 Well, hello, Radiant Church. Good to be with you. My name is John Zondervan. And whether you're watching us online in your homes in a watch party or in one of our campuses, we just want to say thank you so much for joining us. It is a huge honor for me to fill the pulpit for Pastor Lee. I have been affectionately, I hope, known as the holiday pastor in times past. And now here we have a holiday. And I guess all things are right in the universe. But honestly, so grateful to be sharing. And this is a standalone message. What that means is it's just kind of a one week message. And then next week, Pastor Lee, as you saw, is gonna begin his disciple series. And we are just really excited about that. I believe it is going to be a shaping message for our church in so many ways. So make sure you take advantage of that. It's gonna be super powerful. But if you brought your Bibles today, I want you to turn to Ephesians chapter four. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, General Electric Power Company. I know I say that all the time. That only means something to people who are in Sunday school. But Ephesians chapter four, I'm gonna read a scripture and then we'll pray and we'll kind of set up what we're gonna talk about today. Ephesians 4 verse 29, I'm gonna say it out of the New King James Version. It says, let no corrupt words proceed from your mouth, but only what is good for edification for the hearers and that it might impart grace to the hearers. And don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption and let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor, evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And then verse 32 says, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven you. Father, in the name of Jesus, we believe that your word is a lamp to our feet. It's a light to our path. You said that the entrance of your word would give light and bring understanding to your people. So we ask, Father, let your word today go forth. Let it be anointed by the Holy Spirit, Father. You said it would accomplish all that you sent it to do and it would not return void. And we stand on that promise in Jesus' name and everyone said, amen. Verse 32, be kind to one another. I don't want you to underline that word kind or circulator, something, cross it out. No, don't do that in your Bibles because we're gonna talk today about kindness. And this scripture in particular is one that I memorized a long time ago out of the New King James Version and I've preached on verse 32 that talks about forgiveness and what that means for us as Christians. But God really brought me recently a few months ago to that word be kind to one another and the idea of kindness. And this happened in the midst of what I can only describe as a massive uptick in hostility. I don't know what other word to use that we're experiencing in our nation and in our world today. And so if you are unaware of that, you must have been locked in an Ikea store for the last six months or something like that and you just got out concentrating. But we're experiencing right now and again, I'm only 46 years young, but in my lifetime, more division, more anger, outrage, hostility and really hate amongst ourselves as people than I can remember at any other time in American history personally. And so I'm just grieved by that if I can just be honest and I just prayed into that. And God, what does it look like for your people to be part of the solution, part of the healing of the wounds that are happening in our nation? And what is our role? And God kept bringing me back to this idea of being kind and of kindness and of what that means for us as Christians today. So I called my message radical kindness because first of all, radical means that it's very different from the usual or the ordinary. And so I wanted to throw that in there because I feel like the reason kindness is kind of overlooked or is minimized is because we don't really think it's a big deal. Like again, I get that it's a fruit of the spirit but let's be honest, it's kind of a weak one. It's like, all right, kindness. And what we've done and what I want to try to kind of shift our paradigm and our view of kindness from is the idea of niceness. Raise your hand if you're nice. Okay, most of us, there's a few in the back there. Okay, so niceness is not a bad thing and it's good to be nice but niceness is not the same thing as kindness but in many ways, especially in our culture, we've done that, we've kind of dumbed down kindness to mean, oh, I'm just gonna be nice and I'm just gonna be courteous and I'm just gonna be not mean to people. And if you're not mean, you're automatically kind. And that's not what biblical kindness looks like. And so I want to kind of erase your memory of what kindness is and reinstall what biblical kindness looks like. Because again, niceness is honestly, let's be honest, it's cosmetic, sometimes it's fake, sometimes it's shallow, sometimes we don't really mean it. How many of you have said nice to see you to someone that you weren't that glad you saw, right? Okay, there's a few honest people in the room. We do that, why? Because