and this week We are jumping into the fruit of the spirit known as goodness a few weeks ago. Jamie Talk about love as being sacrifice talk about it being engaging others for their good and serving one another Brian followed that up with joy talking about the subtle assurance the quiet confidence The determined choice to praise and the enjoyment of God Tim after that Tim Vayner may talk about peace and succinctly put it that we have peace the peace of God because the peace of God resides in us We got to that Jamie had been offered a couple weeks and so he threatened to preach for 90 minutes to and still patients in us Which is a really funny thought whenever I think that it's been three years since I preached I'm just kidding. I'm not gonna go that long I hope kindness last week Jamie talked about kindness and Ephesians for Sincere desire for the happiness of others a sincere desire for the happiness of others So now we are here at goodness and before we do anything We should probably best if we talk about goodness and what the world would say goodness is because there's a lot of competing ideas out There's a lot of different things that the world would say are good the last two months month and a half I've kind of put my senses up to the idea of what is good just how people use the phrase. This is good. That's good And it's a smattering of ideas people follow and people do what they think is good People go to this green restaurant because they have good breeders people watch this movie because it's a good movie People do this that or the other because I think it's good Good things and what other things we think are bad things But we're gonna stop for a second and I'm gonna let some pop culture do a little talking I love movies and I have four kids So I like to watch kids movies and we're gonna watch a clip from Wreckett Ralph Wreckett Ralph is a story about Ralph who happens to be The villain he happens to be the bad guy in an arcade game and after 30 years of being the bad guy He's starting to have this existential crisis of what he should do and how he should live his life as an arcade villain So he goes to the support group called bad and non and in this support group you have all of these villains Talking with one another so I'm gonna set that up and if we could watch that clip that'll get us started today

It's a little bad guys. We've all felt what you're feeling and we've come to terms with it really right here I'm Zangeep I'm bad guy Zangeep I relate to your mouth when I hit bottom. I was crushing men's skull like sparrow egg between my thighs And I think why do you have to be so bad Zangeep? Why can't you be more like good guy? Then I have a moment of clarity if Zangeep is good guy Will crush men's skull like stuttles egg between thighs and I say Zangeep you are bad guy, but this does not mean you're bad guy

Right, I'm sorry. I just you lost me there It's not a bad guy Zangeep's saying labels not make you happy good bad You must love you It's like here Okay, I guess I get what's not stripping question wrong. We've been asking you to batting on for years now and tonight you You finally show up. Why is that? I don't know. I just felt like common I mean, I suppose it has something to do with the fact that Well today is the 30th anniversary of my game. Happy anniversary ralsh. Thanks, Satan. It's Subteam actually got it, but here's the thing. I don't want to be the bad guy anymore I can't mess with the program Ralph. You're not going turbo. Are you turbo? No, I'm not going turbo. Come on guys It's a turbo to want a friend or a metal or a piece of pie every once in a while. It's a turbo to want more out of life Ralph Ralph, we get it But we can't change who we are and the sooner you accept that the better off your game and your life will be Hey, one game at a time and all Now let's close out with the bad guy after I am bad

