July 11, 2010

Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Galatians: A Grace-full Life

A basket of fruit: Kindness,  a gift of the Spirit (Part 6)

Sermon Series: Galatians: A Grace-full Life

Title: : A basket of fruit: Kindness, a gift of the Spirit (Part 6)  Text: Galatians 5:22-24

Introduction: Kindness...not how I would best describe our world today.

·       Try shopping in a crowded store and see if anyone shows kindness to you...not the customers, not even the salespeople.

·       How about racetrack season....Friday about 5pm. Try and get out of Elizabeth Dr onto Eatontown Blvd. The drivers even block the street, so you can’t get ahead of them.

·       And then there’s professional sports. We’ve come not only to expect violence, but demand it, especially in hockey.

·       Thank God there’s figure skating. Oh but wait, Tonya Harding ruined that when she paid someone to smash skater Nancy Kerrigan’s knees with a metal rod knocking her out of the competition. Not so kind after all.

Don’t you wish we were, as former President Bush said, ‘a kinder, gentler nation?’

Kindness is perhaps one of the most underrated fruit of the Spirit.

Transition: Open your Bibles to Galatians 5:22-24 (pg. 889 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you.) For it’s there we will discover Kindness, the 5^th fruit the Holy Spirit places in our Spiritual baskets.

Galatians 5:22-24                Kindness

Read: Galatians 5:22-24

A. Understanding the fruit

What is kindness? Here are some definitions:

·       Kindness is finding ways to brighten and cheer the lives of others. (Philip Keller)

·       Kindness is a sympathetic, gentle, pleasant, nature’ (Webster)

·       Kindness is an attitude and action whose foundation is a heart that has tasted God’s grace.

But it’s still not that clear, what kindness truly is. Perhaps we need to see what kindness looks like in order to define it. And the best place to see that, is in God’s Word.

Read: Jeremiah 31:3 ‘The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.’

Read: Ephesians 2:7 ‘...in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his

kindness to us in Christ Jesus.’

God is kind to us. And He wants us to be kind to others.

Read: Luke 6:35-36 ‘But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.’

Yea, did you notice that we are told to show kindness even to those who don’t deserve it. You see, the picture here, is of God’s kindness to us, in salvation. We didn’t deserve it, but God was still kind to us.

Kindness, is an attitude that manifests itself in action. What kinds of actions? Again let’s look at God’s Word.

Read: James 2:15-16 ‘Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?’

Kindness, is an attitude that manifests itself in action.

Read: James 2-18 ‘But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.’

The works mentioned here include our kind acts.

Putting it all together, ‘Kindness is caring enough about others that we treat them with gentleness, grace and generosity, just as God has treated us.’

Transition: OK, how do we cultivate kindness in our lives?

B. Growing the fruit

ILL: A train was filled with tired people. Most of them had spent the day traveling through the hot dusty plains and at last evening had come and they all tried to settle down to a sound sleep. However, at one end of the car a man was holding a tiny baby and as night came on the baby became restless and cried more and more. Unable to take it any longer, a big brawny man spoke for the rest of the group. "Why don’t you take that baby to its mother?" There was a moment’s pause and then came the reply. "I’m sorry. I’m doin’ my best. The baby’s mother is in her casket in the baggage car ahead."  Again there was an awful silence for a moment. Then the big man who asked the cruel question was out of his seat and moved toward the man with the motherless child. He apologized for his impatience and unkind remark. He took the tiny baby in his own arms and told the tired father to get some sleep. Then in loving patience he cared for the little child all through the night. (David DeWitt)

 

We cultivate kindness by being kind. I know that’s simplistic, but its really as simple as that. Let’s learn from Jesus how to cultivate kindness in our lives.

Read: Luke 8:40-56 (pg. 791 in the church Bibles)

Familiar stories grouped together. Why? For one reason: to show that the kindness of Jesus has no bounds.

·       One a man, rich and influential and part of the religious elite.

·       The other a woman, an outcast, poor and unknown.

First: notice that Jesus showed kindness by paying attention to them and to their needs.

·       Jesus paid attention to Jarius’ cry for help and went to his house.

·       Jesus paid attention to the woman. Even though He was in a crowded area, He was able to distinguish between the touch of the crowd bumping into Him and the touch of someone needing help.

We have become such an impersonal society.

·       We get money from an ATM rather than a bank teller.

·       We call a business on the phone and get an automated customer service system.

·       We text and e-mail rather than talk to one another on the phone, let alone in person.

·       We build decks and privacy fences in our back yards making the front ‘stupe’ where you once talked to the neighbors, a thing of the past.

It all contributes to our desire for distance from one another. And it’s that distance that keeps us from being kind, because we can’t see or pay attention to people’s needs.

Second: Notice that Jesus showed kindness by being willing to be inconvenienced. On both occasions in the text Jesus was interrupted. By the way, how do you handle interruptions?

So many times we fail to show kindness because we are not willing to go to all the trouble of doing a kind act. Our time is precious and we don’t want to waste it.

Remember the story of the Good Samaritan? He was willing to go to all the trouble of changing his plans to care for the hurt man. And Jesus praised him for it. How about you, want to be praised by Jesus? Then be willing to show kindness, even if it’s inconvenient.

Third: Notice that Jesus showed kindness by affirming the woman. She was a social/religious outcast because of her medical problem that she had it for 12yrs. I can only imagine how lonely she was. He didn’t want her to go unnoticed, feel unimportant. He took the time to talk to her, to let her know that she mattered.

Who have you been putting off? Who have you been avoiding because you don’t think they are worthy of your time and effort?

Fourth: Notice that Jesus showed kindness by providing for their needs. In both situations, Jesus met their need, He provided what was lacking in their lives.

·       For Jarius it was the smile, the hug, the life of his daughter.

·       For the woman in the crowd, it was not only healing her illness, it was giving her life meaning and dignity.

Sometimes, being kind will require a sacrifice? It hurts to provide what is lacking in the lives of others. Because we get attached to what we have and don’t like to share. Kindness is being generous to others.

Conclusion

Husbands are you kind to your wife? Wives are you kind to your husband? Children are you kind to your parents? Parents, are you kind to your children? If we don’t display kindness in the home, it will rarely make its way out the door to others.

In the first century, the Christians were known to be very kind people. In fact, many didn’t know whether their title was ‘follower of Christ’ or ‘follower of kindness.’ Why?

The Greek word for ‘CHRIST is ‘Christos’. The Greek word for KINDNESS is ‘Chrastos.’ They could only have confused the two, if the Christians were examples of both Christ and Kindness to those around them. That’s a challenge we need to live up to.

ILL: Theologian William Barclay wrote ‘More people have been brought into the church by the kindness of real Christian love than by all the theological arguments in the world.’ I believe that’s true.

Kindness can change our world, one person at a time, one step at a time, one act at a time.

Read letter.

Kindness? Is it in your spiritual fruit basket?