Relate Community Church
Relate Community Church
Fruitful Summer // Week 4 The Fruit of Kindness
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
You can’t Learn fruit.
Fruit is the Byproduct of who we are.
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.In the same way a Levite also came there, went over and looked at the man, and then walked on by on the other side. “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Luke 10:25-33
I can Keep My Distance
I can be Curious but Uncaring
I can Show Kindness
1. I must see The Needs of people around me.
“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Luke 10:33
2. I must sympathize With their Pain.
Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Luke 10:33
Stop asking: What’s wrong with them?
Ask: What Happened to them?
3. I must seize the Moment to help.
Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Luke 10:34
I must be willing to Be Interrupted.
I have to be willing to Face my fears.
4. I must spend whatever it takes.
Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’ “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?” “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, “Go and do the same.” Luke 10:36-37
Being kind to the people in need is like lending to the Lord, and He will repay you for the kindness you have shown. Proverbs 19:17 NCV
Discussion Questions:
What’s one idea from the message that really stood out to you? Why did this idea grab your attention?
Can you think of some examples where we use other’s pain as entertainment?
What are some practical areas of your life where slowing down will help you be more kind?
How can we be more intentional about engaging our feelings to sympathize with other people’s struggles?
What are some common costs to showing kindness and how can we be more prepared to pay them this week?
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All right, good morning everybody. Welcome to church. I'm glad you're here. It means the world to me that you are here today and if you're watching online, same I'm glad that we get to do this together every single week and throughout the week, doing life together. I want to dive right in today because I think this is an exciting and relevant and timely message today, for more reasons than I could have planned, but I think God has plans for us in store when we start putting series together and the thoughts of where he wants us to be. And I know that today's message is going to hit you right where you are. And we're in the middle of a nine-week series called Fruitful Summer.
Speaker 1:Today is week number four and we're going to look at the fruit of the Spirit. We're hoping and believing and reaching for the fruit of the Spirit in us. So I'm going to dive right into Galatians, chapter 5, which is our theme verse for the series, verse 22. It says but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. I hope that you are also memorizing the fruit of the Spirit and memorizing what God is doing in you. I just realized that this verse written here is missing a fruit of the Spirit. How did that happen? That's my responsibility. I can't point at anybody. This is somebody's fired, anybody. This is somebody's fired. Here we go. If you could just type faithfulness in there real quick, thank you, boom, nailed it, here we go. I want to look real quick before we dive into the rest of it.
Speaker 1:The last line that's written there says against such thing there is no law. Really, what that means is there's no rules that you can set into place to become or to be fruitful this way. It's not like I can just say okay, guys, here's our house rules. We're going to start having love and joy and peace. We're going to start being fruitful. That's not the way it works.
Speaker 1:If you're taking notes today which I hope you are we are a note-taking church Pull out your notes and there's a few things I'm going to want you to write down. But the first thing is that rules don't get us there and you can't learn fruit. I can't legislate morality and tell you that, hey, we're just going to live by this code and we're just going to love everybody. You must, you have to, or you're out of here. No, you can't learn it. Fruit is a byproduct of who you are. It comes out of you because of what you are. You can't make a plant in your yard or a tree grow a certain fruit, but just because you decide and you tell it or you can't just make yourself do that. So we're going to look at the fruit of kindness today. We're going to look at what Jesus says about kindness, in particular in one and I think it's super relevant to today and all the things that are going on around us. But we're going to look at a passage where Jesus has an encounter with a religious person, someone that should know all the answers. They start having the discussion in Luke, chapter 10, verse 25, and Jesus is pressed for an answer about fruit and about the expectation and what we're responsible for, what we're expected to do. Luke, chapter 10, verse 25, says On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus Teacher.
