Love Is Kind

Well, good morning, everybody. It is very good to see you. I'm always happy to see people in church. I think that I will not get over that ever. It's just a joy to be with you today. My name is Valerie, I'm one of the pastors on staff, and I am excited to continue our series, The Lost Art of Love. We are walking verse by verse, and literally almost word by word, through 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. And today we're gonna look at 1 Corinthians 13:4, and study three words. Love is kind.

And you may be thinking, three words, awesome, move up the brunch reservations. This is gonna be a short sermon. I mean, how hard can it be? Kindness, this is kind of the fluffy, it's the fluffy week, it's the fluffy sermon. I don't know about that. Let me tell you a story. I will never forget as a kid, what it felt like on the dark, damp, like only damp can be in Seattle night, when I was walking up the wooden steps, holding onto the railing, going into our new apartment. And we got in, opened the door, pushed the light on, it kind of flickered on, and my mom just burst into tears immediately.

A couple years before this, our family had moved from Washington to Michigan. And when we left, we sold everything. I mean, we sold everything to our church friends. We sold our furniture, we sold our dishes, we sold our silverware, we sold our toys. We basically put our clothes and us in the station wagon, and off we went to Michigan. And it actually turned out to be not a great thing for our family to be back in Michigan. And it was chaotic, and it was messy. And so after a couple years of that chaos, we loaded back up the station wagon, and we still just basically had our clothes and us, and we drove back to Seattle.

And though I was young, I just will never forget kind of looking and blinking to try to comprehend what my mom had immediately noticed. That little apartment was fully furnished with our furniture. That little apartment had a kitchen that was stocked with our dishes, the Corel dishes with the little gold flowers around the edges. It was the '70s. The silverware was in the drawer. We had beds, we had toys. Our church friends had given us back everything that they bought from us. It was amazing. We came back from Michigan. We were battered, and we were bruised, let me tell you. But the kindness of that little Baptist church in Lindwood, Washington transformed our lives.

Kindness, love is kind, is not fluff. Kindness is at the heart of who God is. God is kind. And I'm telling you, biblical kindness is not a cakewalk. It's a lot more than a slogan. It's a lot more than a bless your heart and let me help you across the street today. I mean, as I took a deep dive into kindness over the last couple weeks, I really paid attention to when I was kind and when I wasn't kind. I was reminded that kindness is tough. Kindness is strength. Kindness is not wishy-washy, and kindness doesn't just naturally happen, at least not for me. Kindness was a choice that I had to make every single day.

I love what Dr. Barry Corey, the president of Biola University, says about kindness. He says, "Kindness isn't niceness. Kindness isn't random. It's radical and brave and daring and fearless and courageous. It has more power to change people than we can imagine." Change my family. It can break down seemingly impenetrable walls. It can reconcile relationships, long thought irreparable. It is authentic and not self-serving. Don't sell kindness short. Love is kind.

And I think Dr. Corey is also onto something else that happens today especially when we think about kindness, because our culture today has kinda gone to two sides, and it sees kindness as niceness. It's mushy. It's sweet. Anything goes. It can be very coddling. And so our culture says, "No, you can't be like that." And so it goes over to the opposite side and goes, "No, you have to be firm on your convictions, and you have to be aggressive, and you have to be combative," and all those things. And we think, "I don't wanna be either of those things."

And that's where the Bible, and I think Jesus, lived and shows us the way of kindness, not niceness that's coddling and mushy, and not harshness that's combative and cancels you. The way of kindness, firm on your convictions, and living out the kindness that flows out of the kindness that God has shown you. And the Bible has a lot to say about this. I was reminded as I was studying for this how much the Bible actually talks about kindness. And we're gonna look at a lot of those passages today, but we're gonna anchor ourselves in a story, a story that Jesus told that shows us how to live the way of kindness, and that's the Good Samaritan.

So go ahead and open your Bibles to the second half of the Bible to Luke 10, and we're gonna start in verse 25. And I'm just gonna read the story to you first. It says, "On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. 'Teacher,' he asked, 'what must I do to inherit eternal life?' 'What is written in the law?' Jesus replied. 'How do you read it?' And he gives the Sunday school answer. 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.' 'You're right,' Jesus said. 'Wouldn't that be fun to have Jesus tell you you're right? Do this and you will live.'

The guy should have just stopped right there. But he doesn't. But he wanted to justify himself. So he asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor? Who exactly do I need to be kind to?" And in reply, Jesus told a story. He said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, went away, left him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by to the other side. So too a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by to the other side.

But a Samaritan, as he traveled, and came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I'm good for the rest of it. I'll reimburse you for any expense you may have.'

And then Jesus asked, "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." And Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." So here's a passage that's probably not a revelation to anyone this morning. It's a passage you've maybe heard, you're familiar with, or at least familiar with the phrase, the Good Samaritan. I mean, we have a hospital over the hill called Good Samaritan. So you've heard this phrase.

