Welcome to the morning live stream of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Sacramento. If you're joining us for the very first time this morning, then you're especially welcome and we trust that you will benefit from the ministry of the Word of God. Due to the rather inclement weather that we're having, we're unable to meet outside for our gatherings today, but we do hope that things will be different next Lord's Day. In the bulletin that you received electronically, you will notice that Pastor Steve will bring the message of God's Word to you this evening via live stream, and that will be at 5.30 p.m. As we continue to navigate the inconvenience of the COVID restrictions, please continue to watch your email for communication from your elders. We will be meeting this week to discuss recent legal decisions and how these affect us, and we do covet and certainly need your prayers. Setting aside our introductory considerations this morning, let us unite our hearts together in prayer and let us seek the blessing of God as we come to His holy word this morning. Let us pray. Our great and glorious God, we bow before you this morning as your people, recognizing that you are indeed the God of all creation and the God of all providence. There's nothing that has been made that you have not made. There is nothing that happens in our world that is outside of your control. Whether it's the sun that you cause to rise in the sky, or the rain that you cause to fall to the ground, you are God overall, and there is none like you. We extol you, our great and glorious God, as the one who is holy, and the one who is righteous, the one who is just in all his ways. We come before you recognizing indeed that in creation we see your power and your majesty, we see your dominion over all things. It's clear to us that you exist and that you are sovereign. Yet we recognize that your creation is not enough to bring us to a saving knowledge of yourself or into a saving relationship with you. It's in your Word and particularly through your Son that we discover your love and your goodness and your kindness. It's through your Gospel that we come to a knowledge of our sinfulness. We discover your holiness and your righteousness and your wrath against sin. We experience your grace and your mercy. and your love, and how thankful we are this morning, Father, that you have indeed come into the world in the person and work of your Son, Jesus Christ, to reveal to us our greatest need, that we are alienated from you because of sin, and to provide for us in Jesus Christ the forgiveness of our sins and peace with God. Father, we confess that we are indeed sinners by nature, fallen and at enmity with you. We come into this world as haters of God, who desire only to live for ourselves. But how we are thankful this morning that in Christ you provide grace, you provide mercy, you call us to yourself through him, and we find pardon and peace and reconciliation through believing in your Son. The work of Your Spirit has made us alive to You, and we are thankful, causing us to turn from sin and to trust in Christ. We come to You knowing that He dwells within us to lead us in the way of righteousness and to conform us to the likeness of Your beloved Son. And our God, as we gather before You this morning in our homes and as we utilize this modern means of communication, we do desire that You would come by Your Spirit and instruct every one of us in Your Word this morning. As we turn again to consider the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as Your people, we pray that You would cause us, Father, to take it seriously and to desire to be shaped by Your Spirit through Your Word into the likeness of Your Son. We're living in challenging times. There is confusion in our nation. There is division in our nation. And we know that there is great rejection of You in our nation. And so, Father, we pray as Your people, we who confess Christ as our Lord and our Savior, we pray that You would make us to be a spiritual people, not a carnal people. May we be concerned about walking in the Spirit. that we would not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. May our lives reflect our confidence in you, our assurance of salvation in Jesus Christ, and our hope in the great gospel of your Son. And so, our Father, as we turn to your Word this morning, we ask now that in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you would teach us. and that we would be changed, and that we would live lives that bring honor and glory to you. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. If you have a Bible at home, I would encourage you to turn with me to Paul's letter to the Galatians. We are in our continuing series on the fruit of the Spirit. We're going to read from Galatians chapter 5 this morning. And I'm going to commence the reading at verse 13. And we'll read to the end of the chapter. Galatians 5, let's read together from verse 13. For you were called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. But through love serve one another, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. In his Confessions, the early church Father Augustine tells the story of his encounter with Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan. And in that encounter initially with Ambrose, the thing that struck Augustine greatly and that he speaks of was the kindness of the bishop toward him. So much so was the impact of the kindness of Ambrose to Augustine that Augustine would say that it caused him to consider more seriously the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. A similar testimony in modern times is given by Rosaria Butterfield, speaking of the Reformed Presbyterian pastor with whom she corresponded. She said it was his kindness to him that was particularly instrumental in her coming to faith in Jesus Christ. We're all too aware, aren't we, that we live in a world that is more likely to treat you harshly than it is to treat you kindly. Yet kindness is a vital virtue. One that all of us need, not only to understand, but if we are Christians, to be manifesting in our lives by the work of the Spirit in our hearts. When Christians are unkind, They are not walking in the Spirit, but they are being carnal. When there are outbursts of wrath, carnal anger, or jealousies, or envies, there is unkindness in our hearts and in our lives. You cannot be kind and unkind at the same time. And this morning, we come to the fifth of the nine fruit of the Spirit, taught to us by Paul in Galatians 5, 22, the fruit of the Spirit that is kindness. And it is to this matter that we're going to turn our attention together. There's no doubt that as the church at Galatia fell into a legalistic spirit, and the people left off resting in Christ alone for their justification, for their salvation before God, and they began to trust in themselves and their law-keeping, that kindness would have become rare. When men are self-righteous, when women are trusting in themselves to be righteous before God by what they do, they are walking carnally and not in the Spirit, and therefore they will not manifest the fruit of the Spirit as Paul speaks of it here. It's evident from what Paul writes earlier in Galatians 5.15, and that's why we read that particular little section together. It's evident there that Paul is warning them against the entrance of an unkind spirit amongst them that would cause them to bite and devour one another instead of loving one another. And in our consideration of the fruit of the Spirit that is kindness this morning, there are three truths that I want us to consider to help us understand what Christian kindness is all about, what Christian kindness looks like, why Christian kindness matters. As we take up our subject this morning of the fruit of the Spirit, which is kindness, we're going to consider God's great act of kindness first and foremost. Because all that we would understand about kindness flows from God's great act of kindness. We'll look, secondly, at God's perfect example of kindness, which, as we will see, is to be found in the person and work of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And then, thirdly, we'll conclude by looking at God's empowering kindness in us. as the Spirit transforms us and makes us more like the Lord Jesus Christ as we trust in Him for the salvation of our souls. So come with me into this subject and consider, first of all, God's great act of kindness. One definition of kindness says this, Kindness is providing something beneficial for another. Now, I don't think that that is an exhaustive definition of kindness, but it is a helpful insight into what is involved in kindness. Providing something beneficial for another. And when we think of kindness in those terms, We're caused to consider then what it means with regards to the world in which we live. To provide something beneficial in an action is to be kind. And as we think upon that, we must ask ourselves then, well, What is the most beneficial act, the most provisional act of kindness ever manifest in the world? And it's at that point that our minds are drawn surely to the truth of the gospel. I believe that the answer to the question, what is the greatest provision and most beneficial act in history, the history of the world, that the answer is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The greatest provision, the most beneficial thing that has ever happened in the history of the world is God coming into the world in the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ. And how appropriate it is as we approach this Advent season that we are caused then by our text this morning, thinking upon the fruit of the Spirit, which is kindness, we're caused by our text to consider the greatest provision and benefit ever seen in the history of the world, the incarnation. of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now remember, as we walk through the series of the fruit of the Spirit, we're not thinking about virtues that men can possess in and of themselves apart from grace. We must remember that by nature, since the fall of man, man does not possess true virtue. At best, man has a shadow of true virtue because of sin. It is only grace, the work of the Spirit, that can truly produce any