From Ephesus: Kindness

Give it up for an all dude worship band this morning.

Come on now, I guess first time we've ever had

an all dude worship band and our newest worship song

better together. And I'll hope you I hope that really

spoke to you this morning. Now that was little Jack

Johnson there for you. It's it's it's Luau Day, Hawaiian

theme day. Here for Father's Day. Happy Father's Day and all

the dads and how was Let's give it up for

the dads.

Come on now.

If I haven't met you yet, my name is Morgan Butcher,

blessed to be one of the pastors here at a

Mill Creek campus and you are joining us in a

series as we've been working our way through the Fruit

of the Spirit that Paul describes to the church in

Galatia while he's writing from Ephesus, hence this title from Ephesus.

And I hope you've enjoyed the series.

If you've missed any parts of it, you can go

back online, Facebook, YouTube, go use our venture app and

you can track down all of our messages from the series.

We only have a few left, so we're getting down

to the end. But I want to start today with

something that happened to me about a month ago. I experienced, well,

actually I didn't just experience it.

I did it to myself, which is humbling.

But I experienced what I would probably describe as one

of the busiest weeks of my entire life. Any of

you just had that week that you think of that

you're like, I'm not sure if it could get any

crazier than that week about a month ago. And again

I did this to myself, so I only have myself

to blame. But about a month ago, it was a Sunday.

I wasn't just going to walk you through my week. Okay,

this will probably help the best if I just walk

you through the week. So Sunday we have church, is

a great Sunday morning is a great day. Everybody goes

home happy, my kid has a soccer game.

It's all good. We're having a good time. Yay, yay, yay. Okay.

Monday, Tuesday, I have a couple of really big meetings

that I'm just like mentally preparing for. I have also realized,

as I feel like I do almost every time that

I have the opportunity to speak on a Sunday, is

that I also months previous say yes to speaking at

something else. So months before I was asked by Pastor

Johnny to speak at our youth service shout out to

our youth ministry, and so I was pumped for that.

But that meant Monday Tuesday was sermon writing for Sunday morning.

I was speaking the next Sunday and for Wednesday night,

and so Monday Tuesday, we're just kind of crazy. Also, Wednesday,

my wife leaves to go out of town, which is awesome.

My wife's sister had a wedding. She went to go

support her sister. Awesome, goes down to California, which means

that I have the kids.

Blessing, total blessing.

Father's Day right Dad's home with the kids, and so

I've got the kids. And Wednesday morning we wake up

and Brinley goes to school and Boston's at childcare and

then they come to the church afterwards. I'm at work

all day here and then I stay and the kids

get dropped off here. I preach at youth on Wednesday night,

and then the kids are here in childcare. God bless

all of our kids, workers and the Kids ministry. Praise you,

bless you forever and ever and ever, Amen, if you

don't serve in the Kids Ministry, serve in the Kids Ministry. No, truly,

we need more volunteers in the Kids ministry. Go serve

in the Kids Ministry. Sign up on your app right now.

So my kids are here late that night, and which

means that we go home around nine o'clock, which may

be normal for your family for your kids to go

to bed, but that is not the case in our home.

And so my kids turn into.

Yeah, they were great, and so we get to bed

super late. They actually end up sleeping in my bed,

which just makes for a really comfortable evening of sleep.

I wake up Thursday morning, and Thursday morning I get

together with my good friend Jeremy. We go drive to

the Tri Cities early in the morning, as I was

helping organize and lead our men's conference for the Northwest

Ministry Network over in Tri Cities. So we went there.

We were there Thursday, we were there Friday, we were

there Saturday, got done on Saturday, loaded up the trailer,

brought everything back to storage, go to our house. By

the time I get home, it's around nine o'clock and

it hits me I should probably go over my message

for Sunday morning. Okay, go over that a couple times,

get to bed around eleven. Wake up the next morning.

It's Sunday morning. Great services speak eight thirty, ten eleven thirty.

Go home and I die. Okay, I literally just died.

I fell asleep on the couch. I put my son

down for a nap. Me and you're sitting there watching

a movie together as I am passed out unconscious on

the couch. I wake up and it is fifteen minutes

until Brindley's soccer game. I panic. I'm in a cold sweat.