We all know the moral of the story when you're asked, what's the moral of the story? Be the Samaritan. We all know how to answer the question, but how? How? How do we be the Good Samaritan? How does the kindness that we see demonstrated in this story, how can we translate it into our lives? And that's where the rubber meets the road. And that's what I wanna talk about for the rest of our time together this morning. I wanna talk about three things, three kinds, three ways we can live out kindness to those around us.

And the first thing that I see is that we need to see the need. We just have to see the needs that are all around us. You know, before the Good Samaritan arrived on the scene, at least two people just walked by this guy and went wide, and they were religious leaders. And I'm kinda tempted to go, what's up? Come on, guys, why are you doing this? And I don't know, maybe they thought it was a trap. Maybe they thought if I go look at this guy and help him that they'll attack me, and then I'll end up being beaten up and left for dead on the side of the road. I don't know. Maybe they were busy. They chose their schedules over helping somebody. I don't know, but they did not stop.

And so Jesus has a plot twist for everybody who's listening to him. He says, "But a Samaritan." And all the listeners would've gone, no, not a Samaritan. It can't be a Samaritan. The Samaritan and the Jews had a deep, deeply seated animosity towards each other. This was like calling someone a racial slur. When the religious leaders wanted to call Jesus a name in the book of John, the name they called him was a Samaritan because they thought there's nothing worse we could call him. But in contrast to the people who went wide, the Samaritan sees the man. The Samaritan stops. The Samaritan takes pity on this guy.

Now, I don't know about you, but for me, one of the biggest obstacles when it comes to seeing the need is hurry. I just have to slow down enough sometimes to see the need. I am not, people who know me will tell you that I'm not a good stopper. I naturally walk fast. I multitask. If you see me talking on the phone around the church, most likely I am talking, trying to get in my steps, and weeding at the same time. Because I'm not necessarily looking to take it in. I am looking to be efficient. I wanna get things done, and so I hurry, hurry, hurry.

There are times when I am kind of in go mode trying to get from point A to point B and somebody will step in front of me. I have to tell myself, Valerie, stop. Look them in the eye. Because if I don't remind myself of that, my eye starts to shift above their shoulder to go, is there an obstacle, any more obstacles? Can I keep going, can I keep moving, can I keep moving? And that stops me. I know it's horrible to admit, but we're in church. I'm gonna guess I'm not alone either. One or two of you might do the same thing. But for me, hurry is the enemy of kindness in my life.

When my schedule is so full that everything has to go exactly perfectly, I'm not looking for needs. As a matter of fact, I don't wanna see any needs, 'cause it's gonna throw my schedule off. Hurry, for me, can be the enemy of kindness. 1 John 3:17 was quite a strike to the heart this week. It says, "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need, but has no pity on them, just keeps on going, how can the love of God be in that person?" Oh, that hurts. But God is saying, stopping kindness, seeing the need, is connected to us expressing God's love for people. It matters.

Now for some of you, maybe hurry isn't the issue, but maybe you are just so overwhelmed with your own needs that you're having a hard time seeing the needs of others. And I get it, there are days when just getting through the day, the needs that you have is all that you can do. And it's not unimportant to take care of your needs. The Bible tells you to. But it says in Philippians 2, we're also supposed to think about the needs of others. When our needs become our sole focus, we are tempted to just cross to the other side of the road because we don't wanna get involved with something that could slow us down or something that could complicate our lives.

And before I go on to the next point, I also was reminded this week, when I see the need, it's really important I think that we see their need. Often when I see a need, I'm really seeing a situation. And then I decide how can I fix this? How can I make this all go away for them? And in doing so, I don't see their need. I see what I wanna fix, what I think needs to change. And I try to manage and control their needs. So when you see the need, see their need. What stops you from seeing the need? Is it hurry, is it overwhelm, what is it? I'm gonna encourage you this week, ask God to drop those scales from your eyes. Ask God to help you see the needs that are all around you.

The needs of a toddler who maybe is just experiencing emotions that are so big they don't know what to do with it. Or maybe the need of a friend or a coworker or a spouse. Someone you go to school with. See the needs around you. Take it in, stop. Take pity on people like the Samaritan did. Now you might be thinking, it's obvious, Val. Might not be a five minute sermon, but it's gonna be a one point sermon and we're outta here. I like it. Not so. Did you notice in the passage that it says both religious leaders saw the man? If you look at those verses, it literally says they saw him. So just seeing the need isn't the end of it. They needed to and we need to do the second thing, which is seize the opportunity.

