Bible, Bros & Brew
Bible, Bros, & Brew is all about helping you navigate your relationship with God in practical, real-life ways. Hosts David and Phil dig into scripture—'chopping up the word'—and bring it to life with insights you can actually use every day. And while they’re at it, they share their favorite 'brews'—don’t worry, it’s not booze! Just a solid lineup of classic coffees and teas to keep the conversations flowing.
Bible, Bros & Brew
How Developing Goodness and Faithfulness Can Change Your Life | Walking in the Spirit | Bible, Bros & Brew
In the famous "fruit of the spirit" verse in Galatians 5:22, the last two items listed are goodness and faithfulness, both of which are vital to solidifying the character of the believer. For this latest installment of our series titled "Walking in the Spirit", David & Phil take time to research the scriptures to define what these two terms mean in the original Greek language, as well as how practicing goodness and faithfulness can lead to exceptional blessings. So put on your thinking cap, grab your coffee and your Bible study tools, and enjoy this episode with us!
gotbrew@biblebros.net
In this episode of Bible Bros and Brew, we're going to continue our journey through Galatians 5, specifically the fruit of the Spirit that Paul talks about in verse 22. And this time around, we're going to be focusing on two of the items on that list goodness and faithfulness. So grab your coffee, your tea, and get ready to join us as we dig into the Word tonight. Stay tuned, hello, hello everyone. Welcome to Bible Bros and Brew. My name is Philip and, of course, with me is the always awesome, never boring David McIntyre. Down here To my, I guess, left your right is John, the DJ, the producer on the wheels of steel. Yes, so we're here tonight to talk about the word of God.
Speaker 1:We always want to just remind people who tune into the podcast that that's what this podcast is all about. We want you guys to not only be encouraged by what we share through the word and through the scriptures, but also we want you to take the next step and study the Bible for yourself. We hope that it inspires you to do just that. That's our whole point, for this podcast is to get people excited about God's word, to have the truth of the word revealed and for them to be able to dig into the word for themselves, understand it and act on it and see awesome results in their life from it. So that's kind of a nutshell version of what we do, and sometimes we go about it in interesting ways and funny ways and serious ways. So we just believe in being very no frills about God's word. We believe that the word speaks for itself for sure, and so we wanted to, I guess, let you in on the things we've been going through and going over the past few weeks.
Speaker 1:Sorry, regarding Galatians 5, we've been on a series called Walking in the Spirit, a series called Walking in the Spirit and, of course, the beginning of the series we talked about, the whole passage beginning in verse 16 of Galatians 5, where Paul says this I say to you, walk in the spirit and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. And then he goes into a whole list of things called the works of the flesh, which I guess is about, like I don't know, 16 or 17 items on that list. And then he gets to the end of that list and he says if anybody does this kind of stuff, they can't inherit the kingdom of God. But then he goes into the fruit of the spirit in verse 22. And it's obviously being presented as a contrast to the works of the flesh. And so, in verse 22, he starts talking about the fruits of love and joy and peace and long suffering and gentleness, and then he gets to these next two, which we've been covering all those up to this point, and now we're at the two fruits that are the next on the list, which are goodness and faith, which, in the King James, says faith, but it means faithfulness.
Speaker 1:So I know I just went through a long explanation about where we've been up till now, but before we get into any more detail, I do want to ask our famous question that we do every episode, which is what is in the cup. So, david, if you don't mind, could you share with us what you're brewing tonight, sir?
Speaker 2:First of all, before I share what we're brewing, I want to share my little cup here. Oh man, that is neat. It is such an awesome cup there's a young lady and I.
Speaker 2:I forget her full ceramic shop's name, but her name is haley and she's a friend of my son's and he bought this cup from her shop. For me, this thing is amazing. Not only can you feel the textures in the cup, but then you also. It's very lightweight, so it's very easy to carry and hold your coffee nice. So it's, it's made, and it's just big enough that even my little baby hand can wrap around it and look like a man while I'm drinking, so that I don't have to do this, you know, with the other cup.
Speaker 1:Yeah, whatever you do not do that.
Speaker 2:I will try to give John the reminder that I'll give you the link to her little shop. Maybe you'll find a cup that's fit for you.
Speaker 1:Now what's in the?
Speaker 2:cup Tonight I have gone back to an little shop. Maybe you'll find a cup that's fit for you. Now, what's in the cup? Tonight I have gone back to an old favorite. I forgot to bring the bag with me. I am drinking Butter Pecan or Pecan, depending on who you are Butter Pecan from Red Barn. Red Barn Coffee has this and it's a completely accessible cup of coffee to me.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's what we all aim to have.
Speaker 2:It's accessible, for sure. Accessible coffee. How about for you, john?
Speaker 3:Man, in my perfectly normal-sized mug I have. How about for you, john man? In my perfectly normal-sized mug I have. I believe it's Donut Shop Coffee and it's Snickers flavor. However, there's a question mark at the end of that because I don't taste any Snickers. I don't normally eat that. But I mean, it's not a bad tasting coffee, it just tastes very. It tastes like a chocolate bar. Maybe my taste buds are not attuned to Snickers bars, but it's very simple. But it's doing the job tonight for sure.