that's better than saying, oh, not nice to see you, you jerk. I mean, it's just easier to be nice but that isn't the same thing as being kind. So I'm trying to think of how I'm going to explain this. And in some ways I blame Blockbuster for ruining what kindness means. I think we have a picture that they can put up. How many of you remember this? Not that, that's still me, this picture. Do you remember that? Raise your hand if you remember that. Okay, anyone under 20 is going, what is that, maybe even 30, I don't know. That is called a VHS tape. And that is what some of us grew up on. And there are people in this world, I know this isn't going to be hard to believe, who were not rewinding their tapes when they would bring them back to Blockbuster. I know of all of the dirty, rotten, scoundrel things that you could do. And so Blockbuster decided, hey, let's have an entire movement of kindness and we'll start with just rewinding videotapes. And so now there are people in the world who would say, you know what? You can think what you want, but I am a kind person because I rewind toy story before I bring it back to Blockbuster. And that's how we think of kindness. Or we think of kindness as just sort of being courteous. Like you hold the door for someone. I held the door for someone at Speedway and it was that awkward distance where I was like, maybe they're too far away. Oh, now I gotta hold the door. Geez, they're really slow. This is taking a long time. And then honestly, I had this thought like, wait, do you still do this in COVID? Maybe this is bad. Maybe I should shut the door. What if I sneeze on this person right as they're gnawing it? And so, but we can think that's nicest or letting someone into traffic. You know, you're on Gold Road. You're trying to pull out of Minards or 600 cars backed up. And someone goes, go ahead, you know? And then you're like, hey, thanks. Thanks for your kindness, sir. Right? I remember I let someone into Gold Road and they didn't even acknowledge that I did it. And I was surprised how angry I became. Like I was indignant. Like I don't need like a beauty pageant like wave on a Fourth of July parade kind of a thing, but like something, you know, like, hey, you know, just even. So in my mind, I just went back in time and I didn't let that person in. And I felt better about my entire day at that point. I was like, this is outrageous. Look at the kindness. I just showed you and you just snubbed it that easily. And we think kindness is trite and it's convenient. And I want to present to you that the answer in my estimation to many of the problems that we're facing in our culture and our society and our world can be answered through kindness, through biblical kindness, because it's different than what we think. And it's different than being nice and it's different than being courteous. And the reason I am so adamant about it is for two reasons. Number one is I believe that God is going to use kindness as a powerful, missional tool in the last days for showing the world the love of Jesus Christ. In a world that is so quick to point the finger, so quick to divide, so quick to take sides, so quick to demean and discourage and call people out for what they believe and it's different than what I believe. I believe radical kindness is going to pave the way for the love of God to impact, especially young people in this generation coming up. Romans two four says it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. It's not God's anger. It's not his iron fist. It's not his hand of justice. It is the kindness of God. And I believe the kindness of God's people is literally going to change the trajectory of the world and of culture today. And the second reason I want to highlight kindness today is I think and I know that it is going to take courage to be kind in this day and age. To have biblical kindness is not going to be easy and it is going to become increasingly more difficult as we have elections coming up and as we have all of the hostility and the division over race and culture and class, all of those things. If you show kindness, compassion, empathy to other people who don't think like you or don't have the same values you have and you try to understand instead of just trying to be understood, you are going to face ridicule and persecution in serious ways because that's not the trajectory of the world. That's not what we do. That's not where we're headed as a culture. It's more you have to be on my side. We're in this together. They're the enemy. They're not right. We are, they're not good. We are, and there's this division. And if you don't take a side or if you try to show compassion or kindness to someone else, it is going to take courage to do that as Christians today. So I believe God's going to use courage in a powerful way or kindness. And I believe God is going to empower us with the courage to be able to do it. And that's why I want to talk about biblical kindness with us today. So if you brought your Bibles, turn to 2 Samuel chapter nine, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 2 Kings, 1 2 Chronicles, I'll give you a moment