The Benefit of Loving Kindness

Turn your Bible to Psalms 103.

We're going to talk about another benefit tonight.

Robert preached on two weeks ago the benefit of forgiveness.

Last week, the benefit of healing.

Tonight, we're going to skip one.

He gave me a choice.

So I took him up on it.

He said, Do you want to preach from the redeeming from the pit, or do you want to preach on the loving kindness?

I said, Man, you get the pits.

I'm taking loving kindness.

I want to go back and just read verse 2 for a moment.

I really, before we get into loving kindness and before we talk about this benefit, I'm going to tell you something.

You want this benefit.

You want this benefit.

Healing's wonderful and having the body restored, but I'm going to tell you something.

There's something about the benefit of loving kindness.

I'm going to tell you tonight, I have a word for you.

It's been rattling around in me for two weeks, and it's oozing out of every pore I've got.

You want this benefit.

But before we get to that benefit, I want to talk about benefits for a moment.

Look at verse 2.

It says, Bless the Lord, all my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

Now, why in the world would God say, don't forget my benefits?

Because they're motivational.

They will drive you back to him.

They're very motivational.

Ten years ago, I was hired by a company.

I was a pharmaceutical drug rep, stayed in the pharmaceutical business about eight years.

And one of the things they they hired me late October, October 26, 1991.

They hired me and they said, listen, if we meet company objectives by the end of the year, two months, everybody in the company goes to Hawaii.

I said, excuse me?

Come back a little bit.

Would you say that just one more time?

I just want to hear it ring one more time.

She said, everybody in the company will go to Hawaii.

I went home and told my wife, said, Honey, we've barely been out of Texas.

You kick me out of bed every morning early.

You hear me?

By the end of the year, the company had met all their objectives, and guess what?

April of 92, we're standing in Kapalua Bay, Maui.

I'm standing up on top of the hills playing golf, trying to attempt to play golf, as God has all the whales waving their tails at me.

I looked at my wife and said, you know what?

I think I'm going to like this company.

Very motivational.

You know why?

The first day on the job.

I'm living with my sister because we're in transition from moving a small town into the big city.

First day on the job.

I'm at her house.

I uh get ready, I go down the stairs, I trip and break my big toe.

I'm a little scared.

I'm a little nervous about going out today.

Call them doctors because you know they're close to God.

And uh, I was just nervous.

And all I could think is, Hawaii, Hawaii, Hawaii.

You see, God wants you to be motivated.

He wants you, I think God's in sales.

I really do.

He knows a lot about sales.

I learned more about God in sales than I did at a lot of churches I've been at.

He's very motivational.

He wants you to run to him because he has benefits.

Now I want to ask you another question.

It's going to take a rocket science to figure this one out.

Who are the benefits for?

Believers.

Wow, that was tough, Jeff.

Now that's some great revelation.

It's a setup question.

We're talking about the supernatural.

We talked about the supernatural release from iniquities two weeks ago.

We talked about the supernatural release from physical problems last week.

Why then do all believers not experience the benefits?

Very good question, isn't it?

How many of you know stories when you want to try to believe for healing, but you hear this, but you know so-and-so died.

But you know so-and-so is still sick.

But you know, so-and-so, their whole family died.

How many of you got those stories when they go rattle around your mind?

Raise your hand.

I just want to see them.

You know, yeah, but, yeah, but, yeah, but.

I was asking the Lord about that.

I said, Lord, you really are rattling some things about benefits.

What is it?

He said, Well, I want you to go back when you became a manager three years later.

I said, Okay.

He said, Did you not interview several hundred people?

I said, Yeah, I did.

He said, Well, I want to ask you a question.

Did you ever offer full benefits to a part-time employee?

He said, No.

God does not offer full-time benefits to part-time believers.

See, if you want the full benefit package, if you want it all, you gotta be full-time.

Yeah, I know.

I've been a part-timer.

Robert preached on uh releasing from iniquities.

If you didn't get that take, if you didn't hear that sermon two weeks ago, I beg you.

Go get the take.

If you can't afford a take, tell them back there, I said you could have it for free.

If you want to wait, the series will be done in two weeks and you can get the whole set.

I'm 39 years old, I've been married for 18 years, and my lovely bride.

I was a bound man for 37 years.

I was set up by the enemy when I was young.

My mom and dad divorced when I was year and a half old.

I was raised by my mother.

I can't tell you enough good things about my mom.

My dad and my stepdad did the best they could do, but you know what?