Seize the opportunity. In contrast to the religious leaders who went to the other side of the road, the Samaritan went to him. He went to him. I tell you, we could chew on that for the rest of the day. Are we people who cross to the other side of the road or are we people who go towards people? Do we go towards them? The Bible has a lot to say about practical kindness, the type of kindness that this Samaritan showed. He's bandaging wounds. He put the guy on his donkey, so now he has to walk and the guy gets to ride on the donkey. He brought him to an inn, he left money so that that guy could heal in peace and safety and comfort. So practical. And that's the kind of kindness that God calls us to frequently in the Bible.

Colossians 3:12 says, therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, make sure you notice where you serve from, from a position of being dearly loved, then clothe yourselves with compassion kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. Galatians 5:22 says, this is how people know you follow Jesus. This is how people know that God's got a control of your life, the fruit of your life. And that fruit looks like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. So often in these verses, you will see the words love and kind in the same verse. They're connected. We are called to actively reflect God's kindness and God's love to the people around us. And we don't get to get out of it. We don't get to marginalize it.

Popular nowadays to try to politicize kindness. We don't get to do anything like that. We are called to kindness. And honestly, one of the many reasons that I love this church is that this church not only sees needs, but it seizes opportunities. It seizes opportunities for kindness. I think of people like Charlotte, who though she is personally struggling with cancer, from the command center of her home, runs two amazing ministries. She runs our homemade ministry and our driving angels ministry, helping people in our community who are needy get things at their home fixed when they can't afford it or can't do it. Making sure people who are sick have a ride to their doctor's appointments. All between her own treatments, she's doing this.

I think of Mr. Hank. I love Mr. Hank. He's right now over in the preschool building, loving on, being kind to, telling our preschoolers about Jesus. He has taught a generation of TLC children about the love of Jesus. I love Mr. Hank. People like Nancy and Tammy, who are the masterminds behind the Wonder Ball that just happened on Friday night, where over 140 people in our special needs community had a blast, danced the night away, and had so much fun, because these women have chosen kindness. Many of you have chosen kindness. I see Ken over here, who helps repair single mom cars. I see Jim right here, who helps out with a people's pantry. I see so many people in this congregation who are seizing opportunities for kindness. I love that. That's who we are as a church.

I think that's one reason the Hope Center's so compelling to all of us, because it's gonna be a launching pad for seizing opportunities to be kind. That's us corporately. And I love it, and sometimes it's a lot easier for me to be kind corporately. I get to hang out with my friends, everyone's doing it, it's positive peer pressure, it's great. But what about me personally? How about me personally? Am I seizing opportunities to be kind personally? Well, here's something I learned about myself this week. I will generally act in kind ways. I will pick up trash, I will put my shopping cart back, I will, if I see you and you need help, I will act kindly towards you.

My problem, I discovered, comes a lot in my mind. Whether or not I am speaking kindly about the situations that I am observing, I realize that I can be nice, nice, kind, kind, smile, smile, and in my head I'm going, what in the world is happening right now? What is this person thinking? Why did they say that? I can't believe they're acting like that right now. Keep smiling, it's fine. I realized it's a little ugly up here when it comes to kindness. I made a quick trip up to Oregon for an event this week, and when I was standing in line to get my rental car, the woman in front of me was coming unglued on the desk agent because she had reserved a small Kia, and they were trying to give her a mid-size SUV, and she was not having it.

I must have heard the word Kia 20 times in one sentence. She wanted the Kia, she wasn't leaving without the Kia, and she was holding that agent personally responsible for the lack of Kias at the Portland International Airport and globally by the end of the conversation. And I felt so bad for the agent. And I'm standing behind this woman, I'm gonna be so kind when I get up to that counter. I am gonna be the picture of kindness to that woman. And I was ready to act kind. I was gonna seize the moment, but I was definitely not seizing the moment in my mind about the Kia woman.

I was raking that woman over the coals of my standards, and what I thought she would do, I would never act like that, I can't believe that. Oh man, I was not kind at all, it was not good. And I think, again, there's probably a lot of us in this room who suffer similarly. We would act kind, we would not choose probably ever to be purposely mean to somebody, but if our thoughts actually were displayed, people would be like, oh, they're not very kind at all, actually, this isn't good. We have to seize the opportunity for kindness, not just in our actions, but in our thoughts as well, because guess what? That bitter, judgmental stuff that runs through our heads, the Bible promises will eventually make its way out in our mouths and our words and our actions, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Yes, seize the opportunity to act kindly, to pray for somebody, to bring a meal, to go for a walk, to share a cup of coffee, to make a bed, definitely seize the opportunity to act kindly, but also seize the opportunities to think kindly as well. Well, back to our Good Samaritan, as I mentioned before, Jesus kind of wraps this whole story up with a question. And again, he asks the teacher of the law, which of these three was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? Everybody who heard that story knows the answer, and nobody wants to say it. And I think it was probably quieter, a little longer than it needed to be, as the teacher in the law finally said, the one, the one who had mercy on him.