Speaker 1:Nice. Now let me see that mug again. John, I didn't see the full shot of that.
Speaker 3:Sorry, I apologize for that.
Speaker 1:It's all right.
Speaker 3:Check this out. Ooh, I like that. It's his name, little Grogu, from, of course, my comfort franchise. That's dope, it's. It's pretty nice dude. I saw it now, I didn't even hesitate.
Speaker 1:I didn't even hesitate. I hear you, man. Yeah, you know. No, you're good. I was just gonna say, man, it's time for me to to upgrade mug collection. I've been thinking about it. I like the ones I have, but some of them have gotten chipped. A little stuff like that's going on. I said let me, so it might be time to take a few to the Goodwill and then roll into new editions.
Speaker 1:Man, I've done it before, I can do it again, and one such thing is too many mugs. That's true, man. The thing that I'm a little bummed about is I think I showed it in one of the episodes I had a Bucky's coffee mug. It was so dope, but then they put some kind of I don't know what to call it like a screen print veneer thing around the mug to make it look a certain way. But as soon as I put it in the dishwasher one time it started peeling up on the sides and I was all worn down. Yeah, so that was a bummer I want to get just a regular old ceramic Bucky's mug and I'll be happy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dude. Anyway man, what are you drinking tonight?
Speaker 1:Oh, I am drinking the newest rendition of coffee from our friends at Peregrine. Obviously this is sorry, I can't get off the Peregrine man. This is called the Columbia. It's hard to read that, but Columbia Aponte Reserve. There we go, nice. It's hard to read that, but Columbia Aponte Reserve, there we go, nice. It's got notes of Pink Lady, apple, orange, julius and Cinnamon Chocolate. If you will, and possibly if you won't, I know what two of those things are.
Speaker 1:I know I haven't heard Orange Julius has been around for a long time, but I totally forgot about it. It's like an old school drink. But, yeah, pink Lady Apples, they're delicious, and all of it does seem to come together so well. Man, it's just a good cup of coffee. So shout out to the folks at Peregrine, always doing an awesome job. Yeah, man. And of course, the Spider-Man mug. I've showed this one before, but I just love it, man. It's cool. Yeah, dude, but anyway, enough of this Ballyhoo and Tomfoolery, let's get into. Let's get into the word.
Speaker 1:Tonight we're going to continue in what we've been talking about and, of course, as always, we encourage you to go back and listen to the previous podcast. The previous weeks We've got a ton of videos on our channel and so, especially from the past few weeks talking about this series on walking in the spirit, definitely go back through some of those and just check them out. Sometimes, you know, we may label the title, a certain thing, but then when we get into our flow and start going, who knows what might come up. So, just, you know, there's probably some nuggets in there that'll be pretty cool, some takeaways that maybe none of us were expecting at the time.
Speaker 2:Hey Phil, can I say something real quick, please? You know just one thing to think about with this stuff. You know we've we've spent probably about 14 weeks now talking about walking in the spirit. Yeah, some people might say, my gosh, how much longer are they going to talk about this? The reason why we've done it the way that we've done it is, you know, when we talk about walking in the spirit it's very specific, yeah, and if you don't know what you're up against when you're trying to walk in the spirit, the works of the flesh you're going to succumb to them every time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But now that you know what you're up against, it's almost like having your antenna up your perception the Bible calls it perception, we call it like having your antenna up. That's right. They're hyper aware of that stuff when it comes at you so that you can take action around it. And the same is true with the fruit of the spirit. You actively start running towards those things being cultivated in your life because you want that good fruit to happen. You want to be known as kind, you want to be considered as someone who loves and who's joy filled and peaceful. And so you start leaning into those characteristics when you know what they are and what they produce in your life. So if you're unaware what any of those things mean, then they won't mean anything for you and you won't lean towards anything mean, then they won't mean anything for you and you won't lean towards anything.
Speaker 2:That's right. You'll just keep going as you're going and whatever comes into your life, in your everyday life, will be kind of what you focus on, and you'll miss the works, the fruit of the spirit flowing and being nurtured in your life. So it's really important that you dig into this and that you stay with us as we kind of get close to wrapping this up, because you're going to have a full picture that you can walk with and you can make choices and decisions with on what kind of person you're going to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good, david, that's good. And I tell you what you know. We all know that this walk with God is a process and we're all works under construction, if you want to put it that way.
Speaker 2:Eternal construction.
Speaker 1:Yes, eternal construction. I by no means think for one second that I've arrived, and if I ever was under that delusion, life will remind me very quickly sooner or later. Right, so um a few works, might pop up.
Speaker 1:Yes, a few of those works of the flesh could pop up. But, um, I you know the Bible talks about how, uh, in Philippians 2, 13, it says that it is God who works in us to will and do of his good pleasure. You know, so there's that element of the Spirit of God working in your life to give you not only the ability to do what he wants, but also even the desire to do what he wants. You know, even the desire to do the will of God comes from God. It's an interesting thing, man. I mean, we really are far more in a I don't know another way to say this right now, but far more helpless than we think. You know, we need him and that's why he told us in John 15,. You know, he says abide in me and I'll abide in you. And he said if you're cut off from me, you can do nothing.
