Oct 29
8:13 AM
Try a Little Kindness
Oct 29
8:13 AM
Oct 29
8:13 AM
Friday, October 29, 2021
Galatians 5:22e
We have been looking at how to live with an attitude, not a negative attitude, but a biblical attitude. We're saying that we have a choice. Life is a choice - we have a choice between living for the Holy Spirit or living for our old self. The more we live for the Holy Spirit, the more we're living with a biblical attitude. The proof so we know we're living in the Holy Spirit is when we live out the nine fruit of the Holy Spirit, the expressions of the Holy Spirit. The less we live out these nine traits, the more we're living for our old self, that's the way we used to live befor we became a Christian, if in fact we are.
So today I want to talk to you about another fruit of the Spirit. So far, we've talked about the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and patience. Today, I want to talk to you about the fifth fruit of the Spirit, which is kindness. Galatians 5:22e says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is... kindness." So, my title for this one is "Try a Little Kindness." It's so easy to not be kind. I always remember back in the VHS tape days, I don't know if you remember VHS tapes. I still have some of them, and those of you who know me really aren't surprised I still have some of them. But whenever you would go to Blockbuster (there's no such thing as Blockbuster anymore, but back when my kids were young you would rent videos from Blockbuster), the videos would always have a label on the outside that would say, "Please be kind and rewind." In other words, once you watch this movie, bring it back to the beginning so that when the next person gets it, they can have it rewound. I think sometimes that's the extent with which people will be kind, they just will rewind. I want to tell you that if you want to be kind, you have to put out effort to love people and to treat them charitably.
We need to be more kind. I forget who said it, but one of our presidents said, "I want us to be a kinder and gentler nation." I'm not sure our enemies would appreciate that, but if that met to each other, I would agree. If we can give kindness to people, I'll tell you what, people's spirits will be lifted up. A lot of people are unkind. If you drive down 390 around 7:45AM, you see that people can be unkind. If you go to the store for Black Friday sales and you want to buy something, people can be unkind. Sometimes in your neighborhood, everybody seems to have this one neighbor nobody likes, because he's so unkind. Here's the remedy. The remedy is not to say, "I will see your kindness and I'll raise it," like a little kind of parochial poker game. God wants us to show kindness. And the greatest proof of the Holy Spirit's presence in our life is when we show kindness in situations that might theoretically, in the world's eyes, justify unkindness. Your best opportunity to show the love of God is to be kind when someone is not kind to you.
"A gentle answer turns away wrath," Proverbs tells us. That is as opposed to an angry answer doesn't turn away wrath, but fuels it. That's what kindness is. Kindness is just saying, "no matter what, I'm going to treat you right." I was talking to somebody who was in the hospital, and they said the nurses treated them horribly. They had just got over covid and the nurse told her to flip over, and she says, "I can't flip." The nurse said, "I'm not coming back here again, etc." It was an unbelievable lack of kindness. One of our members (I'm so proud to call her one of our members), do you know what she did? She showed kindness to the nurse, and eventually the nurse was, I'd love to say perfectly nice, but the nurse was less mean. So here's what I want to say. Try a little kindness. All it costs you is a decision. Father, all of us could stand to be more kind, myself included. Help us to treat people with more kindness, so that we can show them your love and so that we can live in the fruit of the Spirit. We ask this In Jesus' name, amen.