to find it. And we're going to look at what biblical kindness actually looks like and how it still is so relevant for us today. So I'm going to read the entire chapter so you can follow along. It's going to come up on the screen. In 2 Samuel 9 it says, and David said, is there still anyone left at the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba and they called him to David and the king said to him, are you Ziba? And he said, I am your servant. And the king said, is there not still someone at the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God to him? And Ziba said to the king, there is still a son of Jonathan crippled in his feet. And the king said to him, where is he? And Ziba said to the king, he is in the house of Mekir, the son of Amiel at Lodobar. Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Mekir, the son of Amiel at Lodobar. And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David, fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, Mephibosheth, and he answered, behold, I am your servant. And David said to him, do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan, and I'll restore to you all the land of Saul, your father, and you shall eat at my table always. And he paid homage and he said, what is your servant that you should show regard for a dead dog, such as I? Then the king called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, all that belong to Saul and to all his house I've given to your master's grandson, and you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring him the produce that your master's grandson may have bread to eat. But Mephibosheth shall always eat at my table. Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Then Ziba said to the king, according to all that my Lord, the king commands his servants, so will your servants do. And so Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Micah. And all who lived in Ziba's house became Mephibosheth's servants. So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem and he ate always at the king's table. And he was lame in both feet. I hope that you recognized how many times the word kindness was used in this passage. And I want to give you the biblical definition of kindness. It was opened up by saying what kindness is not, that it's not niceness, it's not trite, it's not courteous, it's something deeper. And the Hebrew word for kindness is the word hessid, C-H-E-S-E-D. And it means this loving kindness, steadfast love, covenant faithfulness. It's used 127 times in the Psalms where God says my hessid, my loving kindness is going to meet you, it's going to surround you, it's going to sustain you. It's not convenient, it's not easy, it's an intentional love, an intentional kindness. You could say, hessid kindness is love in motion. It's love working out what love is in kindness, in hessid kindness. So every time that you read this in 2 Samuel 9 or in the Bible, the word kindness, it's not this weak watered down niceness. It is an intentional steadfast covenant love that God shows his people and his children. And so let me give you a little background here in the story of Mephibosheth. I know these are some crazy names. There's no Daniels and Jakes and Adams in the Bible. It's all Zibbas and Mephibosheth. But raise your hand if you remember David in the Bible. Yes, David and Goliath. Raise your hand if you know that story. Of course you know that story because it is a Sunday school hall of fame, felt board greatness story. Raise your hand if you had felt boards when you were in Sunday school. Come on now, a lot of us. I love it. That's how I learned too. And we all know David and Goliath. We all know some of the insane conquests that David had. But I don't know if there's anyone in scripture who has more mountaintop moments but also more valley moments than David. And so we also know about David and Bathsheba and some decisions that David made that weren't so great. But this story I think is kind of obscure. It doesn't normally show up on the felt boards and your Sunday school teacher didn't probably explain it well. So I wanna give you a little background for this idea of David, King David at the time showing kindness to Mephibosheth. So David is King. He's been ruling and reigning for some time. He's had conquests and he's conquered lands and he's experiencing as is Israel a season of relative peace at this time. So David's not at war. He's not at battle. He's sort of assessing his life and this season that he's in and he has this thought and he says to himself, is there anyone left in the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? So Saul was the first king of Israel. He was not who God wanted. God wanted to be Israel's king but Israel wanted a human king. They wanted a king like all the other nations. So they say we want a king and Saul was tall and he was good looking and he looked like a leader. So they made him king and actually Saul was okay to begin with. He started to become very insecure. He started to fear the people and their opinions and he started to make decisions that were outside of God's will. And so the Bible says God said I