I run around, I get the kids ready. We hop

in the car. We go to the soccer game. I

get the kids to the soccer game. She goes out.

I have to leave the soccer game early to come

back to church to teach it Discover one oh one.

I leave my kids with a stranger there. Didn't say hey,

just figure it out. Uh No, they were actually went

in good hands. They were with our good friend debig

And and then I teach.

Discover one oh one.

We get back to the church, we take them home,

they go to bed.

Mom comes home the next morning.

I wake them on Monday morning, and how many of

you can relate with a week like that, and you

wake up on Monday morning and you just feel like

you have died and come back to life.

That was Monday morning. Wake up.

I say, kids, this is fend for yourself Monday. I

have nothing to give you. I have nothing to offer

you as your father. It's a doggy dog world out there.

But you're gonna live. Okay, it's gonna work out. This

is how we're going to learn how to live in life.

I take Brintley to school, I drop her off at school,

and across the street is the lowercase s savior in

my life. That morning Starbucks. I go to Starbucks. I

go and I order my cold foam cold brew. Anybody, anybody,

come on now, salt the cold foam cold brew. Just

try it, change your life. Order my drink, which is

a total inconvenience. This is the twenty first century. I

should just be able to pull up the window. They

scan my face and they know what I want to drink.

I shouldn't have to say anything at this point. I

just throw that that was for free. I pull her

ound to the window and I give them my uh.

They hand me my cup of coffee. I go to

hand them my card and they say, hey, actually, you

know what. The lady in front of you bought your

coffee for you. She said she saw you in a

rearview mirror and looked like you could use a pick

me up.

Thank you God. I thought two things that morning.

I thought, One, I look worse than I feel, like

from the rear view mirror she could tell that I

had died and come back to life. And two, I thought, man,

that is the coolest thing in the world. Like she

did not know, or maybe she clearly did, how much

I needed that cup of coffee that morning. And it

was this small act of kindness that just like flipped

the switch on my day. I felt like I went

into work I had something to actually offer the world

that day, and it all started with a cup of coffee.

Here's what hit me as I was preparing for this

morning thinking about last month. It's the reality that kindness

doesn't have to be a big, powerful experience to change

your life. It doesn't have to be some huge, mind

blowing thing that goes beyond what you would ever ask

or imagine. It can be as small as a cup

of coffee and church, hear me say it. It can

still extend and carry the power in the presence of

the spirit of God. This small act of kindness can

still carry the spirit of God.

It's kindness.

It shows up when we least expect it, and that's

what makes it so unforgettable.

When we experience.

It turns these ordinary moments into these powerful experiences that

we remember, and sometimes it keeps pastors.

From having public meltdowns. Right.

Every once in a while, we've been in this scripture

in Galatians chapter five, where Paul is describing the fruit

of the Spirit. I want to read it for us

one more time. It says, but the fruit of the

Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

self control.

Against such things, there is no law.

This morning, we're talking about the fruit of the spirit,

that is kindness. But before we dive into deep I

want to address something that I think has become the

discount version of kindness.

In our culture. I call it the t MoU version

of kindness.

I feel like kindness has kind of been downplayed in

our culture, and now instead of offering kindness, what we

like to give and substitute is niceness and friends. I

just firmly believe that if you think nicing your way

through life will get you into heaven, you are sorely

going to disappoint yourself. Nicing your way through life does

not give you access into the gates of heaven. Friends,

But Scripture says that we are to live with the

spirit of kindness, something that does not come naturally to us,

but something that has provided for us that shows something

to the world around us that most of us do

not live with on a daily basis. Here is the

biggest difference between the two for me, if you're taking notes,

Niceness is often nothing more than a mask that protects

our own comfort, but kindness is a courageous type of

love that is willing to sacrifice comfort for the benefit

of someone else. The truth is is when we look

at Scripture and I read about the life of Jesus

in the Gospels, can I just tell you Jesus was

rarely nice by the standards of culture, by the way

that culture defines niceness. I don't know if Jesus really

fits the mold of what a nice person looks like.

But can I tell you, friends, he was always kind.

He was always kind.

