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Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, actually before I read that, I'm going to quickly read to you from Galatians 5 22, which says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, does anyone know what the next one is? Brother Anthony kind of spoiled it for us on Sunday, if anyone remembers, does anyone remember what's the next one? Nah, not meekness, almost, goodness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law, so obviously today I'll be looking at goodness as the fruit of the Spirit. Now as we saw, your life needs to be made up of these qualities, and sometimes we think of the goodness, the other word that the Bible uses quite often that's pretty much interchangeable is righteous, righteousness, goodness, righteousness, that's making sure that we're doing things that are not just right or good in our eyes, but what is right and good in the eyes of God. Sometimes we do things that we may think is right, but actually according to God's Word it's not right, and so we need to understand from God's Word, remember this is a fruit that God wants to develop in our lives, okay, and so we must have the Holy Spirit in our life generating these fruits in us, and I want you to notice there as we were reading 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse number 11, verse number 11 it says, wherefore also we pray always for you, so this is a prayer from Paul to the Thessalonian church, this is what he's always praying for when it comes to this church, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, look at this, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power. So this is something that the Apostle Paul is continually praying for this church, that they would fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, okay. Notice there that the goodness, when we talk about being good, the goodness comes from God, it's his goodness, and it's through his goodness that we can fulfil all the good pleasure. Now pleasure is a great thing, we want to be pleased, we want to be happy, hey, in order for us to be happy, pleased, satisfied in this life, we need to persevere and seek for God's goodness, his goodness, okay, that's a reminder. These fruits are coming from God, right, I mean, you know, in our flesh, the natural man, the unsaved men out there, they have elements of goodness, you can see some elements of goodness, but we know that the righteousness of man is like filthy rags before the Lord, okay, so remember, the natural man can produce some level of good as it is, you know, in the eyes of man, but when it comes to the goodness that we want to produce, it needs to come from God and it's going to give us pleasure, okay, it's going to give us pleasure, so this is definitely a fruit that we want to produce in our lives. Now if you look also at verse number 12, why is this so important? It says that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in him are caught into the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. So if we can develop this goodness, if we can show forth the goodness of God, it'll cause the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to be glorified, okay, I mean, isn't that what we want? Don't you want your life to be one where God is glorified, where you live a life of goodness and you persevere for the Lord, you live in his ways, and people say, wow, you know, look at that believer, look at that Christian, look how he loves the Lord, look how he loves the local church, look how he loves the Bible, you know, and that behaviour will cause people to glorify God, say, well, this God must be worthy of worship, there must be something special about this God. And I want my life to reflect that, I want your life to reflect that, I hope you want your life to reflect that and I actually believe if you're saved, that's what you want to reflect, you want people to glorify God, not curse God because of your behaviour, okay, because of the goodness that is coming forth from you that God has developed in your life. Now I want to also notice, sorry, verse number 11, again, let's set that phrase, it says and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, all the good pleasure, okay, so this is something where we can go about doing good things and we are accomplishing the goodness of God. You know, God, you know, the first hymn that we sang today was, was it Channels Only? You know, where God would use our bodies as channels, you know, that we would empty ourselves of our selfish desires, that we would empty ourselves of our sin, you know, of our personal will and say, you know what, God, I want you to use me as a vessel, I want you to use me as a channel, please use me in that sense to project your goodness and I want to produce all your goodness, I want everything that I do to be good in your sight, to be righteous in your sight. Now when I talk about these things, don't forget that we have that battle with the old man, okay, we have that battle with the old man, the new man, the only way you can be that channel that God wants you to use, that God wants to use is for you to be walking in that new man. Again, this is such a great series to go through because it helps us measure how well are we doing in the spirit, okay, and, you know, I don't want to cause you to be discouraged, I just want you to reflect and say, you know what, there are areas in my life that I need to work on, I need to improve, God, help me in these areas, help produce this goodness that you have and help me to experience the good pleasure in producing this fruit of goodness in my life. Now, can you please turn to Mark chapter 10 for me, Mark chapter 10 and verse number 17. Mark chapter 10 and verse number 17. Mark chapter 10 and verse number 17. When we start on this topic of goodness, there's something that we need to consider because did you know the average man believes they're very good? You go door to the soul winning, are you 