AN ACT OF KINDNESS

Holy Communion Exhortation One

Today is the first Sunday of the month, and we take communion on the first Sunday of each month to remember the Lord’s death. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11:26 that as often as we take the Lord’s supper, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He returns. As we take Holy Communion this morning, I want us to look back because the broken bread reminds us of Christ’s body. I also want us to look ahead because the return of Jesus is the blessed hope of the church and the individual Christian. Communion is also a time of thanksgiving and joyful anticipation of seeing the LORD JESUS! Jesus gave thanks even though He was about to suffer and die. Let us examine our hearts and thank God as we take communion.

Let us pray. Gracious Father, I pray that You refresh our souls, minds, and bodies with the joy of Your salvation. Bless the little piece of bread as a reminder of Christ’s sacrifice and the unity of this body. Bless the cup as a sharing in the death of Christ, as we die to ourselves to live for You. Thank You for the cross, Your love, and Your forgiveness. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.

Tithe and Offering

It is time for us to give to God our tithe and offering. Your tithe and offering help this church in so many ways. Your gifts allow our church volunteers to serve you. And we are happy to have a church that is a channel of blessing. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That is why giving is a big part of our Sunday worship experience: God gave us His Son because He loved us, and we, as a church, give to God because we love God. Let us give to God this morning with thanksgiving and with a cheerful heart. Ushers, please pass around the offering plates as we collect our tithe and offering. Please follow the instructions on the screen on how to give.

Welcome

Welcome to church, everyone, and to our online viewers; welcome to our Sunday Worship Service. We are happy to have you with us today and hope your time with us will be blessed.

Announcement

Bible Study is on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. I encourage you to join us for our weekly WEDNESDAY NIGHT CONNECT BIBLE STUDY. Right now, we are halfway through the Book of Luke Gospel. One thing that I enjoyed about Bible Study is we go through each book, verse by verse. Come and join us as we connect with God and each other through STUDYING THE BIBLE. Every Saturday at 8:00 a.m., we meet at the church for prayer. If you have a special or personal prayer request, please drop it in the prayer box. To all the men, our next Men’s Breakfast is Saturday, May 25th. It is the last Saturday of the month, and we meet here at the church at 10:00 a.m. To all our leaders, our next leadership meeting for May is canceled. I will now call on Minister Terry Robinson to make a special announcement about our food pantry program here at the church.

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Father God, I pray that the Holy Spirit teaches and guides us as we bring forth Your faithful word, which is full of power, to Your people this morning. May Your word inspire and strengthen everyone. I also pray that You bless the tithe and the offering as we honor You with our giving, and may our giving be used to advance the Kingdom of God here on earth. We pray all this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Declaration of Faith in God

Let us stand and say the Declaration of Faith in God together.

SERMON INTRODUCTION

Our sermon for today, titled “An Act of Kindness,” is part of our church outreach, discipleship, and evangelistic program. As a church or a body, if you will, our kindness is not limited to believers only but also to unbelievers. I asked our ushers to distribute our church “Act of Kindness Card” to everyone here this morning. If you did not receive a Kindness card, please raise your hands so our ushers can see you and give you some cards. At the end of this sermon, we will provide simple instructions on how to use and pass out the kindness card.

I want to begin our sermon today with a quote from John Wesley, he said: “Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

The COVID-19 virus is not the only deadly virus we are dealing with today. The flu virus is not the only virus we are dealing with today. We are having to deal with a pandemic of meanness and unkindness that is creating an atmosphere of contempt, hatred, dishonor, and disrespect that is becoming normalized in our culture today. Atmosphere matters. The atmosphere where you work, live, shop, do business, and attend church on Sunday matters. If you go into a restaurant that doesn't smell or look good, it doesn't matter how well the food was prepared. Because if the smell is bad, it contaminates even good things that may be on the platter or the plate.

A sense of selfishness contaminates our atmosphere, and far too many folks, including Christians, cuss as much, we fuss as much as the unbelievers, are mean-spirited and self-centered, and do not reflect the Spirit of Christ in how they relate to others.

SERMON EXPOSITION

And when people talk about you or me or us collectively as a people of God, can they say at this place or when they are around you, they sense the heart of God, the love of God, and what I am calling the kindness of God? Our culture today is disintegrating and collapsing at a faster speed. According to Romans chapter 2, verse 4, “It is God’s kindness that ought to lead you to repentance.” To put this another way, God hasn't done to you all He could based on what you and I have done to Him. God says, “It is because of His kindness.” Psalm 117, verse 2 says, “God’s kindness is great.” Psalm 119 verse 76, “His kindness brings you comfort, and His mercies are new every day.”