am grieved that I made Saul king and I'm going to rise up, raise up another king and it's gonna be that felt board hero, Goliath killer named David. And he's going to be king. Now this should have been very bad news to Saul's son Jonathan because Jonathan would have obviously as Saul's son been next in line for the kingdom and it should have been rightfully his to take but ironically, I mean, they should have been bitter enemies but they had a covenant friendship with each other. One of the most beautiful ones you see in the entire Bible, David and Jonathan were best friends and David loved Jonathan and Jonathan loved David and Jonathan was not bitter or hateful or vengeful because of the reality that David was gonna be king. In fact, it was the exact opposite. However, Saul was not as happy. Saul was upset about it. And if you read the Old Testament, you know that on multiple occasions, Saul tried to kill David. In fact, he spent much of his adult life chasing those Psalms you read where David is like, God, why? Why am I in a cave? Why do you hate me? Is because Saul was trying to kill him for so long of his life. So Saul did not want David to be king but David and Jonathan formed this beautiful friendship where actually Jonathan was protecting David from his father like telling him, you don't go there and this is where he's gonna be. So it's this crazy like dynamic that's happening between them. But it says that Saul, so this is before David was king. Saul who was king and Jonathan went back out to battle with the Philistines and they were killed in battle and so were two other sons of Saul. The Philistines killed them, cut their heads off, put them on the walls of the city, made a spectacle of them. And this was a terrible day for Saul and for Jonathan, obviously. But it could be considered a providential day for David because he was trying to kill him the whole time, Saul was. So David could have been happy about this. But Mephibosheth is the one who bore the brunt of all that happened. And I wanna just unpack this for you. So Saul and Jonathan. Saul is Jonathan's dad. Jonathan is Mephibosheth's dad. They're out battling. They die in battle. Mephibosheth is back at the castle, at the palace in Jerusalem. He's only four years old. He doesn't know anything that's going on. He's just doing what four-year-olds do. He's playing with Legos and learning his Jots and Titles and just trying to do what four-year-olds Hebrew boys do. He doesn't know that his dad and his grandfather have been killed, but they have. And I want you to imagine, you may have had a bad day today, but I am going to go out on a limb and say, it's not as bad as what happened to Mephibosheth. In one day, his father and his grandfather are killed. And obviously that's awful. He's four years old. He's going to grow up without his father. But beyond that, Mephibosheth has lost his inheritance. Everything that would have been his because he was Saul's son is now over. The Philistines will come in. They will take all of the land as conquest that Saul once ruled and Saul once reigned over and they will take it for themselves. So everything, all the security, all the inheritance, all the wealth that would have been Mephibosheth is completely erased on that day. And now little does four-year-old Mephibosheth know that there's a death wish on his life. There's a death warrant on his life because conquering kings come in the Philistines and here's the first thing they do. They kill and destroy every single living family member of the kingdom that they just conquered. They take them all out. Like that's number one priority because they don't want some years down the road, somebody who might have a rightful claim to the throne to rise up, get some army with him and possibly siege their kingdom. So Mephibosheth doesn't know it, but he's wanted. He's going to be killed as everyone else in Saul's family will be, so he loses his father. He loses his inheritance. He has a death wish on him. He's four years old. So news gets back. It gets worse. News gets back to the castle that Saul and Jonathan have been killed and so his nurse or his maid or nanny, whoever's taken care of him in her rush to grab him and grab a few things and get out of there before the Philistines come drops Mephibosheth. And he breaks both of his legs and he's crippled. There's no way to set it. There's no way to heal it. He's incapable of providing for himself. He's incapable of sustaining life. This is not a job or you can just a time or you can just get a job as a telemarketer or like they farmed the land. That's what you did. And if you couldn't walk, if you couldn't sustain yourself you didn't eat, you had nothing. You were considered worthless and your life had no value. And the Bible says that Mephibosheth was hiding in a place called Lodobar. Lo means no and Dabar means pasture. So literally a place with no pasture, a place with no ability for sustainability, nowhere for him to go to take care of himself. And he's hiding out as a crippled boy in a place called Lodobar and 20 years have gone by. So he's 24 years old. He does not know anything other than