Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Okay. I think this is session five. I think we're five, four. Five. I think we're at five.
[00:00:07] So hopefully for those who have come, you kind of get the idea. We're working through the fruit of the spirit, and we're saying fruit as a singular fruit, the spirit brings about those things in our life. So it's not nine individual fruits that we're sitting here looking at. It's actually one fruit that we're getting to analyze and look at and see all the different beautiful facets of it. And this morning, we're talking about kindness.
[00:00:29] So in my prep, I just kind of wanted to try to give a bit of a survey from what does the world believe kindness to be?
[00:00:39] This was an incredibly hard one to find some sort of singular definition or a common theme for what the world believes kindness to be. So I'm actually curious. Yalls thoughts. I'm putting you on the spot here.
[00:00:54] If I were to ask you, what are some aspects or what are some values that the world has when they think about kindness? Like when the world says to be kind, what are some of the things. What are some of the aspects that you think they're wanting to elicit or to bring about? Not rhetorical.
[00:01:12] Right. Don't want to hurt somebody's feelings. Yeah. Very, very much geared around. Yep. No conflict. Geared around happiness and feelings. Right.
[00:01:21] Yeah, that's good. What else?
[00:01:25] Warm and fuzzy. Yeah, warm and fuzzy. And not a. Not a. Not a warmth in terms of a tenderness, but like this kind of.
[00:01:33] Yeah, it kind of feels. It feels into, like a deeper happiness almost. Yeah, that's good. Warm and fuzzy. I like that. What else?
[00:01:42] Affirmation. How so?
[00:01:45] What would be kind for me to do to someone is to affirm, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's. They have some. Some value, something that they've held to. And kindness is not only for you to permit, but to say, like, yes, I agree. And affirm. Yeah, no, that's absolutely right.
[00:02:00] Other thoughts?
[00:02:03] Yeah. Politeness. Yeah, Just being. And it's. It's funny because, like, the.
[00:02:10] There is a interview that I watched.
[00:02:13] I was in a deep rabbit hole. I don't know if you all tuned into this, but Lady Gaga did an interview with the Dalai Lama.
[00:02:20] Which two names, back to back. Lady Gaga, Dalai Lama. Just fun to say, but they did an interview where they talked about kindness and tried to define kindness. They used some of the same things we've been talking about, politeness and whatnot. They talked for a good three, four, five minutes trying to define it, and they never actually got to the definition they got to.
[00:02:41] It's for everybody. It is to be something that we all aspire to. It shouldn't be that hard. It's easy. They never actually defined what kindness was. And I think they probably struggle because to define something is then to, by some sort of means, say that it is not something which goes against somebody's definition of kindness. And so they kind of take a step back and we have a world that actually doesn't know what kindness is.
[00:03:10] And. Or we have 8 billion definitions of kindness, right, where everybody has their own way in which they're there to receive kindness. And so gratefully we get to come into this world with a good definition and example of kindness. And so my hope is that we have a better idea of what that is and also that we leave here marveling at our Lord and Savior for the kindness that he exemplified in his life. So let me suggest then a definition of kindness that I want to work through. So this is kindness, the warm and compassionate disposition of the heart that seeks another's good.
[00:03:51] The warm and compassionate disposition of the heart that seeks another's good. And I'm intentional to use good and not happiness there for that very reason to where if happiness is very subjective, if I, for instance, my daughter, my 3 year old would love nothing more than to watch a TV show for 12 hours a day, right? That would make her happy. But is that for her good? No. So showing kindness, showing compassion for another's good gives us a category to be able to say no and to be able to disagree because we believe it is for your good, right, and not for your happiness. I think that's a big difference between the way that we would view and define or kindness and how the world would is that it's for our good, not necessarily for our happiness. Does that make sense?
