The Excellence Of Love - [1 Corinthians 13:1-8]

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1 Corinthians chapter 13, where Paul wrote this church,
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I'm reading from the King James, and said, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity,
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I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. In your translation, it might be a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal.
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And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity,
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I am nothing. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
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Charity suffers long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly or rudely or indecently, seeks not her own.
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It's not selfish. It's not easily provoked. It thinks no evil. It rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.
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Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, for charity never fails.
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I'd just like to remind us of something this evening I'm sure we're well aware of.
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And many times, as the Apostle Paul would teach and as Peter, as I was sharing with someone after Sunday school this morning,
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Peter also brought the saints in remembrance of things that they already knew of, but they needed to be reminded of because we're forgetful.
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And we just need to have a little bit of a help once in a while to jog our memory so that we know how it is that we ought to behave ourselves as Christians.
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Now, you know that this church had a difficult time. They were not lacking salvation for Paul addressed them as brethren.
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They were not lacking spiritual gifts because they had them. Between chapters 12 and 14, in chapter 12, we have the giving of the gifts, the explanation there of how the
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Spirit of God gave the spiritual gifts to those in the church at Corinth. And then in chapter 14, we have
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Paul dealing with the exercise of the practical outworking of those spiritual gifts in the church.
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And in the middle here in chapter 13, he talks about the proper motive.
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At the end of chapter 12, he says, I'm gonna show you a more excellent way. I'm gonna show you what's really important.
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I'm gonna show you what you really ought to focus on. And out of the gate in chapter 13, he says, you can have all these gifts.
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He's speaking of the gifts here at the beginning. You could speak with tongues of men and of angels.
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And if you did not have charity, you are just noise. You are no substance whatsoever.
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You are not the real thing. You are just a bunch of noise. He says, if you have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, so you have these gifts as these prophetical gifts to be able to have these words of wisdom and be able to tell what's coming.
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He says, you can have all knowledge, the gift of knowledge. And though you even have all faith so that you could remove mountains, but if you do not have charity or you do not have love, that person is nothing.
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And in verse three, you could then have the outward giving gifts, the gifts of mercy and of kindness and helps.
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And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profits me nothing.
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It's of no earthly use and good. And Paul is saying to this church that they had salvation in Christ and they had spiritual gifts.
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And yet they were lacking this one thing. And you know that the church was in difficult and dire straits.
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They had these cliques. There was dissension in the church.
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There was a factionism. There was brothers and sisters bringing brothers and sisters into court before the lost over disputes that they were having.
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There was sin that was rampant and on and on and on. And I believe that the apostle Paul takes this chapter and really just hits the nail on the head, shines the light upon their need.
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And their greatest need is, is that truly within the church, they did not have love. They did not have the love that they ought to have had.
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And he then, as he describes the need for love in the church, he, as it were,
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I think John MacArthur put it this way. He, if you were to take light and shine it through a prism in the colors that come out on the other end, he is shining,
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Paul, as he's writing, is shining love through a prism and showing you what ought to come out on the other end or showing us what ought to come out in the life of a believer.
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And as he goes and he says, and somebody mentioned this evening chapter, in this chapter in verse four, charity is long suffering or suffers long.
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It is not short fused and it is kind. And that is the verse, that is the word that I would like to focus in on this evening, that love demonstrates itself in a person's life, in the child of God's life by that person being a kind person.
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And I know that maybe this is not something that, and I see that in our church, that there is kindness.
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And I know that it's demonstrated over and over again, but I want us to be reminded of it because when days get more and more difficult in the world in which we live, and don't we live in an unkind world.
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We live in a ruthless world. We live in a dog eat dog world.
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I mean, I was just speaking to a contractor on our job who was just newly hired at the company where I'm employed.
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And he said, it was getting so bad, Dave, on my job that what was happening was as a contractor, we were pitted against each other and your desire, your focus, your goal was to make yourself look better than all the other contractors on staff.
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And that was the focus. It wasn't the job. It wasn't to take and please or do right by the customers, but it was to take care of themselves and to only look at themselves and not be kind to other people.
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Well, I think it's important for us this evening to focus on kindness.
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Kindness is the fulfillment of our Lord Jesus' words in Matthew 544, where he said, but I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.
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Now, if you listen to that description of our Lord and you think about the way of the world, it is totally the opposite, is it not?
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And life in the church of God, life in the family of God, life in a New Testament church is to be opposite from the world.
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If we are going to demonstrate true love and there are plenty of opportunities with the words that are chosen here in the descriptions that are given about being instead of short -fused, to be long -tempered.