acceptable virtue before a holy God. And we need to realize this. We need to be clear about this. The fruit of the Spirit is that which God works in those who have come to believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and peace with God. They are the virtues that are wrought in the sinner by the Spirit. Now, how is it that sinners like us, who are born rebels against God, who by nature hate God, how is it that they become children of God and are able to manifest the kind of spiritual character that Paul is setting out here for us in this passage? The answer is clear from the Word of God. It is because of what God has done. in the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ. It's because of what God has provided for our benefit in our fallen state of sinfulness. It is in Christ that God provides the grounds of a right standing with Him, through the life that Jesus lived, through His obedience to the law, through His fulfillment of the law on our behalf. It is in Christ that God provides the grounds of our pardon, from our sins, through the death of Christ on the cross, through the shedding of His blood that makes atonement for sin, Christ is punished for sinners that sinners might be pardoned by God. His blood was shed for the remission of our sins. Atonement was made for our guilt and our transgressions. So in Christ, God provides the grounds of our pardon from sin. And in Christ, God provides the grounds of our hope in raising Christ from the dead in order to justify us, to bring us, and to bring us to glory. There is no greater provision for lost mankind than Jesus Christ. When we understand man's fallen condition, there is no greater benefit to lost mankind than Jesus Christ. Why? Because He alone is the only mediator between God and man. He alone is the only one who can reconcile us to God, and who can bring us into this much-needed saving relationship with our Creator. So as we consider the fruit of the Spirit, which is kindness, we must be clear on the source of all true kindness. We must understand where true kindness emanates from. It is from God, in the person and the work of Jesus Christ, who has lived and died and risen from the dead, so that we might know God, that we might be saved to God, and that we might live for God in this fallen world. So when we consider the fruit of the Spirit, which is kindness, we must begin with God's great act of kindness in His Son. His wonderful provision, beneficial provision for man's greatest need, which is the forgiveness of his sins that he might be reconciled to his Creator. And so as you sit at home this morning and tune into our live stream and consider the fruit of the Spirit, which is kindness, and as you consider God's great act of kindness in and through His Son, I want to ask you, have you tasted this? Have you experienced the kindness of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ? I'm basically asking you, have you come to trust in Christ yourself for the forgiveness of your sins and for peace with God? You see, there is no greater kindness to be known in all of the universe, in all of the history of the world, than to know the kindness of God that forgives sin and reconciles sinful man to God. There is no greater kindness for us to know than peace with God. There is no greater kindness for us to know than the assurance of salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ. How do we come to know these things? We come to know them by believing. in the Lord Jesus Christ for ourselves. It's in the gospel of Christ that God calls you, as an unbeliever this morning, perhaps listening in as an unbeliever, He calls you to taste of His kindness in His Son that you might be saved. In this world of harshness and unkindness, surely there is no greater offer made to the soul of man. Then you consider what you are by nature. When you think about the countless times you've offended God with your sins, or disregarded God in your unbelief, how amazing it is that the kindness of God is extended to you in the proclamation of the gospel this morning, that you might then believe in Christ and taste and see that the Lord is good. Those of us who are already Christians, we know this, don't we? We know that this is indeed true, that we have experienced the great kindness of God to us through Jesus Christ. We know our sins are forgiven as we look to Christ alone for our salvation. We know we are reconciled to God by His grace. We are convinced that we have eternal life because of God in Christ. And so we have all the grounds that we need for us now to live for the glory of God, to honor God, to serve God. What cause for rejoicing as ours as Christians, that we are indeed the recipients of the great kindness of God to us in Jesus Christ. So having thought about God's great act of kindness in His Son coming into the world to accomplish our redemption, let's consider secondly God's perfect example of kindness. God's perfect example of kindness. If God's great act of kindness is to be found in Christ coming into the world to live and die and rise from the dead and ascend to glory for us, then we must consider something of the