You don't get your hatching So I'm bad and that's good. I'm not good or yeah, I'm not good And that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me. So now millions of children around the world the United States have this perfect understanding of what it means to be good and the idea of what it means to be good is to be true to yourself So we're going to talk about goodness today and before we get into that we need to talk a little bit and philosophical terms because this is what helps define Western culture We're going to talk about terms and descriptive and prescriptive Real fast descriptive simply looks at the way things are and deduces from the way things are How they should be so if things if you see one card and it's working well You see the motor running you know that it's it's going the way probably should and so it then You can fix another car you look at the way things are going and you deduce from underneath from the ground level how things are and then you unpack that for your ethic descriptive ethics prescriptive ethics Really talks about the way things should be the way things ought to be so you're looking at things These quickly from within a system when you're looking at things Prescriptively from outside a system you're looking at the way not the way things are but the way that you hope to be the way that they were designed to be the way that Something outside this system had always intended it to be the way things are versus the way things should be if you go back in In time all the way To the beginning of what we consider Western culture to the Greeks. Now we're going to read a quote from Plato Plato had this idea of the ultimate good or the form of the good By which he looked at and by which he saw things and this is his quote He says in the intelligible world at the intelligible world being that which is outside The way which can't see the intelligible world the form of the good is the last to be seen and with difficulty and Focus on this when seen it must be reckoned to be So you're not going to see you're not going to know that it's there. You have to deduce that the good is For all the cause of all that is right and beautiful To have produced in the visible world both light and the found found of light while in the intelligible world It is itself that which produces it could chose truth and intelligence so for Plato He could see things the way they are he could see the way things true the way truth and intelligence and good and beauty and all this Upworked and you could say of all of these things there must be something that is binding these things together There must be something that is good something that is to prove to his something that is right and pleasing in order for these things To be held together and that is what he labelled to be the form of the good but for Plato there It was high and lofty. It was unintelligible. It was unseen. It was unknowing. You just had to assume that it was there Unlike the softest before him who just saw pleasure and said you know if it feels good do it For that before somewhere if it feels good if it's plaguing if it's right then we're going to go that direction Plato said no there must be this idea that's binding us all together but then with his his follower Aristotle Aristotle said yeah That's great. I love that you have this idea of the good but it doesn't actually ever come down here It doesn't like make a difference for me in my life. So for Aristotle He saw all these different categories and he said the quintessential idea for each of these categories is how we can define reality So you have these competing ideas of what is descriptive and prescriptive and they in the secular world It's a closed system. There's nothing outside of it. All you can know and see is what we have and so you deduce the good from that Okay Now we're going to step away from that real fast because outside of if you have the descriptive Tense you also have the prescriptive or what should be and when we're talking about the prescriptive Tense and Christian theological terms obviously we're talking about that which is outside that which created that which made us we're talking about got himself And so that's where we have to start and we're going to start talking about goodness The theologian John frame Put it this way, and this is going to couch everything we're going to talk about he said God is not only the chief norm And the chief fact but also the chief person the chief subjectivity as such he is not only our law and our situation But also our example of holiness righteousness and love He is good only as a person can be but to say that is not to say that he conforms to a standard of goodness and post On him from above Yours is to say that it creates goodness as he creates the world said he could change it tomorrow Goodness is neither above God nor below God rather goodness is God God is his own goodness goodness is God's eternal attribute Without his goodness, he would not be gone So he will never be other than good God does not need anyone to tell him what to do He does what is good because it is his character to do so in the most important sense he cannot He cannot do anything else. He does good because it is his deepest desire to do so God's goodness and his being are one So as we unpack this let me make a quick clarification when we're talking about God and his goodness If you think about God and his eternal qualities as attributes we can think of it in terms of his greatness and in terms of his goodness And then we're gonna talk about his goodness, but to make sure we're clear on these God's greatness is encompassed in his power and his intelligence and what he is able to do God is great because he is infinitely holy God is great because he is omniscience omnipotent omnipresent he is eternal. He is the first and the last God is great and if God were not great, it wouldn't matter if God were good because he would not be a God worthy to be praised and at the same time If God is not good and he were awfully great, he would only be a God to be feared Because God is both great and good He is both worthy of our praise and our respects and our honor and our love and our admiration and so when we talk about goodness today We're not going to talk so much about God and his greatness and what he can do We're going to talk about God and his goodness and what he wants to do We're going to talk about the desires of his heart what Who he is in his character and how that flushes itself out both figuratively and literally in our world Today we're going to unpack this in a Mattering of verses and so if you're going to take notes don't try to like take a ton of notes Just maybe write down all these verses. We're going to fly through some stuff And it's my hope that you'll take these verses and that you'll meditate them on them later this week Because we're just going to try to go fast And we're going to read some passages and we're going to make some comments and we're going to read some passages and we're going to make some comments So we're talking about God's goodness First place we have to go is Genesis 1