100% sure that if you would die today you would go to heaven? I hope so, yeah, I'm sure, they have that positive tone about them. What gives you that confidence? What do they say? I'm a good person. I'm a good person, they say, right, Mark chapter 10 and verse number 17. Mark chapter 10 and verse number 17. And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? There is none good but one that is God. So what immediately, what do we learn in the Bible? There is only one good and that is God. When this man came, this young ritual came to Jesus and he called him good master, it's because Jesus is good, Jesus was good, meaning that Jesus is God. This passage proves to us that Jesus is God. Most people would say, yeah, Jesus was good. And when you're saying that, you're basically saying he's God. You know, I heard in one of my old churches that you cannot spell good without God. If you remove God from the word good, what are you left with? Zero. Oh, nothing. Maybe you've heard that as well. I think it's nice. It's kind of good. It's right. You remove God from good or goodness, you're left with nothing. And so Jesus Christ is basically saying there is none good but God. So everyone that knocks, you knock on the door, yeah, I'm a good person, they're lying to themselves and they're lying to you and you know they're lying to you. But of course, most people compare themselves to the wicked in this world. You know, when I was in school and you know, I would think, you know, I'd do a test and I thought I'd get a good mark and I'd show my parents. And let's say, you know, obviously if you get everything right, you get 100%. You know, I might walk to my parent and my dad, you know, and show them like a 90% mark or a 95% mark. And it's like, Dad, look what I did. And my dad's like, yeah, but you got 5% wrong. You got 10% wrong. I'm like, yeah, but Dad, I was top of the class. And my dad would be like, why are you comparing yourself to the other people? You know, because the test result is 100. You know, that's what you should be aiming for, for the 100. Not comparing yourself to those that didn't do so well. But that's what happens when you go door to door soul winning, right? They're comparing themselves to the wicked, they're comparing themselves to murderers, rapists, they're saying, well, I'm not one of these people, therefore I'm good. And yet Christ says there is none good but one that is God. So you can understand if we want to develop this fruit of goodness, it must come from God. Because whatever goodness you think you have, it's not, you know, in the flesh. That's not the goodness that Christ is speaking about, right? We're just comparing ourselves to those that we know are exceedingly wicked. All right. Now if you can also now turn to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse number 8, please, Ephesians chapter 2 and verse number 8, Ephesians chapter 2 and verse number 8. So truly, there are no good people. There are truly no good people. It is only God who is good. And if you are saved, you have the Holy Ghost in you, God can produce the fruit of goodness in your life, okay? And it starts immediately with salvation. We have to be able to acknowledge and say, God, you know what, I am not good. I'm not good enough, in fact, I'm not even good at all, okay? Therefore I need your goodness. Therefore that's why we needed Jesus to come and keep the laws, not break the commandments. You know, he lived a perfect life, he had no sin, Jesus Christ was definitely the good master and he gave up his life for us. And because he had that good and righteous life, we stand clothed in that righteousness of Christ. We stand clothed in that goodness of Christ the moment we put our faith on Jesus Christ. And so when the Father looks upon us, he sees Jesus Christ, he sees the goodness of Christ, okay? So this is important, this is immediately, this is the key concept of Christianity, we are not good enough for heaven, we are not good enough, we needed someone that was good to be our substitute, okay? Now Ephesians chapter 2 and verse number 8, because one thing that I want you to be careful of when you do give the gospel and you explain to people that you are not good enough for heaven, you don't want to leave people with the idea that we don't believe in the necessity of being good, okay? Now it's true, we do not believe that you need to be good to be saved, that's true, okay? But we don't want them to think that our life, you know, our church does not teach on goodness because it is an important part of our Christian life. So look at Ephesians chapter 2 and verse number 8, it says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, then it says this, not of works lest any man should boast. So it's very clear that salvation is not of your works, it's not of your good works. No matter how much you try to do, salvation is not based on that whatsoever because if it was based on that, we would boast. We would say, hey, you know what, I know I'm going to heaven because I'm so good. I know I'm going to heaven because I passed in two churches, did you know that? One in Queensland, one in New South Wales, that's why I'm going to heaven, hey that would be boasting. You know, I love it when people, you know, are not sure and they say, are you sure, are you sure of going to heaven? And I'm like, yeah, I'm 100% sure, not because I'm good enough but I'm 100% sure because of the goodness of Jesus Christ, because of what Christ has done for us. And you immediately deflect any attention to self and put it immediately onto Christ. But most people at the door, they think it's all about me, what do I do, what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life? But you can see here that being good has nothing to do with your salvation. But when we look at verse number 10, what immediately follows, have a look at verse verse number 10. Now is it saying we have to walk in them? If you don't walk in them, you're not saved? No, it doesn't say that. It says