It is with kindness that we, the church, are not destroyed. Scripture says that given God’s holiness, God expects His people (the church) to be ambassadors of kindness. Christians are ambassadors of Christ, but God has also called us to be ambassadors of kindness. What good is a hospital if the doctors and nurses are unkind and evil to the patients? What good is a school if the teachers and staff are unpleasant and hostile to the students? What good is an employer if the employer is biased toward the employees? And for us Christians, what good is a church with a beautiful building, good praise and worship, a good choir, good programs, and a good preacher if the folks in the church are mean-spirited and their hearts are not right before God?

Kindness is likeability on public display. People must know how nice you are by how kind you talk, walk, and act. And so, this should be the mindset of all believers and us here at the Anointed Church of Jesus Christ.. We are to penetrate the culture with a different atmosphere to attract unbelievers (those in darkness) to Jesus Christ because, according to the Scripture, we have been called the light of the world.

Philippians 2 verse 5 says we are to have this attitude in ourselves, which was in Christ Jesus. What attitude? “The attitude that was also in Christ Jesus. One thing I like about Jesus is that serving was never a threat to Him because He never lost sight of who He is. Jesus knew His position with God the Father.

If Jesus were selfish, no one would be saved; no one would be on their way to heaven today. But Jesus was willing not to be boujee (Bougie) in heaven, even though He had all the right to hold that position. Jesus recognized that there were some messed-up folks down here on Earth who needed to be saved by God, folks who needed to experience a little bit of heaven while at the same time living on Earth.

So, God, in His love, reached out through the sacrifice of Christ and the gift of the cross, beginning with the birth of Christ, to provide redemption for all people, for you and me. Paul says, “Have this mind in you that was also in Christ Jesus.” God wants His church to have this same attitude, which was in Christ Jesus, and God wants us to look to Jesus as an example.

And what we have today in our churches is that far too many Christians are cul-de-sac Christians rather than conduit saints. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 4 says, “Love is kind.” If you are a Christian who confesses the name of Jesus Christ but is unkind and mean in both deeds and actions, then the love of God is not in you. You don't love your children if you are mean to them, and you don't love your spouse if you are mean to your spouse. You can use the word love as long as you want, but Paul says the love that God has is kind.

The love of God doesn't put you down. The love of God doesn't reduce your dignity because love is kind, and kindness is niceness in function, not in philosophy and theory. The way we talk, the way we walk, the way we act, the way we relate to each other, and the way we communicate. He says, “Love is kind.” What God is expecting believers to do is to demonstrate kindness through our good words and our good works. Kindness is shown through good words and good deeds.

According to First John chapter 4:7, Love comes from God. Paul talks about these words in Ephesians chapter 4. In verse 29, he says, “Do not let unwholesome words ever come out of your mouth, but only such speech as is good for building up others, according to the need and the occasion, so that it will be a blessing to those who hear you speak.” And then, in verse 30, he says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” Interpretation: Paul says, watch your mouth. Watch your speech. Let no unpleasant word come out of your mouth. There should be no serious Christian who is known for their profanity, for their bitterness, who is known for their anger, and hatred of speech.

I know we are not perfect, but what should be known about us as a church is in Colossians 4, verse 6. Paul says, “Let your speech always be gracious and pleasant, seasoned with salt.” We need Christians who know how to be gracious and kind to one another, to speak gracefully to one another, to speak the truth, and to show that we care for each other.

When you go to the materialistic society today, when you look at the everyday language on television today, when you look at how people are being evil to one another through the various forms of social media today, you and I are not to be caught up in that mess that is happening in the materialistic world. The church is not supposed to adopt what is happening in the world because that is not who we are. Paul says, “I want you to reflect Christ, have this mind in you, and your words should make it clear in your speech that God controls your tongue. And that should be accompanied by good works and good deeds.”

Please notice that Paul did not say good things. Believers are called to do good work, and God wants us to do good work so He can get all the glory. Let’s hear what Jesus, the Son of God, says about good works. In Matthew 5:16, Jesus says, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” So, when you do good work, who gets the glory? Jesus says, God the Father, who is in heaven.

1 Timothy 6 verses 17 to 19 says, “Those of you who have been blessed, you are to be rich in good works.” In other words, the more God has blessed you, the more blessing you should be to others. Ephesians 2:10, after telling us in verses 8 and 9 that we have been saved by grace, Paul comes to verse 10 and says, “We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he hath created beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Paul talks about good works. Good work is a divinely prescribed action that benefits others in such a way that God is glorified. Today, far too many Christians are unfulfilled and depressed because they have never gotten around to doing the work that God has for them.

Your good words should be followed up with good works—things you do and say that demonstrate kindness in a mean culture. We need transmittable kindness that needs to be spread out through everybody who names Jesus Christ. Christians must always seek opportunities to reflect Christ in our kindness and good works.

