Watch & listen to every sermon on your favorite podcast software:
Information about this sermon:
Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Luke 6:32-36
In this sermon, we explore the fruit of the Spirit, specifically kindness, as outlined in Galatians 5:22-23. Kindness, a Christ-like quality produced by the Holy Spirit, is an action that meets human needs with sympathy and consideration, not a mere gentle disposition. Rooted in God’s gracious kindness toward us through Jesus Christ, as seen in Romans 2:4 and Ephesians 2, this fruit enables believers to show kindness even to the ungrateful and undeserving, as Jesus teaches in Luke 6. By rooting our lives in God’s grace, the Spirit produces kindness in us, making our lives a powerful witness to Christ in a harsh world, as illustrated by stories like Allison’s kindness through her letter mission, which touched lives and pointed others to God’s love.
Transcript
[Music] Well, good morning and and welcome, especially uh if you’re visiting with us today, welcome. Or uh if you haven’t been with us for a number of weeks, we’re in the middle of a uh of a series. You can see up on the on the screen uh in front of you, the fruit of summer. Uh we’ve been going through uh Paul’s list of the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5 uh ver especially verses 22 through 23 because in this season of Pentecost uh we’re continuing to to celebrate the the baptism of the Holy Spirit coming upon the church on the day of Pentecost and empowering uh God’s people uh for uh for proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in the world and the fruit of the spirit. uh is the fruit that is produced in us that allows us to bear witness to Christ because the fruit themselves our Christ likeness. It’s what Christ who he is. And so as the spirit grows and produces in us these fruit this fruit we are bearing witness to Jesus to the world around us. Charles Spurgeon, uh, the prince of preachers said, and I’ve repeated this in the series over and over again, but I’ll paraphrase it this time, that a Christian’s life should be the best sermon that he ever gives. A Christian’s life should be the best sermon that he will ever give. And and it’s the fruit of the spirit that produces in us and bears witness to Jesus in a dark in an unkind world. But remember the principle that we’ve been working through uh in this series that we’ve been rooted in is that good fruit is produced only by good soil. And so the fruit of the spirit is born out of lives that are firmly rooted in the rich soil of God’s grace for us through his son Jesus Christ. And so far in in our Galatians 5:22 list of the fruit of the spirit, we’ve looked at love, joy, peace, patience, and today we we turn our attention to kindness to kindness. But here’s the problem. We are not naturally kind. We are not naturally kind. That may be offensive to some of us. Uh but we aren’t. Uh in fact uh if we were naturally kind at least in the way that that Paul’s talking about kindness here then it would be the fruit of us it wouldn’t be the fruit of the spirit at all right uh but it’s the fruit of the spirit in Romans 3 verse 12 Paul said and quoting the psalms he said there is no one who does good not even one that word that Paul uses for good there is the same word for kindness uh that we have in the Galatians five list. You know, CS Lewis in his uh in the Screw Tape letters in letter 14 where the the demon the uncle demon Screw Tape who’s writing to his nephew Wormwood uh trying to uh instruct him and grow him in the knowledge of tormenting human souls and trying to get them to to abandon uh God. He writes to Screw Tape writes to Nephew Wormwood uh with this bit of advice. He says, “The most repellent thing to the enemy, meaning to God, is not the sin itself, but the pride that refuses to acknowledge it.” Let the human think of himself as being kind, and he will be unaware of how just how unkind he really is. It’s a power powerful word that CS Lewis insight that he had. It’s because kindness, it’s not something that comes naturally to us. At least not in the biblical understanding of kindness. At least not the kindness that Paul’s teaching us about here in the fruit of the spirit. And Jesus speaks to in uh when we in uh Luke chapter 6, which we’ll get to in just a a few moments. But it is something that the Holy Spirit grows in our lives as we soak up the riches of God’s kindness towards us, rooting our lives in his grace. And so this morning there’s three points uh that I want to talk about in the fruit of kindness in our lives. And number one is this that kindness is an action. Kindness and is an action. Number two, kindness is God’s gracious action towards you and towards me. And finally, that kindness that’s rooted in God’s kindness towards us is our witness to a world that so desperately is longing for the kindness of God through Christ in their lives. But let’s start with the first point. Kindness is an action. You know, we tend to think uh of kindness as something of a gentle disposition that some people have and some people don’t have, right? We we that’s how we tend to think about it. Maybe the little old lady that lives next door, right? She’s just has a a gentle disposition and we think of that is what kindness is about. Uh but the kindness of Galatians 5, the fruit of the spirit uh is the the Greek word crestotes and it’s an action noun. It’s an action noun and cresase means a a kindness that’s useful and serviceable meaning uh it it’s a it’s a action that meets needs. An action that meets human needs. A kindness is an action that expresses itself in sympathy and in consideration for other people. You see why the fruit that that Paul’s speaking of throughout the fruit of the spirit has all to do with how we interact in love with one another. It’s all about our witness to Christ in our community and in the world around us. You know the list of of kind acts, you can come up with them. you can figure them out. But it’s infinite, right? It’s things like simply holding the door open for someone. It