I didn't have the father.

I'm not blaming, I'm not trying to expose, I'm just telling you the way it was.

My mom met all my needs.

She built my self-esteem.

She helped me, uh, she helped me just in affirming me.

Every boy wants that from a father, but I got it from my mother.

I could talk to women better than I could talk to men.

So naturally, under that set of circumstances, I began to think the day I get married, guess what?

I'll be happy.

I got saved when I was 15, and I still continue to believe the day I got married, I'd be happy.

Bless her heart.

The day I got married, I wasn't happy.

It had zero to do with her.

I shared this story before, and people go, oh, poor Jenny.

Not poor Jenny, poor Jenny and Jeff.

Because she suffered many things because I had always been set up in the system of the world to get my needs met.

And the easiest place was acceptance from women.

I rocked along five years in our marriage, ten years in our marriage.

I began to be tormented.

I started to fly all over the nation with my company.

I'd get on the airplane and I would be tormented.

And this is what I would hear every time I'd fly.

He was married to her, you'd be happy.

You just married the wrong one.

You was married to her, you'd be happy.

I'd check into a hotel.

There'd be a one behind it, you was married to her, you'd be happy.

It was torment.

Everywhere I went.

I finally went to my father and I said, What is this?

I love you with all my heart, I think.

What is this?

I mean, I've committed to you, I've I've sacrificed to you, I've given you everything that I have.

How come I cannot be free to this?

I've heard people you just got to discipline it, Jeff.

Discipline it.

I've tried discipline it.

It's just not working.

He said to me, son, I cannot release you.

Until you de- de-elevate the gift from the giver.

He says, Your source of happiness has come from marriage.

I'm your source of happiness.

She's my gift.

And when you de-elevate the gift, put it back in its original position, and put me back, I'll release you.

I repented that night.

I said, God, I'm sorry that I ever said, because as a little boy, I'd say it all the time.

I get married, I'll be happy.

I get married, I'll be happy.

But you know what?

I say, God, there's not a woman in the world ever created that could make me happy.

I get back on the airplane and the enemy would say, You married to her, you'd be happy.

I go, ha ha ha ha.

You're a liar.

There's not a woman anywhere that can make me happy.

For the day that I married her, I knew I'd hurt God.

She's the best gift I've ever received on this earth.

I was free that day.

In three years.

I was bound for 37.

I was released from an inward bent that had been passed down generationally.

And he said, if you hadn't been half-hearted all these years, I released you years ago.

But you kept going back to the world to get your needs met like you had always done.

And if you had just run to me and changed sources, I would have met those needs and I would have made the gift that you already had even better.

And I'm going to tell you, last three years, you can't make me trade her for anything.

You can't offer me anything.

I wouldn't trade her for anything.

She's the best gift God's ever given me on this earth.

People ask, why aren't people healed?

I don't know all the reasons why.

Why aren't people released from iniquities?

I don't know all the reasons why.

But I do know one.

Full benefits are not offered to part-time employees.

If you want the full benefits, if you want the supernatural happening in your life, you gotta be whole-hearted.

If you're not being healed and you're not being released, go to God and ask him.

He won't hide it from you.

He just won't compete for your affection.

He's not gonna compete.

He's not gonna say, I'm the best.

Come on, come on.

No, no, no, no, go on.

He's just gonna say, I'm here when you're ready.

Come on.

And he'll wait.

He's patient.

He'll just watch, and you just be miserable, and you'll watch, and you'll be miserable.

He's ready to release you.

They're motivational.

He wants you to have them.

He's not dangling like a carrot saying, Come get Hawaii.

I'm trying.

I'm trying.

Let me have it.

He's not saying that.

He's saying, you want to go to Hawaii?

Just complete the benefits.

Complete the package and we'll give you the benefit.

He's saying, You want healing?

Run to me wholeheartedly.

Release where you're getting your needs met in the world.

Sever that tie and run to him.

And I promise you, you'll see it.

Turn.

Go down to a couple scriptures.

Let's look at this benefit of loving-kindness because I'm going to tell you something.

Just as healing is an experiential benefit, just as being released from an iniquity is an experiential benefit.

This is an experiential benefit.

Let's look at it.

It says in verse 4, second part, who crowned you with loving kindness and tender mercies.

Who crowned you with loving kindness and tender mercies?

I've got to be honest with you.

When I looked at this benefit, I said to God, God, this one looks really different than the rest of them.

What is motivational about this benefit versus healing versus being released from iniquity versus being brought out of the pit or being renewed like youth as wings of an eagle?