scraping by for an existence and he's hiding because he knows that David is king now and he knows that if he gets found or if the Philistines have found him or if now David finds him, he's gonna be in big trouble. So he's in hiding and he's crippled. And out of the blue in chapter nine, David says, is there anyone left of the house of Saul that I can show kindness, hessed kindness to? And Ziba says, well there is one son of Jonathan Mephibosheth, he's crippled in his feet. He's in Lodobar and David says, go find him and bring him here. And so they send guards out and they send troops out or whatever it is and they go looking for Mephibosheth. Now let me just tell you, Mephibosheth does not want to be found. He has his, find my iPhone off, he has like no wifi, he is on the download because he is scared. And so when they come knocking on his door and say, hey, the king wants to see you, he's like, oh, he's not going, oh, amazing, sweet. Let me just go get some better clothes on. He's scared. And they say, no, he wants to see you. And they take him with him and I guarantee you this entire time Mephibosheth is freaking out, he knows that he is the son of Saul who was trying, or the grandson of Saul who was trying to kill David for most of his life. He knows what kings do. Kings do not say, hey, man, come on in here. Let's set up a little place for you. No, kings kill their enemies. So even if the guards had said, hey, no, it's cool. David wants to show you kindness. He would not have believed that. How many of you remember Herod? Who said to the wise man, hey, when you find that little baby king, tell me too so I can worship him. And that was not Herod's intention because that's not what kings did. They killed people who could potentially threaten their kingdom or their throne. And so Mephibosheth is literally freaking out. And look at the encounter. Shows up and Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, son of Saul came to David, verse six and fell on his face and he paid homage. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, behold, I'm your servant. He's very scared. That's my scared voice. And then verse seven, listen to the king's reply. And David said to him, do not fear. For I will show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan. First words out of the king's mouth. When Mephibosheth, the crippled man who has been eking out in existence and low to bar comes into his presence, scared, bowing down, paying homage. The very first words were, don't fear. You don't have to be afraid. I'm gonna show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan. And he doesn't stop there. Look what the king says. And I will restore to you the land of Saul, your father, and you shall eat at my tables always. He says, I'm gonna also give you back your inheritance. Everything that you thought you lost, everything that was your grandfather Saul's, I'm gonna give back to you. That isn't like, hey man, I got a trailer in the back. You can hang there. There's no plumbing and it sucks, but you can have it. That's not what he's saying. He's literally saying, I want you to picture something the size of Texas where he says, this is yours. I'm restoring this to you. It honestly scholars believe could have threatened David at a later date. Like that level of giving or of bestowing upon him was a dangerous move from a military standpoint. And then he says, and you're going to eat at my table. Like you're gonna eat dinner with me. You're gonna sit down with my family. I want you to picture this. Laphiboshah, living and hiding, scared for his life, crippled, no way to sustain himself. And one moment in the king's presence is told, I'm wiping out your death wish. I'm gonna show you kindness instead. I'm gonna restore your inheritance. And I'm gonna adopt you into my family. And you're gonna eat meals with me. And Ziba, where's Ziba? Ziba, come here. You and your sons and your servants, you now serve him. 35 people are now on Laphiboshah staff. All of a sudden, everything about his life changed in one instant. I want you to just picture dinner time at King David's house. The bell rings, the pot roast is done, the guests are gathering, and here comes David's family. You got Amnon, who's the, you know, maybe the witty, kind of clever one, and he comes in first. And you got Joab, who's the David's son, the warrior. He's part of the army. You know, he's this, you know, big, strong boy. And then comes Absalom. You know, he's the GQ model with Cory Asbury hair and Caleb Culver metabolism. I don't know. I'm sorry. Stop the tape. Absalom, then you got Tamar, his daughter, beautiful, graceful daughter, Tamar. And then you have Solomon, who's probably last, you know, and he's coming from the study. Hey guys, sorry I'm late. I'm just knocking out a few proverbs. And you have this beautiful family that's gathered around the king's table, important people. And then you hear the clunking of Mephiboshaph coming down the hall, awkwardly, slowly, and taking his place at the king's table, awkward. I'm sure he's just like, why am I here? What is happening? Why is this a real thing? And day after day