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Instead of boiling with envy, we ought to care for other people.
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Instead of vaunting ourselves, as it says here, or bragging upon ourselves, the
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Greek word there is, the root of that is being a windbag, bragging about yourself.
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We see, and that happens quite often and go right down the list, they're being puffed up instead of being conceited and proud, instead of being this way, we'll take the path of love.
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It will take the path of charity where we truly will sacrifice ourselves and it will take a sacrifice if we're going to really love the objects who we say that we love.
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And in one way that we're going to do that is by showing kindness. In the
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Greek, the root word for kindness means to be useful. It carries the meaning of being courteous and of being gentle.
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And when Paul writes that love is kind, he means that love says,
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I will do anything I possibly can to be useful to other people.
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Now, I know it's in the context of the church that we're to be kind one to another, but also we look at the words of our
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Lord Jesus and it's to be kind to those that are outside of the church and it ought to be life in and life outside of the church that we find ourselves and we desire to be a people that are kind.
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I can remember reading, we were singing the battle hymn of the Republic and you know, it's very interesting and most people don't realize it because history,
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American history has been scrubbed and all the good stuff is rubbed out. But during the civil war, there was a great outpouring of God, the
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Holy Spirit upon the troops in the North and in the South, particularly in the South though. And we had a book in the library here on the book table.
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I remember buying it once and reading it and it was absolutely incredible. Tens upon tens of thousands of Southern soldiers were saved.
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There was revival sweeping through many of the camps. They have built them an altar in the evening, dew and damps.
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They set up tents, they set up tabernacles for worshiping God while they were in the midst of battle and times when they were away from battle, they weren't in, they had opportunities to, they worshiped
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God and there were men of God who came out of their churches to go into service, to preach the gospel and to give out tracts and booklets and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of New Testaments and tracts were given out.
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But I just think about all that and I think of the mercy of God where thousands and thousands of men were swept into eternity and God and his mercy saved before they died tens and tens of thousands of men.
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Well, during the Civil War, kindness was shown and it's true and it's evident and it's recorded because during that war, it was not uncommon for men on one side to send provisions to the enemy on the other side.
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It reminds me of Proverbs 25 verses 21 and 22 where the scripture says, if your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat.
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And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink for you will heap coals of fire upon his head and the
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Lord shall reward you. I used to think that that heaping of coals upon someone's head was like a bad thing.
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It had a bad connotation to it but really is, if you give that, it's basically talking about that which the person needs.
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You will give them what they need and that is the right thing even if they are your enemy. And isn't that walking as Jesus walked and the idea of what
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Paul is trying to say to us is he wants the church at Corinth to live their lives for the benefit of other people, to live their lives in a way where they demonstrate true love, true charity, true kindness.
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And as Christians who are to show love in our dark world, we must look for opportunities to be useful for others.
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It's not just the idea and this word has this meaning to it. The whole idea is, is not just wait for kindness to come our way or wait for opportunities to kind of just come right in front of us and then do something about it.
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The idea is, is that we are pursuing these opportunities. As a believer who truly, as we say that we love other people, we are looking for and looking around and watching for opportunities to be kind.
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You know, one of the greatest times to do that is right after a church service.
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I think when I put my hand on the battery or something, it does make that noise. I think
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I'll move that away from my arm. One of the greatest opportunities to show kindness is after a church service because there you have people mulling around.
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It would be very easy just to kind of go to the book table, check things out and say hi to all your friends and then check out and get in the car and go home.
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But there are people who have come and visited us who are in great need. There are people who are outside of Jesus Christ.
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There are brothers and sisters in Christ who have come to the service and maybe their day or their week has not gone well.
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And there's an opportunity to be useful to them, to do something for them, to maybe encourage them, maybe to help them out, maybe to provide a need when you ask them the question, how you're doing and you don't get the typical okay answer.
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You know, everything's just fine, hunky -dory and no problem. It's an opportunity there. Tomorrow morning, if you were to come to this building at 10 .30,
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there will be an opportunity to show kindness. When you leave and go home to your neighborhood, there will be opportunities to show kindness on the job, at school, wherever we find ourselves, wherever God puts us, we have opportunities to be useful to other people in a world where really the whole idea, the whole focus is me, myself and I with a selfishness and a self -love and a selfishness so much so that you want or expect or you feel you have the right to get these things or to get everything that you want to come your way to gratify you.
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And the opposite Paul here is speaking of is that this kindness is to flow out of us. This love is to flow out of us and it is to demonstrate itself and by us doing whatever we can to be helpful to other people, to be useful to other people and mark it down, you will have an opportunity to be useful.