This one looks different.

Are you sure you didn't put it in the wrong place?

He said, No, I didn't.

We cannot understand this one until we understand the definition of what he just said.

I had to begin to just look up what these words mean.

Why don't you look with me?

Who crowns?

Who crowns you?

Crown in the Bible has always stood for royalty, always stood for kingship.

This particular crown, something different.

Didn't know it until I studied it out this past week.

This one means to actually encircle you, to encompass, to surround you.

God wants to surround you.

Earthquake several years ago happened in San Francisco.

Several stories have come out of that.

Hurricane that happened on the East Coast out of North Carolina.

Several stories came out of that.

I'll tell you two.

One out of the San Francisco.

They were learning about this encirclement.

When I read this word for the first time, it hit me.

I went back to the old cowboy movies.

That's what rang in my spirit.

I could see these wagons coming into a circle.

Everybody getting behind them.

We're going to stand behind the barrier and we're going to hold off the enemy.

And God said, I want to encircle you.

Well, what happened in California when that big earthquake hit in San Francisco?

There was a church there that was warning about the encirclement of God, the power of the blood of Jesus.

They pleaded over their homes and their businesses.

Guess what?

Every house on every side was destroyed except theirs.

There was a guy who had a subway business.

He owned a sandwich shop there.

And he he said he went back to the strip mall with his sandwich shop.

He said it was amazing.

He said it blew my mind.

I went into my business and I looked, and the entire strip mall was just crumbled.

And there stood my little sandwich shop right in the middle.

And the bread fell off the rack.

Folks, that's a benefit.

God wants to surround you.

There's power in this encirclement.

But what does he want to surround you with?

Let's look at it.

He says there's loving kindness and tender mercies.

Loving kindness and tender mercies.

Loving kindness stands for favor.

If you look that up in the Hebrew, it's favored.

Trust me, I am no Hebrew scholar.

I read the English words.

You know, most pastors like to read, quote the Hebrew to you.

I'll just quote favor, all right?

The Hebrew word didn't mean anything to me either.

Loving kindness means favor.

Tender mercies mean tender love.

That scripture ought to read something like this.

God wants to circle, encircle, or surround you with favor and compassion.

There was a pastor telling a story.

He went to a conference one time and he was talking about the encirclement and the surrounding of God.

He said one day before he was going to the conference, he said, The Lord said to you, I want you to plead the blood of Jesus around your property today.

He said, Why?

He said, There's ravenous wolves coming to your house.

Okay, well, I'll do it.

So he just pled the blood of Jesus from the east to the west and from the south to the north and around the four corners of his property, and he forgot about it.

Goes to the conference all day, speaks at the conference, goes home that night, late at night, he didn't get a chance to call his wife, calls his wife the next morning.

Hey, honey, what's going on?

The conference here's going great, everything's good.

She said, you know, something strange happened.

The boys came in from the field yesterday on the back part of our property.

Yeah?

Said found three dead wolves right there on the line.

Folks, this is a benefit you want.

This is a benefit you want.

So I said, Lord, I said, How do I experience this benefit?

If I can experience healing, if I can experience being released from inward iniquities, from an inward bent, how do I experience this?

He took me back 14 years ago.

I have a 14-year-old daughter.

It was our first child.

We were in a small town, and one day she was teaching piano lessons, and I was babysitting.

You know, when fathers keep the children, it's babysitting.

When mothers keep the children, it's their duty.

You know there's a difference.

I'm racking up time for brownie points so I can go play golf.

She's doing her duty.

This particular day we have uh we have Jessica, she's less than six months old.

I've never been a dad, and I'm having a ball.

We're laying on our back bed while she teaches piano lessons, and I'm blowing bubbles on her belly, and she's cackling at me, and she's ooing and drooling all over me.

And I mean, it's great.

I'm tickling her, and she's just laughing, and I hold her, and I just caress her, and I just I'm holding her.

And she, and we, I mean, this I don't know.

I just I've gone totally oblivious to everything that's happening in the world.

I could care less.

I am just so entrenched in this moment.

And the presence of God comes into my room that moment.

And this is what Dad said to me.

Sure wish I could hold you that way.

Sure wish I could embrace you like that.

I long.

I long to hold you like that.

Will you let me?

See, up to this point I've had a very, very poor vision of fathers.

Very poor vision of fathers.

My viewpoint is not good.

And I said, Daddy, I I need your embrace.

I need your affirmation.