after day, David said, you will eat with me at my table. And the reason I share this is not so that we can all just go, oh, David, wow, he was great. Super kind of him. It's because all of us are Mephiboshaph. That's why this story is so important and why it's so beautiful, is because we lost relationship with our father when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. We lost our inheritance when sin entered the world. We had a death wish upon us when sin and death and the wages of it took residency in our hearts and in our world. And we were crippled by sin and by fear and by shame. And we came into the king's presence and we had no business being there and we had no merit of our own. And the king looked at you and he looked at me and said, do not fear. I will show you acid kindness. And Mephiboshaph says, why? Who am I? Why did you do this for a dead dog like me? And David literally says it's not because of you and it's not just who you are. It's for the sake of another. It's because of David, your son, your father, or Jonathan, your father that I'm showing you this kindness and the Lord has said to every single one of us, it's not what you've done. It's not your merit. It's not your goodness. I will show you kindness because that's what's in my heart. And when we had nothing to offer and we had nothing to give and we had no reason to experience the love and acid kindness of God, the king of kings said, you're going to be adopted into my family and you're going to eat with me and you're going to dine with me and every day you're going to spend time with the king of kings and the Lord of lords. And that's the beauty of the story of Mephiboshaph. And so I say that to say this and I want to bring it right back to Ephesians 4 verse 32. So be kind to one another. Even as God in Christ has been kind and has forgiven you. The reason this story is so important is because once you've experienced the acid kindness of God, once you've realized that you were crippled and without relationship with God and you were broken by your sin and God has forgiven and restored you, now we go into the world and we don't judge it and we don't say you're the problem, you're the reason we say how can I show the same kindness that God has shown me and my fear is even as Christians we're falling into the trap of division and divisiveness and us against them. Instead of saying God, how can my kindness point people to Jesus, point people to who you are and what you've done in my life. God, help me remember that that was me living in Lodobar, living in a place where there was no goodness, no pastor, no goodness of my own and then you took me and adapted me into your family and what I wanna challenge us as the church is is to say God, what does it look like for me to reciprocate the kindness you've shown to the world around me? That's the challenge for today. That's what Ephesians 4 verse 32 is asking us, can you be kind, not nice, not conveniently un-mean or however we've seen kindness, but no, what does it look like for you, for me, for Christians to take it upon ourselves and say God, I wanna be a difference maker when the whole world is pointing towards darkness, is pointing towards what's wrong, is taking sides and pointing fingers, I wanna be an agent of change, an agent of peace and an agent of kindness and what does that look like? That's what God is asking us as his followers. I wanna give you just a few things to write down that I hope will just sort of bring this home and I'll do it quickly, but if we're going to let God use us to be agents of kindness, we have to first let kindness, hessed, work from the inside out. Galatians 5 talks about the fruit of the spirit. Notice it doesn't say fruits, it's one, fruit of the spirit, joy, patience, peace, love, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. All of those are characteristics of the spirit of God working in us as we surrender to him. So it's not like, hey, I can have a few of these in my life, but I don't need all of them. It's God, what does surrendering to your Lordship look like in my life and where are the areas where I've operated in my flesh, where I've been moved by my own worldly convictions or what I'm angry about, and how can I partner with the Holy Spirit to let kindness come out from me? The Bible says that out of the abundance of your heart, the mouth speaks. What you have on the inside is what's going to come out. And so it's not kind of like trying to change our moral behavior, it's God. How do I surrender to the spirit of God so that kindness becomes the center, the essence of who I am? You partner, and the best way to bear fruit is to stay connected to the vine. That's what Jesus said in John 15. Stay connected with me, abide with me. So if you're in here and you tend to be someone who gets angry, who gets upset, who's on social media like blah, blah, blah, blah, blasting out, get with God instead. Spend time in the Word with the vine and say, God, work from the inside out. I'm not just trying to change behavior, I'm trying to change my identity, I'm trying to change who I am and find that in you and in nothing