WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.440 Today we're going to take a posture of peace by not despising the power of goodness and kindness. 2 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:13.040 Posture is a short audible fist bump to remind you God is with you 3 00:00:13.040 --> 00:00:18.480 in everything. Together we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace. 4 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:31.200 Romans 2-4 says, Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, 5 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:39.040 not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? As we talked about in yesterday's 6 00:00:39.040 --> 00:00:46.400 episode, goodness is so powerful. Did you know that it is the primary catalyst for repentance? 7 00:00:47.120 --> 00:00:53.600 Repentance ultimately means to change your mind. God's goodness brings transformation. 8 00:00:54.800 --> 00:01:01.680 In episode 56, we talked about the partnership between other fruit, joy and peace, and goodness 9 00:01:01.680 --> 00:01:06.480 and kindness work in partnership too. The fruit of the spirit often works in partnership together. 10 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:13.280 In fact, in some translations of Romans 2-4, the word kindness is used instead of goodness. 11 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:20.080 Goodness and kindness work together in partnership to express God's true nature towards us. 12 00:01:20.960 --> 00:01:27.920 As we continue to be transformed by our encounters with God's goodness and his kindness, 13 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:32.400 we become ambassadors of his goodness and kindness to everyone that we encounter. 14 00:01:33.520 --> 00:01:40.320 I don't want us to miss the strong warning in Romans 2-4. Don't despise the power of goodness. 15 00:01:40.320 --> 00:01:46.880 Don't despise the power of kindness. Don't belittle them. They lead to transformation. 16 00:01:46.880 --> 00:01:52.480 Accusation doesn't do this. Judgment doesn't do this. Condemnation certainly doesn't do this. 17 00:01:53.360 --> 00:02:00.320 You and I, we are on earth to be good news on display. You are so wonderfully loved by God. 18 00:02:00.320 --> 00:02:06.560 It's like you're a magnet for his goodness and favor. So everywhere you go, people, 19 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:13.840 they taste and see that God is good through you. Now remember, in the kingdom, the starting point 20 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:20.560 is always receiving. So before we go out there and be living demonstrations of the goodness of God, 21 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:26.400 we must taste and see his goodness for ourselves. We must receive his goodness for us in all of its 22 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:34.480 fullness. Here's what I love about the goodness of God. It's a guarantee. You can always expect 23 00:02:34.480 --> 00:02:40.720 his goodness. You can always look for his goodness in every situation. Psalm 23 6 says, 24 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:50.080 surely God's goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. Surely, without a doubt, 25 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:57.760 absolutely, it will follow you, track you down, pursue you all the days of your life, good days 26 00:02:57.760 --> 00:03:03.600 and bad days. There's no escaping it. So instead of trying to reason it away or talk yourself out 27 00:03:03.600 --> 00:03:11.200 of God's goodness towards you, how about just receiving it instead? The fruit of goodness is 28 00:03:11.200 --> 00:03:17.440 about looking after someone's welfare, acting with honor, being favorable towards someone, 29 00:03:17.440 --> 00:03:26.320 blessing them, lifting them up. And that's exactly how God plans to be with you. God's goodness is 30 00:03:26.320 --> 00:03:33.840 our security in the storms of life. When life is unkind, God remains kind. Back to David, 31 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:41.200 writer of the Psalms, who faced many storms. He faced a lot of disappointments and a lot of 32 00:03:41.200 --> 00:03:49.040 accusations and a lot of unexpected situations. And David wrote in Psalm 27 13, I would have lost 33 00:03:49.040 --> 00:03:54.960 heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord and the land of the living. 34 00:03:55.760 --> 00:04:02.240 And then later, of course, I just love the Psalms. In Psalm 145, he writes, they shall 35 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:09.920 utter the memory of your great goodness and sing of your righteousness. Another translation reads, 36 00:04:09.920 --> 00:04:16.640 they shall bubble up with the memory of your great goodness. When you feel pressed by 37 00:04:16.640 --> 00:04:22.640 circumstances, when you feel pressured by pain, when you feel trapped by evil, you get to choose 38 00:04:23.520 --> 00:04:29.440 what will you be overwhelmed with? What will you allow to bubble up inside of you 39 00:04:29.440 --> 00:04:34.160 in those moments, in those situations, in those seasons? Will it be the memories 40 00:04:34.880 --> 00:04:40.640 of God's great goodness or will it be fear or worry or past trauma or worst case scenarios? 41 00:04:41.760 --> 00:04:47.520 God's goodness is present in every situation. We need to carry an expectation for it. So we 42 00:04:47.520 --> 00:04:55.840 look for it. Like we talked about yesterday in 2 Corinthians 3 18, when we look at God's 43 00:04:55.840 --> 00:04:59.840 glorious goodness, we are transformed more into the image of Christ. 44 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:08.040 Even if circumstances don't change, you know that you will. Every situation is an 45 00:05:08.040 --> 00:05:14.280 opportunity to behold the glorious goodness of the Lord and then discover 46 00:05:14.280 --> 00:05:21.760 where we get to be that goodness for others. Romans 12 22 says, do not be 47 00:05:21.760 --> 00:05:30.000 overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. Goodness is powerful. It 48 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:36.400 doesn't make us tame. It makes us transformers. Don't belittle it. Don't set 49 00:05:36.400 --> 00:05:41.480 it aside. Don't think it's unnecessary. Don't make it secondary. Let's be 50 00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:46.080 overwhelmed by the goodness of God towards us so that we can be a strong 51 00:05:46.080 --> 00:05:53.680 force for goodness in this world. The promise of perfect peace is found in 52 00:05:53.680 --> 00:06:00.840 Isaiah 26 3. In Hebrew, it is shalom shalom, meaning complete wholeness, 53 00:06:00.840 --> 00:06:08.400 nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus because of Jesus. 54 00:06:08.400 --> 00:06:14.560 You are a living testimony of Jesus's ultimate win. With every step you take 55 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:22.080 today, you're putting Jesus's victory on display and Satan's defeat on replay.