The Fruit of the Spirit: Kindness and Goodness - Audio
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Today, we're continuing our series, Delicious, the Fruit of the Spirit. But before we begin, I do, well, I need to apologize. About six weeks ago, during the service, during the sermon, I said some things during an illustration that, looking back, weren't true, and I think really hurt some of the people here. And so, I want to make that right. I, Jerry Calvert, and I went to lunch on Friday, and it turns out that Arby's is actually pretty good. I trashed Arby's heart, and I feel really bad about it. I had the Smokehouse brisket sandwich, and it was delicious. So Jerry, I apologize, Brenda, I apologize, Dave Colleen, I apologize. The rest of you, I, you know, give it a shot, give it a try, see how it goes for you. We're going to be looking today at two more connected fruit of the Spirit. There are two things that the Spirit develops in us that are intertwined. And I hope that you'll see that as we move through the text together. Just to flash Galatians 5 here, the two fruit of the Spirit, we'll be looking at kindness and goodness. And this may be surprising, but I believe, and I think you'll see as we travel through, there's one place in Scripture where I feel like it's the apex. It is the shining moment of kindness and goodness being put on display. And that place is in Luke 10. And so let's look at Luke 10 together, and I hope that you'll see how God's kindness and goodness are exemplified to us. There's a lawyer, and he wants to know, he wants to say that he's done everything that the law requires, that he loves his neighbor as himself. He loves God, and he loves neighbor as himself. And so he wants to justify himself, he says to Jesus, "Who's my neighbor?" In reply, Jesus said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So to a priest, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on the other side as well." Now, we're not going to be focusing on that bit. As I was studying this text this week, I was like, "This is so rich. We really should just do a whole series on it, because there's so much here. But for today's purposes, because we're focusing on kindness and goodness, we're not going to go back to that bit of the text. Just know that the religious people were not very compassionate. But a Samaritan, who Samaritans were reviled by most of the Jewish people at the time, as he traveled, he came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him, bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he took out to Daeneri, and gave them to the innkeeper, "Look after him," he said. "And when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may incur." Which of these Jesus asks, "Do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" And the lawyer replied, "The one who had mercy," Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." Well, there's just, like I said, there's a ton here, but I really want us to drill down
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Biblical kindness: compassion in action. Biblical goodness: generosity with time and resources.