Think of when Jesus walks into the temple courts in Jerusalem,

and he flips the tables in the courtyard because he

sees the manipulation that's happening with the way that the

temple was being used. He sees the way that believers

are being manipulated in the temple courts. And my thought

is that as Jesus is flipping tables in the courtyard

and coins are scattering everywhere, and goods are being scattered everywhere,

I doubt there was very many moms that were cuddling

their child saying, well, look at that nice man.

Isn't he just a joy? What a nice to be

like that guy? Guys, No, no, no.

By the by culture's definition, this is not the picture

of what we would call niceness.

It looks anything but nice.

But can I tell you, friends, Jesus's act in the

temple courts was a total act of kindness towards God's

house and God's people. He was protecting them, he was

caring for them, he was reaching out, and he was

doing something uncomfortable that was providing a protection that people

didn't know the truth that they needed. You see, here's

the biggest difference. If you're taking notes, friends, kindness wants

to keep the peace. Niceness wants to keep the peace,

while kindness wants to make peace. There's a huge difference

between these two things. Niceness they just want to keep

the peace. Kindness they want to create peace. And in

a spirit of kindness will create peace. It will make

peace by truth, it will make peace by love, and

it will make peace by the Spirit of God in motion.

And that is exactly why when we look at the script,

at the spirit of kindness, we have to recognize that

kindness is not weakness. Kindness is not weakness. Kindness is

God's strength.

And action through our lives.

And I know this is Father's Day, and I know

in our culture this is the this is the posture

of a father.

I am a man. I am strong, I do not bend,

I do not bow. I am a man.

And friends, can I just tell you that kindness is

not weakness. It is not weakness. Kindness is not passive,

Kindness is not soft. Kindness is rarely comfortable. Can I

tell you if anything, kindness is fierce, it is decisive.

It is the Holy Spirit in motion working through your

and my lives to make real, profound impact in the

world around us. Kindness is not weakness. Romans two four

says this. Listen to the scripture. It says, do you

not realize that God's what does it say kindness is

intended to lead you to repentance?

I hope you catch the weight of that scripture.

Do you not realize that God's kindness is intended to

lead you to repentance? Can we just let's just pause

for a moment here. We want to pause because I'm

pretty sure what I hear all the time is no.

No, It's God's wrath that leads people to repentance.

It's God's power, It's his thunder that leads to people

to repentance. It's it's the great plagues that he will

send over people's lives, the people of Egypt. It is

these things that will cause repentance. But no, no, no, The

scripture says, it is his kindness that brings people to repentance.

It brings people to their knees and humility. It draws

the humble, the proud, and the strong, and it brings

them to their knees in understanding and recognition of who

He is in their life. It's like God is saying,

you want transformation in your life. Watch what happens when

my people show radical kindness in an unkind world?

Watch what happens? Watch what happens when.

The world expects my people to lash out and instead

they love out?

Oh?

Man, do you know how mad that makes people? When

the thing that they want from you and me is

to lash out in anger, is to lash out with frustration,

is to lash out with words of the flesh, and

instead the thing that we offer them is kindness. Ooh,

that will make some people mad. Think of David sparing

Saul's life in the Cave for Samuel twenty four. David

is standing over Saul in a cave. Saul has been

chasing after David, hunting him down, trying to kill him

to save his own name, his own reputation as the

King of Israel. And David comes face to face with Saul,

and Saul is in a vulnerable position, doesn't even know

that David is standing in the cave with him, and

he has this opportunity to take Saul's life. He has

every right to take the man's life of the person

who has been hunting him down. Well, what does David do?

David showed kindness instead of vengeance in that moment he

doesn't strike him down with the sword. This act of restraint.

Can I tell you it didn't show weakness, friends, It

showed strength in David's life, and it convicted Saul's heart

in a way that no sword ever could. It actually

shows so much more strength when we respond with grace

to someone who insults us, doesn't it. It shows so

much more strength when we respond with grace to those

who seek to offend us, over and over and over.

It's a sign of strength when we hold our tongue.

Maybe I should say it's a sign of strength when

we hold our fingers back. It's a sign of strength

when we bless the person who has wronged us. Friend's

kindness is not weakness. It's the kind of courage that

Jesus himself demonstrated for us while he lived on earth.

Let me.

I want to give you a visual this morning, and

I need you to picture like a solid, frozen block

of ice.

Okay.