Speaker 1:He asked what must I do to inherit eternal life? Like, basically, what's all this about? What am I supposed to be doing? What is written in the law? He replied how do you read? In other words, what do you think? If you ask me a silly question or a question that I think you should know the answer to already my response would be another question what do you think? And that's what Jesus gives him. And so he answers this is what I think Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, which was known, and love your neighbor as yourself. And you have answered correctly. Jesus replied Do this and you will live. But then the guy realizes this is such a big command, this is such a big question. This is like all the law and the prophets and the whole Old Testament wrapped up in two little statements Basically love God and love people around you. He says that sounds like a lot. I need to figure out how much this is going to cost me. And so he asks a clarifying question. Or he continues to, as the Scripture says, test Jesus. He wants to know. And who is my neighbor Today? What a question we should be asking ourselves. It'd be great if our neighbor was just the people in this room, or just the people in our row or, better yet, just the people we live with.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I say turn to your neighbor and tell them something. That's a general, a big generalization. I usually start a message on Sunday morning with something fun, something funny, something like let's all get together and make sure we're on the same page. Today I thought we need to start this message differently because I think, for those of you who woke up this morning, maybe you turned on the news for a minute or you opened social media morning. Maybe you turned on the news for a minute or you opened social media, or for the last I could say, if you opened up the news or saw the news yesterday or the day before, but really that's, it's not like everything has just changed and all of a sudden we live in a world that's dark and broken and we're in trouble and what's going on? And how do we deal with this? And how do I respond to this? And God, how do I uphold who I'm? How do I live the way I'm supposed to live? That's kind of what this guy's asking Jesus. All of a sudden he narrows it, he boils the whole thing down to who's my neighbor? Who am I supposed to be loving? How do I respond to the darkness in the world? How do I respond to?
Speaker 1:There's certain people that are not lovable. There's certain people that I don't want to love. There's certain quote unquote people over here in this category. Do I have to love them too? We could categorize people in all. I could just list off a string of different kinds of people where there are conflict. Wait, jesus, do I have to love them too? Maybe it's anyone on any side of the discussion about Iran and Israel. Maybe it's someone on your side, or a different side of a gender discussion, or politics, or race or immigration, or you name it. There's a million different discussion topics that will instantly put us at odds. There's a million and I'm not just talking about people who are like over there somewhere. I'm talking about people who are right here on your row, maybe sitting right next to you, that we don't agree on everything. Do I have to love them, jesus, just because we didn't start with the joke, you can lighten up a little. We get too deep. Everybody Listen.
Speaker 1:This message, this conversation that Jesus is having with this guy, is loaded. The story that we're about to read, that Jesus tells the story, is probably the most famous story in the Bible, maybe in the New Testament for sure. It's a story that people know, even if they don't go to church. Never been to church, they know this story. It's a story that's loaded with racism. It's a story that's loaded with bigotry and hatred, and Jesus is telling this guy the answer to your question I think you know already. It's more than you think.
Speaker 1:It's not going to be as easy as you'd like it to be. In fact, everybody probably would know the story of the Good Samaritan or be able to tell the story to some degree, maybe just with a few of the pieces. And Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan we're going to read it in just a moment but I need you to understand that when he tells the story of the Good Samaritan, he's not just telling the story of, hey, there was a guy that got beat up and then somebody passed by, and then somebody else passed by, and then somebody finally helped him. That's not the story. That's part of the story. The story goes a lot deeper than that, and so when Jesus tells this story, he's giving a loaded story that's full of race. It's full of conflict underlying conflict, and so there are things that I say that you're like ooh, there's a lot there, there's a lot to unpack. So this is one of those stories. There's a lot to unpack and we're not going to unpack all of it, but I need you to understand that in those days they were probably way more racist than we were Outwardly saying things like. It was very common for Jewish people in those days to say it's better to be a dog than a Samaritan, and so when Jesus throws out the word, it's like for him to throw out the word Samaritan, it's like he just tossed a grenade into the discussion. But he goes there.
Speaker 1:So we're going to read Luke, chapter 10, verse 30. It says in reply so who do I have to love? Who do I have to? Who's my neighbor? Jesus? He says a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and when he was attacked by robbers, they stripped him of his clothes, beat him, went away, leaving him half dead. So, that said, I can't give you the full picture, but I'm going to invite JJ. Would you come up and help me? And I really got him this morning. He had no idea he was helping.