Because as we're talking about God's goodness actually It's been three years When we talk about God's goodness we look at the Hebrew word tove Tove is the one singular word that describes its attribute is the one attribute that you see Talked about God over and over and over again and for the Greeks when we're talking about the translation of the Greek From Hebrew into the Greek of the New Testament into the Greek of the Old Testament They broke it down into two competing categories that complement and work together and Undergird this one singular idea of tove and from tove which is good We have the term call us and we have the term agathos call us is that which is pleasing and lovely and friendly and desirable It is good Wow that that is good and from call us we said it's pleasing and desirable But at the same time we have agathos and agathos is that which is right That which is standard that which is excellent That which is pure So you can see these things going on you have this Understanding of the standard of way things should be the way things ought to be and you have this Understanding of the things that are pleasing and right and desirable And these when they come together they form an understanding of what we mean by the term good and when they are separated We have deficiency and we have problems and for the Greeks these were always separate And for Western culture since then you've just had this circulating pattern of what is Pleasing and right and just over and over and over again and never being able to take these ideas and to bring them down To our level never being able to take all that is is right and good and do with it what we should So now let's look at Genesis 1 Genesis 1 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth Start there in the beginning outside the system of of us of ours of what we know is God In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth the earth was without form and void Darkness was over the face of the deep the spirit of the God was hovering over the over the face of the waters The earth was formed without form and void the Hebrew there is Tohu Wabohu Tohu is formless Void in or yeah formless and void Tohu Wabohu this is in this is in other words There was no structure there and there was nothing failing the structure It had all the beams of the house, but it had no sighting It had all the bones, but there was no meat There was a house there, but there was no home. There was no life inside this So when God starts creation he's starting from nothing. He's starting with no structure and he's starting with no substance He's starting with no content and God takes the nothingness the void God takes the chaos and all that this is nothingness And God makes something out of it and what he makes is significant for us Verse 3 and God said let there be light and there was light and God saw that the light was Good Day 2 Let the waters in verse 9 let the waters under the heavens be gathered together in one place and let the dryland appear and it was so Verse 4 and God saw that it was good Verse 14 let there be light in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night for seasons and signs and days and years in verse 18 and God saw that it was Good Verse 20 and God said let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures And let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens So God created great sea creatures and to be living creature that moves with with the water swarm According to their kinds and every wing bird according to its kind and God saw that it was Good For the longest time I would think that this this idea of good is God making things orderly and right in the way they should be I was thinking of agathas but when God created everything and he said that it was good he said it was God He found pleasure and what he had created the God who had existed before time began and Perfect unity and harmony within the Trinity created something outside of himself and found pleasure in it He finds pleasure in what he creates and we as his creatures find pleasure in him and him alone Moving on God said let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds God saw that it was good Verse 31 and God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good So God is finding pleasure in what he's doing it is pleasing him it is delighting in him But if you notice we have day one where God creates light Day two God creates the waters above in the water below day three God creates land and vegetation God creates the places for his beings for his creatures to dwell Day one he creates light and then over in day four God creates the sun and the moon to inhabit the light He's not only building a house. He's building a home with inhabitants to take care of He's building in day two water above and below and in there he's putting in the birds of the flesh and the sea creatures God is creating a house a dwelling a structure and he's creating the content he's creating the home and the life to put in there Land and vegetation in day three Land animals and man day six And then God creates Sabbath to produce this rhythm that goes on in the world And God creates marriage in chapter two because it's not good for man to be alone Our relationships are necessary and right in pleasing and we are made for them So God creates and it's good Exodus 20 We're moving. We've got to move faster than this Mitchell. We've got to move faster than this Exodus 20 Take commandments not only does God create but God directs He doesn't leave us with our sin. He doesn't leave us alone to just figure this out. He gives us standards

