Strong and courageous, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged,
for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
So said Joshua to the children of Israel as they were ready to
go into the Promised Land. Now y'all he and Caleb were it.
The rest of the generations had not trusted the Lord and had
spent 40 years walking in circles till they died off.
Joshua of anybody had reasons to lack some courage.
He had some reasons to be worried because his people had
already shown them they weren't faithful.
But this generation learned from their parents mistakes, and so
they sent spies in, and the spies went to Rahab.
Rahab. We call her a prostitute or a
harlot, and may well have been, but the word also means
innkeeper. So before we disparage her too
much, we might just say she was a working woman when other women
weren't. And as Rahab takes in the spies,
she is acting with kind hospitality, but she is also
acting with thoughtfulness for her family, as we will see.
And so we'll stay on rehab for just a second more.
She hides those spies. She lies for those spies, and
she sends those spies over the side saying, you keep your
promise to me. I have been kind to you.
Now you be kind to me. And I want to say that as we sit
here together on Mother's Day now, we want to think about what
does it mean to be kind? Because I feel like if you only
watch TV, you get rather one-dimensional kind.
Sweet Mamas. But most of us are deeply human.
I was laughing this morning preparing to preach the sermon
on kindness, and my child asked me to deal with a spider not
once but twice. And I'm running behind.
And I stopped being kind because I was like, come on, I got to
get things done, not be Jason spiders.
And I was like, oh, look at that.
So parenting shows us very quickly what is happening in our
real hearts. And so the moms of our church
are helping me with this message or some of the moms.
And so I want to read to you what mom in our church has said
that parenting has taught me that we need to model kindness
for others. And sometimes that means we are
kind when others are not. And that's hard.
It's hard to be kind when someone else is not.
And sometimes in those moments, we have to be kind for our
children because they are watching how we handle
difficulties more than how I was just telling them that they need
to be kind. Rahab modelled hospitality to
those spies so that they would have a model of being hospitable
to her when they came in violence.
And as a mom, sometimes you're having to extend a kindness you
do not have. But I'll also say sometimes as a
child you are extending A kindness to your parents that
you don't feel you have. And we want to think about today
all the complexities that are a part of human interaction and
that that's real. That is much more real and
honest than just the feel good moms are great because as a mom,
I can say I'm sometimes not great.
I've looked at my child and said I'm an equal opportunity
screamer. OK, When you say that, you know,
as a Mama, you've lost it in that moment.
And So what I'm going to say is we as moms are also deeply human
and deeply need the kindness of God in helping us be better.
And we also need to extend that to all the different ways of
being human. So Rahab is not our focus, but I
want you to have Rahab in your mind as we look now.
In Acts Chapter 9, as Peter travelled about to the country,
he went to visit the Lord's people who lived in Leda, where
he found a man named Aeneas who was paralysed and had been
bedridden for eight years. Aeneas, Peter said to him, Jesus
Christ heals you get up and roll up your mat immediately.
Aeneas got up and all those who lived in Leda and Sharon saw him
and turned to the Lord. When we act in the kindness of
God, not just the person, maybe our attention is focused on
others are impacted. In Joppa there was a disciple
named Tabitha. In Greek her name is Dorcas.
She was always doing good and helping the poor.
About that time she became sick and died, and her body was
washed and placed in an upstairs room.
Lita was near Joppa. So when the disciples heard that
Peter was in Lita, they sent two men to him and urged him, Please
come at once. Peter went with him, and when he
arrived he was taken upstairs to the room.
All the widows stood around him crying and showing him the robes
and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still
with them. Peter sent them all out of the
room. Then he got down on his knees
and prayed. Turning towards the dead woman
he said, Tabitha, get up. She opened her eyes and seeing
Peter, she sat up and he took her by the hand and helped her
to her feet. And then he called for the
believers, especially the widows, and presented her to
them alive. This became known all over Joppa
and many people believed in the Lord.
Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a Tanner named Simon.
Now, Peter, has anybody ever been tired and maybe too tired
to be kind? You cannot be asking me for one.
You know, friends and family don't have crises on our cycles
of energy schedules. Crises just happen and somebody
just calls. And you're like, I could help
you better in a little bit, but right now isn't a good time.
That's not how crises work. So with Peter, here is what we
have. He healed Aeneas that Peter had
been doing, he had been doing in Jerusalem.
Peter seems confident. But let's also think about
Peter. We've looked at him several
times in the last few weeks. Peter had experienced the
kindness of Jesus to restore him after the betrayal of
friendship. So Peter had walked with Jesus
and seen his healing ministry, but he had also experienced the
kindness of God. Then he heals Aneus.
He gets asked. He was enjoying these people.
There was a moment to be enjoyed here.
But people come and they invite him to Joppa.
And so he goes and there he is literally life giving to
Tabitha, but he is also life giving to that church.
If you notice in this church there are two people named,
there's Dorcas Tabatha, she had, see, she was intercultural.
She had an Aramaic name and she had a Greek name.
Do any of you have more than one language names?
My name is Ellen. My sign name is E Over the
Heart. And my name in a community that
I was a part of as a child was Elena.
So I have three names and a few nicknames that aren't worth
saying here. So she was just like that.
Now I also want to say I don't know what your Sunday school is
like, but my Sunday school telling of her had her sweet and
easy. But the truth is, is that she
was generous and kind and that church history and understanding
of this was close to the coast. It's that she's probably a
businesswoman, too. How else could she have been
generous with the clothes if she did not have the resources for
that end? So she's an intercultural
businesswoman. And we have to suspect that she
and Simon were leaders in the local church.
Otherwise why are they getting named in the New Testament?
They were known by the other people in the church and so
Peter is infusing into this community what they needed,
which was life giving. Now I want you to think about
actually being Peter. Peter had seen Jesus do this,
but up until now, Peter had not been a part of bringing anybody
else back to life. This is an act of courage, of
faith. Peter had known people who had
died. Peter had seen Jesus heal his
mother-in-law, heal all the people we read about in the New
Testament. And Peter had known that he had
called Lazarus out of the grave. He had known Jesus himself was
resurrected. But many if you go back and you
read, I believe it's Luke 7 where Jesus heals, brings back
to life the daughter of Jarius, the synagogue ruler verses the
verbs, everything is parallel. Why?
Because G Peter learned from Jesus how to be kind and how to
have the courage to call out someone into a life giving
stature and return to life. Resuscitate her.
This isn't her resurrected body. This is a resuscitation.
She would die again. Also in Peter's courage to be
kind, to go from one place where things were looking good for him
with Aeneas and Lita to Joppa because the disciples asked for
help. Many in both regions were coming
to know Jesus. And also, if we kept reading, we
would find that Peter's courage had him in the place he needed
to be when Cornelius the centurion had a dream, because
he's in Simon, Simon the Tanner's house when Cornelius's
men were. Cornelius had a vision sent for
Peter, and there he goes in all of Cornelius's house.
And so I just want you to see in this story, there is courage to
be life giving for other people. And it may take you places you
didn't expect to go and energy you didn't expect to have.
And so I also want us to look at what some of our moms said for
this. The way we treat our kids shapes
their concept of kindness. Oh my gosh, I know that.
And yet this morning, I'm impatient about spiders.
What's wrong with me? Love and kindness are
intertwined. If a Mama is having to work for
that to sometimes be true to the children who are most precious,
how much more true is that for somebody we think is an adult
and should be competent and should be acting better
themselves? And so the way we treat other
people says more about how we understand God and how His love
and kindness is intertwined into our life than it does to the
recipient of our kindness or the lack thereof.
Peter went and did these things that changed Aeneas and
Tabitha's life and the widow's lives and the church and Simon's
life and Cornelius's household and the people that accepted him
in this whole region because he knew Jesus.
And Jesus's love and kindness and the power of that spirit
were intertwined in him. And so if there is a roommate
you're having trouble being kind to, or a sibling or a cousin or
a parent or a neighbor, that's real.
I'm not dismissing whatever they've done.
I'd probably agree and get righteously indignant with you.
But the kindness of God and His love intertwined in our life
allows us to be a model of the grace of God.
Not just Mamas to parents, children, but you to those all
around you. Now Peter is not the only
courageous person in our story in Acts, we also have Dorcas
Tabitha. Now, this is from a 4th century
funeral box, basically, and I just want you to think she had
the courage to be kind. Now, the business woman in her
would have business people who would say, well, they need to
work hard and make their own money.
Why are you helping them? All right.
And then have you had friends who've been widowed?
Probably not yet. Many of you.
When people are in deep grief or loss, they're not always
pleasant to be around. And when people have fear of
their future, they're a little bit clingy.
You're asking? It's not always fun.
Widows in this society were often struggling because there
were limits on what they could and could not do.
And so Dorcas and or Tabitha, I go back and forth with her name.
It's the same human. She had to have the courage to
be kind. You know, it sounds like it is
beautiful and easy. Michaela Yoon.
Our Michaela Yoon is probably one of the most consistently
kind humans I've known in my entire life.
Michaela Yoon, do you know that she sits in court cases?
And here's the worst of humanity as she translates for people who
have committed crimes. She is kind not just because
God's wired her, but because the Spirit of Jesus allows her to
sit for work in the worst things humans do and then pray for them
and just want them to have justice.
In my mind, I have Torque as Tabitha's character, kind of
like Michaela, where it there's so much kindness that you forget
the courage and the strength and the depth that is behind that.
And I would wish for each of you to know Jesus's love and have it
so intertwined in your being that you would be known for
doing good and being generous. Now do you see my little blue
circle? This was in the 3rd century, so
it was about 300 years after this story.
But the story is aware of the diversity of Joppa and so I
wouldn't know this if some other specialist hadn't told me.
But do you see the little cap? Dorcas is the one in the bed
with the hand on the head. Do you see how the shorter widow
with the has like a hat on? This is a Phrygian cap.
Why does that even matter? Well, let me say why it matters
because it was a different people group it they weren't
hers. And yet she is extending
kindness beyond just her community and the kindness of
God our Lord came for all the nations.
And here is an example of the early Christians deeply
understanding that our expressions of the love and
kindness of God extends beyond who we think of as our people.
So when Acts 936 says in Joppa there was a disciple named
Tabitha in Greek her name is Dorcas.
She was always doing good and helping the poor.
There was a extension, there was a reputation that could be
summed up in this. Now let's talk about the other
couraging pieces that are there. The disciples who went and asked
Peter to come had to have some courage.
And what they do is that they go.
They were sent, admittedly, but they go and said please come at
once. There is faith in that, yeah,
she's already dead. Why is he saying please come at
once? There is courage to ask for help
now. But people in the ancient world
were much closer to death than people in our modern world.
They knew the dead people didn't usually rise again.
They knew that sickness could be immediate and deadly.
They sent for Peter's help and then Peter asked the Lord for
help in the healing because we come down where he sent
everybody out of the room. He didn't want to show or a
three ring circus. He's also modeling what Jesus
had done. He's following his teacher's
example. And then he got down on his
knees and he prayed and he looked and he said get up.
She opened her eyes and seeing Peter, she sat up and he took
her by the hand and helped her to her feet.
And then he called the believers.
So there is the asking of a Christian brother, and then
there is the asking of the Lord. And the Lord granted that.
Now we can go the next one. What does this mean?
I want us to come back to Rahab and I want us to read This is
verses from Joshua 2. Now then, please swear to me by
the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I
have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you
will spare the lives of my father and mother, brothers and
sisters and all who belong to them, and that you will save us
from death, our lives for your lives.
The men assured her if you don't tell what we are doing, we will
treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.
This story with Rahab is happening about 1400 years
before the story of Tabitha. Tabitha's story is about 2000
years before us. But what I want to say is that
Rahab. Extended a kindness, Rahab
received a kindness. And actually, if we can follow
rabbinical tradition and trust it, Rahab ended up marrying one
of these spies. So they weren't just kind to
her. There was some actual pragmatics
in her family life that shifted. But what I want to say is that
we have examples. Rahab, at the time of the
telling, was not a mom biologically, but functionally.
She was looking to be life giving to others.
You know, that is what Eve's name means, giver of life.
And do you realize that whether or not you're a parent, we all
can choose to be life giving. But to be life giving to others
takes courage. It takes energy and it takes
walking with the One who is love and kindness himself and will
show us how now. Rahab was looking to preserve
their lives, but she changed the trajectory of her family's
knowing God, not just staying alive.
Tabitha and Dorcas, same person, just don't know which name.
You're like, I'm just going to stick with Tabitha from now on.
She was living out and being kind because that was an
expression of her faith. The doing good Ephesians, we
have the same word for the believers are equipped for every
good work. You are already ready for these.
You are already doing these in many ways.
It's just sometimes we think, well, if I do too much, they
won't learn to help themselves. Well, I'm just so depleted.
Oh, I don't want to be around people that give off those bad
vibes. I need to be around positive
people. And we have a litany of reasons
that we distance ourselves. Now I am not saying don't have
good boundaries, but I believe that the Spirit of Jesus often
calls us to be kind, to do good well beyond what would seem
logical to our society and you. I'm realizing I missed one
parenting slide that I didn't mean to.
I had a couple in there. But in all of this, there was a
theme is that parenting helps the moms in our church realize
it is a choice, it is a modeling, and it is not easy.
So if it is not easy for your kids that actually you love, how
much harder is it for peers? And yet that is what we have
been called to. All right, Christine, And so I
want you to think about the cycle of kindness.
Jesus came as the presence of God on earth Incarnate to show
the kindness of God. And he, very pragmatically, as
I've already mentioned, show this to Peter.
And as he showed it, he restored Peter into intimate relationship
as Craig preached around do you love me, Feed my sheep.
And now we're getting to see Peter do some of this feeding
the sheep and we see Dorcas coming back to life.
But also realize this cycle I, let's be honest, Canva didn't
have a picture for the all over the place kindness that the
Gospel and Acts show. Jesus was kind.
Jesus's spirit had given kindness to Tabatha and now
she's giving it to the widows. The widows are giving it back to
her by having the people go get Peter.
Peter is showing kindness to the widows and Dorcas.
There are cycles of kindness and you don't always know who
benefits from the fact that you are kind to someone today and
they learn from how you are kind and then it goes to someone
else. Y'all this week I got to the
doctor's office 5 minutes late with the parkade.
Then my phone credit card wouldn't be read read.
And then I realized I didn't have my wallet and then I was
like I'm going to get not get my appointment.
I really needed this appointment.
And I go to the security guard and I'm like, where can I pay
that? I'm not underground.
And I'm like by this point, not crying but almost crying.
And y'all, he was about your age and I just thought he's going to
be like, that is your problem. But you know what he did?
He tried a few things and they didn't work.
And he went in his break room and he said just wait for me.
And he brought his credit card. Y'all, he didn't know me from
Eve. I did.
I did E transfer him, but he didn't know I was going to do
that. He he works right across the
street from where you work and I need to introduce you Aiden
because I need him to come to know Jesus too.
His kindness made me patient when I got to the reception.
And she was not kind because I was now 20 minutes late instead
of 5 minutes late. And I would have usually been a
little bit short too, because she was being short.
But I had just experienced extraordinary kindness and it
changed how I behaved. And it put me in a cycle of
kindness and in spirit of prayer for this young man.
And you can be just like this security guard who was this
week. And So what I want to say, if
you think a Mama has superpowers of kindness, you are wrong.
Mamas just have more practice at getting their kindness tested
because sometimes Children Act the fool and you don't feel
patient and kind. And so you asked Jesus to help
you live into cycles of kindness.
And then it does not matter the biology of whether you are a
parent or not, you become a life giver because you are treating
people the way their Heavenly Father would have them treated.
All right, Our book that we are reading has an excellent
reminder that kindness is not these grand big things, but that
the best portion of a good person's life is the little
nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.
It's the seat you give to somebody on the bus that isn't
ancient. It is the sharing a cough drop
when somebody's coughing in class.
Whatever the spirit prompts you to do, you do not have to
understand why we were at a prayer breakfast this week and
somebody robbed Nash. You can go watch him online if
you haven't, because he's got a big, exciting, amazing story of
how God's restored his joy. But in it, he was working with a
teenager who was despairing of life and had already attempted
on his own. And he said, part of it is you
just have big emotions. Look around, Do you notice
anybody? And he goes, well, yeah, I'm
kind of wondering about that Lady over there.
And he goes, well, let's go see. And he goes, ma'am, is there any
way we could help you rank stranger, trying to make a point
to this teenager that that his empathy or intuition that was
overwhelming him had a good and beautiful purpose.
And the woman started crying. And she was an older woman who
couldn't bend. And she had been waiting for 30
minutes for somebody to tie her shoe because she was also scared
of falling and breaking her other hip.
And this teenager who didn't know what to do with his big
emotions was actually gifted by God to be aware and sensitive.
And so when you sense a little prompting this week, act because
we don't want to show contempt for the riches of God's kindness
to us. God has shown us His kindness,
His forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's
kindness is intended to lead you to repentance.
And you know what? I think we get to see in the
story of Tabitha Peter's repentance in living color.
We get to see how the Spirit of God restored Peter, how Jesus
gave him a task and he actually was doing it.
So when we think of repentance, do any of you have some movie
version of self flagellating and beating?
Please get rid of that. And what we want to think of
about repentance is I might need to change my mind on some
things. I've had to change my mind where
I've told someone asking for money.
Yeah, not today. I can't.
I was, my kids were all around. It was crazy.
We and I said, yeah, I, I can't right now.
It was just 'cause I was busy and I wasn't sure Michaela was a
child and she looked at me and she went Mama and I was rightly
rebuked. And guess what?
I went digging in my bag and I found some change for the man
because I needed to have a change of heart.
I was overwhelmed by what I was doing in the moment and could
not have a generosity of spirit. So repentance doesn't just mean
what you do at the end of the day.
Praying it might mean I start to walk away and then I come back
and say, you know, I am sorry I said that in that tone.
That's a repentance act because it's a change of what this Lord.
And so the Lord has been so very, very, very kind to us.
And let's let His kindness lead us into a change of mind, to a
softening of our hearts. And I don't know who makes it
hard for you to be kind, but I think we all have people where
it's harder. And that is where the Lord wants
us to repent and to extend His kindness in the healthiest of
ways. So I would ask that you would
join me in praying. Those of you that use the Lectio
app will find that this is how you start your morning.
I also want to acknowledge Aiden made this graphic for us and
moms, we have one of these printed for each of you so that
you can be blessed by Aiden today.
So join me as we pray. Father, help me to live this day
to the full, being true to you in every way.
Jesus, help me to give myself away to others, being kind to
everyone I meet. Spirit, help me to love the
lost, proclaiming Christ in all I do and say Amen.
Thank you.