In first service, I described it as the type of

ice that christof harvested in frozen Okay, that's how you know.

I'm celebrating Father's Day today.

Okay, like a big chunk of ice, right, And I

want you to imagine that frozen, solid chunk of ice.

And I also want you to imagine us taking that

chunk of ice. And this isn't a heated blanket. It's

just a towel that I use for baptisms, and I

probably need to wash it. But I want you to

imagine if we took a heated blanket and wrapped that

piece of ice in the heated blanket.

Now, at first, nothing happens.

You might not even notice that anything is happening, as

that chunk of ice is wrapped in this heated blanket.

But leave that warmth on long enough, and the ice

will begin to melt inside of it, not by force,

not by smashing it, but by consistent warmth. Now follow me,

because I want you to catch this visualization. Kindness is

the warmth that melts the ice of.

People's hearts around them.

Kindness is the warmth that, over time begins to melt

away what has been frozen and rock hard towards us.

It doesn't happen in an instant, but after time, slowly

allowing loving kindness to break down and melt what has

for so long been frozen and hard. Now, imagine if,

instead of wrapping that block of ice in a heated blanket.

You picked up a hammer. Now this seems more exciting,

seems more my style. Now you might break the ice,

you might begin to hack away at it. But you

know what will happen. Shards will fly everywhere. It'll cause

an absolute mess, be damage that is inflicted. In fact,

maybe more damage than good, depending on whose hands you

put the hammer in. And can I just say, bluntly, Church,

we don't win people to Jesus.

With spiritual hammers.

We win people to Jesus with a spirit produced kindness,

over time, breaking down naturally what was once ice, cold

hearts and postures towards us. And look, I get why

people would prefer to use the hammer. You know why

I get it because we want instant change in people's lives.

We want people to understand what we believe now. We

want them to be changed now we will. And so

what do we do. We resort to pressure, We resort

to nagging. We resort to picket signs on the corner

of baseball stadiums, We resort to manipulation. But can I

tell you, kindness plays the long game. The consistent love

of a mother and father who have been praying for

their child to come back the Lord.

That's kindness.

The coworker who keeps showing grace to that difficult colleague

day in and day out, that's kindness.

These are the.

Slow melts that change people's lives over time. You see, friends,

kindness is not weakness. It's God's strength in action through

our lives. But you know what else we see about

kindness and Scripture. We see that Jesus himself modeled kindness

as a weapon of redemption for people. We see that

he used kindness as a tool to move people into

a life of redemption. Let's look at how Jesus showed kindness,

because let's be honest, at any moment, if Jesus wanted to,

he could have like dropped the Holy Judgment Mike on

the world and just walked away right like he has

nothing to prove.

But he doesn't.

Instead, time after time after time, he chooses kindness. We

see it all throughout Scripture, but maybe most notably with

the woman caught in the act of adultery scene in

John chapter eight. In John chapter eight, this woman is

caught in the act of adultery and she's brought out

into the community square into the middle of the community,

and the price for this act of sin, the price

for being caught in the act of adultery, was death

by stone. This means that she would have been thrown

off a cliff or some high place, and the community

would have taken stones and thrown them down on her

until she was dead. That's the punishment that she deserved

for this act. And the community gathers around her and

they begin condemning her, and they begin yelling at her,

and Jesus sees her, and he begins to approach her,

and the crowd gathered condemning her, and Jesus comes over

her in this moment, and Jesus doesn't shame her, He

doesn't look down on her. Do you know what he does?

He shows kindness, He extends dignity, and it provides restoration

in her life. He says to this woman, neither do

I condemn you, Go and sin no more? And friends,

can I tell you that moment changed her life, not

because Jesus excused her sin. Hear me say that her

life was not changed because Jesus excused her sin. Her

life was changed because in that moment, the kindness of

God disarmed shame in her life, and it opened the

door for her to experience the grace of who he was.

It led her into experiencing a love and grace that

she could have never imagined.

For her life. That's the power of kindness.

It doesn't ignore sin, it invites transformation. Look at Zachias,

the corrupt tax collector. How do we know that nobody

likes Zechias because none of us liked the irs.

That's how we know nobody liked Zechias.

And here's Jesus walking through town, and Zakias sees Jesus

coming and he wants to get a picture of Jesus.