And there's there's a lot going on here. You've probably heard before that verse Commandments one through four are how we relate to God and commandment six through ten is five through ten is how we relate one to another and I don't know really anybody who would take Commandments five through ten and look at those and say you know what? I don't know if ordering a Justice Society around those is a good idea Most people are looking at those and say you know what? Yeah, yeah, yeah, probably you know giving honor and respect to your parents or to those who have come before you Is a good and right idea find that to be helpful Those who would say you shall not murder Yes, that's probably a good idea. We don't need to be doing a lot of that We're really any of that Should not commit adultery if there's going to be binding relationships that govern in that flourish our society Then yeah, we probably need to stick within those so as not to break into skewer into mess up everything that's going on Do not steal you need to have some property rights in here so though We know what is ours and what's not ours and so we can use it the way God has intended it Don't bear false witness against your neighbor. Yeah, that's a good idea Don't lie Don't lie at all. That's that's not good Should not covet your neighbor's house this whole desire for other things that are not yours messes things up But it's not necessarily those last six that mess people up so much as those first four because those last six They're kind of ground level and they work within the system that we like and that produces what we want For our benefit is these first four that really messes up because that calls us to something outside of ourself and that's hard to deal with But it's not so bad Later on the book of Exodus since we're at the Pentateuch God only gives these directives but he gives directives as far as other aspects of our relationship He gives directives as far as sexual ethics He even gives directives for building codes. Do you know then the Old Testament if you were to have a roof It was required of you to have a guard rail all the way around the roof Big sense doesn't it like if you care about the people that are coming over to your house You're gonna make sure that they're protected you didn't make sure that they're cared for and in in ancient Israel The second four was basically the roof of the house So when some people are on your roof they were on your second floor. That's where things happen and things went on And if you're going around and somebody hadn't gotten a little too happy at a joke or something like that and fell off and broke their neck That's a bad thing and so God gives directives to care for one another and to make things right and to protect each other God even gives directives for the sojourners among you For the Israelite community for those that were within the covenant relationship with God as a nation They had directives on how they were to treat people who were passing through and people who were coming in How they were to be treated how they were certainly not to be treated and have the same justice and rightness and goodness That was required and that was expected and that was given to the Israelites really given the people outside of Israel Because it wasn't about Israel getting what they wanted it was about reflecting God's character and doing what is right and good So we see God giving directives and Exodus 33 we not only see that God creates We see that God gives directives and God directs but in Exodus 33 we see that God is present If we started verse 12 I'm going to read through this Fast and that's my that's my theme today to get through all this Moses said to the Lord See you say to me bring up this people But you have not let me know whom you will send with me Yet you have said I know you by name and you have also found favor in my site Now therefore if I have found favor into your site please Show me now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your site Consider to that this nation is your people and he said God said by presence will go with you And I will give you rest And he said to them if your presence will not go with me do not bring us up from here. This is Moses talking For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your site I and your people Is it not in you in your going with us so that we are distinct I and your people from every other people on the face of the earth And the Lord said to Moses This very thing that you have spoken I will do for you have found favor in my site and I know you by name Moses said please show me your glory

And he said God said I will make All of my goodness past before you and I will proclaim before you my name the Lord Just giving down to verse chapter 34 verse 4 So you see this play here Moses is saying God if you're not going to go with this if you're not here with us Then I don't understand what the point is because if you are not with us We are not distinct and if we're not distinct because of who you are then there's no reason for us to do this and God says Moses you're getting it I'm with you and I'm going to be with you and this is how it full unfolds and chapter 34 verse 4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first and he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him and took His hand two tablets of stone the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord Verse 6 the Lord passed before him and proclaimed This is what God says of himself the Lord the Lord a God merciful and gracious Slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness Keeping steadfast love for thousands for giving iniquity and transgression and sin but who will by no means clear the guilty Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the children's children to the third and the fourth generation And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped And he said if now I have found favor in your sight. Oh Lord Let oh Lord please let the Lord go in the midst of us For it is a stiff neck people and pardon our iniquity in our sin and take us for your inheritance Verse 29 When Moses came down from Sinai with a two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain Moses did not know that the skin of his face shown because he had been talking with God Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses and behold the skin of his face shown and they were afraid to come near him Of Moses called to them and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned him and Moses talked with him Afford all the people of Israel came near and he commanded them and all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai And when Moses had finished speaking with him he put a veil over his face Because out of fear the people of Israel would not come before Moses because they recognized that Moses had been with God In a way that was distinct and pure and right in that terrified them

So for years and years and years The people of Israel would have this play with the law have this play with the god of Israel. They would turn to him They were turned away from him. They would turn to him. They would turn away from him During the period of the judges they would turn away during the period of The kingdom you would see this start to come back In Psalm 119 You have this beautiful picture of David as he is meditating on the scripture These statues these things that the god of Israel had given them Psalm 119 verses 57 we're going to read a couple sections here When David thought of the law when David thought of God in his character This is the song that he wrote this is the prayer that he poured forth. He says the Lord is my portion I promise to keep your words. I entreat your favor with all my heart. Be gracious to me according to your promise When I think on my ways turn my feet to your testimonies I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments Though the cords of the wicked and ceremony I do not forget your law at midnight I rise to praise you because of your righteous rule I am a companion of all who fear you of those who keep your precepts the earth O Lord is full of your steadfast love teach me your statutes You have dealt with me you have dealt with your servant. O Lord according to your word teach me good judgment and knowledge For I believe in your commandments before I was afflicted. I want to stray But now I keep your word You are good And do good Teach me your statutes the incidents mirror me with lies but with my whole heart I keep your precepts their heart is unfeeling like that but I delight in your law It is good for me that I was afflicted that I might learn your statutes The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold thousands of gold in silver pieces Do you feel this so far with David? Do you feel the goodness in the right relationship that he had with God in the rightness and order and Excellence in all that God had given and directed and at the same time do you feel that David is Known and loved and understood and cared for by the God of Israel