detail of our Savior's life as God puts on display for us in His Son, kindness itself. You see, through the act of the gift of the Spirit, we reflect not only upon the grounds of our salvation, which is Christ alone, but we consider also the perfect example that is given to us in the life of Christ. The eternal, invisible, immortal God of all creation, the God of all providence, he has chosen to reveal himself to us in a physical form, in the person of His Son, not only in order to provide the grounds of our salvation from sin, which we've considered, that we might be reconciled to Him, but more than that, also in order to put on display for us what perfect holiness looks like, what life in the Spirit looks like, what perfect kindness looks like. And we see this. in the life of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. In all of human history, only one man has ever been good, has ever been perfect, and that is Jesus Christ. And in considering his perfect example of kindness this morning, there are four instances that I want to draw your attention to, to help you flesh out in your heart and in your mind the context in which kindness takes place and what kindness actually looks like. This is not exhaustive, but I do believe that it helps us to understand various aspects of kindness for everyday life. There are four instances that I want to draw your attention to. We see what kindness looks like when we look at Christ and His kindness to the sick. His kindness to the sick. In Mark chapter 5, verses 22 to 34, we have an incident where our Lord encounters a woman with the issue of blood. A woman who has had serious gynecological problems over the years and she's tried many different ways to be healed. She suffered greatly at the hands of first century medical efforts and perhaps even some level of quackery as well to try and help her. But she is still suffering the reality of this malady. She comes and she touches Jesus, and Jesus is aware of it, and what do we find? We find our Lord's heart towards her is such that he desires that she would be well, that she would be healed. We see here kindness from our Lord for the sick, providing benefit to that particular woman in her particular condition. Now, you know, if you know your Bible at all, that there are many examples of this. This is just one example. But what we are seeking to understand here is this, that when it comes to kindness, kindness is indeed a manifestation of our care, a manifestation of our consideration, a manifestation of our compassion to those who have need. And Jesus' kindness to the sick is indeed a manifestation of kindness for us to ponder. We see also his kindness to the bereaved. His kindness to the bereaved. This is seen in the Matthew 5 passage in 35 through 43, where Jairus' daughter has died. Jesus goes and he brings her again to life. You can imagine the scene, can't you, that was there with all the mourning and all the sadness of this young girl having died. And yet God, Christ has compassion. He has care for the family of Jairus. And what do we find? He raises her up to life again, bringing hope. bringing encouragement, bringing help to a family that is bereaved. The arena of sickness, the arena of bereavement are natural arenas in which Christ manifests his kindness to people. We see thirdly, his kindness to the sinful. His kindness to the sinful. Now, we could argue the woman with the issue of blood was sinful and that Jairus and his family were sinful. Of course, that's true because we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. But there are particular incidents in the Gospels in which we see our Savior show particular kindness to those who are clearly identified as sinful in a particular way. We see it in the Rich Young Ruler incident in Luke 18. The text particularly tells us that Jesus explains what righteousness is. He explains what God's law requires of us in regards to righteousness and how it is that the rich young ruler, like all of us, falls short of that standard and can never keep the law in order to be saved. The rich young ruler goes away unrepentant. The rich young ruler goes away unbelieving. And the text tells us that Jesus loved him. Jesus was kind to the young man in his sinfulness. He taught him the truth in his kindness, and the young man went away. That is a stark contrast to what we find in Luke 19, just after Luke 18, where Jesus then engages Zacchaeus, another man who had issues with covetousness and materialism, and how Jesus then goes to his home and ministers to him and calls him to faith and how God in grace through Christ redeems Zacchaeus. We see the kindness of Christ to the sinful. It is throughout the Gospels that we discover this. Our Savior has come into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. Our Savior has a kindness toward the sinful that they might believe in him and they might be saved. And so we see that in this realm of dealing with sinners, our Savior manifests kindness. And so we see His kindness to the sick. We see His kindness to the bereaved. We see His kindness to the sinful. And then notice, fourthly, His kindness to the