Kindness

Kindness

Joseph, The Character of Kindness

Galatians 5:22-23

Genesis 45,

Opener -

What is kindness?

Doing what is best for another.

Looking out for someone else’s best interest & acting on that.

Asking, “What is best for the other person in this situation?” Then, Acting on what you know.

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Kindness is - A loving focused on others.

It is not me first, it is others first.

It is the exact opposite of what our flesh naturally does.

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Kindness is seeing someone and saying, is there anything I can do to help that person? Is there something I can do to lift that person up?

Kindness says, I will delay what makes me the most comfortable or what meets my needs to do what is best for someone else.

Transition to illustration - Sometimes kindness takes place in a long term relationships and it is an ongoing choice and sometimes it is in an instant with someone you don’t know.

Example - Homeless Guy at Ingles

-One Sunday morning before Sunday School I was at Ingles getting a to-go breakfast.

-Out of the front glass I saw a man in the parking lot going along picking up tiny pieces of trash from the parking lot. His hair & clothes were a mess.

-Looked mentally ill.

-When I went outside to my car, I asked him how he was doing.

-Didn’t speak very clearly.

-He said something I didn’t understand.

-I felt compassion.

-I wanted to do something to help him.

-All I had with me was a take out breakfast.

-I asked him if he was hungry.

-He said, “yes” and mumbled something else.

-I gave him breakfast and he thanked me.

-That is a small act of kindness.

-And because I consider missing a meal a sin, I walked back in and bought myself another breakfast.

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-Kindness is wanting what is good for another person and acting on it.

Do not confused kindness with niceness.

Kindness is different than niceness.

Niceness is polite. Niceness honors cultural rules and doesn’t stir the pot.

Niceness is not a fruit of the spirit.

We teach children to be nice, BUT

God’s Spirit empowers us to be kind.

Kindness is something else all together.

Kindness takes action.

Kindness acts in love to help someone else out.

Kindness does for others.

Kindness serves others.

Example - When someone comes into our church.

When someone new shows interest in worshiping Jesus with us...

God does’t want you to just be polite. God doesn’t want you to just be nice.

God wants you to be kind.

Kindness says, What can I do to help this person feel a part of our church family?

Kindness - gives up comfort and places the other person first.

Kindness - gets out of their seat and introduces yourself, better yet, you sit with them.

Kindness - stops that new person after church and has a conversation with them.

Kindness - invites them out to lunch or to your house for coffee.

Kindness - shows them where the bathrooms and the nursery is.

Kindness - gets their telephone number and reaches out to them during the week… asks if there is something you can pray for them for.

Kindness acts.

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In our passage today we see that Kindness

reconciles broken relationships

preserves relationships

Is generous in relationships

Set up for our passage in Genesis 45 today is about Joseph:

Joseph had 11 brothers, but Joseph was his father’s favorite.

His father even gifted Joseph a coat of multiple colors which was the dress of a rich man - an outward sign that Joseph was his father’s favorite.

Joseph as a young man has a dream in the dream his brothers bow down to him as their leader. -Joseph makes the mistake of telling his brothers this.

Over the long haul of their relationship Joseph’s brothers become very jealousy.

Joseph brothers come to hate Joseph.

This is where Joseph’s life begins to fall apart.

Joseph goes from having a pretty decent life, well taken care of, with a dad who loves him - to a terrible life.

Joseph’s brothers hate him so much that one day far from home while tending their sheep, Joseph’s brother’s see a caravan of traders going into Egypt.

The brothers take Joseph, rip off his robe, and sell their own brother Joseph into slavery.

How would you feel, to go from a stable home, where you dad loves you and you are well taken care of to poverty, slavery, and having no rights whatsoever, being mistreated?

While in slavery in Egypt Joseph was: falsely accused of rape & was sent to rot in prison.

While in prison 2 prisoners who had worked for the Pharoah had dreams, and God gave Joseph the interpretation of the dreams. Still, Joseph Sat and rotted in prison.