Speaker 1:So y'all give it up for JJ, all right. So, jj, you're going to be our victim today. You're going to be beaten up. We're going to pretend like all of your clothes have been stripped off, but you're going to leave your clothes on, so I need you to be beaten and thrown on the side of the road. Ready go, that's pretty good. I mean, it doesn't take much to be beaten and left for dead. Y'all just imagine bruises and some blood. Except, let's do this. Why don't you come this way? Because we're going to pretend the road's over here, all right, all right, all right, good, good, so he's left for dead. I want you to watch what happens when Jesus is telling this story. You can't move, good, so he's left for dead. I want you to watch what happens when Jesus is telling this story. You can't move, man, you're dying.
Speaker 1:There's three different people who encounter this victim. It says that he's left for dead on this road. Now, this road from Jericho to Jerusalem would have been coming down a mountain, curvy, lots of switchbacks, lots of places for robbers and thieves to hide. So it was very common on this particular road. So when Jesus tells this story, the disciples would any of the people listening at that point would have been yeah, that would happen. He was putting it into a context that they understood. This happens all the time, and so, if it so happened that it was a Samaritan that came along, watch what happens.
Speaker 1:There are three different people who come along and see this victim and I think a lot of times when this story is told, it's almost told like hey, you should be one of these three people. The truth is, I think we're all. We could be any one of the three people at any given time. It's more of an attitude that we have to choose. It's not like you are one of these three people. It's more like we are all of these people and hopefully we have the right attitude at the right time to take the right action.
Speaker 1:So the three people that come along one's a priest, a Levite and a Samaritan. The priest, levite and Samaritan. It starts off in verse 31. It says a priest, a Levite and a Samaritan. The priest, levite and Samaritan. It starts off in verse 31. It says a priest happened to be going down the road and when he saw the man he passed on the other side. So let's pretend I'm the priest and I'm coming along. Here's our victim. I'm walking along and there he is. I'm over here on the other side of the road and I'm just going to pass by. I see him.
Speaker 1:Oh no, I'm going to tell you that most of us. There's many of us that are right here and our attitude is this Don't make eye contact. I'm just going to stay on my side. I'm going to keep my business, keep myself to myself. It's none of my business and I don't have time for this. In fact, I think it happens more than we would like to admit. We don't want to get close to it. It's very easy actually. We've created a society and interactions that make this very easy, because what happens people could be hurting, they could live right next door to me and when I get home I'm driving, I can drive right into my garage and shut the garage. I don't have to look at anybody, talk to anybody or, even better, I can see things on social media and you know what this person's been. Really, it's just a lot lately. I'm going to go ahead and mute them, so I don't have to see this for maybe a month or two and then I'll come back and see if they're doing a little bit better. But I'm not going to check on them, I'm just going to mute them. We've gotten very easy at just divert your eyes or smile and nod. Don't make eye contact.
Speaker 1:The second guy who comes along is a Levite. Now this guy works at the temple. He's a temple assistant temple. He's a temple assistant. Basically, he's a religious person. This guy should know better and watch what he does. It says that in the same way, a Levite also came there. He's coming down the same road, went over, looked at the man and then walked by on the other side. So now this guy, he sees it, but then he decides ooh, he knows, get a good look. Oh man, he looks like he's in pain.
Speaker 1:This is big trouble. It's getting worse. You can't go anywhere these days. People getting beat up, people getting Robbers and thieves everywhere. Man, this is crazy. I'm going to tell everybody about this. Yeah, we might even take a picture, or even worse, we need a little selfie right here. Even worse, we need a little selfie right here. I promise you.
Speaker 1:This is true, and it's even more true when we're driving down the freeway and you see an accident oh, this is a bad one. Everybody slows down. And then what I got to get out of here, let's go. And then you're two minutes down the road. You forget all about it. Someone else's life could have just ended. And then it becomes so common for us to just keep moving, keep moving. The worst times is when it happens in a conversation and we slow down and we listen.