[00:04:36] And again, we're going to work through the life of Christ this morning as we look at the examples at which he showed Christ, which He showed kindness. And to be incredibly frank, we could sit here all day and look at stories of Christ and his kindness. You could blindfold yourself, throw a dart at the gospel, and you will hit a story at which Jesus is exemplifying kindness. And so it did feel a bit hard to try to find two or three stories to land on. So know that this is not an all encompassing list of Christ's kindness, but I just think there's three that we want to, that we want to sit on. And I do want to open this quote as we're thinking About Christ's kindness. This is Jonathan Cruz, who writes this book. He says this about Jesus Christ's kindness. He says Jesus Christ's kindness is seen in his compassionate engagement with the weak, the outcast, and the undeserving. His kindness is active and purposeful, drawing people towards repentance and restoration.
[00:05:32] Now, there's a lot there to unpack.
[00:05:35] You have an engagement with the weak, the outcast, the undeserving.
[00:05:40] So even in his life, there are folks that might not deserve kindness and yet he still extends it. Yes, and amen. Thank you for that. Because we do not deserve kindness, and yet we were extended kindness from our Lord.
[00:05:52] I also love where he describes his kindness as active and purposeful, that it's not just some warm, fuzzy action with no intended purpose, but it's active, an active kindness, one that's looking to dole out compassion and kindness. And then it moves towards a goal, right? It moves towards something, towards what we would say and affirm is our ultimate good, restoration and repentance. Right?
[00:06:24] Now, I will say before we jump into the stories, before we look at Christ's life, kindness is probably.
[00:06:30] Is probably of the. Of the fruit of the Spirit that we're walking through. Kindness is probably the easiest one for us to feel the temptation to just take and go do right where we want to understand what the life of Christ, how we exemplify kindness, and then we just want to go put it into action.
[00:06:47] But remember, one of the aspects of this class that we're wanting to kind of press pause on is we want to sit with the life of Christ and how he exemplified it. This is not a okay, now go and do class. This is a behold at what he has done class and let that then well up in us. The Spirit produced fruit of kindness. So let's then jump in the way that I'm going to break it down this morning. Very simple. We will spend a majority of our time looking at the life of Christ. The section that I'm going to call Knowing Kindness, Knowing kindness. And then we'll move to a little bit of the model or kind of some aspects of kindness that we see in the real life. And I'm calling that showing kindness. So Knowing kindness, showing kindness, Titus 3, 4 5.
[00:07:40] It says, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. One of the phrases that Jonathan Cruz keeps bringing up in the book is that Jesus kindness appeared.
[00:07:56] I think that's so simple and so encouraging. It's kindness in flesh, the physical manifestation of kindness. And so everything that we're going to be talking about this morning, I think, builds to this point. This, that kindness appeared, and he saved us according to his mercy.
[00:08:14] Kindness appeared, and he saved us according to his mercy.
[00:08:19] And so I've got three aspects that I want to look at in the life of Christ as he's engaging with people in his life, displaying kindness.
[00:08:30] And we're going to look at in Matthew 14, Matthew 8, and Luke 23, Jesus kindly feeding, Jesus kindly healing, and Jesus kindly forgiving.
[00:08:41] Feeding, healing, forgiving. And again, as we're walking through this, we ought to just sit and just marvel at the kindness of our. Of our Lord and Savior.
[00:08:53] So turn with me then Matthew 14, 1321, Matthew 14, 1321, and I'll put it on the screen.
[00:09:05] Okay? It reads this.
[00:09:07] Now, when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. And when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, and he healed their sick.
[00:09:21] Now, when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, this is a desolate place, and the day is now over. Send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.
[00:09:30] But Jesus said, they need not go away. You give them something to eat. And they said to him, we only have five loaves and two fish here. And he said, bring them here to me.
[00:09:39] And then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. And then he broke the loaves and he gave them to the disciples. And the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and they were satisfied. And they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces left over.
[00:09:57] And those who ate were about 5,000 men, besides women and children.
[00:10:03] So a familiar story, Jesus feeding the 5,000.
[00:10:06] A little bit of context here would be helpful.