we should walk in them, okay? Therefore, someone that is saved, that has placed their faith on Christ alone, you can be one of two people, yeah, you got saved, you're going to heaven because of the goodness of Jesus Christ, and then you say, yeah, but I'm not going to walk in the good works that Christ wants me to walk. And that person may never pick up their Bible, they may never attend church, they may never do any good thing as far as what men would consider, but that person will die and still go to heaven. But then there are others that say, you know what, no, you know, God has ordained me that I should walk in his ways, and God has given me good works to do, and so I'm going to pick up my Bible, I'm going to pray, I'm going to be in church, I'm going to preach the gospel because I want to walk in his paths and develop these good works. That's what God wants from us, to develop these good works. Just being in church is a good work. Preaching is a good work, preaching the gospel is a good work, singing the hymns is a good work, reading your Bible. These are good works that Christ wants us to walk in according to his ways. These are fruits that we need to develop in our lives. And as I said, to be able to be good, you have to be able to bring this body under subjection. This body, this flesh, is rebellious against God. I know it's rebellious. I have to fight it all the time. And if we're honest, we would wrestle with this flesh. On a constant basis, okay? And we have to learn how to subdue this flesh, that it would be subject unto the word of God, that it would be subject unto the new man, that it would be subject under the Holy Spirit of God, that it should try and produce these good works. And therefore, you know, it's kind of like what John the Baptist said when he said, He must increase, but I must decrease. Have you remember those words there in John 3 verse 30, words of John the Baptist? He must increase, but I must decrease, okay? To produce these fruits, to produce the fruit of goodness, you must decrease. The flesh must decrease, and you must put on Christ. You must walk in his ways to be good the way Christ was. Now what I want to continue on in the rest of this sermon is not so much, you know, what are the good works that we can do, because I can list a whole bunch of good works. I kind of just roughly went through some of them, okay? You know, just living your Christian life, you know, reading your Bible, coming to church, all those kind of things are good works that we should be doing, okay? But I want to basically look at how it is that we can have that desire and produce good works rather than what are good works that we can do, okay? And remember, being good is being godly. When we talk about, hey, this person is a godly person, we're basically saying this person is a good person because they reflect God. Remember, there is none good but God. There is one, okay? It's only God. So to be good means you have to reflect God. This is the idea of being godly. What is it that God wants me to do? Can you please turn to Colossians chapter one and verse number nine? Colossians chapter one, verse number nine. Colossians chapter one and verse number nine. So the first point that I have here is that you need to pray for spiritual understanding. Pray for spiritual understanding. Have a look at this in Colossians chapter one and verse number nine. It says, for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, okay? We need spiritual understanding, brethren, okay? We've grown up, we've got our experiences, we've been taught through our schools, through our upbringing, we have certain ideas and understanding and we need to compare that spiritual understanding and that wisdom with the Word of God. And we ought to be people that desire God's wisdom, God's spiritual understanding, right? You can see here that Paul, speaking to the church, is praying that they will have all wisdom and spiritual understanding. This is very important, okay? Why? Verse number 10, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, look at this, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. I like how verse number 11 ends, you've got three other fruits of the Spirit, patience, longsuffering, joyfulness. Well, patience and longsuffering is basically the same thing, right? But joyfulness, you see it there. So notice there in verse number 10, it said, being fruitful in every good work. How can we be fruitful in every good work? We need to pray for spiritual understanding. We need the wisdom of God, we need to be able to assess our lives, assess our situation and say, Lord, I need your spiritual understanding. I need to live a life that you have called me to live so I can be fruitful in every good work. You know what this tells me? It means we can be unfruitful in every good work if we don't have spiritual understanding. It means we can strive to do good things, but be very unfruitful because we're lacking spiritual understanding. So the wisdom of God is absolutely necessary. Let me give you an idea of what this looks like. Most of you and me before I became a pastor, we worked full-time jobs in some type of organization. We worked nine to five. And you can go to work and just have your carnal understanding. Yeah, I've got to press this button, I've got to do this job, blah, blah, blah. I've got these bosses. And then you get your paycheck at the end of the day. And you may be just the kind of employee that just kind of, you don't really stand out. A lot of people, I've experienced in the workforce, they think, I'll just do the minimum. I'm getting paid, I'll just do the minimum. And if they want me to do more, then they can pay me more. That would be like basically a carnal understanding of work. Spiritual understanding is quite different. Spiritual understanding of your workplace would be like, you know what, God has given me this job. Jesus Christ is my employer. And if Jesus Christ gave me this job, and he's my employer, he's my boss, how