Speaker 1:You know, and some people have viewed that the wrong way, as if God's like I hate to use this, but I even heard somebody say this, like an atheist who said this online. They said it sounds like an abusive spouse. You know, you can do nothing without me. You know, that kind of I don't know like a negative slant on what he's saying. That's actually a statement of fact. If you understand how these things work, you understand what fellowshipping with God is all about and staying connected to his words all about. You realize that that's your life source.
Speaker 1:You know it's a statement of fact. It's this idea. Just like a branch could not bear fruit unless it stays connected to the trunk and to the limb or whatever you know, you can't bear fruit unless you stay connected to God. We all know the famous thing where if you cut like roses out of a bush and you put them into a vase with water and they look pretty for maybe a few days or even a week or two weeks, but the moment you cut those roses out of the bush, that is the moment they started dying. They may not have showed it yet. The evidence of that death has not showed up yet, because you've got a vase, you got water and you can temporarily kind of keep that thing going a little bit, but the process of death has already happened.
Speaker 2:Already started.
Speaker 1:Come on, man. And so eventually, death catches up, because that thing was disconnected from the source of its life. And to me, that's how this walk with God is. You know, we think about it. He's the author of life, I think. In the book of Acts it says he's the prince of life. You know, do you, do we really think we can be spiritually alive disconnected from him? It's not going to work.
Speaker 1:Man Like you can get away with it for a little while, you can fake it for a little while, but if you have no connection with him through his word, no connection with him through prayer, no connection with him through, you know, walking in love, staying on point in that regard, after a while that separation begins to set in in ways that begin to show themselves, and so I don't want to be in that place, man. And believe me when I say there have been times when I felt like I was hanging on by a thread. I know a lot of us have had those times, dry seasons, ups and downs. But the one thing that I can say has been drilled into my mind and I'm sure David and John, y'all can say this too is like I need God, I need.
Speaker 3:God.
Speaker 1:Every day I need him, even if I get full of myself or whatever.
Speaker 2:I quickly come back. As the song says, philip every hour.
Speaker 1:Every hour. Yes, I need him every hour. You'll quickly come back down to earth. If you think that you can do this thing without them, I promise you that.
Speaker 2:That's for sure. You know what, philip, you made me think about the other. You kind of headed that way a little bit, but it's the whole concept of that. We are sheep.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:And there are people who get offended by the concept that the Bible equates those of us who belong to him as sheep, because sheep are the dumbest animals out there. But can I tell you something about the sheep? Because the Bible says that he's the good shepherd.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:And when sheep have a good shepherd, they have absolutely everything they need. Then you go into Psalms 23, where he talks about how they are led by. You know the peaceful waters that causes them to lie down in green pastures, you know so the sheep's life is good because of the good shepherd.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:And because of the good shepherd's guidance and leading him, the sheep never have to think about when they're what they're going to eat, If they're going to go hungry. They know they're going to be in peace, and they only lie down in green pastures when they feel safe.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So they have their safety in place and a shepherd who takes care of them, who makes sure that they are groomed well. Excuse me, bless you. All of that is the benefit of the good shepherd. It says nothing about the sheep. It says everything about the shepherd. That's what Philip is talking about. I'm happy to be a sheep in his sheepfold and in fact, if you want to, if you want to call Jesus your own, you too are going to have to become like a sheep. And but you know, here's another beautiful thing. He says my sheep know my voice come on the voice of a stranger.
Speaker 2:They will not follow so now you know why the sheep are so well instructed. It's because they hear the shepherd's voice. They know it, they understand it. They can't be deceived from it. So his instruction and guidance will be very clear praise god.
Speaker 1:You know it's interesting, man. I don't know if you've seen this. There was a video that went around like, I think, on youtube or some other places, but it was this video of a shepherd like a legit shepherd.
Speaker 1:He had sheep laying down all over this field and uh you seen it and he uh, there was other people there and they tried to call the sheep, you know, using the same type of call the shepherd used. But the sheep didn't, didn't even bother to pay attention. But as soon as that shepherd spoke up and did his little call, they just it was the coolest thing, man, it's like they know the voice of the shepherd dude hey, john, make a note.
Speaker 2:um, just if you think about it, let's find that video and let's put it as the first comment so that people can see that video. It's amazing, you'll never see that scripture the same after you see it that way.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right, All right, Sorry, I had to blink out for a second. I'm trying to get my camera focused again. There we go, but okay, good, I'm getting back.