I need you to embrace me now.

I said, I've longed to embrace you, Jeff, for a number of years, but you wouldn't let me.

And as I lay there with my daughter, he embraced me.

It changed me forever.

And this is what I want you to catch.

If you don't go home with anything else I say tonight, you better go home with this.

It will change your viewpoint of who God is.

He longs to embrace you.

He longs to encircle you.

He longs to surround you with his tender love, his favor, his compassion, and he longs to embrace you.

And run that route of rejection right out of your heart.

Well, you see, that's what I had.

I felt rejected a lot of my life.

I didn't know how to get over it.

I was trying to do the best I could.

I was just still running and gunning.

But he said, I long to embrace you.

I'm going to tell you, for a son to be embraced by his father, it's a big deal.

It's a big deal for the daughter to be embraced by the father.

I hug my children all the time.

I can't help it.

It's just in me.

I want them to know I embraced them.

Do you know what happened to Jesus?

You remember when he was baptized and he came out of the water?

What did he hear?

This is my son.

Hmm, big hoe, in whom I'm well pleased.

Never preached a sermon, had never done a miracle, hadn't done any of that.

And the father says, That's my boy.

God's not asking you to perform on his behalf.

He's asking you to let you embrace it.

Get an embrace from the Father.

Get an embrace from the Father.

How do you experience it?

You're asking for it.

How do you get healing?

You're asking for it.

How do you get released from an inward iniquity?

You're asking for it.

I'm going to tell you something.

It will change you forever.

That day laying on that bed, I became a changed man.

I'm going to tell you a story about Paul.

Really feel like the Lord just really drove this point home in my heart.

Because some of you and some of us in the Christian walk have said to God, you're giving me a bad deal.

Paul, at this particular time in chapter 27 and 28 of Acts, I encourage you.

I put that as a reference because I encourage you to go back and I want you to read it.

I want you to study it.

Then I think you can begin to insert parts of your life into his story.

But I want you to watch.

Acts 27, 28 tell you of a story when Paul is sailing to see Caesar.

He's going to Italy.

He's requested.

He's already witnessed to King Agrippa.

He's already witnessed to some other higher officials.

Now he feels a compelling from God.

I've got to get to see Caesar.

Just a problem.

They're in the middle of the ocean and there's this huge storm that comes up.

And the Bible says it's there for two weeks.

Some of us, when we have a little storm, we're like, this is a bad day.

That's a bad half a month.

He's in the ocean.

They said, to tell you how bad it was, they said they chunked everything that was valuable overboard.

And at the end of two weeks, they said, that's it.

We're done.

It's over.

And Paul says, it's not over, because tonight, in my cabin, an angel stood before me and said, we were to run across a certain island, and we were to run the ship right into the rocks of the island.

And if you will do what I say, you will live.

They said, okay.

So they did exactly that.

When they were when we got close to an island, they sent some signals out, and they said, This must be it.

So they ran the boat right into it.

It shattered the boat.

They were thrown into the freezing water.

They swam to shore.

And Paul was out there shivering a little bit.

Oh God, I'm not sure I signed up for all this, but I guess this is okay.

I mean, it's, you know, it's all right.

And so he picks up some wood and he goes over and starts building a fire.

And he goes back to get another bundle, and out of the bundle of wood, a snake might seem.

Now, at that point, I'd already been checked out.

Hold it, God.

Hold it.

I've witnessed the king of Grippa.

I'm trying to get to Caesar.

Can't you make it a path any easier than this?

I want you to understand something.

Paul had already had his viewpoint changed.

He'd already had an embrace from the Father.

Because he knew something that I didn't know 14 years ago.

And this is what you got to take home.

Nothing touches you that hadn't already touched his hand.

Nothing touches you that hadn't already touched his hand.

Well, you see the embrace surrounds you.

Nothing touches you that hadn't touched his hand.

When you have your viewpoint change, this is how you'll see the story.

You'll see God standing above the situation saying, There's my boy Paul.

Oh man, there's Paul.

He's in the middle of the ocean.

Okay, okay.

I've got a tribe right over here.

Oh, my king, he's dying.

This king is dying.

And if he dies, he's going to hell.

And if he goes to hell, the entire rest of the tribe's going to go to hell with him.

Oh, I got Paul over here.

Oh, hey, angel.

Whoop up a storm right here.

He ain't got it.

Oh, hang on, King.

I'm coming.

I'm coming.

I'm coming.

So he's got this, he's got this storm going on.