And he wants to get a view of Jesus.

And so this little man's Achius that nobody likes, climbs

up into this tree to get a picture of Jesus.

And Jesus comes walking by, and Jesus looks up at

him in the tree and he says, come down, I

must stay at your house. Out of everybody there, he

picks Zakius. That act of kindness transformed this life of

greed to generosity in a moment. There was no lecture,

there was no condemnation. Do you know what Jesus extended

in that moment he extended his presence, he extended his kindness,

and it led to Zakias's transformation. Now I don't know

about you, but but what I've come to find in

life is that people remember how we make them feel

way more than they remember the words that we say.

How How do I know that?

Because I'm reminded of it after being a youth pastor

for ten years and I asked my kid some of

our old houstons, Hey do you remember like any star?

And they're like no, like awesome, super cool. But people

remember the way we make them feel, don't they. It's

not always the words that we say. It's not always

the things that we've spoken. And this will make some

Christians really upset, because I've been around Christians who are like, Morgan,

you're wrong. You've got to tell them. You've got to

tell people the truth. You might miss your opportunity. They

might never hear the name of Jesus if you don't

do it. And if we don't do it, if we

don't speak truth over the life, if we don't tell

them what they need to hear, if we don't tell

them the truth of the Gospel, then they might never

hear it and hear me say, friends, while I agree

with you, every life on this planet deserves to hear

the good news of Jesus.

Amen.

Every life deserves to hear the name of Jesus and

how he can transform their life and who He is

for us. But let me ask you a question. If all,

what if our kinds made people curious about who Jesus is?

What if the things that we do? What if the

life that we did and lived spoke more about who

Jesus is in our life than our words ever could.

Sometimes we think spiritual fruit is like carrying around a

clipboard for God. Like you know, It's like we walk

around saying, well, I've noticed that you've been a little

low on goodness this week. I've noticed, buddy, that you've

lost a little self control this last week.

I'll make a note of that.

I've noticed that you've been a little low on kindness

and patient says we will. We'll make a note about that. Friends,

Can I tell you nobody ever was guilted into the

Kingdom of God. That's not fruit, that's manipulation. We don't

need clipboard Christians.

You know what we need.

We need people who live and live, live and lead

with the spirit of kindness flowing out of their life,

tending kindness to those who need it the most, extending

kindness to the ones who maybe feel like they don't

deserve it. And Jesus demonstrated for us the way that

kindness is a weapon of redemption. It's this tool and

this posture of living that leads people into the grace

and the goodness of God, not even sometimes by saying

a word, but simply by the way that you and

I extend kindness to an unkind world around us. But

the other thing that I found is that kindness often

grows best in conflict, doesn't it. It's conflict where oftentimes

we see what kind of kindness is really being grown

in our life.

Let's just be real.

Anybody can be kind to Grandma, And if you're not,

come talk to me after service.

I want to pray over you.

You need Jesus if you can't be kind of Grandma, Like,

come on now, is Grandma? But can I tell you

it takes the Holy Spirit abiding in our heart to

be kind to the guy on Facebook. It takes the

Holy Spirit living inside of a person to be kind

to that coworker. It takes the Holy Spirit in those

moments of conflict and tension. To be kind to your

cousin who talks politics on the fourth of July potluck.

Ephesians four thirty two says, be kind and compassionate to

one another forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God

forgave you. You know, it's not just that kindness grows

best in conflict. The thing that I think I've learned

is that kindness is best tested with intension.

In our life.

Kindness is really tested intention and friends. Hear me say,

kindness does not mean being a fake person. It does

not mean avoiding hard conversations. But what it does mean

is that you and I bringing God's heart into those conversations.

It does look like bringing God's heart into that conflict,

into that tension, and in that space is where tension

and kindness growing in our life is really tested and grown.

Hear me say, kindness will speak truth. It will speak

the truth. It just doesn't speak it with a flamethrower.

Speaks it over time, building relationship, building trust, a slow

melt over time. Think of the disciple. Stephen spent most

of his life proclaiming the good news of Jesus. Lived

his life to the very glorious end of his life,

telling people about who Jesus was, proclaiming the name of Jesus,

sharing the gospel message, and while he is being stoned

in Act chapter seven, the same death that the woman

caught in the Act Adultery deserved, thrown off of a ledge,

stones chucked him by those around him until he died.