Speaker 1:We love drama, we just love other people's drama and we don't want it to spill over into us here. Other people's pain is big business and it's one of our primary forms of entertainment. Tmz, social media we love to hear other people complaining and griping and just like going out of their mind because their world is falling apart, and that is high drama. But when it starts to spill over into my life, uh-uh, I can't do that too much and so we keep them over there. You stay over there, I'll stay over here. I'm willing to look, I'm willing to rubberneck, I want to take a picture, I want a piece of it, a taste of it, but I don't want it in my life.
Speaker 1:Finally, the third guy, the Samaritan, comes along and it says then a despised Samaritan. So this is like Jesus is saying there is a KKK member that's been beaten up and left for dead and then a black guy comes and helps him. He's putting into context that this is a situation that this is not the person that you would expect to help them. This is someone who's hated helping the person that hates them. So here he comes, the Samaritan comes along, sees him, something inside of him says the Samaritan comes along, sees him, something inside of him says I have to do something. He comes over and he starts to help him. And so I don't think that, hey, be the Samaritan. I'm not asking you to. Don't be the Levite, don't be the priest.
Speaker 1:The situation is that all of us, at any given part of the day, we could have the mindset where I'm just too busy for this, or, oh, I got a minute, let me look, or we could be the person that slows down and does something about the problem. So how do we become kindness? How do we live a life that's full of the fruit of the Spirit, specifically kindness today? How do we cultivate that? How do we make that part of the fruit that grows in our lives? So I'm going to show you four things today in the time about 15 minutes that I have left. The first one you can write this down I must see the needs of people around me. Notice verse 33 says then a despised Samaritan came along and when he saw the man he felt compassion for him.
Speaker 1:Can I tell you that there's a lot of things in life that you're around, you know about but you're not really seeing what there is to see. We don't care until we're aware it starts with your eyes. It starts with what you're willing to look at, what you're willing to see, what you're willing to participate in. And I can promise you that everybody on the planet there's no exemption Everybody on the planet has wounds and pain that they've picked up in life and, in some degree, some facet. All of us are. This guy laying right here In fact I forgot you were laying there. So come on, jj, y'all give him a hand.
Speaker 1:Everyone has wounds, everyone has life wounds, and it's very likely that we don't know about them. There's a lot of reasons that could be Maybe they're sitting on your row, maybe they're sitting in this room, maybe they live with you, people who have pain that you've never considered because it's not obvious. It could be grief, it could be loneliness, insecurity, depression. There's a pain that people carry and there's a couple of obvious reasons why we don't know. Number one they probably hide it. They may be embarrassed about it, they may be ashamed about it. Of course, I'm not going to come and tell you all of the deepest, darkest pains that I have, okay, because I want you to think that I have my act together. I need you to think that I'm okay, so we hide it. That's the first reason. The second reason is we don't see the pain that other people are carrying because we're in a hurry, we're too much in a hurry, we're not going slow enough to see it.
Speaker 1:So just to be transparent with you guys, I've been for the last year. I've been on a journey to find the fruit of the Spirit. I think that I'm a very loving, kind, gentle person all the time, except when I'm in my truck, driving on the freeway, and then I'm a different person. So I think maybe it's a split personality thing. I don't know. I think I have solved it, though. I have actually figured out the problem and it's not very complicated.
Speaker 1:The problem is this that all I have to do to become a very loving and kind and gentle and patient person on the freeway in my truck is just leave early. Who would have thought and I think a lot of us know that Deep down, we know that. But do we leave early? No, we don't we just, you know we wait till we're about 10 minutes late and then we leave. But what happens when I leave late, early. Whenever I give myself enough time, I leave. Hey, I have to be there at this time. I'm going to leave about 10 minutes before I really need to. What happens? I'm a totally different person. Then I'm waving hey, there you are. I didn't even see you before. There you are, just come on in. You go ahead, you go ahead of me, take your time, you don't need to go fast, I got plenty of time. I think what happens is the slower I go, the more I see. I can see problems, I can see issues, I can see pain, I can see behind what's presented on the surface. I can realize that there's more to the situation because I'm going slow enough to sense it.