[00:10:09] So in Matthew 12, Jesus is performing miracles, and his power to perform these miracles is attributed to Satan. There's a growing opposition from Pharisees and his enemies in terms of their persecution and their accusations of him. So in chapter 12, he's accused of operating by the power of Satan. In Matthew 13, it's a lot of parables, but you'll remember at the end, Jesus goes back to his hometown and he's actually rejected at his hometown.
[00:10:40] And then in Matthew 14, this is this intensified persecution of Herod So you have this growing opposition and persecution of Christ. And so that's when we jump into verse 13 and it says, and it says, now, when Jesus had heard this, he withdrew there from a boat. So Jesus is wanting to withdraw to be with the Father, to rest and to contemplate what his next move in ministry is. You see this in Jesus's life all the time, right? Where there is this pattern of withdrawing to be with the Father, to deepen fellowship with the Father, and then contemplate what's next. So, and again, you have your hometown, you have the political powers of the day, you have the spiritual powers of the day, all converging and all seeking to persecute Christ. So he's wanting to. He's obviously exhausted from. He's exhausted from ministry. And so he wants to pull back to be with the Father. But what does it say that the people do? The people what, they just keep coming, they chase after him and they want to be with Him.
[00:11:44] Now, I wonder if you all have felt this at some point in your life.
[00:11:49] I'm in a stage where I have three kids under the age of five. I feel this every day, right? Where I do not want for the 10th time, my daughter to come out of the door and ask me for a cup of water. It's nine o', clock, baby, we gotta go to bed, right? I don't have compassion in that moment to continue to meet my daughter.
[00:12:08] When I'm frustrated, I'm tired, to be honest. I've got other things I want to do. And I think oftentimes it's our plans and our purposes and our schedule that takes priority over other people. And what Jesus does is he reverses that. He actually steps and sacrifices the time that he was going to take with the Father to then meet the people and their needs. Isn't that beautiful?
[00:12:32] He has compassion. That's the. That's the verb, or that's the word. He has compassion. He. Even when he was weary, he has never stopped caring for his sheep.
[00:12:41] And his compassion didn't just stay some feeling. He didn't say, oh, I'm sorry, no, he moved to action.
[00:12:49] He heals their sick and he feeds them. And he does provide. You know, he provides physically, right? So he provides their healing for some of their sick, and then he multiplies the bread and the fish and he feeds the 5,000. But I do think that there's actually a greater message here in the feeding of the 5,000 because, yes, he took care of their physical need for being fed, but they probably have been maybe five, six, seven hours without food. Like, they go to him in the kind of midday afternoon, and then it says it's evening and they haven't eaten. So it's not like they are starving. It's not like later on where Jesus feeds the 4000. Later on in Matthew, and it says that they were with him for three days and you'll remember he was like, I don't want to send them away for they might faint. Right. That would be more of a miracle because they actually need food or they are going to physically pass out.
[00:13:40] But in this instance, there's, I think, a couple of reasons for the miracle, but I think what he's getting at is actually a pretext for a future sermon. Does anybody know curious Bible trivia here. After the feeding of the 5,000, what's the next sermon Jesus gives?
[00:14:05] Not the Beatitudes.
[00:14:06] So he feeds the 5,000 and then puts the disciples in the boat, sends them on their way. Storm walks on water, Peter. Right, that whole scene. They get to the other side, that same crowd that feeds that he's fed goes and follows them. And then John 6, I am what? The bread of life.
[00:14:27] So the people that he just fed, feeding the 5,000, now hear this. That I am the bread of life.
[00:14:33] The message that Jesus is saying is not only do I satisfy your physical need, I satisfy your spiritual need as well. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
[00:14:45] And so, yeah, he's saying in his compassion and in his kindness, he's not only wanting to satisfy faith, physical needs. And I would even say that there's probably some of the Pharisees would, would attribute his miracle of feeding the 5,000 similar to Moses. It's like, oh, well, Moses was a part of that back in the Old Testament, so big deal. But what Jesus follows up with was, not only will I satisfy your physical needs, I satisfy your spiritual needs as well.