immature, spiritually immature. I think we discover this most clearly in his relationship with the Apostle Peter. In John 18, we read of Peter's impetuosity on the night our Savior was betrayed and his pulling out of his sword and his defending of Christ with his sword. We see then our Lord's admonition of Peter. And then in John 21, after Peter has gone through the experience of denying our Savior before our Savior's death, we see in John 21, after our Savior has been raised from the dead and he's engaging with his disciples, that again, Jesus is there with John and he is patient with him and he is faithful in his admonition with him. And our Savior shows him kindness in his immaturity. How important it is for us to understand the nature of the Christian life. How it is that it takes time to grow in grace. How it is that whilst God changes our hearts, our heads still have a lot of rearranging, stinking thinking to sort out. And that can take a long time. And our hearts still are plagued with remaining corruption that we need to address and deal with all the days of our life. We must grow from immaturity to maturity. And Jesus shows here the importance of kindness to the immature in grace. Brothers and sisters, we have really no excuse for our lack of kindness when we consider the grounds of our salvation as to be found in Christ, and when we consider the perfect example given to us by our Lord to instruct us in this grace. We see in our Lord's kindness where kindness emanates from. What was it that caused our Savior to be kind to the sick, to be kind to the bereaved, to be kind to the sinful, to be kind to the immature. It was his heart of love. It was his heart of care. It was his heart of compassion, a care that wants to do good, a care that wants to benefit others, a love that is desirous to see others helped and others blessed. Whether it is the sick, whether it is the bereaved, whether it is the sinning, whether it is the immature, kindness, is important. Our Lord's kindness displays a great care, a great compassion for those who are in need. And He desires to provide then for them help in their condition. And we know then that our Savior is but reflecting the heart of God, isn't He, in this love for these various kinds of situations and these various people. And so, my dear brothers and sisters, as we consider our Savior's great example of kindness, we then come to consider, thirdly, God's grace to enable kindness. God's grace to enable kindness. As we look at God's great act of kindness and His condescension and coming into the world in the personal work of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we rejoice that there is indeed Salvation from sin that brings us peace with God. But then when we look at the life of our Savior and we consider His example to us in His life and ministry, and we see how He was kind to the sick and kind to the bereaved and kind to the sinful and kind to the immature, we find ourselves, don't we, somewhat convicted. So we realize how far short we can come at times in being kind. Once we come to this third point, God's grace to enable kindness, I want it to both encourage you and to challenge you, reminding ourselves again that the fruit of the Spirit are those virtues produced in our lives by the work of the Spirit who dwells within us, we do find encouragement then, don't we? Because what it teaches us is this, we are able to be kind by the grace of God. We are able to manifest kindness in our lives by the grace of God as we look to Jesus Christ for the salvation of our souls. Our Lord's work on our behalf has already secured for us our right standing with God, our justification. We have pardoned from our sin and we have the gift of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us in order to enable us then to live a life that is pleasing to our Father. Our Lord's work also provides solid and clear examples for us so that we're not left wondering, well, what does kindness look like? Look at the life of Jesus. Consider our Savior's walk. Consider our Savior's talk. Consider our Savior's life as he walked here upon the earth. The gospels give us insight to these great realities. It's also glorious that through faith in Christ, as we look to our Lord for the pardon of our sins, we also can look to Him for the power that we need to be what God calls us to be in Christ. And so, when you're perhaps finding the way difficult and discouraged and you fell and you've fallen and you see how you're not living as the scriptures call you to, remind yourself, first of all, of the forgiveness of your sins in Jesus Christ. And then remind yourself of the fact that you have the Holy Spirit within you as you look to Christ by faith, and you are enabled by the Spirit. to put to death the deeds of the flesh. This is Paul's whole point in Galatians 5. He's concerned that the Christians would not be walking carnally, but we would be walking spiritually in their lives. He draws these contrasts for us so that we might understand the spiritual battle that we are in as we are in Christ Jesus. But I want to help you this morning to even drill down a little bit deeper in your