8.18.24 Sermon @ Tulip CC - Fruit of the Spirit: Kindness

Children’s Sermon

Review of the Fruit of the Spirit - Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control

Who can give me a definition of Kindness? What is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you? What is the kindest think you have ever done for someone else?

Sermon Outline

Review/Intro:

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control…these are the “fruit” of living in the spirit of Jesus Christ…the evidence and character traits of Christ followers.

Kindness Defined:

Useable, available, willing to be of service to others

kindness is an active, busy virtue… humble and tender spirit, stooping to the lowest need, thinking nothing is too small in which to help, ready to give back blessing for cursing, benefit for harm and wrong.

Kindness is the thoughtful insight, the delicate tact, the gentle ministering hand of charity.

Transition to Message:

Fallen Condition Focus (FCF):

We have a selfie problem. Kindness requires putting the needs, interests and desires of others before our own needs, interests and desires. We think too much about ourselves, and struggle to see others.

Want to know how to fix the world?

Dominant Thought (DT):

The Kindness of God that is poured into us each day, if allowed to overflow into the world around us, can change the trajectory of the world.

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate.

Albert Schweitzer

“Kill them with kindness.” - Maybe it isn’t kind to kill, but kindness can kill the conflict.

Focus Passage & Teaching:

John 4 - Jesus & the Samaritan Women at the Well

Types of Kindness

John 4:1-6 1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

Intentional Kindness

John 4:7 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

Jesus “had to” go through Samaria…intentional on His part to show His kindness. Going to a well, sitting to rest while His disciples go for food…left alone, asking for help.

He didn’t “have to” do anything, and passing through Samaria wasn’t a common practice for Jewish people. He “had to” because He was “intentional” in everything He did. Same goes with asking for a drink…He could have simply gone to town with His disciples…water was already drawn early in the day and ready to be served, plus there was food and shelter.

John 4:9 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Responsive Kindness

John 4:10-15 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Don’t miss this…Jesus didn’t “react” to her response…He knew she would be confused, defensive, maybe even a little hostile…He “responded” in kindness, because kindness does not naturally come from our emotions, it comes from our decisions…emotion would match the hostility and defensiveness…decision is a commitment made before hand followed by the actions in the moment.

John 4:16 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

Random Kindness (Acts of)

John 4:17–19

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.

John 4:27 27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

Sacrificial Kindness

The disciples were “surprised”…maybe better put, shocked, appalled, concerned, disgusted…they didn’t say it out loud, but they were thinking it. Like Jesus, you know that feeling when others are judging you for what you are doing…and your kindness will be sacrificial. When you go out of your way to show kindness to the outcasts, others are going to question or leave you. Popularity and kindness don’t work well together in a broken world.

John 4:28 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

John 4:34 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

Impactful Kindness

John 4:35-42

35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.

42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Closing/Call to Action:

Spread love everywhere you go: First of all in your own house.

Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.

Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.

Blessed Mother Teresa (Nun and Founder of the Missionaries of Charity)

Kindness List

Intentional Kindness

Responsive Kindness

Random Kindness

Impactful Kindness

Sacrificial Kindness

Galatians 6:7–10 (NIV)

7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Sermon Planning & Notes

DT Restatement:

Complements:

KINDNESS and Loving-Kindness (Heb. ḥesed, “desire, zeal”). Zeal toward another in a good sense: (1) Of men, as shown in doing mutual favors, benefits (Gen. 21:23; 2 Sam. 10:2); compassion for the afflicted (Job 6:14; “pity,” KJV). The formula to “show kindness” is frequent in Scripture (2 Sam. 3:8; 9:1, 7), and in 2 Sam. 9:3 there is the expression “to whom I may show the kindness of God,” i.e., “like that of God,” or “for the sake of God.” (2) Of God toward men, as shown in mercies, benefits, and so on (Pss. 31:21; 107:43; 117:1; etc.). Kindness is also the rendering of the Gk. chrēstotēs, “moral goodness,” and so “benignity” (Rom. 2:4; Gal. 5:22; 2 Cor. 6:6; Eph. 2:7; Col. 3:12).

The Expositor’s Bible, Volume 5: Luke to Galatians Chapter XXV: The Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22, 23)

“Charity suffereth long and is kind.”

Gentleness (or kindness, as the word is more frequently and better rendered,) resembles “longsuffering” in finding its chief objects in the evil and unthankful. But while the latter is passive and self-contained, kindness is an active, busy virtue. She is moreover of a humble and tender spirit, stooping to the lowest need, thinking nothing too small in which she may help, ready to give back blessing for cursing, benefit for harm and wrong.

Kindness is the thoughtful insight, the delicate tact, the gentle ministering hand of charity.

Illustrations:

Scriptures:

Galatians 5:22–23 (NIV)

22 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.

Galatians 6:7–10 (NIV)

7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

John 4:1–30 (NIV)

1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.