[00:15:11] Again, his compassion sought our ultimate good salvation from sin.
[00:15:17] And so that's Jesus kindly feeding again, not only taking care of, having a disposition to take care of our physical needs, but also our spiritual need as well.
[00:15:27] And so then that comes to our second one. So that's kindly feeding this one. Next one is kindly healing Jesus. Kindly healing.
[00:15:35] And we come to a story in Matthew 8, Matthew 8:1:4. Again, one that might be familiar to you. And it says, when he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him, and behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, lord, if you will, you can make me Clean. And Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and saying, I will be clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, see that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priests and offer the gift that Moses commanded for proof to them.
[00:16:08] So, as you know, I'm sure, as you're familiar, leprosy is a common disease that's called out in the. In the Old Testament, in the ancient world. It's vary. It's on the periphery of your skin, rashes and boils, and there's no cure. And it actually, like, can slowly kill off parts of the body to where you're having to amputate legs and arms and things like that kind of. It kind of decays parts of your body to the point where you would just die. It was a death sentence, a slow death sentence.
[00:16:38] And while it was physically debilitating, it was also isolating. So while it was physically debilitating, it was also an isolating disease. They were not. No one was to be in touch or in contact with people with leprosy. In fact, whenever they were to kind of be in the city or be in the crowds and going through, they were to be shouting, unclean, unclean. So that way people would know that they needed to get away. So they're defiled, in a sense. They're separated from people. And they're also not, because of their impurity, they can't go into the temple. I can't be, you know, worshiping the Lord. So there's also this separation from God.
[00:17:13] And I was, as I was studying, I don't know if it had ever, like, occurred to me this clearly, but leprosy is probably one of the greatest illustrations of our sin and our spiritual condition before the Lord defiled. Nothing we can do on our own to get rid of it just slowly decays. It's isolating. It causes isolation between others, causes isolation between us and the Lord, and ultimately, if left unaddressed, will kill you.
[00:17:42] So anyway, that was something that came to my mind as I was studying. I was like, man, I don't know if I've ever put those two things together so clearly. But what we see is Jesus, meet the man, meet the leper, right? So what does he do?
[00:17:56] So the leper comes to him and claims, lord, if you will, you can make me clean. So he calls out, the leper, calls out to Jesus. And Jesus does two things. The first thing that Jesus does is he draws near. He draws near.
[00:18:11] His compassion does not cause him to avoid. I'M sure everybody else in that instance is running the opposite way. Don't make eye contact. Just go. Just don't look, ignore, go the opposite way. Jesus doesn't do that. He does the opposite. He engages.
[00:18:27] And you got to think for a second about the life of that leper, the life of that man who has spent.
[00:18:35] The text doesn't say. I don't think the text says how long, but of isolation, of no interaction with anybody else but his own kind, no love and tenderness. And you've got a man, Jesus, who actually meets him and engages him.
[00:18:54] We're reminded, right, as Jesus draws near that kindness, as we're thinking about kindness, we're thinking about the kindness that Christ exemplified. Kindness does not discriminate.
[00:19:04] Kindness does not discriminate. It pursues the one in need.
[00:19:08] While most would cross the street to avoid the leper, Jesus would cross the street to meet him.
[00:19:15] And it's not easy. Kindness is not easy. I saw. That's probably one of the things that I saw in my survey of the world's definition of kindness that was one of the top things that kept coming up was like, it's easy. Just do it, friends. Kindness is not easy.
[00:19:32] I don't know about you. My heart is not just one big kindness factory that just keeps cranking it out. Like I need one of those random acts of kindness weeks to have it on the forefront of my mind.
[00:19:43] My heart does not gravitate towards that. And I mean, Paul would agree. Romans 3, right?