heart and your mind as we move toward our conclusion. I want you to think this morning about God's enabling us to be kind, particularly in three areas. Three areas that are very personal and very important, and that in many ways shape our Christian character. I want us first of all to consider kindness, as we think about our thought life. Our thought life. As we think about our thoughts, how kind are they? How often are you thinking kindly of people? Thinking about them kindly? Or is it the case that you actually are thinking unkindly of people? suspicious about them, cynical about them. When you have the opportunity to give the benefit of the doubt in your thinking, you don't. My dear brothers and sisters, our thought life is a great battleground. As we think, So we are. The Spirit enables us to possess a thought life that is kind. A thought life that thinks about ways to provide benefit and good to others. A thought life that thinks about how others might benefit by what we might be able to do for them. I don't know about you, but I know that thinking is often very hard for us. But to think about how we think is even harder. but it's vitally important. To consider the behavior of our thought life is vital as a Christian. To ponder how our thoughts are is important. Paul exhorts the Romans in Romans 12, that they would be renewed in their minds, in the way that they think, as they trust Christ for their salvation. So let me ask you in all sincerity this morning, is your thought life marked by kindness? and how you think of your pastors, and how you think of your church members, your fellow church members, as how you think of your family members, your coworkers, as how you think of, yes, even politicians. The Spirit within you should give you hope that your thought life can be a lot more kind than perhaps it presently is. But you must be looking to Christ for the power to have a kind thought life. You must be understanding the life of Christ by being in your Bibles and thinking about how Jesus was kind, that you might then have a mind, a thought life that is shaped by the Spirit and is marked. by kindness. And then as we think about our thought life and the way our minds rest or turn or ponder, we think about the importance of our thought life being kind, we need to consider, secondly, our speech. Our speech. You know and I know that Jesus warns us that the tongue is the index of the heart. What does the patterns of your speech reveal about the kindness of your character? There are aspects to speech that reveal our spiritual state. There is the tone of our speech. How we say things matters. My wife has been very helpful to me over the years in reminding me of this truth. Though I might often be right in principle, I'm often wrong in tone. And so often she has said to me, it's not so much what you're saying to me, sweetheart, it's the way you're saying it to me. that is hindering the communication. And you know that to be true, and I know that to be true. There are tones in the way that we speak that will carry the day or will hinder the day. We need to be clear as we We speak in the tones that we have, that we're qualifying things, that we're affirming things, that we're assuring things, that what we are seeking to say will be received, that we are not being unkind or caustic or censorious in the tones that we use. It's all too easy to be right in your point, but to be wrong in the way that you make it. We need the Spirit of God to help us to see this, to help us to address this. Remember what the proverb says, a gentle word, a gentle word turns away wrath. Not a word, but a gentle word. That's right to the issue. of tone in our speech. And so we must consider the tone of our speech, and we must consider the substance of our speech. What we say is revealing, of course, as well. What it reveals about the true state of our hearts. It's important to consider when we are disagreeing, and we will, whether or not we're now becoming contentious and belligerent and bombastic, which is all tone, but also in what we are actually saying. Kindness does not negate telling the truth. Indeed, we see that in the life of our Savior, whether it's Zacchaeus or the rich young ruler or Peter. Our Savior's kindness to these men did not in any way negate telling them the truth. Indeed, love, as Paul says in Corinthians, rejoices in the truth. But Paul also says we are to truth it in love. And so we need to work out what we're gonna say and the way that we're gonna say it if we would carry the day. There is a difference between saying hard things that maybe need to be said and saying them harshly. It is true, of course, that in this day of great emotional insecurity and immaturity, the cry of, that was mean, is all too common and I would say overplayed. But it doesn't mean that we are excused of considering what we are saying and how we are saying it. What is the verdict of your own conscience this morning on the tone of your patterns of speech, on the content of your patterns of speech when it comes to the grace of kindness, the fruit of the Spirit that is kindness? We are enabled to be kind in our tone and kind in