will Jesus want me to work in the workplace? And I've got these hours, how does he want me to work? Do you think Jesus Christ would want me to do the minimum? Or do you think he would want me to do the maximum? Would Jesus Christ be happy that I'm just an average employee? Or would Jesus Christ prefer me to be a high performing employee? And when you change your mindset, and you get the wisdom of God, you get a spiritual understanding, then your workplace will be completely different. You will look at your job completely differently, and you will be a high producing employee. Not because you're trying to suck up to the boss. Not because you're trying to, you know, just get a pay increase or something like that. You do it for the love of Christ. You do it because you're thankful that Christ has given you that job, has given you that employment, and you're working for him. You say, you know what, I may not be a full time employee in the ministry of the church, but I can be a full time employee in the ministry of Christ in the employment that he's given me. And guess what's going to happen? You're going to become more fruitful. You're going to be fruitful in every good work, because you've changed how you look at what you have before you. Okay? A carnal, worldly understanding, you'll just be an average employee, you know, doing the minimum, just getting a paycheck to go home, wisdom, spiritual understanding will cause you to be a high performing employee, sitting Jesus Christ as your boss. Okay? Now, I personally, in every good work that I want to do, I want to be fruitful, you know, whatever it is, you know, whether it's going soul win, I want to be fruitful, and I'm very, I had, you know, went soul winning yesterday, got a salvation up on the Sunshine Coast. It's wonderful when you're fruitful, when you can produce fruit, when you see someone call upon the name of the Lord, okay? That comes with spiritual understanding, you know, whatever task that you have, you know, for me, it's having a family, raising 11 kids, I want to be fruitful, I want to be successful, I want my kids to grow up loving the Lord. You know, I really have no desire for my children to be pastors or missionaries. I'm happy if they just work any job, you know, but they love the Lord, they're in church, they're reading the Bible, they're going soul winning. That's my desire. I wouldn't look at that and say, well, I was fruitful in the way I raised my children. But you know, the only way we can be fruitful is by making sure that we've received the wisdom of God, the spiritual understanding, to be a high producing people for God in whatever task, whatever good work that Christ has asked us to do. I want to be fruitful. I want you to be fruitful in whatever you place your hands on. Whatever it is that you do, do it unto the Lord. Do it unto the Lord and you will be fruitful, okay? You will do the good works that God wants us to do. Can you now please turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3, 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse number 16. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse number 16. So point number 1 was pray for spiritual understanding, okay? Point number 2 is be diligent in your Bible reading. Be diligent in your Bible reading. You know, how's your Bible reading going by the way? I hope it's going well, okay? I hope you've been picking up your Bible. I hope you picked up your Bible before church today, you know, I hope you picked it up this morning even and had a read of it. And if you say, well, I haven't really picked up my Bible recently. Well, pay attention because this is important in order for you to do the good works that Christ has asked us to do. Be diligent in your Bible reading. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse number 16 reads, All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Look at verse number 17, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, unto all good works, perfect, complete, thoroughly furnished. That means prepared to do every good work. You want the fruit of goodness in your life. You need to prepare for that. I need to prepare myself to be able to do the good works that Christ has asked me to do. What is it that we need to do? Well, verse number 16 said it. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. It profits you to pick up the Bible and read it. It'll correct you. It'll teach you. It'll give you instruction in righteousness. I told you that righteousness is another way of saying goodness. It's the instruction of how to be good. It comes from picking up the Bible. It's profitable unto you. Every time you pick up the Bible and you read it, brethren, it's going to profit you something. If you've not picked up the Bible today, you've missed out on that profit today. If you did not pick up your Bible yesterday, you did not profit yesterday from reading your Bible. I want you to profit every single day of your life. It's easy. We've got the Bible. We've got these in our hands. People have died for the Bible, for it to be available in our hands. There's been bloodshed for us to have the Bible so freely available in our hands. Pick it up. Read it. It'll profit you. It'll prepare you. It'll make you perfect, freely furnished unto all good works. How can you say that I'm going to do good works for God, but you don't pick up your Bible? How can you prepare for the good works? How can you know what God wants you to do? The righteous ones say He wants you to walk thereby if you don't pick up the Bible and learn what God has to say. Again, you might say, well, I don't need the Bible. I know what is good. But again, there is a carnal understanding of what is good. We don't want that carnal understanding of what is good. We want the spiritual understanding. We want the goodness that comes from God. He produces that fruit in our life, and the good works that we do is godly. It is righteous. It is what God wants from us. It is coming directly from the