Speaker 1:If I wanted to go sightseeing in the United States, if I wanted to take my kids when they were younger now, I couldn't get them to go on a sightseeing trip with me. Now they're old enough, they're doing their own thing. If I took them when they were younger on a sightseeing trip and said hey guys, we're going to go on a sightseeing trip for the United States, just the four of us. We're going to get into a plane, we're going to board a plane at LA and we're going to fly to New York. We're going to see the whole country. What can we see? 30,000 feet, you're going to look quick. You're not going to see much. Something's going on down there. I can't quite see all of it, but we saw it. That's kind of where we live.
Speaker 1:If we really wanted to see the United States, we could get on a train. It might take us a week to go across the country. We just go slow, look out the window but we're not really seeing it. We're seeing more, more than from 30,000 feet. But we really wanted to see the United States and slow down. What would we need to do? Get in a car, take the overview spots and look and historic locations and slow down and eat at the small places and see more than we could see on a train.
Speaker 1:But if we really wanted to slow down, what we'd have to do? We'd have to get on a bicycle, but we don't have time for that. But even on a bicycle there's a bunch of stuff that we're missing. Can I tell you that in your life you're missing a bunch of things? Can I tell you that in your life you're missing a bunch of things? And if our calling is to be love and joy and peace and patience. Listen, hurry is incompatible with love. Hurry kills all the fruit of the Spirit. It almost exempts us. It's like, oh well, you know I'm in a hurry, you can't expect me to actually stop and do that. You know this guy's laying here dead but I am going to miss my meeting if I stop.
Speaker 1:A couple joined the church not too long ago and in getting to know them, one of the first stories that they told us was kind of the contrast between visiting this church and having been at another church for a few months and it broke my heart the story that they told. They said we were at that church for months. We thought there's so many good things we're going to try here. They were mature enough to be like we're not going to get the church experience and just stay here for a week or two or three. We need to like, we're going to stay here for a while, try to you grow where you're planted. You don't, you're not going to figure it out in a week or two. So they got there. They said we're going to stay for a few months and just. They said every week when they showed up they introduced themselves, shook hands with people. People were treating them, welcoming, but they would introduce themselves Hi, we're so-and-so-and-so. And then they'd go find their seat. The next week they'd come back in the same people, introduced themselves to the same people hey, what's your name? Every week for months, they were introducing themselves to the same exact people and no one knew their name.
Speaker 1:I thought, oh my gosh, that breaks my heart, that it's a reminder that there are people all over the world, all over the country, trying to connect to the family of God. It's not just for that church or for our church. This is the family of God. We have to do better. And if we're moving so fast, oh, I got to get this job done. I got to pass out these bulletins, I got to the service guide and this and we got. I got to get into position and I'm supposed to do this and I have to be at my chair. And then after church I got to go to the, to the lunch meeting with my family and this, and then I got to like we're so busy that we're not actually doing what Jesus asked us to do.
Speaker 1:Jesus didn't say hey, if you want to be my follower, let's have church, let's put on a church service. That's not what he said. Part of what he was saying was required that we slow down, but I think we get spiritual ADHD and we just we're too much going on. I need the next thing. I need the next thing. Number two not only do I have to see, slow down and see, number two, I must sympathize with their pain, some part of him.
Speaker 1:The Scripture says that he had compassion. You read through the New Testament and see that there are many times where it says Jesus had compassion on them, on the crowd, and he either healed them or fed them or met their needs. Compassion is something that just boils up and will not allow you to move on. I will not live with myself if I don't do something about this. It's not enough to see, but you have to feel something and you're capable of feeling. But we have gotten very good at again having other people's pain be our entertainment. We've become so calloused to sympathizing with and feeling what they're feeling. Watch what it says. It says when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. So how do I become a better sympathizer? This is more than just slowing down. To see Starts with the eyes, but then it goes right here to my ears, Because I see with my eyes but I sympathize with my ears. Do you know you can actually heal people by listening? Do you know that there are some people, some wounds that people have, that all it takes is for you to just listen, but we're moving so fast we don't have time to listen. You know that's a good story, but it'll have to wait until next time.