Verse 57 the Lord is my portion We're not talking about a choice cut of stake here We're not talking about God being the thing that David is going to get and consume and move on Whenever you're in the Old Testament and you read the term portion Don't look so much at what you can get as far as food because we think of portions sizes here in the United States But think of inheritance because in the Old Testament in the pinnitude Whenever the the nation of Israel is being formed and the 12 tribes More or less are being given their inheritance given the land that they will use to live and prosper and work and grow They're given a portion of the land and for the Levi's they weren't given land They were just given the Lord as their portion And David is saying God who is good and right and holy and pleasing and desirable nothing on earth Compare to you. You are my portion You are all That I want nothing in life will be ordered around Anything better than who God is in his character and his brightness and his excellent in his justice And nothing in life will satisfy me like God will So why would I want anything else God is my portion

But yet we're at a crossroads Because we're talking about goodness being cultivated We're not talking about the character of God of goodness and that it's lofty and exalted and untouchable and it's out of reach We're talking about goodness being cultivated. So if you would let's go to Mark chapter 10

Mark chapter 10 verse 17 in one of the most haunting and Lovely passages in the New Testament As far as I'm concerned because I read it over and over again and so You have this for showing ruler who comes It says Jesus as he was setting out on his journey a man ran up and now before him and asked him good teacher What must I do to inherit eternal life? And here it is also in in described in this term of portion and taking what God has given you What must I do to receive and take and hold of what God has given as eternal life and Jesus said to him Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone and can we stop there for just a second and not assume that Jesus is a simpleton who can't turn a phrase When Jesus is saying why do you call me good? He's not saying I'm not good. I don't know what you're talking about. He's saying whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa hold on a second Do you do you know what you're saying Like is your definition of what the good is the same as the definition of what my definition of the good is Because if you're to call me good, I'm not sure you would be calling me that

Jesus says why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone You know the commandments you know murdered do not commit adultery do not steal do not their false witness do not defraud honor your father and mother And this guy says teacher all of these I have kept from my youth And Jesus looking at him left him and said you lack one thing Go sell all that you have and get to the poor and you will have treasure and heaven come follow me Just hardened by the saying he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions now. I'm not gonna sit here and assume that this guy was Disingenuous I'm gonna take him a place value for what he said because in In March chapter 10 when he says when Jesus lists out of these things these six different relationship descriptors that he is supposed to have with his fellow man Let's give him a bit of a bit of a doubt for just a second and think that maybe just maybe he actually did follow these Okay, maybe just maybe he had never murdered anybody if he's not even married he couldn't have committed adultery Maybe he actually hadn't stolen anything as far as what he understood and knew Maybe he hadn't born false witness maybe and he'd never been in court and he never had to testify and maybe he just hadn't but But you do notice what this list is it's his relationship with other people. It's how he finds Meaning in fulfillment and what he does with other people So Jesus takes him a step further and says You lack one thing go sell all that you have and give to the poor you will have treasure in heaven Jesus says maybe you have done what you think is right and good in these things But you have this idol here and if you want to if you want to make it good Get rid of this idol and come be with me be in my presence What I what I read here is this guy From the outside Yeah, he had all of these things together But just just so you know and just so I know it is easy To manipulate those things It is easy to project a It is easy to project myself as I would want to be And so for this guy he had probably projected this idea of the good for a very long time and in Jesus said You know those that's fine and that's right, but that's not the way it's supposed to be you need to sell everything and come follow me So we had this problem with authenticity had this problem with integrity Had this problem with being honest He was taking reality and he was forming it into the way that he wanted it to be