Illustration

Good works are different than good things. Let me make the distinction. You see, sinners can do good things. Atheists can do good things. Pagans can do good things. You don't need to be a Christian to do a good thing. Non-Christians build hospitals, non-Christians build an orphanage home, non-Christians can build a university, and non-Christians are philanthropists. Non-Christians do good things all the time. You and I have not been called to do good things. Jesus did not say that upon this rock, I will build my church to do good things. Jesus did not save you to do good things. Jesus saved you through the cross to do good works.

Full circle, Jesus says, “Let men see your good works.” So, what is the difference between a good thing and a good work? A good thing seeks to help somebody. A good thing can help a brother or a sister out. A good work from a biblical (godly) point of view seeks to help somebody in God’s name. Good work is a righteous and authorized action that benefits others and for which (here is it) God gets all the credit and glory. In other words, it is only a good work if God is attached to it. It is a good thing if God is not attached to it. If you did it because you are a nice person, that is an excellent (nice) thing to do; it is not good work.

If you don't attach God to it, you are a good person; you did a good thing but didn't do a biblical (scriptural) work. Good work seeks to do three things. Number one: Good work seeks to bring people into the kingdom of God because you want to see folks get saved by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. The second thing that good work does is that it seeks to help folks become more useful for the kingdom of God. That is discipleship, which is part of our church discipleship program. Good work also helps to bring folks the benefits of the kingdom to their situations in their everyday lives.

That is, it helps them improve a scenario or a situation in God’s name—not in the name of a man or a church, but in God’s name so that God gets all the glory. Lastly, what makes a good thing a good work is that you are not only helping in time or the moment but attaching it to eternity. And that is what should make you and me different in our good works. So, the world is to see our good works in evangelism, discipleship, outreach, and service to improve their well-being.

Application

See, if you are poor and you don't have enough to make it, that is bad news, but as a church, we can do things to help you recover from that at some level. If you are homeless, that is bad news, but we can come up with something to at least keep you out of the cold weather. And if you don't have a lot of money in your pocket, that is not good, but we can help you get by; there are enough people in our church right now who will drive by and do something for you. But if you die today without knowing Jesus Christ, you have just been hit with a blow you can't recover from. And our church can’t help you to recover from death because the Bible says in Hebrews 9:27 that “it is appointed unto men once to die.” Good work must attach itself as much as possible or always to the spiritual but as much as possible to the eternal.

When we become so individualistic and Americanized, with our desire for ourselves that we don't reach back and be willing to touch the lives of others, we are not bringing hope to a dead and mean culture. We are only bringing hope to ourselves or maybe to our church.

Kindness is needed today because there is so much pain in our society. As a church that demonstrates kindness to others, we should be reminded of the narrative of Luke chapter 10, verses 30 to 37 of the good Samaritan. The lawyer asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” “Who is my neighbor?” “The great commandment is to love God and your neighbor.” To love God and your neighbor, Jesus says, “These two commandments go together.” God is looking for a church that does good work, not good things or programs. Too many churches today are known for doing good things and running good programs but are not known for doing good works so that God can get the glory.

If you love God but don't love people, you don't love God. If you love God but are mean to others, you are mean to God. So, who is my neighbor, and who do I help because I am a Christian? You can’t help everybody because you were not made to help everybody. Who do I help in the name of Jesus, and who is my neighbor? And then Jesus tells the story from verses 30 to 37. Jesus says, “There was a man on Jericho Road who was robbed, and he was beaten half past dead.” Jesus says, “The priest (that is the pastor or the preacher if you will) and the Levites (the folks responsible for public worship) are on Jericho Road. Jesus tells us who these folks are because that tells us what they were doing; they were coming from the temple. In other words, they were leaving the church. Like every Sunday when we give the benediction and you leave the church on your way home. I am sure they may have talked about the sermon on their way home, they may have talked about the singing at the church and spoke about the fellowship at the church. The priest and the Levite are leaving the church building. And they saw the man whose life had been put in shambles, a man who was lying half dead and who needed help because we are told this man was robbed, and he was in despair.

Many people today have been robbed by evil structures, bad bank loans, personal choices, catastrophes, foreclosures, abandonments, and all manner of evil. The priest and the Levite were too busy praying and praising God when they came from church to notice the man lying on the road.

They were too holy to be kind. They were too holy to show an act of kindness. Too blessed to be kind. “Then comes a Samaritan.” A man of another race, a man of another culture, a man that the Jews didn't like because he didn’t talk like them and act like them. A man that the Jews despise because of how he looks, talks, and acts. This man wasn’t good enough for the Jews. Here comes a man who was to be rejected because of his description and his skin color. The Bible says in verse 33, “He saw the man, had compassion on the man, and went to work to change his situation.”