source of God. But you need to pick up your Bible. I like the word profitable. I like profit. I like to profit. If you're going to invest in your finances, what do you want to invest in something that you know it's definitely going to profit me? One hundred percent guaranteed. If you know that you have some finances and you could make a profit, you know, a hundred percent guaranteed, you know, you'd be silly not to profit from that, not to take advantage of that. Well, you know what the Bible is telling us here? There is a way we can definitely profit, and it comes from reading the Scriptures. It comes from reading God's Word. One hundred percent profit guaranteed if you just pick it up, and it will prepare you to do all good works, all good works. Can you please turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 9? Second Corinthians chapter 9. Second Corinthians chapter 9. And I'm about to preach on a topic that I don't like to preach about in the church. But I have to preach it because I want you to do good works. And Second Corinthians chapter 9 verse number 6. Second Corinthians chapter 9 verse number 6. The first point was pray for spiritual understanding. The second point was be diligent in your Bible reading. The third point is give of your finances bountifully. Give of your finances bountifully. Second Corinthians chapter 9 verse number 6. Second Corinthians chapter 9 verse number 6 says, But this I say, he that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Do you want to reap bountifully in your life? Do you want the riches of God, the profits of God, the blessings of God? I'm not talking about finances necessarily here. God can bless us financially. That's definitely a way that God has blessed his people. But there are far more greater blessings of God. It can be just having great relationships, strengthening the marriage. God may bless you in that area. God may bless you with a great job that you're happy in, that you're satisfied, and you're learning some great things. God may bless you in your possessions and cause them to last longer than they normally would. And God may bless you with a great church and God may bless you with great understanding of his word. There's many ways to reap bountifully. Unfortunately the Pentecostals and the Charismatics, they look at these verses and they say, You know, give your thousand dollars to church and if you do that, if you sow a thousand dollars, you're going to reap a million dollars. Don't they do that on television, the tele-evangelists? They promise you great riches if you just give to God. It is a concept in the Bible though, you know, to sow of your finances. Look at verse number seven. God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always, look at this, always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work. I want you to abound in every good work that you do, brethren, but what's one sure way that you can make that happen? You give to your local church, oh Pastor Kevin, you're preaching it because you need more money. No, I want you to abound in every good work. I want to abound in every good work. God says if we give bountifully to the work of God, that he's going to, what did he say in verse number eight? Able to make his grace abound toward you. His grace, he's not promising necessarily that your bank account's going to blow out, you know, blow over and you're just going to be rich. Most of us can't handle great wealth. Look at the kings of the Bible, you know, great humble men, they become kings, they have possessions, they have power, they have riches and they end up getting corrupted because of all that power and riches. I don't want to be rich because I know I'll get corrupted. I mean, I might think, oh, you know what, if I just had great riches, if I just had billions of dollars, I know, I know what I'll do. No, I don't think so. There is some wealth that is not supposed to be in the hands of man, okay. You know, most people that have great riches, they become corrupt. Even Christian people. Even Godly people. You know, I don't desire to be rich financially but I desire to be rich with my good works. I desire to lay up treasures in heaven where that's, for all eternity, I can rejoice in my bank account in heaven, okay. But I want God's grace in our lives. We need God's grace in our lives because we're not perfect. We mess up. We need God's mercy. We need his grace. We need his forgiveness, all right. And look, God wants to abound in grace toward us. And he says, look, if you just give bountifully to the work of God, I'll make sure that my grace will abound in you and this will cause you, look, always having all sufficiency, I'm going to give you everything you need to abound in every good work. What a promise of God. I'm not trying to increase my paycheck at church. I promise you that. That's not my goal in life. I want us to just abound in every good work. But you can see very clearly here in 2 Corinthians 9 to 6, what you give to church, if you give bountifully, this is one way to help you to accomplish every good work, to abound in every good work, okay. So there were three things there. Number one, pray for spiritual understanding. Number two, be diligent in your Bible reading. Number three, give of your finances bountifully, okay. Let's not have this crazy idea of the Pentecostals, I'm going to become rich. No. They mess up these passages. They ruin these passages. And then that's why I don't like to preach on these things, because I don't want to get off the wrong idea that I'm just after money. I'm not after that. If I was after money, I'd just work any other job, okay, than being a pastor. Listen, being an independent, fundamental Baptist pastor is not going to get you rich. And if you become rich being one of these guys, you've done something wrong. I just tell you now, you're doing something wrong, all right. Can you please turn to Proverbs chapter 20 and verse number 6. Proverbs chapter 20 and verse number 6. So how well has this fruit of goodness developed in your life? Could you say, yeah, you know what, I've got this one nailed down. I've got this fruit of goodness, God is using me. And again, just like the unbelieving world, just like those that are lost and going to hell, when you knock on the doors, they say, I'm a good person, okay. Christians can fall in the same trap and assume you are good, okay. This is why I want you to turn here. Proverbs chapter 20 and verse number 6. Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness. Most men, that's most non-believers, that's not most believers. Most men just in general, okay. People proclaim his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find. So you know, to know how well you are producing the fruit of goodness in your life, your own judgment is not, it's not going to be, it's going to be a biased judgment. It's going to be a biased judgment, okay. You know, you just assess it, yeah, I think I'm a good God, okay. Because the Bible tells me most men will proclaim every man his own goodness, okay. So that's not a good way to measure whether we're producing this fruit of goodness in our lives. Can you please go to Proverbs 27 now, Proverbs 27 and verse number 2. Proverbs 27 and verse number 2. I found this is the sure way of knowing whether you have developed this fruit in your life, okay. In Proverbs 27 verse number 2, it says, let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips. So is there anything wrong with being praised? No. Because you're not praising yourself, I'm a good person. Listen, if other people, if other brethren here in the church, you know, speak highly of you, you know, that they're thankful toward you and they say, brother, you know, you've been a blessing in my life, you've been an encouragement to my life, you know, you've helped me to continue to serve God and to know the Word of God and, you know, you've encouraged me to be a better father, you've encouraged me to be a better worker. What's happening? If you've been praised by the lips of someone else, okay, that would be a great way to measure whether you're developing this fruit of goodness in your life. That's the sure way. Not just, oh yeah, I'm good, because we can all say that. We all know, everyone says, everyone thinks they're good, okay. But when other people praise you, that's a good way to measure whether, you know, I am truly developing this fruit in my life. You know, it's the voice of others. What do others say about you? Do others praise you? Do they speak highly of you, you know? And again, you know, we're not looking for flattery. Flattery can be very dangerous, but you know what, generally speaking, if someone has been encouraged by another brother in the Lord, you know, if someone's been, you know, just helped by a brother in the Lord, they will usually just come and thank you. They will usually come and acknowledge that, you know, you've been a support to them. You've been, you know, an example to them. You've been an encouragement to them. And when people are saying that about you, it's nice. And you can actually say, well, Lord, you must be doing something in my life. You know, the goodness that I can show to others, the blessing that I can show to others came from you, Lord. Okay, it's not about praising man, but Lord, you know what, you've done it, Lord. The goodness that you have, you've given that to me and I've been able to use that to bless others and they're praising me with their lips. That's a great way to know whether you're developing the fruit of goodness in your life. Can you please turn to Hebrews chapter 13? I know we're turning to a lot of passages, but Hebrews chapter 13. So we're going to look at the lips of others here. We're going to be looking at two main groups of people that have something to say about you. Okay. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse number 15. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse number 15. The first group or the first community that we're looking at here is your local church. Okay. We have brothers and sisters in the Lord. If there's anybody that we're going to show goodness toward, it ought to be our saved brethren. Okay. And in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 15, it says, By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. Now look at verse number 16. But to do good, all right, I want to do good, what's the Bible going to say here? But to do good and to communicate, forget not. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. You know what is a sacrifice that pleases the Lord? Being good to the brethren. Being good to the brethren in the church, okay, and communicating with the brethren. It says and to communicate, forget not. Now to communicate, this, you know, it comes from the word community, okay. That's the idea. To communicate. It's how we deal with one another. I know when we think of communicate today, we think about, okay, we communicate via telephone, we communicate via text message, we think about it like that, yeah, and there's a part of that, okay. But communicate comes from the idea of community, how we deal with one another. Are we doing good to the brethren? Are we blessing the brethren? And if you don't communicate, if you don't fellowship with the brethren, if you don't do good to the brethren, the Bible tells us here, forget not. Don't forget to do it, meaning that we do forget to do it. Again, remember, when God puts these things in the Bible, it's because we don't do those things, okay. We can forget to do good, we can forget to communicate, and God is telling us don't forget to do these things, okay, to the brethren. He's a sacrifice to God, and He's well pleased when you do those things, and that's awesome. I want God to be pleased. I want God to be pleased with my sacrifice. That means I've got to be good to you. You've got to be good to me. We've got to be good to one another and fellowship with one another. Look where it says in verse number 17, obey