American spirituality today A lot of what you are told a lot of what you are called to is all about authenticity Authenticity as we have understood it as we know it as we are told it to be Is bringing to light the things that you really are And for whatever reason this has a lot to do with sexual ethics and I don't have any time to get into that today But becoming the true person who you really are is the key note of American spirituality And I found this interesting article from the the New York Times called unless you're Oprah Be yourself is terrible advice Adam Grant in the New York Times says He's about to give a TED talk and so he asked all sorts of people what he like advice And he found the most important thing the first person said is to be yourself and after that the next six people gave him the same tip He says we are in an age of authenticity where be yourself is the defining advice in life love and career Authenticity means erasing the gap between what you firmly believe inside and what you reveal to the world outside As Renee Brown a research professor at Houston University of Houston defines it authenticity is the choice to let our true selves be seen He goes on to say but for most people be yourself is actually terrible advice And he quotes this or he sites this guy called AJ Jacobs who for a a decade ago. He says this author spent a few weeks Trying to be totally authentic He announced to an editor that he would try to sleep with her if he were single And informed his nanny that he would like to go on a date with her if his wife left him He informed a friend's five-year-old daughter that the beetle in her hands was not napping But dead he told his in-laws that their conversation was boring So you can imagine how this experiment worked out He says deceit makes our world go round without lies marriages without lies marriages would crumble workers would be fired Egas would be shattered governments would collapse And so great pictures this idea of self-monitoring of understanding who you are and understanding that what you are and who you are is not really the right in the good And that you should find some ideals And project that and try to be that and anything that is that That's then what you do At no point does he even though he leads to it and no point does he call out sin in the life of mr. Jacobs at no point Does he say there's a standard there's a moral there's an ethic that we should live up to he simply says Decide what you want to be and go be it Go be it one more real fast Matthew 23 So you have this rich young ruler who was in so many ways deciding how reality was going to work itself out in his life And projecting this ideal of who he wanted to be and he had followed up to that ideal and he had Lost the authentic relationship of who he should have been At the same time you have Jesus dealing with the Pharisees For all intensive purposes lacked integrity because they had called people to a standard and ethic That was not one that they were holding up to Matthew 23 verse 25. What do you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites? You clean the outside of the cup in the play but inside there full of greed and self-indulgence You blind Pharisee first clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside also may be clean What do you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you are like white wash tombs Which hourly appear beautiful but within are full of dead people's bones and all unclean than this So you also hourly appear righteous to others but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness For both groups Those that seek to be authentic and seek integrity At any point manipulating honesty and manipulating the truth

Comes at the expense of reality and when you break the expense of reality You're denying God and his fullness and who he is So now let's talk about cultivating goodness in the last couple of minutes 2 Corinthians chapter 3 Verse 7 Now if the ministry of death He's talking about Moses carved in letters on stone came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses face because of its Glory which was being brought to an end will not the ministry of the spirit eat have even more glory For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it and glory Indeed in this case what once had glory has come to have no glory at all Because of the glory that surpasses it for what if for what was being brought to an end came with glory much more what Much more will what is permanent have glory since we have such a hope we are very bold Not like Moses who would put a veil remember the veil he would put a veil over his face That the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end But their minds were hardened for to this day when they revealed covenant that same veil remains unlifted Because only through Christ Is it taking away Yes to this day whenever Moses is ready to veil lies over their hearts But when one turns to the Lord the veil is removed Now the Lord is the spirit and what a spirit of the Lord is there is freedom And we all with unveiled face be holding the glory of the Lord Are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit do you want to know how to cultivate goodness Do you want to know how to cultivate love enjoy and peace and patience and kindness goodness Faithfulness channels himself control them look to the face of Christ That's it. It really is that simple Where the spirit is There is freedom There is freedom. There's no more shame. There's no more guilt. There's no more denying reality There's no more covering up There is freedom

Our deepest desires has John frame as we're Jennifer Levers And the spirit's overall purpose for us is to remove the remnant of sin from our hearts so that our characters consistently righteous The goal of God's dealing with us is that one day it will be impossible For anyone to conceive of us apart from our good character that our goodness will become an essential and defining attribute of our being as we've got himself David Mathis inhabits of grace The means of grace and their many good expressions will serve to make us more like him But only as far as our focus returns continually To Christ himself and not to our own Christ like this It isn't beholding the glory of the Lord that we are being transformed in the same image from one degree of glory to another Spiritual growth is a marvelous effect on such practices, but in a sense is only a side effect The heart is knowing and enjoying Jesus