Then Pharoah had a dream that no one could interpret. Pharaoh’s wisest men and magicians could give him the meaning to the dream.

Word reached Pharoah that there was one who interpreted dreams. Joseph.

Joseph was called up from prison.

Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream.

The dream was a warning about an extreme and deadly 7 year famine to come.

What Joseph did with his interpretation was supernatural.

God gave Him the meaning of a dream he never had himself.

It was clear to Pharoah that God’s hand was on Joseph.

That day Pharoah made Joseph the 2nd most powerful man in all of Egypt.

In a moment Joseph went from being a dirty rotting prisoner to being the Prince of Egypt.

From Prisoner to Prince.

From slave to savior.

Joseph leads Egypt through a massive food storage campaign before the famine struck.

Egypt is saved during the famine as well as in the region outside of Egypt.

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Joseph’s brothers who had despised and gated Joseph were starving during this famine.

Joseph’s father, sends his sons to Egypt to see if they can buy grain to keep the family alive.

Joseph’s brothers now adults arrive in Egypt.

When the brothers arrive to beg for grain Joseph sees them from a distance and recognizes them.

Jospeh has a choice to.

Will he take revenge on the ones who proved to be his enemies or would he love them and act in Kindness?

What would you do if you were Joseph’s shoes? Pause

-Joseph had years and years of bondage in Egypt to consider what he would do if he ever saw his brothers again.

-He had years to pray AND he had years to plot revenge.

Joseph doesn’t look like the Hebrew boy his brothers remember him as.

Joseph has become a man. As an official of Egypt Joseph has shaven his head and styled his beard in the Egyptian way.

He is unrecognizable to his brothers.

Joseph has these men who sold him into slavery to himself.

He spoke with them face to face.

Transition

Even though the brothers deserve revenge, Joseph chooses kindness.

Kindess initiates reconciliation, vs. 1-4

Look at how Joseph who had been rejected and discarded by his brother initiates relationships.

Read vs 1-8

Joseph had the power and position to have his brothers thrown in jail or executed.

Joseph responds with kindness.

Joseph did what was best for his brothers.

It started with INITIATING RECONCILIATION.

-Kindness values people and relationships.

-Where there is brokenness in a relationship, Kindness will initiate reconciliation.

Joseph said, “Come near to me.” Come close.

Joseph got physically close to them. He looked them in the eye.

Joseph revealed who he was, “I am your brother.”

The brothers were dismayed (means alarmed or shocked).

Joseph could order their execution.

Here is where we again see God giving Joseph supernatural power.

Joseph showed grace, he says - God was in my slavery. God purposed this.

Joseph initiated reconciliation by having a painful conversation. By dealing with the issue.

Pause

Illustration - Dr. Pimple PopperTransition - There is a Celebrity Doctor on TV that gets right to the point. That is good at dealing with medical issues. Her name is Dr. Sandra Lee.

Several of you who are sick people watch this show. This show beneath any pastor watching. It is called Dr. Pimple Popper.

Dr. Lee takes on the most extreme cases of bumps, growths, and cysts.

She get’s her scalpal to work and does what most of us would never do.

This is a graphic show. I only know this from doing research.

Dr. Lee is happy to deal with a challenging and messy problem because she cares about her patients. Dr. Lee shows Kindness to her patients.

You see, in broken relationships, Kindness rolls up its sleeves and deals with relationships that have gotten messy and out of control.

You do that because you want what is best for the other and you take action.

You respond in kindness. Pause

What relationship that is unhealthy that God is calling you to show kindness and initiate reconciliation?

Gospel -

It was Jesus who initiated reconciliation with Christ Followers.

-If you are saved it is because He first loved you. He initiated reconciliation.

It was because of Kindness that Jesus went to the Cross to pay for sins.

In God’s Kindness He has looked out for what was spiritually and eternally best for you and He took action on the cross paying for sins.

If you are not a Christ Follower, Jesus, in His kindness invites you into a relationship with Him.