our substance by the power of the Spirit, which is a great encouragement to us. But it requires us recognizing that and looking to Christ to enable us to be transformed. So that brings us to the last of these three considerations as we think upon God's enabling us by His power to be manifesting the fruit of the Spirit. Consider your deeds. Consider your deeds. When was the last time you actually did an intentionally kind deed for someone else without considering yourself? It might just have simply been making a cup of coffee for your spouse. It may simply have been running an errand for someone who had a need. But when you're considering providing something beneficial for another without calculating for yourself, you're being kind. In our self-absorbed world, we can easily live lives that are just all about us. Our interests, our pleasures, our benefits, our applause. Kindness looks away from self to Christ to provide and benefit others, whether it is a visit to an elderly saint. to encourage them because they haven't been able to be out at worship for a while. Whether it is a meal being made to someone in need who's perhaps just had a baby and needs that support. Whether it is providing a bed for the night to a traveler who has come in to town unannounced. Whether it is a ride to church for someone who doesn't have the means to get there. Whether it's a text to encourage someone or a phone call to cheer someone up. But brothers and sisters, the list of kind deeds is endless. If we think about what kindness is, if we see the importance of kindness in our lives as we ponder the importance of being kind as the people of God. Far too many people who claim to be trusting in Christ, to have a right standing with God and have their sins forgiven, who know of our Lord's example, are seriously lacking in the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit, which is kindness. And this should not be as the people of God. All of us who are born again, all of us who are possessed of the Spirit, because the Spirit is within us and He is working out the grace of God into our lives, all of us are able, by grace, through faith in Christ, to manifest kindness and to grow in kindness. Brothers and sisters, I would argue, in this very harsh, in this very hostile, in this very caustic culture, we who are in Christ, we who have experienced the greatest act of kindness in the history of the world, that is the accomplished redemption of Jesus Christ, we who know the perfect example of kindness that has ever walked on the earth, our Savior, we have the Spirit. that we should be the most kind people in our culture, that we should be the most kind people in the world. As we reflect on the fruit of the Spirit, which is kindness, let us never underestimate its impact. It was instrumental, as I mentioned, in Augustine's life. It was instrumental in Rosaria Butterfield's life. And it can be instrumental in the life of many people we haven't even yet perhaps met. God can take even the smallest token of kindness, and He can use it for His eternal glory. We have benefited from the greatest act of kindness, Christ coming into the world, saving us from our sins. We know the great example of kindness that our Savior set us in His life. May we resolve, even in this Christmas season, to reflect and manifest and grow in the fruit of the Spirit, which is kindness, that God may use it to draw others to taste of His kindness in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we are amazed at the greatness of Your kindness as our God. We acknowledge when we ponder man in his natural state, when we consider ourselves by nature, we are amazed that You ever did send Your Son into the world. in order to seek and to save that which was lost. What great love, what wonderful kindness you have shown in sending Jesus. And our Lord Jesus, when we think of your life, as we have it recorded for us in the Gospels, we know that you went about doing good and you went about being kind. You manifested true kindness in a fallen and hostile world. whether it was to the sick or the bereaved or the sinful or the immature, you showed yourself to be what you are, a kind Savior. And how we bless you, Holy Spirit, that you have come, made us alive to God, shown us our unkindness that we might repent and believe in Christ, and now you empower us. to put off our harshness, our unkindness, and to adorn the fruit of the Spirit, which is kindness. Lord God, we pray over this Advent season that we would be a people who would take seriously the grace of Christian kindness, that we would learn of Christ, that we would rest in Him, and that we would seek to be, above all people, kind. in all of our dealings. And so, our God, we come to You this morning thankful for this modern means that we have to bring the Word. We pray for each and every family, each and every individual who's been tuning in, that Father, Your Word would be written on all of our hearts, that as we look to Jesus Christ, the kindest of them all, that we would be ourselves transformed into His likeness. O Lord, hear our prayer and answer it according to Your purposes. For Jesus' sake. Amen.