Speaker 1:Okay, but on the theme of the fruit of the Spirit, and I guess, just based on the things we talked about a little earlier, as far as the John 15 scripture, when he said you know, if you abide in me and stay connected to me, then you bear much fruit, I really do believe that the fruit he's talking about also has to do with the fruit of the spirit. I think that's a big part of it. It's like you'll begin to reflect the character of God and the nature of God by simply hanging out with God. You know there's that old thing about like your associations. You know you become who you hang around that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:And even in the Bible 1 Corinthians 15, it says evil communications will corrupt good manners. So you've got this law of association, if you want to call it that, where whatever you surround yourself with it kind of starts rubbing off on you and, quite honestly, God's the same way. You start spending time with him in prayer, spend time with him in his word, really begin to come to know him through that intimate relationship with his word in prayer and those types of things. And after a while, as 2 Peter says 2 Peter 1, it says you become a partaker of his divine nature through his great and precious promises, and so you begin to take on those characteristics of God himself. And that's all the fruit of the spirit really is. It's just simply the character and nature of God. When you break it down.
Speaker 2:That's really good.
Speaker 1:Praise God man. So, of course, in line with that, we have the fruits of goodness and faithfulness as our next two that we're going to cover tonight. And, john, if you don't mind, we can pull that up. In Galatians five we covered love, joy and peace and long suffering and gentleness. I think those are the ones we got to the past couple of episodes. And then now we find ourselves over there in goodness and faith. Now the word goodness I think, david, you mentioned something about that. I don't know if we can get to that thing where it shows the definition for goodness Like the strongs. There we go. Yeah, there we go. Long-suffering. There it is Goodness. Yeah, we'll go there. It's the word agathosune. I guess that's how we're going to do it.
Speaker 2:We'll say that it counts, that's exactly how we're going to do it.
Speaker 1:And it says there the meaning is intrinsic goodness, especially as a personal quality, with stress on the kindly rather than the righteous side of goodness. Wow.
Speaker 2:Isn't that interesting.
Speaker 1:Yes, very much so. And it says it's derived from Agathos, which means good. And then there's a corresponding Hebrew entry. Because remember, when we talk about Greek and Hebrew, just keep in mind the general rule that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek. And so our corresponding Hebrew entries. Because there is well, there was a Greek version of the Old Testament called the Septuagint and it was a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. So they knew how to draw those parallels. The scholars that worked on this knew how to draw those parallels because they had a Hebrew manuscript to work from and a Greek manuscript to work from for the Old Testament as well. So but yeah, john, if you don't mind putting it back up on the screen, the equivalent or the compound corresponding Hebrew entry is. It says it's often translated as good.
Speaker 1:This Hebrew word shares a similar meaning, denoting that which is pleasant, agreeable or beneficial, and is frequently used to describe God's creation and his moral standards. That's good stuff. And it says here the term agathosune refers to an intrinsic goodness, a moral quality that reflects uprightness of heart and life. It's a virtue that encompasses kindness, benevolence and a desire to do what's right according to God's standards that's heavy right there In the New Testament it's often associated with the fruit of the Spirit, indicating a quality that's produced in believers by the Holy Spirit. What's interesting, david. I know you've probably I mean, I know, I think, anybody who's coming to the things of God and come to know who Jesus is. There's a part of you after a while that doesn't feel comfortable doing bad anymore that doesn't feel comfortable doing bad anymore.
Speaker 2:No, that's very true.
Speaker 1:Right and all of a sudden, instead of the old desires, you had to do bad. You may still be tempted with stuff, but you know it's not good anymore. You know that those things are now. It's a struggle with you when maybe back in the day you didn't really think about it. You might be able to sleep with this person and not be too bothered by it. You might be able to sleep with this person and not be too bothered by it. You might be able to sneak and get away with stuff and it's all right. But then after a while, because you have the Holy Spirit living in you, all of a sudden that conviction starts coming around like ah, that's really not right. And you, you know, you kind of know that it's not right.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And then it goes from there where you're in that struggle to to get rid of things you know aren't right, to now, all of a sudden, a desire to do good. It's almost like you start looking for ways to be a blessing, looking for ways to do good to people. And so you're true and truly enough, your nature begins to change because the spirit of God is living in you and he's prompting you and giving you these desires and these impulses to, or these little promptings to kind of go a different way and go man, what if I, what if I said something encouraging to this person? What if I gave this person some some help, if they need, you know, x, y, z for for something they're dealing with? Um, the desire to do good starts to increase, and we can only attribute that to the presence of God inside of us.
Speaker 2:You know, it's one of those things that when you think about it, it is, it's I think, maybe next I'm talking out of the side of my neck right now, but I'm going to say that right now, but I'm going to say it, I think, next, to love. It's one of those natural associations between God and his word is that he's good. When I say his word, I mean to say that God is good and that God is good. That's such a natural pairing, right, and just like I shared a minute ago, the Bible calls him the good shepherd.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Right. Even Jesus says you know there's none good but God, you know. So he ascribes it as a godly characteristic. So he ascribes it as a godly characteristic. And so when we see goodness, I love if you go back up John on that page there I love those three things that it talks about above those qualities, under the Hebrew part, down just a little bit more, john. Or, yeah, pleasant, agreeableable and beneficial. Yes, I, I think that you know well, just think about how we use good. We'll say so what do you think of so-and-so? Yeah, he's a good dude, what that means. He was pleasant, he was agreeable, it was just had a nice night, there was no problems. Yeah, um, he was nice to people, he was kind. But then if you look down a little bit further, go back there again one more time. John, sorry to keep you there too long. When it talks about the um, the usage was it the usage? Yeah, look at how, when people see you being good, they associate that with uprightness of heart and life.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:So when they see the characteristic of good coming out of you, and how does it come out of us? It comes out of us and how we treat people. It even comes out of us and how we handle situations and circumstances. It comes out of us and how we communicate and talk to people, how we treat one another, people, how we treat one another. All of those things communicate something that talk about good. You know, there have been times where you know somebody.