Micah 6.8 Ask what is good? What is required of us? Did you justice to love mercy or kindness to walk humbly with our God? As we're freshly captivated by the grandeur of our God and his gospel Sorry back up Tim Keller gotta bring in TK the infallible test of spiritual integrity. Jesus says it's your private prayer life Many people will when they are required by culture or social expectations Or perhaps by the anxiety caused by troubling circumstances Those with a genuinely live relationship with God as father however will inward In reality want to pray and therefore will pray even though nothing on the outside is pressing them to do so Now David Mathis as we're freshly captivated by the grandeur of our God and his gospel we become what we behold And so we come away from our Bible intake with a more satisfied soul which imparts a flavor and demeanor to our lives and this isn't making that effects everything Elsewhere he say we fast in this life because we believe in the life to come We don't have to get it all here and now because we have a promise that we will have it all in the age to come We fast from what we can see and taste Because we have tasted and seen the goodness of the invisible God and we are desperately hungry for more of him

We do justice. We love mercy. We walk humbly with our God So four points of application real fast. I mean real fast Because it's five after Confess Romans 10 9 and 10 because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart That God raised him from the dead you will be saved For with a heart one believes and is justified him with a mouth one confesses and is saved church Do you know him? Do you believe what he has called you to believe in the reality and the goodness of all that he is? Do you believe what he has said about himself? First John 1 9 if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all the righteousness Do you believe what he says about himself and do you believe what he says about you and what he wants to do in in through you Because at the end of the day it is not about how you define reality It's not about how you want to live your life It's about how God has structured his creation and his goodness and how he is implementing that through the life he wants you to live That is goodness That is cultivating all that God has for you And it starts with confession it starts confessing who he is and confessing who we are and what he wants to do with you Then not only do we confess after we realize who we are, but we have to repent Acts 319 repent therefore and turn again That your sins may be blotted out Stay away put to death suffocate the sinful nature and its desires Do away with them Through the power of the Holy Spirit living inside you Walk away So confess repent and remember and what quite possibly could be my favorite passage in the Bible to do around me six I have dozens of favorite passages in the Bible We're just going to go verse 20 to do around me six verse 20 So at this point the children of Israel had been delivered in the Exodus at this point the children of Israel had been given the law at this point They had wandered in the desert And they're about to enter God's promised land and a generation had passed already In verse 20 When your son asks you in time to come What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you

You shall say to your son We uh, sorry we were slaves in each of That Does that communicate Does that bring over into your experience do you feel that Do you feel the shame that would have been expressed by a complete nation of people that says we were slaves The entirety of us as the Lord brought us out of each of us with a mighty hand

Remind yourself of his goodness Everything that has happened into your life everything that he has done To bring to where you are now to bring you into his good graces to bring you into his covenant people to bring you to relationship with him To carry you on to bring you further and further along as sanctification remember write them down Talk about them with your friends which brings me to my last

Psalm 73 And one of my also favorite passages This is what happens when you preach every three years All your favorite passages come out. We'll close with this Whom am I in heaven But you and there is nothing on earth that I desire beside you my heart and my flesh my fail But God is the strength of my heart and my portion Forever for behold those who are far from you shall perish You put it into everyone who is unfaithful to you But for me it is good to be near God I have made the Lord my refuge that I might tell of all your works So we confess and we repent and we remember And we proclaim his goodness to those who don't know it To those who live within the system of ethic where they describe what they see around the And they try to make sense of the world and it never works and they get stuck in this loop and cycle Of degradation and sin and debauchery Tell them of the goodness of God in your life Church we're about to take communion as an act of remembrance for all that God has done with us We're about to take the bread The broken body of Jesus and dip it in the cup and bring them back together to remind ourselves that he is coming Back for us This is not the end

So as the worship team comes up we're going to do that And if you know him If he is your joy if he is your delight if he is your goodness Come and take If you need to confess if you need to repent if you want to stop for a second And remember the goodness of all that he has done Do so Surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life. Let's pray together King Jesus. We love you. We love you because you first love does We don't love you as we should we don't love you as we ought to But we love you all the same and we ask that you would take hold of us We ask that you would allow us to behold you we ask that you would shake us

Free from the sin and the guilt and the shame that entangles us And we ask that you and make us more like you King Jesus be with us go before us go behind us go after us and around us this week So that we may live in your goodness and proclaim your goodness to a world who desperately needs you In Christ's name Amen