[00:19:49] I think I have it. Yeah. This is Paul. He makes it very clear. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All right, we get it, Paul. All have turned aside together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one.
[00:20:04] My heart isn't a big idol or, I mean, sorry, my heart is. My heart isn't a big kindness factory. It's not even a little kindness factory.
[00:20:14] There's nothing that I do. It is not easy. It is any kind act that I'm able to produce is solely because of the Spirit's work on my heart.
[00:20:22] That's it.
[00:20:25] And ultimately, the leper is healed in the story, and we do get a glimpse of the power of the Gospel. This is what Jonathan Cruz, in the book, he says this, speaking of this interaction, he said no contact would compromise his holiness and purity.
[00:20:41] In fact, it's quite the opposite. Because, see, in that pause, in that time, if you make contact with the leper, then it was understood that you would then become unclean. But when Jesus does it, when Perfect holiness touches. It's actually the opposite. To come into contact with the living God is to be consumed with his holiness.
[00:21:01] Do you see the tie to our own spiritual condition? Christ cleanses us and then imputes his righteousness to us.
[00:21:09] Not for anything that we did, but because it was the kindness of our God that purposed to save us. 2nd Corinthians 5:21. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, that in him we might become what the righteousness of God.
[00:21:25] So in the example where we kind of have the spiritual leprosy, when Christ comes into our life and, and we place our faith and hope in him, we are actually made right. We are made righteous. We are imputed with his righteousness, credited with everything that he has done right, forgiven of everything that he has done wrong. What a God, what a Savior to do that.
[00:21:49] Secondly, Christ doesn't just heal him, but it actually says that he desired to heal him. The leper's ask, right, is if you are willing. The leper never really questioned Christ's power, but he questioned Christ's willingness to do it. And Christ affirms in the esv it says I will. I think there's some other translations that say that better. Translates Christ's response is I am willing. That's a massive statement that I am willing. Christ doesn't heal him out of obligation like it's some checklist for his day. It's like, I gotta heal a leper, then I gotta go turn water and wine, right? That doesn't exist. It's because he wants to. There's. There's a genuine desire to heal the man.
[00:22:32] Cruz would say, the author would say that real spirit prompted kindness desires the welfare of others.
[00:22:41] We cannot fake kind or sorry. We can fake kind actions, but we cannot fake a kind heart.
[00:22:48] We can fake kind actions, but we cannot fake a kind heart.
[00:22:52] So this spirit produced kindness is not having to be drug to the to the situation to show kindness. Spirit produced kindness volunteers that it wants to be there. It runs to the opportunity to show kindness.
[00:23:12] And so that's what we see in Jesus kindly healing the man with leprosy.
[00:23:19] And then the third scene that I want to analyze is we're talking about knowing kindness. When we're talking about knowing kindness, showing kindness, this is still talking through the knowing kindness. And this is our last scene that we're going to look at with Christ. And this is Luke 23:34. Luke 23:34.
[00:23:35] Jesus is on the cross, has endured the worst injustice, sheer hatred Unfathomable violence and flogging and beating, beating, whipped. He's been jeered. Crown of thorns, all of it.
[00:23:52] And he's in the middle of the execution on the cross.
[00:23:56] Pain unimaginable.
[00:23:59] Luke 23:34. Jesus looks and said, father, what?
[00:24:03] Forgive them, for they do not know what they do.
[00:24:07] They know not what they do.
[00:24:09] So we have kindly feeding, kindly healing, healing. And then in Luke 23:34, we see Jesus kindly forgiving.
[00:24:17] Kindly forgiving. I do think this. This prayer is one of the greatest manifestations, I think, of the fruit of kindness, the desire of our Savior to save sinners by offering free forgiveness and restoration of those who have sinned against them, of those who are actively putting him to death.
[00:24:38] And what is his desire? Father, forgive them.
[00:24:42] Could you imagine the amount of.