In Acts chapter seven, Stephen the Disciple is in his

final moments, and it's recorded in scripture as him praying

out loud to the murderers around him, Lord, do not

hold this sin against them.

Now.

I don't know about you, but I I can't imagine

the spirit of kindness being tested any more than that.

Any more brutally than that.

But that is kindness in the middle of conflict, no

conflict that we will probably ever experience like that. But

I know that in your in my life, we are

in those moments of tension and conflict all the time.

There are those moments where our anger is rising, our

frustration is growing, and in those moments we are so

prone to saying something that would not necessarily be spirit filled,

but more flesh fed. And Stephen speaks out to his

murders in that moment, Lord, do not hold the sin

against them, but friends, that is kindness and conflict. That

kind of response, friends, can only come from a life

of a person with the Spirit living within them.

That doesn't come naturally to us.

That kind of compassion for others doesn't just come into

our lives out of nowhere. That is the spirit of

God abiding in a person, so that at of the

overflow of their heart, the mouth speaks words of life

and kindness and hope and grace and love, even in

the midst of tension, the spirit kind of kindness, it

just doesn't come naturally to us.

Let's be honest. We know.

I know how our flesh wants to fight back. I

know that in those moments of tension, our ego wants

the last word. I know how our pride wants to

fight and be right. And because of this kind of

kindness doesn't come naturally to us us we have to

remember that the fruit of the Spirit is grown in

our life. It's not just grabbed in our life. It's

built and developed and grown over time. We can't just

treat the spirit, the fruit of the Spirit like a

vending a machine from God.

Oh, I need a little bit of this right now.

I need a little bit of this right now.

No, no, no, you don't spend the time growing the fruit

of spirit in your life, you won't have any fruit

on the tree to grab in those moments.

It's in the moments of tension.

It's in the moments of conflict where we really see

what's growing in our life. You don't walk up to

an apple tree and begin gluing on apples to the tree.

They grow from the inside out over time, being connected

to the source. Friends, you can't fake fruit in your life.

So the question is how do we cultivate that kind

of kindness. How do we cultivate the kind of compassion

and kindness that comes out in the middle of tension,

in the middle of difficulties. More than anything, We've said

it over and over and over through this series. More

than anything, it comes from abiding in God, God's Spirit,

and what that means is by is describing a life

that is quick to go to prayer every day, in

prayer with God, asking God to fill you with what

you do not feel like you have on your own.

It comes from reading the scriptures.

It comes from being in this type of community that

lifts each other up and encourages others. It comes from

being in his presence and inviting you to inviting him

to fill you on a daily basis with what you

feel like you often lack in life. But practically, I

think there's some things that we can do that would

help grow that spirit of kindness in our life. Practically,

I think it would be why it would be wisdom

to say that you and I should probably.

Pause before we react.

Maybe the best question that we can stop and ask

in moments of tension is is this response spirit led

or is it flesh fed? Is my response on this phone,

or on this computer or in the person?

Is it spirit led or is it flesh fed?

Maybe the thing that it looks like most in our

life is literally praying for this kind of heart daily,

a daily posture, a daily prayer of kindness to be

the posture of a heart, the thing that we live with.

Scripture says, from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Maybe it looks like practicing it to intentional acts. Maybe

it looks like writing a note to somebody who needs encouragement.

Maybe it looks like complimenting somebody who's overlooked. Maybe it

looks like paying for the person's coffee behind you, especially

if it's me. I'm sure that it looks like speaking

life over each other, like pausing to speak life over others,

slowing down enough to have a moment where you can

speak encouragement into somebody's life, maybe when they don't even

deserve it. When someone hurts you, Kindness doesn't mean enabling them, friends,

It means choosing healing over retaliation. You set the boundaries, yes,

but friends set the boundary with grace. This doesn't come

naturally to us. We all know how easy it is

to skip straight past kindness when we're irritated, when we're frustrated,

when we're tired. But friends, we have the greatest model

of kindness to draw from. I want to remind you

today that Jesus is the kindness of God made in

flesh for us, the kindness that we read about in

the Gospels. Titus chapter three, verses four and five says this.