They finally say, I give him up.

They say, that's perfect.

And they say, okay, sail right over here, and they sail right into the ship crashes apart.

Everybody falls off in the cold ocean.

It's chilly.

Oh man, this is cold.

You got chains on.

Hey man, I can't swim right here.

Can you get these off?

I'm about to drown right here.

Come on, dude.

What's up?

Swims to the side.

And God said, Oh, don't forget that snake.

Put him in that pile right there.

Right there.

Get the snake.

Put him in that pile right there.

And so the angel get off, got it all ready.

Gets bit, and guess what?

The tribe looking at him.

Oh, it must be an evil man.

He's gonna die.

He's getting what he deserved.

Made it to the shipwreck, but he's dying tonight.

Woo-hoo! Gotcha, buddy.

That's good.

They're making fun of him a little bit.

And God's going.

I can get my kid.

See how his viewpoints already changed?

It's not a bad day.

It's not a bad two weeks.

Nothing's touching me that hadn't touched the hand of God.

They didn't die.

And the natives said, Wow, you must be a God.

And they began to bow before him to worship.

He said, Get up! I know the God.

What are you talking about?

Get up, I ain't the God.

He said, Well, we got a king over here that's dying.

He said, Great, let me take me to him.

They said, Lay his hands on him.

When he gets healed.

Guess what happens then?

From the bush, they all come.

Everybody that's sick.

They can't.

Hey, we got a guy here that can do it, man.

I'm telling you.

And they start bringing them in from everywhere.

Paul has a whole healing service, and people are getting healed everywhere.

And God goes, That's my boy.

He knows nothing touches him that hadn't touched me.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego going into the fire, weren't afraid.

Gonna burn God's hand first.

What do we do?

We like to whine a little bit.

God, it's not going the way I thought it would go.

Why are you doing this to me?

If you'll change sources, God will change the supernatural.

Stop getting your needs met by the world.

If you've fed off fear all your life, stop getting fed by fear.

Start being fed by the source of the supernatural.

And you'll see the supernatural.

Jeff, how do I get this thing?

Turn with me quickly to Romans chapter 8, and I'm winding up.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

I'm going to read a couple of short verses and we're going to be done.

Verse 11 says, But if the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

Therefore, because of that, what I just said, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh.

And not to live according to the flesh.

I want to stop right there.

I'm telling you, if you want to see the supernatural happen in your life, stop getting fed by the flesh.

Don't get your identity from men.

Get your identity from God.

I don't care what the president of the United States says about you.

He may like you.

That's great.

But don't get your identity from him.

Get it from the king.

Let him embrace you.

When you do, watch out.

It goes on.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

Why aren't people healed?

I don't know all the answers, but I can tell you one of them.

Full benefits are not given those who are part-time.

I can't judge what's in your heart.

You could look at me the last 37 years, 39 years, three years back, and say, boy, he looks good to me.

He didn't look like he has any inward bents.

He looks alright.

He didn't look like he's in bondage to anything.

But I don't say, Well, I was a bound man.

I got my heart wholehearted.

When I de-elevated, when I repented, saying, God, I don't I no longer want approval from anybody but you.

I was free.

For as many as are led, he goes on, but he says, For if you live according to flesh, you will die.

But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you'll live.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God.

You want the supernatural?

Walk by the Spirit.

These are the sons of God.

And then last but not least, we do not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear.

But you receive the spirit of adoption.

By whom we cry out, Adle Father.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

You want to know how to experience the benefit of loving kindness and tender mercies?

How to be surrounded by his compassion.

How to be surrounded by his favor.

Have the spirit of adoption come upon you.

And let him embrace you.

He will change your viewpoint forever.

You will no longer see that God's doing something to you.

You will see it's not touching me unless it's touched him.

And if it's touched him, it's okay with me.

He had a little bigger picture for Paul that day, did he not?

He had an entire tribe that's in heaven dancing with Paul today because he had a little bigger picture.

Yeah, the ocean was cold.

Yeah, he hit his head when the shipwrecked, but he had a little bigger picture.

Yeah, the snake bite did hurt.

It was a little painful.

You ever had poison blood go through your veins?

It burns like fire.

You've ever seen a person get bit by a snake, he screams loud.

Did you know what God said?

I got an entire tribe that's about to go to hell.

I see the bigger picture.

Do you trust me, son?

Father, because I've had your embrace, I trust you.

Because I know you touch.

And nothing touches me that hasn't touched you.

Would you bow your head?