Kindness
Notes
Transcript
Man does God love you this morning! We are going to continue talking about Holy Spirit this morning, kindness in particular. I want to show you something first. Can you read this slide I put up? No? Why not? Its dark. For so many people, that is what life looks like right now, there is what appears to be a perpetual darkness, nothing but darkness.
I have many favorite scriptures, but the next four verses are special. Your Daddy in heaven knows and He wants you to know something this morning. Open your Bible to Genesis 1:1 with me. He proves His great love for you in the first three verses of the Bible.
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Abba Daddy created you for a reason. For a purpose. To love Him and to be loved by Him. Are you ready for this? If you are facing a trial or tribulation, heartache, hurt, ailments, it may seem like your very life is formless, void, and in complete darkness at times. At times it may even appear as a moment of darkness and then a moment of light. The Spirit of God, Holy Spirit is there, with you, within you, in the name of Jesus Christ! Jesus was there before the begining, He is with you in the darkness through the very same Holy Spirit that hovered over the deep. This is my favorite part.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Brothers and sisters, it is always darkest before the light. Through our LORD and Savior, Christ Jesus, Holy Spirit directs us to the light of God. We must be willing to go to the light, to leave the darkness. He is right there, the very Spirit of God to advocate for us, to counsel us, and to lead us to the cross, the grave, and the resurection that overcomes all darkness including death itself! Praise His Holy name this morning. As a matter of fact, Our LORD and Savior appears as what we refer to as a Christophony in Genesis 3:15!
15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Jesus Christ has been given full authority to crush the enemy, to destroy all things not of Abba Daddy, and He is alive within you through Holy Spirit.
You may find yourself in that darkness. I know that it can happen in just a moment sometimes. Do not isolate yourself, talk to a brother or sister in the LORD, talk to your Pastor, bring it to God. Perhaps you are not struggling with any kind of darkness right now. Praise GOD! You get to share this glorious truth with those who may be confused or hurting. As believers, there is no greater act of kindness we can show than sharing the Truth of God’s great love and mercy. Sharing Jesus Christ with others.
Speaking of kindness, we have been talking about the Fruit of the Spirit. Today we will be talking about kindness.
Fruit of The Spirit: Kindness
Fruit of The Spirit: Kindness
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
The fruit of Holy Spirit in our lives is the evidence of Jesus Christ within us. See, when we say “God in us” or “Christ in us,” we are talking about Holy Spirit’s indwelling and abiding within the believer.
Unlike the gifts of the Spirit, every believer should have evidence of all of the fruit in his or her life. In essence, these are all characteristics of Jesus Christ. This is the reason the Apostle Paul uses the singular “Fruit” rather than seperating them as “fruits.” Sometimes we think the fruit is fully developed in each of us when we recieve Christ into our hearts. This is not true. I have seen people who have been in their walk for a long time become unkind in a moment! I can be counted among those brothers and sisters. That is when we are stunting the growth of the fruit. Holy Spirit then convicts us in our hearts and starts pruning and clearing the weeds away, when we let Him. Fruit takes time to grow, it must be nurtured, recieve lots of watering, the sun, THE SON, and some pruning. Look, just a few verses later, the Apostle Paul tells us how to develop the fruit!
7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.
What are we allowing to be planted in our hearts and in our minds? That decision is ours, what we allow in here. Nobody can make you plant in your spirit what you do not want there. Are we growing the corrupt and rotten fruit of this world in our hearts and minds? Are we using the worlds polluted water to feed that kind of fruit? Or are we spending time in fellowship, the Bible, and in prayer watering the incorruptable fruit of Jesus within us and using His pure, satisfying, and eternal water?
The Purpose of Kindness
The Purpose of Kindness
12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Like all of the fruit, kindness is more than words. We can talk about being kind, but there is no evidence of kindness without deeds and actions. To answer one of the burning questions, YES there must be evidence of your salvation in Christ Jesus. It is the growth of the Fruit of the Spirit in us that seperates us from the world, and proves that the Spirit is alive within us.
Here is an example. Most of us have to deal with the public in some respect. There are times when people become absolutely ugly! In order to get paid, there are times when we have to smile while we are gritting our teeth! We want that paycheck, so we have to grin and bear it! Money is our ulterior motive for being kind in this type of situation. The effect that persons words or behaviors have on us can sometimes cuts us deeply! I know I am not the only one who has been kind to get a check this morning. As the fruit of kindness develops, there are no longer ulterior motives. Kindness simply becomes part of who we are in Christ, wether we are receiving something or not.
Here is the thing, when we put on our God glasses, when we see others through the blood of the lamb, through blood stained glasses, we recognize that sometimes people are ugly just to be ugly, or they are having a terrible day, or there is something going on in their life that is bad at the time, and we want to help.
As a Holy son or daughter of the Most High God, Jesus puts the responsibility on you and me to clothe ourselves in mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Kindness is more than words.
Meekness in putting Christ first.
Patience is needed for one to be kind.
Kindness is not kindness without action. Meekness is the absence of feeling that you are better than someone else. We put Christ first. Who did Christ put first? Christ always put God first, and then you. We must have patience with others at times to show kindness.
Here is the crazy thing! With that fruit of kindness comes the power of God. God means what He says, and He says that He goes before you. When you have acted in the kindness of Christ, those insults being hurled at you and the anger being directed at you rolls right off! It does not define who you are! You are experiencing a moment of the worlds ways being cast on you by another broken and hurting human being. In this, we can all empathize, becuase most of us have done something similar to someone else. You are Holy, seperated, and a preciuous child of the Father. We know because His Living Word says so!
The Practice of Kindness
The Practice of Kindness
32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
Often in scripture, especially in the OT, kindness is called “loving kindness.” When we are kind, we are demonstrating love. When we are tenderhearted, we are being kind. And there is that other action word that shows up so often in scripture. Forgiveness. Although forgiveness is at the heart of the message of the Cross, a command given by God, the very will of God, we are not forced to forgive.
The Spirit filled Christian is kind to both believers and non-believers. Forgives both believers and non-believers.
A tenderhearted and loving kindness leads to charity. Charity is love in action. For now on, when you think of love, do not think about it as a feeling, think about it as kindness in action, giving without expectation, for the sake of being kind. As ministers of the Word, we see problems and we try to help. We are not to sit back and be passive, but an active part of serving and showing kindness to all people.
The act of being “Christlike” requires forgiving one another, and forgiving ourselves. In doing so, recognizing what Christ said in His first utterance from the cross.
34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots.
One of the ways we practice the teachings of Christ is by being forgiving. It is hard to forgive, if not impossible, if the fruit of kindness is not developed in us.
The fruit of the Spirit is what seperates us from the world, the Holy Spirit is God’s mark on the believer. At the point of salvation, you have been given the mark of God in the Holy Spirit. As our LORD and savior said:
20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
As we leave here today, let us joyfully welcome Holy Spirit into our hearts, minds, and our lives! That He continues to develop the Fruit in each of us that the world may see and taste the sweetness of Jesus Christ through each of us.
Alter Call/Prayer/Holy Spirit led.