Speaker 2:I've been in a situation where you know I didn't respond badly to something that had happened and you know the response from people around was man, numb. You know, no man, you're good, you're good and I'm like see you. You people will tell you that when they see certain characteristics like goodness flowing out of your life, and so it is something to strive for. But I also just want to say this I don't know, I'm kind of speaking in broken terms, in one sense hitting three things at one time and they're all not connected, it seems. Anyway, I think it's important to know that the first three fruit of the Spirit are love, joy and peace, and they have a correlation with one another. Then we have the next, if you'll go to the scripture John in Galatians 5 22. The next three fruit of the Spirit are long-suffering, which we learned meant patience, but we talked about, remember, we talked about long patience.
Speaker 2:Yes willing to go to the distance.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Then gentleness and then goodness, and there's a correlation between these three. They're actually. In some senses there are some similarity, especially between goodness and gentleness. Gentleness can sometimes be seen as an outflow of goodness, and so you can, even though a willingness to go long with someone, to go long in a situation or circumstance, can at times be attributed to God's goodness at work in you.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:And when people see you go along, they're like that's a good dude right there. Yeah To be really good and see, you're just doing and living your life and doing the best that you can to serve God and to be like him and to reflect him and have these fruit manifest in your life and people see it externally and they say that's a good person.
Speaker 1:That's right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I just think that's a perfect. It's a perfect reflection, goodness, I think maybe of all of them are such a good reflection of something, of something God is doing in you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And you reflecting what's being done in you to others. Others see that and they call it good.
Speaker 1:That's good man, that's good and it's funny man. It's like, you know, the more you develop in your walk with God, it's like the more your heart begins to be inclined towards those things you know, you. You stop I don't want to say it totally goes away, because we have seasons of ups and downs but you stop leaning towards the flesh, you know, or or kind of defaulting to the flesh. It's like the more God begins to work in you through his word, through fellowship with him. After a while you just find your desires changing. There's no other way to put it. You find your desires changing and that's a good thing. I remember hearing a preacher say this one time. I thought was interesting. I didn't catch it at first, so it threw me off. He said I'm doing all the drugs that I want to do right now. I was like what is that what you know? And then I thought about what he said. He was saying I don't want to do any of them. You know there's no want to in me anymore to do drugs.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And it's like, wow, you know, that's what happens. God begins to stir different desires in you and after a while, the things that you used to crave or used to always, kind of fall back into the traps you used to fall back into. You start recognizing them from what they are. You start understanding that, hey, this thing that I used to think was going to benefit me, all it ever did was take away from me. You know, all it ever did was damage my fellowship with God, damage my sense of uprightness or sense of good conscience before God, and you start realizing that stuff ain't worth it.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, you get a temporary thrill, yeah, this, that and the other, but after a while you start going it's just not worth it. I'd rather do the right thing and the good thing. You get a temporary thrill, yeah, this, that and the other, but after a while you start going it's just not worth it. I'd rather do the right thing and the good thing. You know, it's just it's. I'm telling you, man, it's something supernatural really what it boils down to Because we, you know it's.
Speaker 1:I think we think too highly of ourselves if we think that you know it's us that's doing all the changing without the Holy Spirit's help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's good, philip, I want to read something to you really quickly, and then I want to make mention of something that you just threaded me to In the commentary. This is the again the New American commentary for the book of Galatians. It says goodness is a rare word, found only four times in the New Testament and only in Paul's writings. Wow, it conveys the idea of benevolence and generosity towards someone else, a going the second mile when such magnanimity is not required.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:So we remember that story in the Bible about going the extra mile. It goes on to say we sometimes speak of a deed done out of the goodness of one's heart, which comes close to the meaning here, except that, as with all nine items in the list, we are dealing with ethical characteristics produced in the list. We are dealing with ethical characteristics produced in the believer by the Holy Spirit, not with natural qualities or personality traits cultivated apart from this supernatural dynamic. So we're saying that these things are produced by the Holy Spirit, not by your own doing, which is why I want to talk about being careful not to get caught up in human goodness.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:You have to be so mindful that you're not walking around saying I'm doing good here, I'm doing good here, I'm doing good here. Well, all of that is probably about you at that point.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And human goodness. There's even an evil side of this, where you know the human goodness. People will tell you you're doing good when you're doing wrong.
Speaker 1:That's true especially in this world today.