them that have the rule over you. There you go, Pastor Kevin. There you are, again on your, I don't know, I don't know what I'm looking for, okay, obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. I read that passage just to show you that this is definitely in the context of church, and when it comes to those that have the rule over you, again, it's your pastor, okay. And again, the rule is within the church, within the church boundaries, okay. Once church is over, once we're not gathered together for church services, I have no rule over you in whatever aspects you have in your life, okay. But this has to do with our communication, you know, you ought to do good to your pastor. If I wasn't a pastor, I would be preaching this. I'd be saying, you know what, we need to be doing good to our pastor, okay. This is something that pleases the Lord, we need to submit ourselves to the authority that God has put us under. Can you please turn to 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 12, 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 12, 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 12. There is another community that I want to look at here. So we saw the church and I think generally speaking, we do desire to do good to one another, we do desire to fellowship with one another, because it's so hard to just get like-minded brethren that have the same love for the Lord, they have the same desire, you know, for the King James Bible, the same desire for soul winning, these kind of, it's hard to find brethren that have that desire, okay. So maybe in church, it's a lot easier to do good to one another, but I want you to notice there in 1 Peter 2 verse number 12, 1 Peter 2 verse number 12, it says, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles. So now we're talking about the unbelieving world, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, look at this, they may by your good works, which they shall behold glorify God in the day of visitation. Wow, you know the Gentiles as it were, the unbelieving world is able to glorify God by your good works. When they see your good works, they glorify God. Let's take the idea of employment once again. You know, if you're just working hard, you're doing more than the average employee, you know, your boss sees the good works that you're doing, go wow, you know, this man, he's a Christian. This man loves God. This man brings up Jesus and look how hard he works. You know what, it causes God to be glorified when they see the good works that you do. And notice there in verse number 13, immediately, like Hebrews chapter 13, it goes straight into authority, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. I don't think it's a coincidence that when we look at both these groups about doing good to the brethren and doing good to the unbelieving world, that he merely jumps into the authorities that God has put in those areas, whether it's in your local church or whether it's in your community at large, there are authorities that God has put us under and you know what, we're called to do good to those in authority as well. We ought to respect those that are in authority and you know, this is showing good and it will cause God to be glorified, God to be glorified. So we're seeking to do good unto all men, the believing world, the unbelieving world, those that are in authority, those that may be subject unto us, whoever it is brethren, we're called to do good. And again, this comes from God. It's hard to put yourself under authority. It's hard to submit yourself to another man and this is where we need to draw the goodness of God to develop this fruit in our lives so we can do it with joy and we can do it as a sacrifice unto the Lord. Now I want to refer back to the church. Let's go to 3 John, 3 John verse 9 please. So the book of 3 John and let's look at verse number 9. There's only one chapter there. 3 John and verse number 9, it's toward the end of your Bible. 3 John chapter 9. We're looking back at the context of church and what we're going to be looking at here is the difference between two men that were in church, okay? Both of these men start with the letter D. You've got Diotrophes and you've got Demetrius. You've got two names here that are in this church. And in 3 John verse 9, it says, I wrote unto the church but Diotrophes who loveth to have the preeminence among them receiveth us not, okay? So there is a bad man here. He doesn't receive these apostles that want to serve the church, that want to write to this church. Why does he do this? Because he wants to have the preeminence among them. You know if somebody just wants to be number one in the church, they're in a hurry to become you know a deacon, they're in a hurry to become a pastor, be careful. Be careful of these people. You know it's important that someone gets first proven in their church before they're given some type of authority in the church, okay? Now look at verse number 10, wherefore if I come I will remember his deeds which he doeth, those are the deeds of Diotrophes, practicing against us with malicious words. So we're looking at a bad person, we're looking at a bad leader. What's he do? He uses malicious words. Now we're called to do good to the brethren. That means we ought not to use malicious words when we speak about the brethren, when we speak about one another or to one another, don't speak maliciously. Don't seek to damage your brethren. That's a bad example. What else does this guy do? And not content therewith, okay? Not content. So if we want to do good to the brethren, how are we to be? We ought to be people that are content, okay? Not content means you're going to be whining and complaining and murmuring, hey we're called to be content. And then it says, neither doth he himself receive the brethren and forbid of them that would and cast of them out of the church, okay? So this guy does not want to receive the brethren. He's trying to keep the church, you know, us for and no