[00:24:47] You cannot sum up all of the wrong that has been done to me in my life to even come close to the wrong that was done to Jesus. And yet with such little wrongs that happen. I do not want that person. I want ill will on the person that has cut me off in traffic. Right? I want evil to the person that has lied to me. Oh, how small that is to what Christ faced. And yet Christ's response is, father, forgive him.
[00:25:12] It's convicting.
[00:25:15] And he does this. He stays. He's on the cross. He's dying for our sins, knowing full well the evil that we would still commit. Right, Romans, while we are still sinners, Christ died for us.
[00:25:28] In the book Jonathan Cruz, he calls out a sermon that he was marked, a sermon by Ligon Duncan that marked him. And what Dr. Duncan was talking about in his sermon was he was discussing the. The. The vile acts of the heart that if all of us were to openly lay out all of the sin that we've committed in the last week, we would be humiliated.
[00:25:54] And what does.
[00:25:55] This is what he says. He says, and I want you to know. And this is in his sermon, and I want you to know that those sins about which you are most humiliated, about which you are most embarrassed, about which you greatly fear anyone knowing if you trust in Christ, God has laid those on your Savior.
[00:26:12] He has borne what you deserve so that you may not receive what he deserves.
[00:26:18] He has borne what you deserve, that you may receive what he deserves.
[00:26:25] That ought to encourage us. And also some of the greatest acts of kindness that we can show is fully forgiving and restoring others who have done us wrong.
[00:26:37] And yes, in the moment, those are very hard.
[00:26:40] Those are very hard. That's not an easy thing to do.
[00:26:43] But because of the forgiveness that we have been shown by God in the picture of Christ on the cross, we can offer forgiveness to those who have done us wrong.
[00:26:54] Paul encourages us. Ephesians 4, right? Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
[00:27:06] So that's again, we could have spent another.
[00:27:10] We could have spent the rest of the day walking through other stories of where Christ is exemplifying kindness in the way that he interacts and treats people in. In the Gospels, right? We just covered three of them.
[00:27:23] But hopefully it gives us a really good picture of Jesus our shepherd, and the way that he's taking care of and leading and guiding and being kind to his sheep, the way that he feeds and heals and forgives.
[00:27:36] So again, that's knowing kindness. So we're going to talk about showing kindness. And again, as a reminder, I don't want us to feel like we're putting our hands in the middle and be like, okay, everybody, everybody, more kindness. One, two, three, go. That's not what we're doing. Okay? Kindness doesn't start with trying harder. It starts with looking longer at Christ.
[00:27:55] Kindness does not start with trying harder. It starts with looking longer at Christ.
[00:28:00] So we must reflect and meditate and draw out maybe some other aspects of kindness. Some other marks of spirit produced kindness in our hearts. And we marvel and we meditate on those and let that be the fuel to obey Christ.
[00:28:18] So a couple of marks or aspects of kindness in our life.
[00:28:24] One is that kindness has no bounds. Kindness has no bounds because we've already talked about this a little bit. But because we have been shown kindness to the greatest degree, we can extend kindness to a lesser degree because we have been shown kindness to the greatest degree. In fact, there's any degree we can show kindness to someone else.
[00:28:46] It also does not discriminate. Not only does this kindness not have any bounds in terms of amount, but it also in terms of scope, it does not discriminate.
[00:28:56] Jesus displays showing kindness to the weak, the lowly, and the outcast, even when they don't deserve it.
[00:29:02] And again, we ought to be encouraged because if kindness was only for those who deserved it, we would have never received kindness from our God and Father because we did not deserve it.
[00:29:14] Secondly, kindness is unconditional.
[00:29:17] Kindness is unconditional. It keeps no record of wrongs, no ledger. It's a genuine, pure response from a heart that knows how much kindness it has received from Christ. Christ, Luke 6:35 says this, says, but love your enemies and do Good and lend, 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 the evil.
