Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Mark 3:1-6 Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” 4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. 5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Message Today I will be speaking on the topic of Goodness. As you know, sometimes words or ideas in Japanese do not translate well to, say, English, French, German, or whatever. I have often found it difficult to define words like “Mottainai.” Simply translated, it is "a waste." But that is “Muda.” Mottainai is more the feeling or sense of being sorry that something happened. Today, we will be looking at the word “good” or “goodness,” “Tov” in Hebrew. Something that translations struggle to convey accurately when we read the word good or goodness in the scriptures. Because it means more than something is better than okay but as good as great. We do not sing the song “Okay is your Faithfulness” or even “Good is your Faithfulness” but it is Great. In the Hebrew language and also culturally, that is not an adequate translation of good especially in relation to God. Because if we just take the word “Tov” or the Greek word “Agathosune” and translate it as good or goodness, we wonder why Jesus flips out on the Rich Young Ruler in Matt 19 for calling Jesus “Good teacher.” It doesn’t seem to make sense. It seems like a nice way to address a sensei. If you want to call me a good preacher / pastor, I will take it as a compliment. But Jesus and all those around him know that the word means more than something between okay and great. It means HOLY or complete or something without flaw or defect. You might say that is a good way to address Jesus because Jesus is Holy. But unless you know Jesus as your Lord and Messiah it is inappropriate to call him “Tov Rabbi”. Just like if Jesus is not your Lord and Savior, you really shouldn’t call him Christ. Christ is not Jesus’ last name it is a recognition of who he is and how we see him. It is just words but as Jesus shows words matter. In Genesis 1, we witness the creation of everything. We have this awe-inspiring account with the trinity (Gen 1:26) “Let us make man in our likeness.” After all, had been created, God calls it “Good.” Or it is complete and perfect. A self-sustaining biological marvel and God evaluates his work and knows it is perfect. Interesting that the first Adam was placed in a perfect or complete environment and sinned and had to be cast out of the garden. Our Lord Jesus the Christ, the second Adam, was placed in a fallen world and redeemed the world. Psychologists (My dad is one) argue over nature verses nurture. Both matter. Environment matters but we are not only defined by our environment we can overcome that environment with the help of God and the commitment to follow him with the guidence of the Holy Spirit. God created the world in a way that it was suitable for life and for us to have it in abundance. I can have a poor sermon. I can have an okay day. I can do worse than okay in communicating with others, but GOD DOES NOT MAKE GARBAGE. God does not make Junk and after he made the world God called it Good and all he asked of us was that we care for his creation. Let’s be honest we have done a pretty crappy job of it caring for it. God created a living organism perfectly balanced moving around the sun, at just the perfect distance with the perfect tilt to have life. He made us in his image and pronounced us good. I have run across quite a few people in my life that have had body issue problems. They look in the mirror and instead of seeing a child of God (Which they are) they look in the mirror and see junk. I faced that issue 5 years ago too. I was way (way) too heavy for a healthy life. Because I was so heavy, I stopped doing athletic things. I was exhausted at the end of every day. But where it showed up most vividly was when I looked at pictures with me in them. I hated those pictures of myself. Especially pictures when I was having a good time, I would look at the pictures and instead of remembering the good experience with family or friends, I would see this fat guy and feel embarrassed. This is a picture of my friend Jess Engle who’s daughter comes to KUC once in a while. I had to remind myself that God loved me. I know that I am a sinner. I know that you are too. But God loves us so much so that he sent his one and only son. No matter if I was way way over 130 kg. God does not make junk. Sometimes we have to do some life-changing activities to get to where we (personally or as a community) want to be physically, emotionally, or spiritually but if we are willing to get out of that boat, our good Lord will meet us there. For God created a perfectly balanced world for us to live on and there is a lot of repentance that needs to happen because we have messed this GOOD world up. Psalm 103 shows God’s goodness. It states that God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. There are groups today that focus on punishment not restoration. If you have made mistakes if your ancestors have made mistakes they look to accuse, silence, or cancel you. It is punishment without redemption or chance of forgiveness. That is an awful thing. Thank God we worship a GOOD and HOLY God that is willing to correct us as Paul tells us in Heb 12, “God disciplines us for our GOOD, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness.” Do not miss it that God's discipline is for our GOOD! Because God disciplines us so that we can share in God’s holiness and that produces a harvest of goodness. Be really careful of people that discipline for discipline sake. The purpose of discipline is always for the good not for punishment. The question is not about God’s goodness (even when he disciplines us) but about our willingness to accept that goodness. When Jesus met Saul on the road to Damascus he said, “‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” Jesus sees people hurting his sheep as a personal affront to God. “Why are you persecuting ME?” Jesus knows that it is hurting you and your heart more than it is hurting God. We know that a goad is a stick that helps train an ox or donkey doing field work to follow the lead of the master. It is for the animal's protection as well as for the usefulness of the animal. When an animal kicks in disobedience it hits the goad and quickly because of the pain learns not to do that. You heard about the guy that went to a doctor. He reached over his shoulder with his arm pulling it back as far as it could. He said to the doctor, “When I do this I get the shooting pain all down my neck, what should I do?” The doctor thought for a moment and said, “Don’t do that.” You know what your stick is, don’t you? Stop kicking it. Animals are smart enough not to do that, but we are at times so stupid that we do foolish things over and over again thinking that it will work out differently. “Don’t do that.” When we reject God’s goodness we are doing our version of kicking the goad. We are not hurting God; we are just causing ourselves pain and frustration. God calls us to Taste and see that the Lord is good. Deut 30 says something similar, “Today I set before you life and death, blessing and curses” then Moses gives advice to the people. It seems like an easy decision like saying what do you want this Kobe steak or a McDonald's happy meal? He says, “choose life” Like saying choose God’s goodness. But death is easy. You don’t have to try at all, you just slide down this long slope of easiness until you hit bottom. But life is hard, Goodness requires effort. I guess what we the church the followers of Christ are saying is that the effort of Loving God with our heart soul mind and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves is worth the work. It is good. And as we strive for God’s goodness God fills us with his goodness. And that tastes good. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Let’s pray Heavenly Father, we thank You for the revelation of Your goodness in our lives. Help us to recognize that true goodness stems from You alone. Transform our hearts and empower us to reflect Your goodness to the world around us. May Your name be glorified through our words and actions. In Jesus's name, we pray. Amen.
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