Speaker 2:Right, they'll. You know, the Proverbs talks about it, other scriptures talk about it. You know those who call evil good and good evil.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And there are plenty who will smoke and drink and stack up women with you and talk about bro you're doing great, and there's nothing great about what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So you have to be careful that when you're talking about the goodness of God, that what you're talking about reflects his character and comes from him. Now, the only way I can say that you know that it comes from him is exactly like Philip said it has to do with our desires.
Speaker 2:Yeah has to do with our desires, yeah, and when we don't have the desire to do now and don't get it twisted, because you can get into that roman seven situation the thing that I would not, that I do and that which I do not, you know right what I'm doing. You know you can get caught up in that, but just when god's goodness is at play and you no longer want to do something, the struggle is gone yeah, yep but when you're in that roman seven thing, I think that's because part of you is still struggling.
Speaker 2:You know I don't want to do this bad thing, but there's a desire in me that wants to do.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And God has a way of when his goodness shows up. He has a way of taking some of that desire away. And some people are like well, I told God I wanted to quit smoking and he didn't take the desire away from me. Does that mean I lack God's goodness? No, that just means you got to work on it. That means you got to work on it in Christ and continue to demonstrate that you are going to take authority over that thing, but don't get bogged down.
Speaker 2:Just let God's goodness be his goodness. And you see God's goodness in so many areas that it has more to do with when God is good to you. You see it and you feel it and you know it.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:And you want to declare it. God is good and he's been good to me. He's been good to my family, he's taken care of me and I can't thank him enough. The goodness of God often leads to praise.
Speaker 1:That's good, man, that's good Yep, and that's one thing too. Just practicing gratefulness, I think, is a huge part of this too, man, because think about it, when you really just take inventory of the things God's done and you think about everything that he's, I mean not only that he's given you and done for you, but also the things he protected you from the evils. He protected you from the fallout of bad decisions. He protected you from the things that you never even got to experience because of his goodness and his mercy. You know what I mean. Like he could have let the whole thing come crashing down on you, but in his mercy, he stopped it from happening. You know, because, trust me, man, you know we've all made decisions that, quite honestly, only by the mercy of God were we able to get out of some of the stuff we got ourselves into. You know, I'm telling you so that's a display of his goodness, and even just the things we take for granted every day too.
Speaker 1:You know the fact that right now, you, me and John, we're sitting here on this podcast. We can see, we can hear, we can sit down. We're not in a hospital bed anywhere, you know, we're just. I mean, thank god for his goodness, you know, and it's like, as you like, meditate on that, start thinking on those things. After a while it's like, man, for how good he's been to me. The least I can do is try to be good to other people, you know. The least I can do is just try to share some of that goodness, or some to some, to some degree. So, uh, that's that's huge, man. I mean, it's one of those things where, um, we, just by taking inventory, just by being grateful, we can enter into that type of living out the goodness or the fruit of goodness in our lives.
Speaker 2:So praise God. That's good. That's good. All right, you want to tackle the second one?
Speaker 1:Yes, let's talk about what the King James calls faith as one of the fruits of the spirit. But when you start digging into it a little bit more and I guess it'd be good, john, to put up the definition for faith as well when you look at it it actually refers to, it, says here the definition faith, belief, trust, confidence and fidelity. And then that last one where it says meaning faithfulness. And if you go a little further down, john, I think we're going to run into Yep. There it is.
Speaker 1:The corresponding Greek entry says, often translated as faithfulness or steadfastness, reflecting a similar concept of trust and reliability. So this is talking about being dependable, being faithful, being consistent in the things that God has put in your heart to do and just in the things of life period. Faithfulness is a huge thing. This idea of being diligent and steady and just plotting away at the stuff you know you're supposed to do, that fruit of faithfulness, comes from the Spirit of God's activity inside of your heart, because it's not easy to stay faithful in certain things. It's like we may start out with a big bang and want to do all these great things, but then what happens when the initial excitement goes away? You know you may want to get started on a new project or a new business idea or something to help people, or whatever it might be, and of course, the initial excitement is great. You know, we write our plans out and here's the goal, and da, da, da, da. But then when the rubber meets the road and it's time to put in that work, all of a sudden, okay, maybe day one, day two, you do pretty good. Week one, week two, you're doing okay. All of a sudden, there's that one morning you wake up and you don't feel like doing anything. You know, or, or you know you. You get a block of time where you know I need to be working on that thing that I said I was going to start. But then, ah, what's that? New Netflix series, you know, let me check that out.
Speaker 1:So, all of a sudden, that faithfulness begins to slip a little bit. That's when you need to tap into the Holy Spirit. At that moment, like Lord, please help me, give me the grace, give me the empowerment to continue going in these things that I said I was going to start. And do you know? That fruit of faithfulness is huge, man, um, but uh, I'll say one thing too, david, and of course I'll.