else. And you cannot do that apart from time spent with God in Word, in the Word and in prayer. That's it, it's not a magic formula. But work from the inside out, number two, put everything through the truth in love filter. Here's what I mean. I'm not saying that you can't have convictions, I'm not saying that some things are right and some things are wrong or that's not the case we have to agree with everybody or we can never take a stand. I'm not saying any of that. That's not what it means to be kind or to be Christian. But I will say this, Ephesians 4.15 says, but instead speaking the truth in love, we grow up in every way unto him who is the head, Christ Jesus. We can speak the truth, but are we doing it in love as Christians? That's my question to us as the church. You can be right in the kingdom of God and still be wrong. You can speak the truth and still not be reflecting the Father because you're not doing it in love. And so we all have to check our motives. We all have to check our convictions. We are not going to get God's results doing things the world's way. That's what I'm telling you. It is not going to be us against them and nobody's ever been beaten senseless into the kingdom of God. Like I'm gonna show you how right I am. And then they go, okay, oh man, I surrender, fine. You're right. I was kind of wrong. Like it's not gonna work that way. It's gonna be, can you speak the truth? Can you have convictions that are from the Holy Spirit? But can you let him help you communicate it in love? What does that look like? I don't know. It's different for all of us. But I think we all know what speaking without love looks like. I think we all know what it looks like to blast out or to operate from the flesh. And all I'm saying is, and I'm up here speaking to me too, is that God's asking us, can we put everything through the filter of God? I wanna know truth and I believe your truth, but I want to speak love to those I disagree with, to those who may be outside of your covenant, outside of what we would say is a Christian lifestyle. We have to stop looking at people as the enemy or they're who we're fighting against. They're who we're fighting for. They're who we're praying for. So if it's this community or these people or the ones they don't know God, we cannot be thinking, well, it serves them right. Well, hell's really hot. Well, whatever it is, it's no God, break my heart for what breaks yours. Help me see like you do. Help me love like you do. I don't do it well. I get angry and just be vulnerable with the Lord. The last thing is, can we as Christians, and this is hard, show kindness to those who don't deserve it or who we think don't deserve it? I'm gonna tell you something. People are like, Christianity's for weak people. It's a crutch. It's not, it's hard if you wanna do it the way Jesus told you to. Because he didn't say, hey, love the people who love you and be nice to those who are nice to you. It's a lot easier in my opinion to live like the world does and get together in our little cluster of rightness and yell at the darkness and scream at who's wrong and refuse to forgive. That's easier to do. Now, obviously it's not better, but I'm gonna tell you something. God is looking for Christians who will show kindness, hessed kindness, even to people who don't deserve it. You never look more like Jesus than when you're forgiving someone, especially someone who doesn't deserve it. Jesus on the cross, Father, forgive them. I wanna just read this to you. Just let this sink in in Luke chapter six. It says, Jesus speaking, but I say to you, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you and pray for those who abuse you. If you love those who love you, what benefit is that? He doesn't say, if you love those who love you, hey, you're doing pretty good. You're better than most. It's cool. I know it's hard. You need to say, look, everybody can do that. Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that? Even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that? Even sinners lend to sinners. He's saying, look, there has to be a difference between how the people of God operate and how people who don't know God operate. And if we think, well, they're not nice to me. Well, they haven't been good to me. And we think that gives us a reason to not show them kindness or love. Jesus is saying, that's how everybody thinks. There is something different about Christians, about those who follow Jesus. And he says, but you love your enemies. Do good, lend, expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great. And you will be sons of the most high. Why? For he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Too often we think of ourselves as, oh, I'm a pretty good person. I have a good heart. It shouldn't be that hard for God to love me. And God says, no, I was kind to you when you had nothing and when you were separated from me. And now the call of the Christian, what listened to me, what I believe can literally change the world. It's for Christians to walk in hesed kindness to the world around us. We use that phrase a lot. It's gonna change the world. Oh man, I had