Speaker 1:Sometimes love is just listening. What does that mean? What does that mean for you and for me? When somebody desperately needs to share and I think, well, I've got to have answers, I tell you this happens all the time with Angela and I. She'll be telling me something and I'll say, hey, I know what you need to do, I know the solution to this because I want to help solve it. But sometimes, guys, we're terrible at this. Sometimes can I just tell you that the answer is that you just need to show up and shut up. We just need to show up, be there, listen, stop having all the answers, stop trying to fix the problem and just be willing to listen.
Speaker 1:So here's some for all of you guys, who maybe even married man I've been married 25 years and so the evolution of listening changes, but we need to go back to like first date listening. What does first date listening look like? First date listening looks like this it looks like we're talking and all of a sudden she gets into something. She's telling me something important and I'm just leaning in Ooh, tell me more. That's a oh man, I wanna hear this whole story. And guys, I know, inside, like in the back of your head, you're saying, oh, my gosh, how long is this story? But if you could just lean in, oh man, that must have hurt when she said that to you. We just need somebody to listen. Sometimes. None of us are exempt from it.
Speaker 1:Practicing first aid listening if we can just listen and lean in and slow down long enough to put our own stuff on pause, put our own stuff on the side for just a second so that someone else can unload some of the things. And our problem is this that when I don't have time to listen to, that other person share with me. A lot of times I'm listening, thinking what is wrong with you? What's the problem here? The people that we go the long way to avoid a conversation with because they're just a lot right now. The people that we look at them on social media and think, oh my gosh, I was thinking about calling them, but I'm not going to step into the middle of this, I'm going to wait for a little while. That's because we think they got something going on. So here's the solution Stop asking what's wrong with them and start asking what happened to them, if I can start seeing people within the context that we say this all the time that hurt people hurt people. Sure, you're hurting me, your pain is overflowing and I'm catching some of it more than I would like to. But if I can realize that there's nothing wrong with this person, they have been hurt by someone. Some of us have broke ties with people because we can't stand our mom or our dad, when the truth is, we shouldn't be saying what is wrong with them. We should be saying what happened to them, what happened to my mom? That she treated me the way she did because she was in pain. It doesn't fix it, it doesn't resolve it, it doesn't make it better, but what it does do is it changes my concept and allows me to be able to forgive. It helps God to empower me to bring kindness into a situation that I don't think deserves kindness.
Speaker 1:Angela told not too long ago, she was telling you guys about my green thumb. I love to plant plants. I love to find a plant that is on its maybe it's been neglected or abandoned and then bring it back to life. I love that, and so I have pots all over my yard, things planted in the yard. It's a beautiful thing. But we have one tree with a problem, and that is that I have an apple tree in my yard and for the last little while, no apples. The last season, no apples. This season, no apples. And so if you came to my house and looked at this beautiful apple tree and I told you, oh, it's an apple tree, you might not even know that because there's no apples on it, and you might say what's wrong with that thing? What's wrong with that tree? I know because I planted it. I know that there used to be two apple trees and that for an apple tree to produce fruit there have to be two. They need each other to cross-pollinate to create apples, and so we had a storm come through. The storm destroyed one of the trees. It died, and so I know that the problem with that tree is that it lost its partner.
Speaker 1:There's some people in your life that you're thinking what is wrong with this person? You have neglected to see and to feel and to understand that they have lost their partner, or their thing or their person, or they've been injured, or a storm has come through and they are so damaged that all they can do is be fruitless. What if we start seeing people and saying what happened to them? How can I be kind to them? How can I pick them up off the side of the road and meet them where they need me, not where, not where they're presenting with this mask. I don't have any problems, I got all kinds of fruit.
Speaker 1:It's easy to see through to the problem, but sometimes it's easy also to just miss the truth. Number three to see the problem we have to feel. And number three I must seize the moment to help like we can't. Just how easy would it have been for the samaritan to say, hey, I'm gonna help you, but you gotta wait for me to go down and get some supplies, take care of my business and then I'm going to come back and help you. No, so often, in fact, we talk about this often Follow the steps of Jesus Reading through the New Testament, but the real deal is that we should, instead of saying following the steps of Jesus, we should be saying we should follow the stops of Jesus, because Jesus was stopped over and over and over.