Speaker 1:I don't want to just keep rolling, but, um, in proverbs 28, uh, there's a verse, and I think it's verse 20 maybe, but it says a faithful man will abound with blessings. In the King James, a faithful man will abound with blessings. So I think about that. If we take this faithfulness thing seriously and we begin to apply it and decide to stay diligent there it is in verse 20, a faithful man will abound with blessings, but one eager to be rich will not go and punish. There's a whole teaching we can do on that second part as well. But think about it. If you want to abound with blessings which I don't know anybody that wouldn't here's your formula, here's your thing that God gave us Stay faithful. Stay faithful. Do the thing you know you should do as often as you can, even when you don't feel like it. You still stay faithful and I promise you there will be some sort of fruit from that that comes in your life. And I promise you there will be some sort of fruit from that that comes in your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's inevitable.
Speaker 1:Praise God, praise God. So I want to go. Oh, go ahead, phil. No, please go ahead, david. I'm good I was going to say.
Speaker 2:I want to jump back into the commentary here, because it says something very interesting about this word, faithfulness, and it says that there's three parts to it. The first there is faith in the sense of the basic content of the Christian faith, the faith once delivered to the saints. Paul used this word in the sense in Galatians 1.23, where he spoke of the report that circulated about him following his dramatic conversion. The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right. So that's one sense of faith. Then it goes on to say, more commonly, faith refers to, or faithfulness to, one's acceptance of the gospel message and the committal of oneself to Christ as Savior and Lord.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know?
Speaker 2:have you come to the faith?
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Right faith and then as an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit. The third part is that faith or faithfulness has yet a further meaning. Faithfulness, fidelity, that is the quality of being true, trustworthy and reliable in all one's dealings with others. Wow, that's important. Yes, sir, that's an important distinction, that it's the quality of being true, trustworthy and reliable in all of one's dealings with others. Wow. So remember, we talked about love, joy and peace, and so much of that had to do with God, had to do with Jesus, you know. Joy because of God's grace. Peace, which is what God would, god's doing in you and around you. Love, which comes from God. Then we have these next three that have a lot to do with how we deal with and treat others, and so here we are looking at the need to be true, trustworthy and reliable in all one's dealings. It's part of what this word faithfulness is saying here about the fruit of the spirit, that's good, david, that's good jump in there, philip.
Speaker 1:I want to just want to share that no, that's excellent, because when I think about like faithful in your dealings with other people, um, you know, we we've all done, done things or had times when we made promises, we we ended up breaking them or couldn't keep them, or we told someone we'd show up and we didn't, and things like that. Um, you know, it's important for us not to beat ourselves up or condemn ourselves when we fall short of that, but the goal is to become a more reliable person, a more dependable person. You know I'm I'm speaking from a lot of experience with this person yeah, trustworthy person. It's good to have that, as your reputation is good to have that. The Bible talks about how a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. You know, it's good to have this, this reputation of you. Know what I can give this assignment to reputation of you. Know what I can give this assignment to John, david, to Philip, because I know they'll take care of it. I know if I just put it in their hands, I ain't got to worry about anything. I know they'll take care of it. I can trust them. I can trust them.
Speaker 1:And it makes me think of this scripture, david in Luke 16. John, if you don't mind going there. I was thinking about this scripture just kind of popped in my head earlier when we were talking about faithfulness, and it's in the middle of a parable, when Jesus was talking about this steward who was a manager of this other person's affairs. And it turns out this steward wasn't doing too great, so he ends up getting fired too great. So he he ends up getting fired, but before he gets fired he kind of cuts deals with the people that business with, to to kind of save his butt a little bit.
Speaker 1:That's kind of my the very condensed version of what was happening here. But in Luke 16, I think it's down in verse maybe 10, john, let's see. Yeah, yep, verse 10. It says this is Jesus talking, talking. He says if you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones, but if you're dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities. Dude, that's a major, that's like a nuclear nugget right there.
Speaker 1:You know, we, we talk about yeah we talk about wanting to have a multi-billion dollar business or some, but have you managed the hundred dollar business at this point? You know we want to talk about being able to, you know, win thousands of souls to Christ, but have you witnessed to your neighbor? You know things like that, like what's in your hand currently. Are you being faithful over what's already there? Because all of us can talk about man. If I had this, I would do this. If I had more resources, I'd do that, and God's up there in heaven going. Yeah, I'm sure you would. But you know what, what's in your hands right now. You know what. Have you shown that you're going to be faithful over the things that are already currently in your hands? And this is something I'm saying that I've been convicted of many times before. Like you know, I can sit here and say that I want to have this, I want to do that, but have I managed what I currently have faithfully?
Speaker 2:You know, Phillip, I can give you an example of that, because it's a personal conviction. You know, I say to God you know, I want a bigger house with more room so I can have the kids and do all this kind of stuff. And then I'll walk away and leave a piece of toilet paper on the floor.
Speaker 1:See, let's talk about it, are you?
Speaker 2:faithful. Are you faithful over what you already have?
Speaker 1:Come on man.
Speaker 2:Will you clean up behind yourself take care of things, not just leave things for somebody else to get.
Speaker 1:Yep, come on and all the things like that.