could be as simple as that. Uh leaving a kind note for a co-orker who you know is is struggling and going through something difficult. Maybe it’s assisting a neighbor who’s having issues to help them with their groceries or or helping the elderly neighbor uh get their trash out uh to the road on trash days because it’s just become so difficult uh for them. It could be listening to a friend who just needs someone to listen without judgment. It could be volunteering at a shelter or giving blood or how about giving up your seat on the bus or train for someone else uh just as an act of kindness. Those are acts that are better definitions of the word christotes that that Paul is using. It sounds easy enough, right? Just go out and be do kind things for people. That’s what Paul’s saying. Just go out and try harder. Do random acts of kindness. Start a campaign. You know, remember that campaign that went on a while ago, random acts of kindness. And that’s great. There’s nothing wrong with that. But that’s it’s a little more complicated than that, especially when we look at at Luke chapter 6 and how Jesus characterized kindness and raised it to a level that’s very uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable to us. I’m going to read it again for us because I want you to remember and think about this in the sense of of what Jesus is saying about kindness. He goes, “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them? And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same? And if you lend to those whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. But love your enemies and do good and lend and expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great and you will be sons of the most high. For he is kind to the ungrateful and to the evil. Be merciful even as your father is merciful. Ouch. Ouch. The action of kindness that we’re called to, the action of kindness that is the kindness of the fruit of the spirit is not a kindness to just those who deserve it. It’s not just acts of kindness to those that we’re inclined to be kind to uh anyway.
But it’s a kindness to those who do not deserve it. those who are ungrateful for your kindness to those in fact uh Jesus goes as far as to say to those who are evil those are the ones that we’re supposed to to show kindness for the word that that uh uh that Luke used for what benefit is that to you uh it’s also that same root word of uh christotas uh so it means what kindness is that to you that you don’t get any credit for that kind of kindness if you’re just doing it to those who it’s easy to do it do. So, how can we possibly do it? How can we possibly be kind to the ungrateful? How can we be kind to those who don’t deserve it? How can we be kind to those who just kind of scorn uh the kindness that we would try to show? You know, we live near a middle school and uh our street is the uh is kind of a main path from uh a neighbor the neighborhood kids getting to their the school and leaving at the at the end of the day. Uh and middle school kids are a rare breed. Um, you know, if you’ve ever if you ever taught or you can remember being in middle school or if uh if you’re in middle school or if you’ve uh taught middle school, you know, it’s a it’s an interesting time where kids are kind of figuring out who they are, testing boundaries, right? Uh which can be a little bit frustrating for adults. Uh but so what ends up happening is our street can turn into a scene uh and and usually in the afternoons, the mornings are usually fine. uh everybody’s still tired, nobody has any energy. But at the end of school, on the way home, there can there’s fights. There’s uh the the random walking through your yard, not pounding on the door and then running away, you know, that kind of stuff. Uh throwing trash out on the street and not even thinking about it. And uh we have a little library that uh Gracie is really proud of and uh and she loves keeping it stocked. And of course, you know, after the kids have gone through, you find books thrown up around the street with things torn out of them, you know, and it’s really disrespectful. Well, we started uh a couple years ago uh doing and it was mainly on Fridays. We thought, you know, let’s just start doing a free lemonade stand. You know, we’ll do a free lemonade stand for the kids. You know, we’ll give it some cookies, something cheap. We’ll just have it out there just to we’re going to kill them with kindness, right? we’re going to be kind to them because dog on gone it that’s what Jesus told us to do and we’re going to be kind to them. Uh and so we did uh we started doing that. Uh and you know a good number of them seemed to be appreciative and enjoy receiving. But then there was the others uh who just saw it as a grand opportunity to dump their lemonade on each other’s heads and to throw their trash into the street uh and showed complete disrespect. Disrespect. It made me so mad. these ungrateful little brats, right? And so I didn’t want I don’t like I don’t want to do it anymore because it’s really difficult. It’s like why why bother when you know why bother with this? Have you ever experienced that in some way, right? not wanting to do an act of kindness because you just know that the recipient is ungrateful for it or is going to be ungrateful for it. Maybe it’s food that you’ve got some food you want to give to a homeless person and and you went and you took the food to that homeless person and then what reaction did you get? I don’t want this. You got money, right? And that can be so disillusioning, right? when when that happens and it’s so frustrating and yet Jesus is telling us to a kindness or acts that to the ungrateful