Speaker 1:Jesus was interrupted day after day after day, and the miracle signs and wonders often were an interruption to something else that he was trying to do. In Luke, chapter 10, verse 34, our story continues going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil, wine and bandaged them. He didn't go down the mountain, come back with supplies. He already had them somehow. I don't know why he had oil and wine. Maybe he just had some salad dressing for his lunch and he just said here, let me put this on you Likely, he didn't have bandages on him, but he could have ripped part of his clothes and wrapped him up and bound him. So he does what he can, but what was important is that he acted in the moment when he saw the problem.
Speaker 1:A lot of times we just think, oh, I gotta see if I have enough time to get this done. Later I'll see if I can circle back around. I'll do what I can. We don't wanna be fully committed, so we just leave ourselves enough margin to do or not to do. We'll see if somebody else helps. Well, we'll give them a couple days, try to figure it out on their own, and then you know, if it gets worse, then I'll step in. So I think the first thing we have to realize is that we have to be willing to be interrupted. We have to be willing to go slow enough that when an interruption comes, it's not like someone cutting me off in traffic and then I get furious. No, hey, come on in. You must be having a tough time. Let me help you. If it helps you to interrupt me, let's do that.
Speaker 1:Jesus, on his way to heal Jairus' daughter, what happens? Some of you know this story A woman who had been bleeding for years comes up and touches the hem of his garment, and Jesus could have just let her be healed and move on. But he stops. And what does he do? I think at the cost of making Jairus wait, whose daughter is dying. He stops everyone and says who touched me Another time? Jesus is grieving the loss His cousin had been. John the Baptist was beheaded.
Speaker 1:Jesus is grieving, so Jesus leaves the crowd, gets in the boat, goes to the other shore to get away from the crowd. And what do they do. They all followed him. If there ever was a reason for someone to say you know what? I just need a minute. Can you just give me five minutes to deal with my own stuff here? And yet Jesus shows us the example of someone who's willing to be interrupted. And when the crowd follows him, what do we get? In Jesus' grief, he feeds 5,000 people. Grief, he feeds 5,000 people.
Speaker 1:Curiosity stares, but kindness stops. You cannot schedule kindness. You can't set up your schedule and say, hey, I've got to go to work today, then I've got to do this, then I've got to do this, I've got to drop the kids off, I've got to get here, and then, you know, between 7.15 and 7.45, I'll figure out how to be kind to someone. That's not how it works and I can promise you this. Everybody. Just pause for a second. This happens every week.
Speaker 1:If I preach on something, if we read the word, we open it up and we get into context. We start figuring out what God's going to work on us this week. And then, without fail, you come back and tell me Pastor John, you'll have no idea, you preached on Sunday and then this happened the Lord's going to send some painful people into your life and some of you are saying, please, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn't sign up for that. Let me stop you right there. This is enough. Can Let me stop you right there. This is enough. Can I say that God's going to test us? You'll be tested on this. There will be a test on kindness, on whether or not you're willing to be interrupted, whether or not you're willing to slow down, whether or not you see the person and feel what they have to share the pain that they're carrying, and what are you going to do about it? Amen.
Speaker 1:The last part is this. Number four I must spend whatever it takes. There is a cost. There is a cost to kindness and in the test that you're going to have this week, god's going to allow some painful people to come into your life, or maybe just someone painful. Maybe you already know them, maybe you don't know them, maybe it's a stranger. It's going to cost you something. Maybe it'll cost you time. Maybe it'll cost you money, energy, your attention. It may require that you don't do something else you already had scheduled so you can say, hey, I got an hour, let's talk. It might cost you your reputation. Think about the Samaritan. I can't be seen with this guy. Think about the Samaritan. I can't be seen with this guy. What about Jesus? Jesus was always helping people that were hurting his reputation. Can you believe that Jesus was with tax collectors? Can you believe that Jesus talked to the prostitute? Can you believe that Jesus touched a leper? I'm not going to be around him, no more. The interruptions that are going to come this week or this month, they're going to cost us something, and the truth is that we have to be willing to pay that cost.
