Because God is good and we dwell in Him, the fruit of our lives should be goodness; amen?  It should be a natural outflow; there is no strain involved when we are abiding in Him.  There is no work, in fact, to try to produce good efforts and good deeds.  It just naturally flows out of us because we abide in the Vine, and that fruit is naturally produced.  According to Galatians, in the list of the fruits of the Spirit, goodness is one of the aspects of that fruit.  So, one of the points is that we don’t have to work, we don’t have to try, to be good.  In fact, we want to make sure that we do the opposite of working because we can fake goodness and we can discipline ourselves to do the right thing.  We are not looking to do the right thing; we are looking to have a good heart; amen?  So, it’s not about what we do.  It’s about who we are and what the natural outflowing of our lives is.

We have been talking about the love of God and loving one another and how we are to relate to one another.  When we get together, there is to be no corrupt communication that proceeds out of our mouths, but we speak unto edification all of those things that are the practical evidence of God and His goodness dwelling in us.

In Matthew 5, there is a classic Scripture, one with which we are all very familiar, but I don’t know that we have a full grasp of what Jesus is speaking here.  In this this great teaching called The Sermon on the Mount, the whole message is a practical introduction to what life and citizenship in the kingdom looks like.  He says here in this fourteenth verse, “Ye are the light of the world.”

Man, isn’t there a need for that light to shine in this hour?  What darkness!  What vileness!  There again, I’m not just speaking of the actions of men; I’m speaking of wicked hearts.  You see, it’s the antithesis:  it’s wicked hearts.  People are wicked.  What they do is the natural outflow of who they are.  It would do us no good to change our political position and pass laws, because people are wicked and laws don’t change hearts.  We are dealing with these people who are under the influence of antichrist, the power of Satan, who produce the fruit that we are watching right now because that’s who they are.  They are of their father the devil, who is the thief who has come to kill, to steal, and to destroy; amen?  We don’t need a better school system.  We don’t need better housing for everybody.  We don’t need to pay off all the loans of these rebels who have locked themselves in the university.  We need to preach the gospel; amen?  We need to shine the Light on the world so that people realize that there is an alternative.

Many of us grew up not knowing there was an alternative.  Generations of pagans, of sinners, of carnal individuals—we had never considered another way of life.  It’s interesting to watch the generations.  Each grows up to be what their parents were, such as golfers or racers.  When we were out sharing the gospel and we were out racing, we would see three generations where that’s all they would do and that’s all they knew.  They were born in that home and they grew up in that home, so they’re a racer if they’re born in that home.

Let me share this with you young people:  you ought to be thankful to God every day that you were born into the home you are in; amen?  Your parents have sacrificed to have you here.  Your parents have made that wise decision to rear you in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.  We should be thankful for that, praise God.