this pizza. It was amazing. It changed my world. And we kind of throw that around. But I wanna present something to you. We're closing in on 9-11. And I think most of us in this room remember where we were when that happened. And one thing that among many that stood out to me was that phrase has been and was used. Like that was the day that the world changed. The world as we knew it changed. And there's something about 19 men who were armed with hate in their hearts, stepping into an arena in an atmosphere. And we say it changed the world. And maybe it did. Well, what would it look like if followers of Jesus armed with hesed kindness in their hearts for people who might not look like them, act like them or believe like they believe, vote like them? What if those people with kindness in their hearts stepped in to the world and said, I'm gonna love you and I'm gonna show you kindness. And I might not agree with everything that you say or everything that you do, but I am going to love because that's what we're called to do. And that's how Jesus said, we know we're his disciples. And that, my friends, is what needs to change the world. Change it, change the world. That's what God's asking us to do. And that's why I wanted to talk about kindness because if I started out by saying, you're gonna change the world by being kind, you'd be like, okay, I already rewind my videos, John. So, but when you look at it the way that God sees biblical kindness, there is so much potential in every single Christian and the enemy wants to rob you of your influence, of your ability to see what kindness can do in the world today and a world that's going increasingly, increasingly dark. You can read 2 Timothy 3 for yourself, but it is a precursor of the times we're living in where we're lovers of ourselves, lovers of money. We have a form of godliness, but we deny it's a power. We're only interested in what affects us. All of those things are the antithesis of what Jesus said is kindness towards other people. We guys stand up with me today. I wanna just be able to close. I just want you to close your eyes and wherever you are and just create some space between you and the Lord. And here's how I prayed about just this ministry moment is I want us to just be transparent with God about where is my heart and relationship to people? Not just people who already love me or I already love, not just people who are already nice to me and I'm nice to them, but what about the people we see on the news, the people we read in the paper, the people on social media who have pushed those buttons and agitated that place in your heart where we're tending to hate them, judge them, be negative towards them. I'm not saying in this moment we have to advocate for everything that's done or support things that aren't godly, but I'm asking us as the church to say, God, I want my heart. I want my heart to be broken for them. I wanna be able to show kindness and love even when it's hard and I'm not gonna be perfect, but I'm offering that to you today and maybe there's a moment of repentance that you need to have where you say, God, I'm sorry. Sorry I've judged that people group, that race, the class, that coworker, whatever it is and just release that to the Lord and we're gonna ask for the hesed kindness of God to come into us and to flow through us. And Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for the kindness you've shown us, reminded of March 14th, 1999, God, when you allowed me to encounter your love in a way that I never had and, God, I ask you to remind all of us what it looks like to experience the love of God and I ask you to remind all of us about the call to reciprocate, to be kind to one another even as God has been kind to us and Father, I pray that we would no longer scroll through social media, hear the news and allow our hearts to become callous and hard or even hateful towards people that your son died on the cross for and that, God, we would realize we're not wrestling flesh and blood and people but principalities and powers and spirits of darkness and where the enemy is trying to get us to attack, trying to get us to be outraged and to show hate and vitriol, I say, let the hesed kindness of God flow from your people and let it be a groundswell, God, that touches a generation. I pray for young people right now, God, that are angry and hurt and disenfranchised, maybe even by the church that God, your love would encounter them in a way that they say, God, let your kindness lead them to repentance, let your kindness lead them to a place where they see you as you truly are and God, we want to be agents of that change. We want to be carriers of your glory. We don't want to be a wall that separates people from you. We want to be a river, we want to be a conduit that the grace of God can flow through so that people encounter the love of Jesus, God. Encourage us today, Father, we surrender to you and we say we are not enough but if you will fill us, if you will empower us, God, nothing is impossible and we can change the world, God. We love you, we praise you and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.