More Than Enough: Kindness
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: We must redefine our shallow idea of kindness to fully embrace the depth of God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ.
Kinda Kind
Real Kindness
The Kindness of God
Kinda Kind
We could all use and give more kindness in our worlds.
But the question is, how would you define kindness?
We see the reflection of kindness all throughout God’s word.
Kindness in its purest form comes from the Holy Spirit of God.
Kindness encourages.
Kindness serves.
Kindness gives.
Kindness speaks life, not death.
Kindness initiates rather than remaining passive in relationships.
Kindness looks to use the authority of Christ to build others up, and not simply tear them down.
“Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.”
- Blaise Pascal
“He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.”
- Augustine
“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, in the warmth of your greeting…Don’t only give your care, but give your heart as well.”
-Mother Teresa
Yet at the end of the day, being kind and being nice are not the same thing.
Though the two can overlap, if you are simply trying to be nice, you will avoid necessary conflict for the betterment of your neighbor and loved ones.
The problem of a kindness that is not God-centered is that it is deceptive and incomplete.
How many times have you had people deliver niceties to you but not address something that in retrospect would have really helped you?
Real Kindness
Real kindness grounds people in the truths of God which make sense of life and our existence.
God’s appeal to all mankind sounds like this:
Proverbs 4:18-22 ESV
“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble. My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.”
Proverbs 5:3-6 ESV
“For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.”
Kindness is not avoidance.
Consider such passages:
Proverbs 13:24 ESV
“Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.”
God is in no way speaking of or condoning abuse here.
He is not giving parents a cart blanche to express their frustrations in outbursts of anger towards their children.
Instead, just as we are image bearers of God, stewarding and cultivating his creation, so parents are to be imitators of God executing careful, loving, instructive correction for the shaping of their children’s character and souls.
Yet think about this, for a beautiful garden to grow, continual pruning (cutting) and weeding (pulling up that which does not belong) must take place.
Kindness is not overlooking the ways that people are destroying their own lives through destructive relationships, addictions and pursuit of peace in identities that are superficial and untrue.
The kindness of God addresses sin that is leading to people’s death that they might be led to repentance through grace and truth.
Proverbs 27:5-6 ESV
“Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.”
You can not be an enabler of sin if you truly love people.
Whether it be disciplining your children or rebuking and correcting a friend, real love is found in speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15,16).
Proverbs 27:17 ESV
“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”
You have to be close enough and open enough to others for the Holy Spirit to be able to produce the sparks of sanctification in the midst of your relationships.
With remote work, where we interact through avatars and are continually moving to spending more time in the virtual world (Apple’s new products, Meta’s educational ambitions), we lose the power of a shared life to which the early disciples were devoted (Acts 2).
Proverbs 27:10 ESV
“Do not forsake your friend and your father's friend, and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.”
Kindness is not simply a sentiment in the heart, but is a diligent pursuit to seek God to know what to say and how to communicate the loving thoughts of Christ to others.
Proverbs 28:23 ESV
“Whoever rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue.”
If you have truly experienced the grace of God, that means that you look to love your neighbor, family and friends, even when they disagree with you.
This is how Jesus treated us when he came to sacrifice himself at the cross for us, communicating both grace and truth (John 1; Romans 5).
He is the only one who can be both just and the justifier of those who come to faith through his sinless life, substitutionary death in our place and resurrection from the dead (Romans 3:26).
“Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the wrong. Sometime in life you will have been all of these.”
-George Washington Carver
The Kindness of God
The kindness of God leads to true life through repentance and faith in Jesus.
Romans 2:1-11 ESV
“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.”
True kindness allows people to see the cross of Christ.
The greatest gift anyone can receive is the gift of eternal life through reconciliation with God and the forgiveness of their sins.
Sharing the gospel with others that they might see and understand God’s kindness when they know all too well the harsh realities of our fallen world is a gift that you are continually called to give to others.
Kindness is delivering to others the eternal hope of God through Jesus’ sinless life, substitutionary death at the cross and resurrection from the dead to usher us into God’s grace forever.
“The gospel is the good news that God became man in Jesus Christ. He lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died—in our place. Three days later He rose from the dead, proving that He is the Son of God and offering the gift of salvation to those who repent and believe in Him.”
-Rice Broocks, Man, Myth, Messiah: Answering History's Greatest Question
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher