So good morning and welcome again, everyone.
My name's Laura MacFarlane. I generally attend with my
husband Greg and son Uyazi, who are both at home today because
they're a bit sick, or at least Uyazi is.
And so I'm here alone. And today we're going to be
continuing through our series on Fruits of the Spirit.
Our topic today is going to be on kindness in Galatians.
And Nelly kindly has agreed she's going to be reading
Galatians 522 to 25 for us. There's a few different versions
floating around and slightly different words used.
We're going to be reading from the NIV.
But the fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, forbearance,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control. Against such things there is no
law. Those who belong to Christ have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Thank you. Great.
So I don't know about you, but often when I see a lot of words
that are similar grouped together, I generally think of
kind of the general vibe of things, especially if we're in a
hurry, we just kind of say, well, those are all nice things
that we're reading about, kindness, peace, goodness.
So when I read verse 22 particularly, and I'm hoping
it's staying on the screen, the fruits of the Spirit as a whole,
I'm often thinking, well, the fruits of the Spirit are really
just being a good person. And if we look at a few verses
just before that, in verse 19, those works of the flesh as they
described, I think, well, that's being, that's being a bad
person. And we really just get a feeling
for what we're reading and then we move on to the next.
But today what we're going to try do is to consider each word
in these verses as breathed out by God.
And we it's important to sometimes take that step to
meditate on this particular word.
Think how is it different from the one?
Why did God include this list? Why didn't he just say be a good
person? And when we adopt this approach,
we sometimes, at least sometimes, we find that our our
Bible reading can be so much more fruitful and we can really
learn quite a bit. So today we're going to pause
and we're going to consider the idea of kindness in quite a bit
of detail. We're going to do it three ways.
We first going to try see what we can glean from the word
kindness in verse 22. So we're going to look in the
actual verses around it. We're then also going to be
looking at Galatians in general. We know that books of the Bible
like this, which are written by Paul, there's often these
recurring themes that they're not saying contradictory things.
So it helps us as we trying to interpret what does God mean
here by kindness, to look at the context of the book as a whole.
And then we're also going to be looking at a more holistic
reading by bringing in some other texts and making sure our
view of kindness is aligned to a reading of the Bible as a whole.
And I know I'm not the only one who sometimes just groups these
together because a few weeks ago Ryan came and he mentioned that
he was preaching on kindness. And I was a bit taken aback
because I directly written my preach by then on kindness.
And then I can't remember what he's actually preaching on.
Could be gentleness, could be goodness.
But the point is that both me and Ryan just kind of group all
of those together. You're preaching on gentleness.
OK, there we go. All right, so as we go through
the sermon, I'm going to encourage you to think
constantly about two things. Firstly, how does this word, how
does God's word change the way or develop the way that we see
God and this considering this word of kindness?
And secondly, I want us to think also personally, as we go
through this word, what is God maybe saying to me or to us as a
church and not just to have this download of more information
like we've had in the week to be stored separately.
We know God's word is active and alive and we know he's speaking
to us. So let's really approach it with
those open hearts. All right?
Today we're going to be looking at 4 questions as we look
through kindness. The first is what?
What is kindness? We're then going to look at why.
Why would we desire kindness? Why would we even consider this?
We're going to look at who who we call to be kind to.
And then we're going to end off with the how, which is often the
the most tricky part. So starting with the what, what
is kindness and particularly how do we separate it from the other
fruits of the spirit as you're mentioning gentleness, Paul
doesn't give us, unfortunately. A footnote at verse 22 with a
definition of this is what I mean by kindness and Galatians
is a book as a whole. It mentions many things that we
might think is kind. It mentions praying for each
other in chapter 6. It mentions bearing each other's
burdens, but it doesn't necessarily always link these to
kindness. So we're going to have to go a
little bit further. And one of the ways I find quite
helpful when I'm reading something and I'm wondering what
does it really mean in this context is to look at some of
the commentary. Now we have commentators, the
commentary you're going to look at today is for the ESP study
Bible. Commentators who study the
Bible, who look at where's this word used, what are the specific
translations and the message that's overarching in the Bible
of as a whole. And they give us some guidance
as to what they think it means. So the ESP study Bible indicates
that kindness means showing goodness, generosity, and
sympathy towards others. And that's the the definition
that they give for this particular word that's used in
verse 22 of the passage we're looking at.
The second thing we can do is we can also look at where else is
the word mentioned in the Bible? Now we're going to be looking at
the English version. You can also go into the
specific other languages, but where else is kindness used and
what's the context there? What can we learn?
So kindness can also be understood in that way to mean
mercy or steadfast love. In Micah 6 verse eight, in the
context of God speaking to his people that he doesn't want
mindless routine sacrifice. He wants peoples whose hearts
are changed, transformed to look like him as those followers.
Those are his true followers. And in that context he says he
wants people to of kindness or pursue kindness.
Another clue for us of what this kindness means is found in One
Corinthians chapter 13 verse 4 to 6, where it sees kindness as
a part of what it means to love. The verse that we all know very
well, it says love is patient and love is kind.
So it's not the whole of love, but I believe kindness is a part
of what it means to love. Another way when we considering
a word in the Bible and how to know what it means is to look at
some examples. Sometimes we know what it is
when we see it, even if we can't describe it very well.
So sometimes what we can do is we can look at examples of what
we might see as kindness in the Bible, and then we can unpack
some of those characteristics. What is it that makes it kind?
So one example I'll give is from Ruth and Boaz.
We're not going to go to the story, but you can read it in
Route 2 to 4. And in the story, Boaz let's
Ruth, who's a poor foreign widow, collect food in his
fields. And what she was collecting was
what he wasn't really going to be using anywhere.
It was what would be left for the birds, essentially.
But he also instructs his workers to leave a bit extra for
her to make it a little bit easier.
And what's kind about that is, firstly, we know that he asked
around about her. So he knows that she needs the
food. I mean, those days, a woman
without a husband, it wasn't as common, wasn't as easy to work.
And she's a widow, so she really needed some extra assistance.
But he doesn't just go to her and say, well, here's a whole
lot of food in a bag. I've done it for you.
He gives her dignity, allows her to continue with what she's
doing, but he also doesn't tell her.
So he's not expecting anything returned because she doesn't
even know what he's done. He's simply taking steps behind
the scenes to make her life a little bit easier.
So that gives us a bit of an idea about what kindness might
look like in that story. Another one is from Two Samuel
9. It's David, and I meant to ask
someone how to say this nicely. Mephibosheth.
I'm going to call him Mr. M for now.
So David shows kindness to Jonathan's disabled son by
restoring his land and inviting him in this part of the Bible to
eat at his table every day. So what is kind about that?
Well, firstly, he gives him stability by giving him land.
He gives him this long term way to have sustainable income
again. He doesn't just throw a few gold
coins to make himself Betty. He's thinking, how can I really
set you up well? But more than that, and quite
importantly here is he gave him recognition and company, so he
was going to be able to eat at the King's table forever more.
And he doesn't have to eat alone.
So not only does he have that link and that ability to have
some status or on earth, which he might not have had before,
but he's also doesn't have to be alone.
He's going to be with people around him.
And we know that in those days, disabled people weren't treated
particularly well. So it wouldn't have been
elevating the King's status to have him at his table.
But he's really doing it because he wants to show him kindness.
And we know that he had very little to offer in return.
We know this also because how does he respond to the King's
offer? He says, what is your servant
that you should notice a dead dog like me.
So he's he's coming forward in the position that well, I know I
don't have anything to repay you with.
So thank you. This is this is unexpected and
it's really just coming from kind heart.
Then the third and last example I want us to look at in the
Bible is from John 81211 and it's about Jesus.
When a crowd brings for forth a woman who's caught in adultery
and they want to stone her because of the sin that she's
been caught in, and Jesus protects her from condemnation
and he, he restores her dignity. He was perfect.
He had the moral authority to say, yes, that was wrong.
I would never do it. He, he could have gone with the
crowd who is looking to punish her, but instead he doesn't take
the easy or popular choice without condemning, sorry,
without condoning her sin. He shows her compassion.
He doesn't join in with a crowd, but it's what, what's quite
important about this part of the story is he also says go and sin
no more. So he, he indicates that this is
wrong. I'm, I'm not accepting it.
I'm not being soft on this, but I'm showing kindness to you.
And that's an important part of our definition of kindness as
well, because kindness doesn't deny truth.
Kindness just delivers truth with grace and humility.
And I've got a personal example that I've shared with some of
you that I was grappling with recently.
I've someone at work who's not been performing very well.
They haven't even been working a full day and their work products
not great. And I've gently communicated the
truths over many months and tried to help them perform.
But I have a Co manager and we manage this person together.
He's not a Christian and he's taken the approach of I don't
really want to deal with this, so I'm not going to be doing
anything. That approach is a lot easier
because you don't get pushed back.
You don't have to deal with conflict and you're a lot more
liked by employees. And I was, I've been grappling.
I've also been considering, well, is that approach more kind
because it doesn't feel very kind.
I'm having to deal with this conflict.
I'm having to face something and pray about it and make sure it's
done in a nice way. But I I want his job.
I want to just just leave it and through lots of discussions with
mature Christians and lots of prayer, I've been coming more to
the peace that actually that's not a kind approach.
It's not a kind approach to leave it.
It's because it ignores the growth that you can see in
someone. It ignores their ability to take
opportunities to grow. It also ignores the impact that
someone's not performance or non attendance at work having on
others, the clients, the people that you're supposed to serve,
maybe on the Co workers who are picking up more slack.
So often we we avoid these kind of discussions or we avoid being
engaging with difficult topics because we see, well, as a
Christian, I need to be kind and kind just means avoid conflict
at all costs. But we see that that as Jesus
did that that's not really what kindness is.
Kindness involves honesty. We want to communicate with love
and humility. We want to pray about the right
timing and how much and how to do and if we're the right person
to do it. But we also need to be honest
and kindness doesn't ask us to leave that honesty behind.
So why don't you take a moment and consider something that some
examples that might be personal to you take, take a thought and
think about even this week, was there any opportunities where
other people showed kindness to you?
Did you see someone give kindness to someone else?
Was someone perhaps kind to you or did you miss an opportunity?
If anyone wants to share, you're welcome to pop your hand up and
and stand up. But start to start to think a
little bit about what does this mean for me?
Is it something I've even thought enough about to come up
with an example? I'll give you a second.
Some examples might be quite silly.
It might be doing someone's washing for them.
If you have a roommate or someone that you stay with.
It might be preparing a meal for someone.
It might be paying someone's train fare.
It might even just be praying with someone when you know they
really need that support and company.
It might be someone giving someone the better seat in
public transport, if you can see they just they just had a bad
day and they just might need a bit of extra comfort.
And what these examples that we're thinking of, what it
should lead the other person to think is why me?
That was unexpected because like Mr. M as we calling him, there
should be no specific reason that we do those things.
It's not because I think you're going to help me in the future.
It's not even because I feel guilty about it.
So I want to make myself feel better.
It's simply because I know that that would be pleasant for you.
I know it would make your life easier.
So we should be doing things constantly that have that
reaction of what? Why me?
Why would you do this for me? You didn't have to because if
you had to, it might not really be coming from from the heart of
kindness. So looking at these definitions
and these examples and this commentary is some of the
characteristics that we can draw into some bullet points of our
definition of kindness is this, it requires action.
So kindness mustn't be confused with just being nice.
Someone can be very nice, but do very little for other people.
I just, I have good feelings towards you, but kindness
requires you to do something. There's also no expectation of
reward or no other reason for being kind.
But what you're really looking to do when you're being kind is
just to make someones life a little bit more pleasant or a
little bit easier. It might be offering to do nice
things for them, helping them, listening to them, just
recognizing them and spending time with them.
Or it might be giving as well. And sometimes it might be, you
might be thinking, well, I mean, I don't really know all the
opportunities. When Laura gave me a minute, I
couldn't really think of that many.
But I'm not going to tell anyone.
So how do I, how do I think about when to be kind?
I mean, it's something that you learn in grade one, but it's not
something I've really had anyone speak to me about after after
that and learning values in primary school.
And what I found quite helpful is in Galatians itself.
Early on in Galatians 514, we reminded of the Golden Rule,
which says for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one
command, love your neighbor as yourself.
And we already know from Corinthians that part of love is
to be kind. And where does Paul come up with
this in in Galatians? Where does he come up with this
golden rule? Because he didn't make it up.
Jesus himself taught this and said it twice, once in Matthew
7, once in Matthew 22. Both times he essentially
speaking about the greatest commandment, this golden rule,
and he speaks about loving God and loving your neighbor as
yourself. And if you're anything like me,
you're probably quite good at finding out what you want.
You're quite good at thinking about expectations of what would
be nice for someone else to do for you.
And that's probably the easiest way to think about how can I be
kind is to think about if I was in that person's shoes, what
would I want? What would make my life more
pleasant or easier? If it's a couple who've just had
a child, it might be going to pray with them about their
parenting and about the child. It might be taking them a meal.
If it's a single person and you know, they don't have much
family in town, maybe it's inviting them to some family
dinners, to some family events and just to like bringing them
as part of your community. If it's someone's society tends
to shun or only deal with in a certain way, maybe it's simply
taking the time to look them in the eye to have a conversation
that doesn't involve advice or giving but just recognizes them
as a person. Might even be something as
simple as letting your roommate have the better room but letting
someone have a shower when you both come home cold.
About giving someone the nicer meal.
If you have two options. Small things that you just know.
I would like it if someone did that for me so I'm going to do
it for them now anyway. And then moving on to our why is
what? Why do we need to be kind?
There's a famous movie, I don't know if anyone's watched it
cause called because I said so. And it's really this mocking on
this human idea of always wanting to ask why.
If you tell your kids don't do that, don't eat that you're not
allowed to do that. What is the general response you
get Why? And as adults we like to think
of it as more childish thing. If someone offered a promotion
and it's not you at work, why something bad happens.
Why? If someone else gets a benefit
and they're like, why not me? And I think the reason is we
often tend to accept things more and we often are able to act
more if we know the why. So it's, it's a lot of studies
and courage in the workplace is try get your employees on board
or try get your family on board. If it's parenting, if people
understand the why, they're more likely to get behind an idea and
to do it. So why would we be kind?
Why would we even try? The first reason we're going to
go back to our cortex today is in Galatians 5, verse 22 to 25.
It tells us that those who belong to Christ have crucified
the flesh with its passions and desires.
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
So part of the reason why is because it's our very nature.
It's God's design is when we belong to Christ.
Paul mentions later in Galatians 6 that we this new creation, we
we every day we dying to our desires because this
transformation is taking place. It's a reality for those who
call Christ their Lord. So we continue to make mistakes,
but we're empowered by the Spirit to be transformed.
And this leads to our our second point is as we being transformed
to be more like God's character. Part of the why is because God
is kind, because God has been kind to us.
From Romans 2 verse one to four, it says, Do you suppose a man,
you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them
yourself, that you will escape the judgement of God?
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance
and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead
us, meant to lead you to repentance.
So how did God show us kindness? God showed us kindness by
sending His Son to die for us. This free offering of grace is
just the most beautiful picture of kindness we know.
So we want to imitate our Father's kindness to us.
We wanted to overflow because we know someone has been so kind to
us. And Luke 6:35 to 36 emphasizes
this idea as well. It says, But love your enemies
and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your
reward will be great, and you'll be sons and daughters of the
Most High. For he is kind to the ungrateful
and the evil. Be merciful even as your Father
is merciful. So we are kind because our God
is kind to us, but our God is kind to everyone.
Our God is kind and we want to imitate that.
And then lastly, kindness is so critical and important to God
and often more than we often imagine.
One of my favourite verses in the Bible outlines 3 things that
God asks of us. Now just give you a second think
of three things. If you have to summarize, what
does God require of me? What does God need me to do?
And I will give you a hint that it's in the Old Testament.
What are the three things that you would come up with that God
requires of you? It's in Micah 6 verse 8, and it
simplifies God's instructions to his people.
And three, three tasks says he has told you a man, what is good
and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to
love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.
And this is in the context we spoke about it earlier of God
saying he doesn't want this mindless sacrifice.
He wants this. He wants this of a Christ or a
follower of him and it sounds quite simple to love kindness or
other other versions use mercy, but it's not something we often
prioritize We it it doesn't sound glamorous.
We might even think it's a bit weak and unambitious in today's
day. We want to conquer, achieve,
lead, and we want to succeed, but I don't know how many of us
in our New Year's resolutions had be kind.
And yet it's three-part of three things that God says he requires
of us as a whole is to be kind. And I wonder if we give it the
same amount of priority as God does.
Then the third question is who? I'm not going to spend a lot of
time on this because I know everyone in this room.
We we know who who. It's more just that when you're
in those moments, it becomes a bit cloudy.
Is that academically we could write on a paper, we'd all get
100% in theory, but it's the practical that we probably
struggle with a little bit more on The Who, Well, let's look at
it anyway. It's in Galatians 69 to 10.
So the same book that our core text is from, and we're going to
read it again. It says let us not grow weary of
doing good for due season. We will reap if we do not give
up. So then, as we have opportunity,
let us do good to everyone. Let us do good to everyone and
especially to those who are in the household of faith.
The one thing I don't want us to do is just to catch on to that
end part. It's to everyone, but mainly,
mainly just to the Christians. You know, the other people are
the ones we don't really want. So, so we can have a look at
Luke 6 from 35 to 36. We read it earlier, it says, but
love your enemies, do good and lend expecting nothing in return
and your reward will be great. It will be sons of the most high
for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
So we have kindness to those who believe we have kindness to the
grateful and the evil. I think that means everyone the
the full spectrum. And then how we're going, how
can we be empowered to be kind? Kindness is a quality that's
gained a lot of popularity in the last decade.
I don't know if you've seen, but as I drive to from work, there's
a big sign on a bull ball that's just be kind and you see it
online on people's profiles. It's mainly non religious groups
actually that are putting it forward there.
It's almost like tolerance. It's this ideal, this value that
if we were all just kind, all our problems would go away.
But what these simple declarations sometimes miss is
that as humans, we're often not kind.
We find it quite hard. So how do we sustain this more
consistent kindness that the world needs?
And we know if we try in our own strength again and again, we
probably going to fail. And then we're going to feel
guilty. And then we're going to be
focused on ourselves because we're thinking about all our
guilt and then we're going to be less kind.
So it's it's probably not a recipe for success is to really
just dig deeper. But let's look at the fruits of
the Spirit again in the context of the whole of Galatians.
Galatians 5, five to six says for through the Spirit we
eagerly wait by faith, the righteousness for which we hope
for in Christ Jesus. Neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is
faith expressing itself through love.
And I take from this that we're to work through the Spirit.
We're to be patient and wait as this process, this righteousness
to come, starts to take root. And we need faith as we express
it through love. And what is it in which we hope?
What is the hope referred to here?
We know that it's Jesus who transforms us, who gives us
supernatural ability and power to be kind, although it's not
always in our nature. And we see this coming, this
fruit. It's partly now and it's partly
something that we'll only see in the far future, but we know that
it's, it's something that is constantly at work.
And then if we go back to our, our text in Galatians 5 today,
where we started in the same section where Paul speaks about
kindness in the fruits of the spirit, he repeats the same idea
three times. The 1st is in Galatians 516.
He says, so I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify
the desires of the flesh. And he speaks about the desires
of the flesh being contrary to this idea of the Spirit, to the
fruits of the Spirit, including kindness that we speak of.
Then he goes on in verse 25, he says since we live by the
Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
And then finally Galatians 6-7 to 8 gives us further ideas.
It says do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked.
A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their
flesh will reap destruction. Whoever sows to please the
Spirit from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
So can we, can we be kind by Googling ideas and just trying
really hard to implement them from tomorrow is I think we're
going to run out of steam pretty quickly.
But how do we sow into the Spirit?
Galatians as a whole tells us quite clearly it's by being so
close to the Spirit, keeping in step with the Spirit, living in
the Spirit. And what does that mean
practically? I see it meaning just walking so
closely with God is spending time with God, is being
dependent on him and daily decisions and thoughts as we
keep going back to him and saying, God, I can't do this
alone, but I, I know that you can.
And I believe you are transforming me and will
continue to transform me. And as we move away from that,
we probably get back into our works and we start to fail
again. And when we feel like we're
frustrated and we feel like we're not doing a good job,
rather than walking into the guilt, we just need to run back
and say, let me walk by the Spirit.
Let me keep in step with the Spirit.
How do I get closer to God? Because because guilt's part of
the reason is to drive us further and further away from
God. But how do I keep in step and
live with the Spirit? So let's do a bit of a personal
check in and consider our last month.
Were we kind? Karine's nodding.
I think she was. Were we kind?
If we were, was it to our family or was it to strangers?
What about people in this community?
What about people that repel us, that we don't respect?
Perhaps they sin in ways we don't.
Perhaps they're people who've been mean or unfair to us
personally. If you like me, we'll probably
find it easier to be kind to children.
We can find it easier to be kind to old people.
They seem to deserve our kindness more.
It seems more appropriate. And as Christians, we call to go
far beyond that. We're called to be kind to the
able bodied man who who doesn't spend as much of his income on
his family as he should. We call to be kind to the man
who spends more of his money on alcohol than his wife and kids.
The man who doesn't want to work even though we think he should
be called to be kind to the woman who sells her body on the
side of the road. Be called to be kind to the boss
at work. That's selfish and doesn't treat
us as an equal human being. These are the people that
include those we are called to be kind.
And remember as we do this, it sometimes seems a bit counter
even Christian. But to be kind does not mean to
condone sin. It does not mean to just be
permissive, it means to to just share God's kindness with them.
And why don't we consider those in this community?
Have we been kind to them in the last week, in the last month?
You might have heard the saying that the opposite of love is not
always hate. It can also be indifference.
So if if you haven't thought about anyone in this community,
if you haven't prayed for them, if you haven't seen them, if you
haven't prioritized them, perhaps that's something that
God might be pointing out to you.
It's, it's not, it's not. If we avoid, then we avoid being
kind. If we avoid, then we we probably
failing unkindness. And if kindness doesn't extend
beyond our partners or our our close knit family, then we're
probably not being full ambassadors for Christ and we're
probably not offering the world the kindness that only
Christians can and that they so desperately need.
So looking at a quick summary of today, our four questions that
we're looking at is what kindness?
If we remember one thing on the what I want us just to remember,
the golden rule is afraid of loss of how to be kind.
If we're not sure what the kind thing to do in the situation is,
we consider what would we want if we're in that person's shoes.
And in doing this, we want to remember that we don't need to
condone sin. We don't need to be permissive.
We just call to be kind. And the why?
His kindness and Our Calling as we can be kind because God was
first kind to us. He's resulted in US having life
and eternity. So as we overflow with his
kindness, we can imitate Him and be kind to those around us.
We know that to be kind is to be kind to everyone, even those
that we we don't feel deserve it because we didn't deserve it
when God was kind to us. And we'd accept our limitations
and cling to Christ on the how, because Christ is our only hope.
Without walking closely with God, without depending on Him
daily, we can never hope to transform our character and
offer the kindness to the world that it so desperately needs.
I'd like to pray for us as we close the message, if you can
stand. Heavenly Father, we want to
thank you for the Word today from Galatians, we want to thank
You that when the world can be so confusing and there's so many
messages, God, your message can come so clearly through your
Word in the Bible. Lord, help us as individuals, as
a community to cling to your truth.
Lord, help us to experience your kindness.
For anyone here who who hasn't experienced that kindness, who
that sounds foreign to, Lord, won't you move towards them once
you show them your kindness? Show them the path that leads to
life, that you accept them, that you love them, and that you want
a close relationship with them, Lord, For some of us who might
have taken your kindness for granted, Lord, that we've gone
in our own path and thought we can do things ourselves, draw us
back, Lord. Help us to depend on you to
transform our character so that we can see these fruits of the
Spirit more and more in ourselves each day, Lord, not
because we are good, but because you are so good.
And the closer we are to you, Lord, the more we can reflect
that, the more we can taste and feel what it is to have Your
kindness. Lord, we pray against the
barriers that we have to some types of people, especially
people who do things differently to us.
We all are so fallen and sin, Lord, but sometimes we, we tend
to feel better than those who sin differently to us.
Once you point that out to us, Lord LED us in this room, in
this community, let us people be people who are kind to everyone,
who are kind to who we see as the undeserving because we know
we too are undeserving of your great and eternal kindness.
Lord. We thank you for this beautiful
day, Lord, and we pray that you'll just move among us, be
with us this week. Fill us with your Spirit and
help us to move forward in peace and confidence with our hope and
you, Jesus Christ. I'm in.