how can we do it well there’s only one way there’s only one way and that is to have our lives rooted in the rich soil of God’s grace for us remembering remembering God’s kindness towards us is that he sent his one and only son to die for us to give us life, new life, unending life in him. Not because we deserve it, but because we need it and because he loves us, even in our own rebellion, even in our ungrateful hearts towards him. He loves us so much that he sent his son to save us. Romans 2:4 says uh tells us that the riches of God’s kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. God’s kindness leads us. It transforms our hearts inside out from from ungrateful, rebellious people. It his kindness transforms us into people who can love him and love others. Ephesians 2 says, “But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.” Friends, kindness is an action because the kindness of God is his gracious actions towards us and our savior Jesus Christ. In Christ, through God’s grace, he has shown his kindness towards us. We are the beggar who receives God’s grace ungratefully and yet he lovingly gives it all the same. We’re the middle school kid who receives the kindness of God’s grace and then throws it on the ground and disrespectfulness for the kindness that has been showed them. And yet God continues to offer us the free gift of his grace for us in Jesus. Until we see ourselves in that humility before God, we’re we will never bear the fruit of kindness that shines as bright as a bright light for Christ in this harsh and this cruel world. But when we do, when we do embrace the kindness of God’s grace for us, what happens is our lives are rooted in that soil and the spirit is at work in us producing the powerful fruit of kindness towards others. That kindness that bears witness to Jesus. You know, it was Mark Twain said, “Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and that the blind can see.” And oh, how that’s true in a spiritual sense. Friends, kindness is the language that people who are who are blind to the truth of the gospel that they can see, who are deaf to the truth of God’s love that they can hear. When we show kindness towards those who are undeserving, the ungrateful, and even towards our enemies with no expectation in return, it’s that it is the fruit by which people living in darkness can taste and see that the Lord is good for themselves. You know, it was uh Moody who said uh one out of every 99 people will actually read the Bible. The other 98 will read the Christian. And kindness, the kindness that we show towards others is how most people will read about Jesus, at least initially before they go and explore it for themselves. I read uh a testimony that I thought was really powerful and and really spoke to this kindness. I I read this uh this week in 2015. this woman named Allison uh who had developmental delays and a mild cereble paly. uh she lost her grandmother and her grandmother had been a really important person in her life and it really inspired her own walk with Jesus and in losing her her grandmother it really she really struggled with the grief and she but in that struggle with the grief she sensed this calling uh to honor her her grandmother’s legacy of what she saw is kindness she saw kindness in her grandmother and she wanted to honor that and so she started a project called the KTLM project, which is a kindness through letters mission. And so what she did was she began writing just random letters uh over 2,000 handwritten letters she wrote and in kindness uh worldwide and then just mailed these cards out uh to share God’s love. Well, one recipient who shared the story of this uh was a man named David uh and he was battling depression after losing his job. Uh and it was at that moment that he received this letter, one of Allison’s letters which included the encouraging an encouraging note and just the Bible verse of Psalm 34:18. And that simple just short encouragement and Bible verse touched this man David so deeply with kindness uh that he began it made it was a push that made him decide you know I want to attend my local church and see what what’s this thing all about where he found community eventually he t says that he accepted Christ in his life and he later wrote back to to Allison once he kind ofh came to Christ and he says uh her letter felt like God reaching ing out when I was at my lowest. You know, it’s a powerful testimony to how kindness is a witness to Christ in the world. So, what’s our takeaway this morning? Is it to go be kinder? Is it to go organize a random acts of kindness campaign? Well, sure. That’d be great. Do that. You know, that’s important. Uh it’d be great. But unless your heart and your life are firmly rooted by faith in God’s unmmerited kindness towards you, then those acts of kindness, I promise you, they’ll make you feel good for a little little bit that you’re doing something and you’re earning something, but quickly they will turn to feelings of bitterness, disillusionment. when you find that those acts of kindness are not always met with the thankfulness and the gratefulness that that they deserve and that you feel like you deserve. Friends, the takeaway in this every in this series and all of this fruit and certainly when it comes to bearing the fruit of kindness is that we’re to sink our roots in the kindness of God towards us, giving him thanks daily for it. And it’s only then the spirit will begin to produce in us the fruit of kindness of Jesus towards others. You know a local church
that is marked by practical gospel centered kindness meeting needs forgiving offenses welcoming the outsider becomes a living apologetic for the gospel of Jesus Christ in this world. Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, we thank you and praise you for your kindness towards us. Father, the riches of your kindness we see in our savior who you so lovingly gave to us. Not when we deserved it, but when we were ungrateful, rebellious. And yet you continue to lavish your kindness towards us, always bringing us back to a place of repentance and humility before you. Will you Holy Spirit so knit and root our lives in the kindness of God’s and the kindness of God for us that our lives will begin to bear the fruit of kindness towards one another and towards the world around us in a way that will shine brightly for the gospel and for our savior Jesus Christ. And Jesus we ask this in your mighty name. Amen.
[Music]