Kindness looks after what is best for another.

Kindness looks out for another’s best interest & acts on that.

Transition - and in our passage today not only do we see Kindness initiating restoration, but we see kindness initiating preservation.

Kindness Initiates Preservation, vs 5-10

Joseph could have stoped with reconciliation with his brothers.

He could have given his brothers food, sent them to go home, tell dad hello, and that He would see them at Christmas.

But Joseph goes beyond that. Joseph doesn’t just reconcile, but also preserves the relationship.

Read vs. 5-10

Joseph goes way out of his way to preserve the relationship.

Joseph moves his family close to him.

Read verse 10 again.

-Joseph didn’t make plans to see them at Christmas. Joseph moved his brothers & their families next door to him.

-Kindness preserves relationships. Pause

-For a relationship to grow you have to be present. You have to be face to face.

-Joseph made his brothers his neighbors so he could see them every single day.

-Do you think he still struggled with hurt sometimes? You bet.

-He made the choice to bring them near.

-Who in your life has God called you to reconcile with and preserve the relationship by being present with them more often? Who has God called you to bring in near to you?

-Maybe there is an invitation to lunch or a family gathering that would bring someone you have a strained relationship with in closer. Pause

Gospel - Isn’t it amazing that a God who is kind to us, who wants spiritually & eternally wants what’s is best for you wants you to be present with Him.

He wants you to be near to Him. He wants relational intimacy with you.

Christ follower, How are you doing being present with God?

How is your daily time with Him?

How is your prayer life?

God desires presence with you in relationship so much that He deposited Himself in you.

If you are a Christ follower God is so near that His Spirit is in you.

Transition -

We see that Kindness initiates reconciliation and kindness initiates preservation in relationships.

Finally we see that Kindness initiates generosity.

Kindness initiates Generosity, vs. 10-11

Vs. 10 says that the family was invited to move to the land of Goshen.

-Goshen is the delta for the Nile river.

-The Delta of the Nile is where the organic sediment has been deposited for centuries.

-It has the richest soil in north Africa.

-It is an agricultural dream to live, plant, and raise cattle in Goshen.

-Joseph brings his family to and gives his family the best.

vs 21-23, And Pharoah wanted in on Joseph’s Kindness

Read 21-13

Not only did Joseph bless his brothers and their families, but Pharoah got in on it as well and sent wagons, provisions & silver so that Joseph’s father and all his brothers wives and children could move across the desert to Egypt.

We see this truth.

Relationships deepen when we give generously.

Don’t think that generosity has to always be financial.

You can generously give of:

-your time, -Your energy, -your encouragement, -giving grace, -generous in forgiveness, -generous patience.

I’ll share with you a funny generosity in my life.

Illustration, Alissa and Bacon

When Alissa was about 6 years old one Saturday morning I got up earlier than the rest of the family. It was near Christmas time.

We had a pound and half of bacon in the fridge.

I was by myself - started frying some & eating.

Fried some more and ate it.

The 5th grader inside of me said, You should fry all of this and eat it all by yourself.

I said, yeah, it’s near Christmas - that’s a great idea. I’ll treat myself.

So, I started to work toward my goal.

Half way through pan frying the bacon Alissa comes down the stars of the house.

Without even thinking of my self serving goal I said, Hey Alissa - you want some bacon.

I would cook as much as she would eat.

Why did my goal vanish? Because when you love someone, you want to be generous.

If your relationships are going be marked with kindness

generosity will have to be a part of them.

Kindness in relationships says, “I’m going to look out for the best of someone else and act on it.”

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God has modeled this generosity for you.

What has He given us?

His Son,

Himself,

Forgiveness,

Love,

A New Identity in Him,

Joy,

Satisfaction,

Peace,

At eternity full of Awe and worship.

The generosity of God is endless

God is the greatest giver.

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We will close with this final question.

Close - who will you today purpose to show Kindness through reconciliation, preservation or generosity to?

Pray