Speaker 2:It's a very simple example, but it's true. It is Also. Yep, Come on, you know other things like that it's a very simple example, but it's true it is Also. Can you finish reading that scripture, Philip, Because he doesn't just stop there. That's right. That's right. In verse 11, he says and if you're untrustworthy about worldly, read. Now that you know what faithfulness is, you can exchange the word untrustworthy with unfaithful.
Speaker 1:Faithful, there you go Absolutely. And also the vice versa. You can say faithful is trustworthy. You know, and he says here, if you're untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven, my goodness? And if you're not faithful with other people's things, why should you be trusted with things of your own? That'll jack you up, man.
Speaker 2:It's a call. I think it's 2 Timothy 2.2. He's even called to share the word, to find and share the word. Let me, let me just look to be sure, so I don't, I don't back it up. He says commit thou to faithful men. Let me read the beginning, second timothy 2. And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.
Speaker 2:So God is asking us to be faithful over his word, be faithful over the things that have been taught to us, be faithful over the things that he's given us. Be faithful over the things that he's provided us with, whether they're permanent or temporary. Faithfulness is a big, big deal, and when we see, well, I'll just say about me, when I've been unfaithful about the things of God that's a character issue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2:That means I'm not allowing the fruit of the Spirit to be developed in me, because it takes ongoing faithfulness for that tree to grow. And when I get in and the tree is growing and then all of a sudden I fall off, like Philip says, five days in I stunt the growth of the tree and I have to start over again or I have to rebuild the faithfulness you know again just to reap. You know to do that, you know it's just faithfulness is an important, critical part and remember what that thing says. And remember what that thing says it's in one's dealing with others and all of these things, their faithfulness can be seen, can be demonstrated in front of and by others. And we just have to be so mindful about that because it all matters. It all matters.
Speaker 1:That's good, david. That's good, david. That's good. And it just a simple example to as we wrap up.
Speaker 1:I'm sitting here, you know, desiring to have, you know, big investment accounts and residual income and all this cool stuff like that.
Speaker 1:And then God says have you balanced your checkbook in the past few days? It's like I mean, you know, come back to me when you got that figured out, then we'll talk about all these grand plans you got you know. So I'm telling you guys, this is one of those things where we got to take an honest look in the mirror and go, okay, you know, I could sit here and talk about if I only had this, or if I you know, if I could run across this person or had this opportunity, and all that's fine and grand. But let's talk about simply what are you doing with currently, with what you have? Because it would be unjust of God to expect you to do these grand things that you have in your heart and mind, but he'll never supply you with the tools and resources you need to get those done. So there must be a key that unlocks some kind of lock in terms of what you currently have and being faithful over that that might lead to those other things that you'll eventually come into later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And if you weren't capable, god wouldn't invite you to that level of faithfulness. He'll keep you right here and move you along as you grow, and as we grow in God, he'll give us more to be faithful over Faithful over a little. He'll make you ruler over much.
Speaker 1:Come on now. Come on now, man. There's so much more to say about all this stuff, but I know we got to go ahead and put our bookmark in for this episode. But I know, man. But we wanted to just say, first of all, thanks for joining us with this, and we always, as always, we encourage you to go back through the scriptures we mentioned, write them down, look them up for yourself later, find other translations.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's many, many tools on the web. You've got BibleGatewaycom, you've got BlueLetterBibleorg, you've got BibleHub. That David uses a lot. I use Esword a lot.
Speaker 1:These types of things are there for you to really have the opportunity to dig into the word and see, kind of like, if you think about the way that a diamond is cut into these different little angles and facets, depending on how the light shines on that diamond, it's going to reflect certain things a different way.
Speaker 1:I think that's a good analogy for how the different translations of the scriptures will give you just a slightly different angle on the same idea, and so that's why we encourage multiple translations and things like that in your study time. But definitely take the time to go back through these scriptures. And, of course, as we mentioned before the previous podcast episodes on this whole theme of walking in the spirit. Please avail yourselves to those things and also, if you're watching us on YouTube or Rumble or listening to us on Spotify whatever the app is or the place you're seeing or hearing this please feel free to like to comment, to subscribe, to share these videos with other people. We highly encourage it. We hope that it has been a blessing to you and that it'll be a blessing to the people that you share it with.
Speaker 2:I was going to say just before we go, let me pray for you guys.
Speaker 1:Yes, please.
Speaker 2:Definitely, father. We love you and we just thank you for this opportunity to come together and study and spend time in your word, with all of those who are watching, all of our friends and family. Lord, we just thank you for just two simple things Help us to be good to one another, yes, and help us to remain faithful, lord. Yes, we love you and give you praise in Jesus name. Remain faithful, Lord.
Speaker 3:We love you and give you praise in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Amen. And just to wrap things up, if you have any comments concerns questions, suggestions, ideas for topics you'd like to see covered, we have an email address for that. It's called gotbrewatbiblebrosnet. Once again, gotbrew at biblebrosnet. So definitely avail yourself to that. But until next time, I've been Philip, he's been David and John's been John. We will catch you on the next episode where we continue in this series of the Fruit of the Spirit Walking in the Spirit. Until then, have a great time and enjoy some great brew. We will see you next time. Peace out.