Speaker 1:I want to read this last passage for the Good Samaritan, in verse 36. It says then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him Take care of this man. If the bill runs higher than this, I'll pay next time I'm here. And then he asks the religious guy who started the conversation in the first place what do you think? Which of these three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers? And then his response was the one who treated him kindly and Jesus said go and do the same. I don't think there's a story that describes kindness better than this one. I don't think there's a story that better tells us where the line is and who is our neighbor and what it's going to cost us to follow Jesus. So if you're looking for a loophole today, trying to figure out, well, who do I have to actually love and who can I like and who can I actually spend time with, there's not a loophole.
Speaker 1:We need to be kind, even in the face of darkness, even in the face of ugliness and hatred and bitterness, and we need to be able to say I want to be a reflection of Jesus. Even if it hurts me, even if it costs me everything, I'm going to be who he made me to be and watch what happens. Everything that it costs you, he'll pay you back. I'll prove it. Proverbs, chapter 19, verse 17, says being kind to people in need is like lending to the Lord and he will repay you. Everybody say he will repay you for the kindness you have shown. Imagine having God owing you for being kind. Well, they treated me like garbage. I can still be kind because God will pay me back.
Speaker 1:Would you stand up on your feet today? We're going to close and I want you to think about. Imagine what it looks like what it costs you to become the kind of person that produces the fruit of kindness every day, all day. That I'm choosing to have the right kind of attitude, the right mindset. That when I see a problem, that I allow compassion to live in me to the point that I do something about it and I don't make them pay for it. I pay for it. We're going to worship for just a moment and then we're going to come back and pray, but I want you to align yourself with the heart of God as it relates to the fruit of the Spirit in your life. Let's worship for just a moment and I will make room for you.
Speaker 2:To do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to, and I will make room for you To do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Jesus, oh Jesus, oh Jesus, shake up the world of all my traditions. Break down the walls of all my religion. Your way is better. Your way is better. Your will is better. Shake up the ground Before my tradition. Break down the walls Before my religion. Your will is better, your will is better. Shake us to ground Before my tradition. Break down the wall Before my religion. Your grace is better, your grace is better. Shake us to ground Before my tradition. Break down the wall Before my religion. It's over. It's bad. It's over. It's bad. There's only one thing For you, lord To do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to, To do whatever you want to, and I will make room for you To do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to do.
Speaker 1:As we close today, I want to take this time for us to align ourselves. All of the fruit requires that we let go of the things that we're connected to in this world and we connect to the true vine, and that's Him. The only way that we can produce his fruit is that we remain in him. So, as we get ready to close, I would just ask you I'm not going to embarrass anyone or call you forward let's surrender our hearts, our minds, our lives. It takes letting go of who I think I am and letting him mold me and make me and breathe into me and put the things that need to be into me, but it means that I trust him enough to surrender my life to him. So I want us to say a prayer of surrender. But also is this if you have never begun a relationship with your heavenly father, who loves you more than anything and paid the ultimate price for us, if you've never surrendered your life to him for the first time and begun a walk of faith? The thing is, he wants to take you on a spiritual journey and, sure, when this life is over, that journey continues in heaven. But he wants to walk with you through life and lead you and guide you as a good shepherd, but the only way that works is that your life is in alignment with him and you begin to follow him. And it starts with a simple prayer of faith and commitment and surrender today.
Speaker 1:So, if that's you today, anywhere in the room or watching online, I would invite you to say this prayer with me. Let's all say it together. Would you just bow your head and close your eyes? Would invite you to say this prayer with me. Let's all say it together. Would you just bow your head and close your eyes? Would you say these words God, today I give you my life. I no longer want to live my way, but I want to live your way.
Speaker 1:So forgive me of my sin, breathe new life into me. Breathe new life and from this moment forward, I will follow you wherever you lead In Jesus' name. Amen, Amen. Let's put our hands together and welcome everybody who says that prayer. I love you guys and I'm proud of you for saying that prayer. I'm so much looking forward to the rest of this series as we get into it and small groups this week. If you would like to pray with a prayer team member, I'm gonna invite them forward up in the front right now, otherwise you guys are dismissed. In Jesus' name, and we'll see you next week.