more. We don't want anyone else coming into this church. Well we ought to receive the brethren. You know if we have other people that come to this church, we have visitors that come to this church. They may be our brothers, they may be lost. We don't know necessarily, we ought to receive these people into our church, okay? This is doing good. This is communicating to those. You know if a brother in the Lord comes, a sister in the Lord comes, they may be different to us, they may look different to us, they may not behave the way we necessarily want them to behave, but we ought to be people that receive them. And guess what? If they're lost, we ought to have enough love for them to check whether they are saved and give them the gospel. But Diotrepis, he wasn't that kind of character. He did not want to receive. In fact, he was trying to cast people out of the church. Verse number 11, Beloved, follow not that which is evil. So don't follow after Diotrepis, right? But look, but that which is good, he that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Remember evil in the Bible means harmful. So Diotrepis was harming the church. Diotrepis was a harmful person in the church, okay? And the Bible tells us here that this man has not seen God, he doesn't know God the way he ought to. Hey, maybe he's unsaved, I'm not sure whether he's unsaved, he's a false prophet, or just a bad Christian, okay? Where, yeah, he may be saved but he's not following after the Lord, he's not developing the fruits of the Spirit in his life, whereas we're being commanded here to do that which is good. He that doeth good is of God. Again, the only way you can be good is to have the goodness of God. It does not come from the flesh, okay? It does not come from within. Look at verse number 12, Demetrius, there's the other guy, hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself, yea, and we also bear record, and ye know that our record is true. So they're saying, you know what, we bear record that Demetrius has a good report. We speak well of Demetrius. Hey, remember, let another man praise thee? Let the lips of another person praise thee? Well here we have John writing this, and out of his lips, he's praising Demetrius. Demetrius has a good report of all men. Can you say that about yourself? All men is all men, okay? Meaning that he was good to the brethren in the church, people say, hey, this is a good man. He also had a good report outside of church to all men, his workplace, his community, whoever he interacted with, people said, hey, that Demetrius, he's a good fellow. He had a good report. He had a good reputation. How's your reputation? How's your report? You know, if Blessed Hope Baptist Church ever has a pastor that is not me, a full-time pastor, I would love this church to have its own full-time pastor, okay? And you know, I put a man in place, I promise you this, I'm going to check his goodness. I'm going to check, does this man have a good report? Not only amongst the church, but also amongst where he's been in the past. You know, if he's been in other churches, I'll be ringing those pastors, can you tell me about Brother so-and-so? If he's worked in other places, can you tell me the kind of employee he is? And I'll tell you what, you know, if he's getting a bad report, a bad reputation in other places, he's not suited to be the pastor. We don't need, you know, a diotropies in this church. We need more Demetriuses in this church, okay? A person that has a good report of all men. So think about this, you know, again, I don't know, maybe you have a desire one day to be in the ministry, you better start working on that report. You better start working on your reputation. Do you have a reputation? If you've got a bad reputation, you've got to fix it, right? If you know, man, if you call my boss at work, he's going to give a bad report about me, you need to fix that, you know, and set Jesus Christ as your employee. You know, ask God for wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may excel in the job that you have. And people can say, hey, you know what, this was a good employee. He worked well and if he wanted a job back in this place, we will take him back in the no questions asked. That's the kind of reputation that we ought to have as Christians. Well, that's the reputation that Demetrius had. Can you please turn to Titus chapter three in verse number eight, we'll end on this one. Titus chapter three and verse number eight. Titus chapter three and verse number eight. This is our conclusion, Titus chapter three and verse number eight. It says, this is a faithful saying and these things I will affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men. Do you want things to be good and profitable to you, brethren? Well, you need to be careful to maintain good works. It means you have to put the effort in. It doesn't come automatically, okay? You've got to care, you've got to care enough, you know, for what God has given you. You know, the family, you know, care about your marriage, you know what, I want a good marriage and your kids, I want to have good kids. God's given you a job, I want to be a good employee, God's given you a church, I want to be a good member of our church, I'm a pastor, I want to be a good pastor. Whatever it is that God has put in your life, brethren, you know, you need to be careful to maintain those good works. It's not like, oh, I've done some good works now and I can slack off. No, maintain the good works, continue the good works that, you know, he wants us to do. The first word said at the beginning of that verse, I will that thou affirm constantly, meaning we need to be reminded of this. We need to be reminded constantly, do good works, do good, you know, produce the fruit of goodness in your life, you know, draw from the goodness of God. We need to be reminded of this on a constant basis because we tend to forget. We need to affirm this constantly. These things are good and profitable unto men. Let's pray.