And I love that it doesn't seem that this teacher of the law could even say the word Samaritan. He just kind of mumbles out, the one. I have the one. I'm guessing you probably have the one as well. Might be a person, might be a group of people, might be a political party, the one. And it's all fine and dandy when I'm up here talking about renting cars and car rentals. You're like, oh yeah, that's the easy place to change in how we show kindness. But when it comes to the one, oh, that's where we start to see we need Jesus. This isn't gonna work by ourselves.

What's the summary line of this whole story that Jesus tells? Jesus says, go and do likewise. Be the Samaritan. Go and do likewise. Be kind even to the one? Yep, those are our marching orders. When we read 1 Corinthians 13:4, there's no loophole. It does not say love is kind when. Love is kind if. It just says love is kind. And I hear the internal dialogue from some of you in this room, you're going, yeah, but. Yeah, but you don't know. You don't know about the one. You're right, I don't know about the one. But God does.

You might be thinking, you know what, Val? No one's kind to me. I am pouring out kindness in my life and nobody is kind to me. You might feel very isolated in that. You might even feel like, if I'm being honest, Val, I don't even really think God is being kind to me. I think God's being kind to a lot of other people and I'm just kinda getting his leftovers. Whatever's left at the end of the day, that's what he's giving me. Your kindness tank is empty. So how do we fill it up? What do we fill our kindness tank with? Do we fill it with looking in the mirror in the morning and going, okay, lady, do more. Be better, be kinder. Don't think stupid stuff about people in your head. No, that's gonna last for about two seconds until I get on Highway 1 and then I'm gonna think stupid stuff in my head for sure.

So how do we fill up the kindness tank? What do we fill it with? And I think that's the third thing we see. And that is we have to soak in the kindness of God to us. We have to soak in God's kindness. And when I wrote the outline for the sermon today, I really struggled with should this be the first point or the last point? Because I think it's actually both points. God's kindness to us is the foundation from which all of our kindness actually flows. God's kindness to us is our hope. It's our example. It's all of those things to us.

We need to remember that God is not asking anything from us that he already hasn't done for us. Look what he's done for us. Look what Jeremiah 31:3 says. I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. Love and kindness together again in God. And that kindness of course was ultimately expressed in Jesus Christ. Titus 3:4–5 reminds us but when the kindness and love, holding hands again, when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us not because we were super kind, not because we were super good. He saved us not because of righteous things that we had done but because of his mercy. God is so kind to us. So kind.

And again, he is not asking anything from you that he has not already done for you, that he will not supply for you. So what stops us from soaking in God's kindness? It's so critical but what stops us? I think some of the things that stop us from being kind. Sometimes we're just in a hurry. And that stops us from soaking in the kindness of God. Sometimes we're tired. Sometimes we're overwhelmed, we're fatigued. And you know what? Sometimes we're just so familiar that we're not stunned by it anymore. We're just like yeah, be like the Samaritan. No, no, no, no, no, I get it, Val. And we've just lost our shock over the fact that the God of the universe is drawing us with unfailing kindness. Unfailing kindness.

From the fullness of all that God has done for you and given you, that's where we get the eyes to see the need because we remember that God sees our needs. From the unfailing kindness of God, that's where we have the source of kindness so that we can seize the opportunities around us, that we get to partner with God in being kind to others and being a blessing. You may be wondering what the point of life is right now. You may feel like, listen, all I do right now is I get up, do my day, hopefully get to eat a meal, possibly get to watch a show, and then I go to bed and then I do it over again and it just feels like a grind. Or you may feel like, I feel like my life is suddenly very isolated or it's very quiet right now. Kindness gives meaning to our moments.

As we soak in God's kindness for us, it reminds us, oh, I've got something to give. I've got something to give everybody that I encounter today. I can be a blessing. But it all starts with God. Love is kind and God is love. Back at that little Baptist church in Linwood, Washington, we sang a song that could be a refrain, a prayer for us all as we think about kindness this week. Let's make me a blessing, make me a blessing. Out of my life may Jesus shine. Make me a blessing, oh Savior, I pray. Make me a blessing to someone today.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for your kindness to us. Lord, thank you, thank you for the many ways that you have demonstrated your kindness. God, I pray for the person especially today who does not sense your kindness at all right now, who maybe just senses nothing, numbness. God, I pray that you would open the eyes of that person's heart to know, to see that you are kind to them. You are unfailingly kind. I pray for the person today, Lord, who is struggling with the one. And what does it mean to be kind to the one? God, I pray that you would give that person wisdom to know when to be and how to be kind. God, I pray that you would give that person just a source of kindness that they know does not come from them but comes from you.

God, I pray for all of us that as we walk through this week, our eyes would be wide open to the opportunities to see needs and to seize opportunities. Lord, I pray that this church's reputation would just continue to go forth as a place that is reflecting the truth that love is kind. In Jesus' name, amen.