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PASTOR WOOD’S Message notes
Message Notes: October 10, 2021 LWML Sunday
Title: “Goodness Gracious”
Text: Mark 10:17-22
Theme: For something to be truly good it must first be holy.
Goal: That the hearers are good through Jesus, and do good.
Introduction: Asking ourselves what is goodness?
I. Goodness is equated not with happiness, or aspiration, or achievement. Goodness is equated with the Holiness of God.
A. Who is the rich young ruler?
1. “Good teacher…what must I do to inherit eternal life.”
2. He is Young which means he may have inherited his position and his money.
3. He was a man of authority, perhaps even a member of the Sanhedrin with Nicodemus.
4. He was very wealthy.
5. Who is he? A good theory –Mark
6. Struggling, something still lacked and it was nagging him.
B. “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”
1. Kalos
2. Chrestos
3. Mark 10 uses Agathos–something that is intrinsically good, holy.
4. “No one is good but God.”
5. “Who do you say I am?”
II. Good enough is not always good.
A. Teacher YouTube.
B. Illustration of a haircut.
C. That longing feeling…
1. You know the commandments…
2. You know them but you still lack one thing…
D. We don’t settle for good enough but expect God to.
1. Health.
2. Contractors
3. Money
4. Don’t like half-hearted service/treatment
5. Bare minimum—expect high rise faith on chicken coup foundation.
E. Why do we in practice call something good?
1. We tend to evaluate things that are of God based on what we think of as ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
2. Based on our feelings.
3. Evaluate a church based on our experience.
4. God is good even when ‘bad’ happens.
5. Things we feel good about may not necessarily bless our faith.
F. “Go sell everything you own and give it to the poor and then come follow me.”
1. His wealth became his idol.
2. As long as his heart was full of his idol it had no room for Jesus.
3. His sadness revealed that he understood that he could not have both.
III. Goodness is given and passed on.
A. Peter 1:22 is love one another deeply from the heart.
1. From the love of Christ given in grace.
2. “You are not saved by gold or silver by the precious blood of Christ…Through Him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified Him…”
B. Goodness came to us first.
1. While yet sinners Christ came.
2. Jesus, the Good Shepherd laid down his life on the cross for our sins.
3. Jesus, the Good Shepherd rose from the dead.
4. Romans 1:17
5. 2 Corinthians 5:21
6. The Christian life is not centered on pursuit of happiness but on holiness.
C. The essence of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).
D. The essence of helping people.
1. Helping Hope Southern Indiana.
2. LWML
3. Good is done when Jesus is the center of it.
Conclusion: A Challenge.
What good are you doing? How have you deliberately, compassionately, unselfishly, and faithfully done some good because it just needed you to do it? We are not all equipped to be Mother Teresa but certainly something good is within our reach because we have Jesus. If we believe in Jesus then we are capable of something good, tangible, helpful, sacrificial; something that blesses another person whom you may not know, who may not be able to do anything for you. In Jesus you have everything you need to turn someone’s morning into a good morning, someone’s afternoon into a good afternoon, even someone’s grief into good grief. One thing is for certain the best part of acting on God’s goodness is hearing Jesus say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” In Jesus. Amen.
Taking it home
1. What is something good that has happened to you this week? Why do you think of it as good?
2. Consider making a list of the things to give thanks for. What would be the top five of that list?
3. How would describe the rich young ruler? Why would his sadness over his wealth be something positive?
4. What good could you be doing this week that would be simply because it needed to be done?
Consider Reading James 1 and 1 Peter 1
PRINTABLE PDF: snOct10.PDF
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Dear Grace Congregation
I am very humbled and grateful to have been in the Lord’s service for 25 years. I am grateful to have served here at Grace for twenty of those years. Thanks to all of you for making our family a part of Grace’s family these twenty years. Thank you for the kindness, the fun, and the joy of last Sunday’s celebration. Thank you for the great meal and fellowship. Thanks to the youth for remembering Michigan Jones so fondly. Thank you for your cards and gifts and for the many expressions of love. Thank you for putting up with all my VBS ideas and hanging in there with me each year. Thank you for your patience when I am a little slow or dull. Thank you for including us in your own milestones. Thank you for allowing me to continue to work side by side with you in this ministry. The family of Grace has been very consistent in its support of its staff and is a big reason I remain here as pastor. We love this congregation and look forward to many more years together with you.
Love in Christ
Pastor Matthew Woods (PW)