How do you know who your neighbor is? There are three things: any need you see, feel compassion for, and anything you can do something about. You see it, feel it, and can address it. You can't meet every need, but if you see it and God moves your heart, the Holy Spirit says, “Don't keep driving.” The Holy Spirit says, “Stop the vehicle for a moment” because I want to address a person’s needs.

Conclusion

God wants believers to use their time carefully by making use of opportunities to do good. And the good and kindness that we do should not be limited to church folks only but to folks outside the four walls of the church. God is very interested in you when He knows that you will be like Him and be a blessing, not just ask for yourself to be blessed. God wants to use us, individually and collectively, as a church. When you call a bank, an insurance company, or a large business that offers different products for human consumption, you will hear a recording that says, “This call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance and training purposes.”

Guess what? God is recording our lives as believers. And when God looks at our lives, this life is recorded for quality assurance. And when you and I stand before God, and we go through the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, and God looks at all the stuff that we messed up as Christians, and we are looking at our tape being rolled before us, and we are going to be surprised. We will say to ourselves: I thought about that, I went there, I did that, and we will be shaking our heads before God and His Son Jesus Christ at the judgment seat. The judgment seat of Christ will determine our reward in heaven. God checks out this side, and it looks good (things are looking good on this side), but there is another tape that will look at all the acts of kindness you did—all the acts of reaching out to others, of being kind to others.

And James chapter 2, verse 13 says, “Mercy will overrule judgment.” This call is being recorded for quality purposes, and we are listening in to ensure that our agent treats you with respect and fairness. So if things are bad on this side, but God saw that you knew how to love and be kind on this side, this tape can overrule that tape so that you can get a greater reward, even though there are all kinds of mistakes in your tape recording.

God wants this to be a repetition; God wants this to be our atmosphere; He wants this to be how we roll in this church to attract others to Jesus. And so, there are no superstars here in our church. We are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. You may not be able to stop somebody from treating you a certain way, but I am talking about how you view yourself. And how I view myself. Even if you are treated like a famous person, you should think like a servant. Even if you are treated like a superstar, you should function with the mindset of a servant. But you can't help everybody, but you do all the good you can, by all the means you can, and all the ways you can, in every place you can, all the times you can, for all the people you can, you do the best you can. Don't let all the problems in the world keep you from doing nothing. Keep me from doing good work. Keep us as a church from doing good work.

Faith Appeal and Call to Action

So, I want to challenge all of us as a church to help affect the atmosphere in your home by being kind to your family members and your neighbors and coworkers. Tell the truth; yes, we don’t skip wrong, and we don’t endorse wrong as a church, but we are to look for opportunities to be kind, in word and deed. So you do the act of kindness challenge each week. Always offer to pray for someone; most people will never turn down a prayer. You know, it is a neighbor, a friend, a lady, or a man in the store who is hurting, a neighbor who lost a loved one, and you cook a hot meal for somebody or buy lunch or breakfast for someone in need.

It could be any small thing or big thing you see that you feel God has placed in your heart that you can address. And then, you look for the opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. Let’s keep these kindness cards in our wallets, handbags, and vehicles and allow the Holy Spirit to lead each of us to do one thing a week, just one thing a week, that is, hundreds of people who will know that God cares because we didn’t do nice things, we did good work in God’s name by showing an act of kindness. That is what we want to be as a people of God and as a church. A church that shows kindness in the name of God so that God gets all the glory.

May God bless you.

Altar Call

To do the good work we discussed in our sermon today, you must have a relationship with Jesus. Good things are not enough to get you to heaven or give you eternal life. One way a person can be a part of God’s Kingdom is by coming to Jesus and accepting Him as their sin-bearer. His death on the cross is enough to save everybody. But you must come to Jesus by faith and ask Him to forgive your sins, and you will receive the gift of eternal life.

Will you come to Jesus right now, simply by act of faith and with a simple prayer, and say, Lord Jesus, I am a sinner, and I need a Savior? You say that when I come to You by faith, You will forgive my sins, wash them away with Your blood, and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. So, I come to You right now to be my Savior and entrust my eternal destiny to You.

Let’s Pray.

Benediction

Lord Jesus, my prayer for us today is that we will be led by the Holy Spirit this week to show an act of kindness to folks who are hurting because of a bad situation. Sharing blessings involves much more than teaching and preaching the Word of God and giving our material substance. I pray that You will remind all of us that we have been called to do good work unto all people according to Galatians 6:10. Lastly, I pray that we will be reminded that doing good work is how we let our light shine and glorify our Father in heaven. We thank You and bless You for Your Word and Your worship. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Thank you so much for spending time with us today. We will see you next week at 10:30 a.m. Until then, have a great week, and God bless you.