[00:29:49] Again, I think I mentioned this two weeks ago. But there ought to be a desire for us to build in rhythms in our. In our daily lives to remember God's faithfulness and kindness towards us. We are a forgetful people. I am a forgetful person.
[00:30:05] And to the extent that I can remember, Christ's love and kindness for me probably will help in those moments where I don't want to extend kindness to my neighbor or to those who have done me wrong, or to my child. At 9pm for the 10th time, number three. So kindness has no bounds. Kindness is unconditional. Kindness also seeks the good. And I put good and happiness of others. And again, I want to be careful here that this is not the end goal. Happiness is not the end goal, so it seeks the good and happiness of others. We ought to be thinking about the people that we are wanting to extend kindness towards and kind of weighing and thinking through what is good for them and how might we instill in them happiness without compromising any sort of moral command or without being good.
[00:30:55] And the first part, it seeks the good. So I think it.
[00:31:00] There's two parts to this. It seeks, kindness pursues. It doesn't wait for opportunity, it goes looking for opportunity. It's got an antenna up as we are working, going through about our day. Where might I be able to show kindness in my life, ready to move towards people like Christ moved towards the leper?
[00:31:19] And also, kindness is not manipulative.
[00:31:22] Kindness does not. We, we, we don't extend kindness in order to get something back or something in return. There is no ulterior motive in kindness.
[00:31:31] Jesus does not heal the leper and then expect the leper to do something for him.
[00:31:36] No, no, no. Kindness has no. It's no ulterior motive besides seeking the good of another. That's it. It's seeking the good of another. That's the motive of kindness.
[00:31:47] And then lastly, again, kindness has no bounds. Kindness is unconditional. Kindness seeks the good and happiness of others.
[00:31:55] And then lastly, kindness compels action.
[00:31:58] Kindness compels action. I think kindness and goodness are kind of inextricably linked almost in that sense.
[00:32:07] While kindness starts first in the heart, it does not end there.
[00:32:12] It doesn't. We can feel, kind of feel compassion for someone, but kindness expects that compassion to take some sort of action.
[00:32:21] And as I was thinking through the best way to exemplify this. I know we talked about there were several instances in Christ's life where we saw him compelled to action, right? Whether it was feeding and healing the sick and the feeding the 5,000 and healing the sick, moving to the leper, praying to the Lord to forgive those who have been persecuting him. But I wanted to think and find an example in today's day and age of an example of where kindness was on display, where there was no bounds, where it was unconditional, where it sought the good of others. And so what time is it? Oh, we're great. What I'm going to do is I'm going to read. I'm going to read this story and then I'll have a couple of closing comments and then I'll send us in our groups kind of talk through a discussion. But I have an email that I would like to read from a. What I'm about to say is going to sound like I'm filling out a mad lib. Hang on.
[00:33:17] It is an email from a helicopter pilot who was doing rescue operations during Hurricane Katrina. So you'll remember 2005, devastating hurricane in the Gulf, New Orleans, underwater.
[00:33:31] I mean, homes, cities destroyed, families there's horrible.
[00:33:37] And this helicopter pilot was called in by the CEO of a company, a telecom company named Altel. Anybody remember Altel? Arkansas Company.
[00:33:49] Anyway, there's a business that was founded in Arkansas by a guy named Joe and his son Scott runs it. And this is the interaction that the helicopter pilot has with the company, with Scott, and wanting to take care of the people that are in the Gulf. Okay, so again, what I want you to just listen for as I'm reading, is the kindness exemplified in that there are no bounds, is unconditional, and seeks the good of others. Okay, so this is the email from the helicopter pilot.
[00:34:22] In 2005, Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans. Within days of the crisis, we had deployed helicopter resources from as far away as Pennsylvania to support clients in assessing damage to cell towers, facilities, pipelines, and much more. But there was one experience that changed my life forever.
[00:34:41] I received a call from the office of Scott, former CEO of Altel, and I was given instructions to locate a helicopter and to meet his team in Little Rock by the following morning. When I asked what our mission would be, the response was simple. We'll tell you when you get here.