It says, but when the kindness and love of God,

our savior, appeared, he saved us. Friends, Jesus is the

kindness of God with skin on it.

He is the model. He is the example for us.

And now he says, go and do likewise, Friends, what

would your workplace, what would your marriage, What would your

relationship with your kids and your family and your neighborhood

look like? If we wore kindness like a badge? What

kind of testimony would we have if kindness was the

first thing that people noticed about us as Christians. Some

of you here are here today and God is stirring you.

He's saying, let me begin to produce in you what

you feel like you lack. And I know in this

room right now, there's people in here thinking back to

this week and thinking of the moments where they lost

their cool, thinking of the moments where they responded in

the flesh and not the spirit, thinking of the moments

where they lost their temper with their kids, or lost

their temper with their spouse, or lost their emotions in

the middle of the workplace. And I know that the

Spirit of God is just calling us, and he's saying,

abide in me and let me grow in you what

you feel like you lack. It starts with abiding, It

starts by staying close and connected to the vine. Friends,

Let's be a church marked by kindness.

Amen.

Let's be a church that the world knows and sees

and without a speaking a word, gets a better picture

of who Jesus is by the life of kindness that

we live, not just sermons, not just pretty songs, not

just big rooms filled with people, all spirit filled kindness,

day after day after day, acts of warmth in a

cold world that helped people see who Jesus really is.

I mean, would you bow your heads and close your

eyes with me this morning? I want to pray over us.

Maybe you're here this morning, you just say, Morgan, that's

the thing that I need in my life the most.

I need that spirit of kindness to be overflowing out

of my life. I feel like I lack it.

Man.

Maybe you're thinking of this week, and maybe you're thinking

of conversations you have or moments you've had this week

where you've just lost your frustration. Maybe the thing that

came off of your lips or or the thing that

you type wasn't necessarily written with kindness in mind. It

was more of the flesh than it was the spirit.

I'm speaking to myself right now. Maybe God's speaking to you.

Allow me to grow in you something that you do

not have naturally by yourself. Or maybe you're in here

and you would say man, I've been responding more with

judgment than grace. Can I just tell you, friends, we

live in a world where the world is polarizing more

than I can remember it in a long time, and

instead of responding with judgment, my prayers that we would

be marked as people who respond with grace, that we

would be clothed and bathed and be models of kindness

in an unkind world. And if that's you here this

morning and you just want me to include you in

this prayer, would you just lift your.

Hand up, just want to know who I'm praying for. Yeah,

thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,

thank you.

You can put your hands down. Let me pray this

short prayer. Father, God, it is my earnest prayer that

you would grow in us what does not come natural

to us. Let your kindness be the banner that we carry,

Let it be the thing that we are known by

as we walk through this world, and let it point

people to the Cross where You're kind changed everything for us. God,

I'm praying that you would fill us with your spirit. God,

that you would help us to make the decision, the

conscious decision to pause and seek You with our life.

And that God in those moments of seeking you and

being connected with You, God, that we would feel this

empowerment of your spirit over our flesh. God, that the

words that we speak intention would not be words of

our flesh, but it would be spirit fed. God, God,

help us to point people to You, not just through

our words, but through the simple actions of our life,

through the posture of our life, in every relationship, in

every moment. And we pray this in Jesus' mighty name,

and everyone.

Said, Amen, Amen.

Can we give Morgan thanks for the kindness of that message.

We want to.

Thank you for being with us at Venture Church this morning.

Just on your way out and remind you get in

the habit, open your app look for that What's Next button.

Not only can use it this week to talk about

it with your friends or your family or think about

it more yourself. You can take notes on there, so

the notes of the message or ady on there.

You can just take.

Notes while it's happening there as well. If you haven't

checked out the What's Next page, check it out. I'm

also Dad's on the way out today.

I just want to encourage you.

Somebody at the door and that's just gonna hand you

one free raffle ticket for those tables that are right outside.

On the other side of that wall, you can buy

more raffle tickets if there's something that you really want there. Also,

right outside of the door is shaved ice out on

the porch. We invite you to head out there and

enjoy that.

Would you do me a favorite stand on your feet.

I want to say thanks again for being here. It's

a fun day to celebrate, and I'll say one last

time as we head out.