[00:34:55] Upon arriving in Little Rock, I was surprised to find the focus was not on saving the company's physical resources, but on saving its people.
[00:35:03] The company had a large number of families who were affected or stranded due to the hurricane.
[00:35:09] And Mr. Scott had issued a challenge to the rest of the company only hours before our arrival.
[00:35:15] His senior leadership was given the authorization to go to any lengths to find, secure and transport, if necessary, employees and their families out of harm's way. I watched in amazement as host families in Little Rock gathered supplies in anticipation of arriving co workers, as apartments were secured in anticipation of housing needs, and as company assets were put into action to help those in need.
[00:35:40] My pilot and I were instructed to fly to an airport just outside of New Orleans and to wait for further direction. Our first mission was to assist a family in Gulfport, Mississippi. Although their house was intact, they had only enough baby formula for three more days. Within hours, a private jet arrived carrying a single box containing 10 pounds of baby formula. It would require the remainder of that afternoon and the next morning for us to find their home among the debris field. But by Sunday morning, the mission was accomplished.
[00:36:09] Later that morning, we received a text with our final set of instructions, and it went something like this. We have secured all of our families with the exception of one man. It's going to get me.
[00:36:20] They were hoisted out of an apartment in downtown New Orleans last night and are now stranded at the New Orleans International Airport. Transport them out to a waiting aircraft and head back to Little Rock. The problem was that the New Orleans International Airport was like a war zone. Not only would we have to get clearance to get through the restricted airspace surrounding downtown, the airport was military and medical operation only. Our civilian helicopter would not be allowed to land. Planning for the worst and being prepared to raft in if necessary, we loaded our gear and we headed out.
[00:36:49] After entering the busy airspace, our pilot was denied clearance into the New Orleans International Airport. We asked for clearance to land in a nearby airport that was currently underwater. Looking out my window, I could see the steady stream of military helicopters ferrying scared and battered residents in what had now become the largest helicopter rescue efforts in U.S. history.
[00:37:10] In one final and fleeting request, our pilot asked permission for clearance into the airport. And somehow, to our surprise, in the busyness of the moment, the controller responded. 2175 J, you are cleared for landing.
[00:37:22] After landing, we hiked into the main terminal and we had arrived to find 12amongst the thousands. We finally located our family on the lower level baggage claim area. Scared, hungry, tired, traumatized by all that they had endured. It would take us three consecutive trips, three more clearances, and three more hours until they were loaded on a corporate jet and headed for Little Rock. Mission accomplished.
[00:37:47] Under the direction of Scott the company had rallied for a cause bigger than any individual need.
[00:37:53] All families were accounted for and together with their host, families were gathered as instructed in a hotel ballroom in Little Rock.
[00:38:00] I stood against the wall in the back of the room, my mind reeling from all that I had experienced over the past three days, all while wondering to myself, how did I end up here? What am I here to learn?
[00:38:13] Those questions would soon be answered.
[00:38:16] A hush drew over the crowded room as Scott, the CEO, walked to the front of the crowd to address them. His leadership had marshaled the resources to to bring us all together, and now we would hear from him directly. And his words went something like this.
[00:38:35] We've had to break a few rules over the past three days to get you here, so today I believe I will break one more.
[00:38:42] And with that, he pulled a small Bible from his pocket. He turned to the parable of the lost sheep, and he read from the text, suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.
[00:38:53] Doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country to go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And with that, he addressed the last family that we had rescued and said, you were our lost sheep and we weren't going anywhere until we got you home.
[00:39:09] It's a great story and it's a great picture.
[00:39:12] But friends, it is still just a small picture of a much greater shepherd and his love and kindness for us.
[00:39:22] Luke 19:10 Very clearly, the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost Kindness appeared Himself in the flesh, and he saved us according to his mercy. What a God, what a Savior.
[00:39:41] Let me pray for us and then we'll get into our discussion group.