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This week, all you have to do is open your eyes and you'll see the opportunity come to you and what we need to do is not let them slip through our fingers but we ought to take those opportunities into hand and by the glory of God, for the glory of God, by the grace of God, act accordingly and show that we truly do love people.
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Well, if we don't do this, we will become like the people described in verses one through three where we are just gonna be a big noise, we are a clanging cymbal, we're just a noisy gong, we are nothing at the end of verse two and it profits us nothing.
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MacArthur in one of his study guides concerning this text here, he said that here's his mathematical equation when it comes to life and love.
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He says life minus love equals, what do you think? A big zero, a big goose egg.
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Life minus love equals zero and we certainly don't want to be in this and have a life that is like that.
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Our desire ought to be to love others as the Lord Jesus Christ loved us enough and he gave himself for us and he sacrificed himself for the objects of his love and we ought to do his same.
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The Apostle Paul is not writing here and dealing with abstracts. He's not dealing with ideological ideas.
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It's not concept. It's not theories. Love is to be seen in our behavior towards other people.
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When we think of love being kind, it shows itself in deeds of kindness. You remember the woman
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I believe spoken of in Proverbs 31. She says, it says there that the law of kindness is upon her tongue.
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Even the language that she speaks is kind words. Deeds of generosity, actions to meet the needs of other people and here's the key to it also, even if they've been rude to us, even if they've been unkind to us, even if they don't like us, even if they'll never be a thank you that comes from it, even if there's no recognition whatsoever before God will be a people who'll be kind to those even that are unkind to us and persecute us and trouble us and label us and look at us as crazy people.
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Those Christians, those wild people over there at Bethlehem Bible Church and we live in a sinful world, a selfish world, in an evil world that will treat us poorly and the reaction of loving
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Christians is to do and be just the opposite. Instead of sinful, we're to be holy.
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Instead of selfish, we're to be selfless. Instead of evil and doing evil towards others, we are to be kind.
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You'll remember these words. Here's some other examples of scriptures where love is the opposite. In Proverbs 15, one, the scripture says that a soft answer turns away wrath but grievous words stir up anger.
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Now, when someone comes with the frontal attack of words toward us, of course, our usual inclination is is that we're gonna answer kind with kind.
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We're gonna answer type with type. They're gonna give it to us, we're gonna give it right back to them but the scripture says that a soft answer turns away wrath.
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Do you know why I think that is true? It's because when a person is bombarding us with their hatred and they're spewing out the venom at you and they're very angry and the words are coming and you're just being gracious and you're being different and you're being the opposite, it's almost like you're putting a mirror up right in front of them and they're seeing the opposite of what they ought to be and hopefully it'll bring them to shame but if anything, it doesn't throw fuel on the fire.
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Peter wrote of our Lord Jesus that when he was reviled, he reviled not again. In Romans 12, when it speaks of the duties of the believers in a church in verse 14, it says, bless them which persecute you.
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Sounds like the Lord's words, doesn't it? Bless them and curse not. Verse 17, recompense to no man evil for evil and in verse 19, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written, vengeance is mine,
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I will repay, says the Lord. We ought to resist getting angry as it says there, give place unto wrath, smother and suppress the anger and the desire to strike back with hateful words or with evil actions which is the normal inclination of the normal tendency in the dark world in which we live.
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Yes, of course, if we're walking in the flesh, this is our first reaction. The flesh says, payback time.
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Time to get them, let it loose. And the answer is wrath and anger with wrath and anger.
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But if we are walking in the spirit, spirit -filled, spirit -controlled, spirit -influenced, influenced by the word of God, the word of Christ dwelling in us richly, we will have a long fuse and we will be kind.
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I mean, that is probably one of the most difficult things when it comes to when we're angry. You just know that it's all beginning to stir and boil on the inside.
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And if everybody would be honest with me and if we had a little survey here in the last 12 months, we would all probably be able to admit to the fact that we have been angry.
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And we have said things that we ought not to have said and done things which we ought not to have done and struck back when we ought not to have done that.
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And what we ought to say to ourselves is, I refuse to answer evil with evil.
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I refuse to avenge myself. I will leave vengeance in God's hands.
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John MacArthur wrote, In an evil world that brings negative influences to bear on love, that's the atmosphere in which the true character of love will really shine.
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Kindness heals the hurt in a friendship. Kindness heals the hurt in a marriage or in a church or in a family.
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Let me ask you married couples, are you kind to each other? And I mean, are you really kind?
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If to be kind means to be useful, is your first thought, what can
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I do that would be useful to my husband or to my wife? Maybe you have been hurt and maybe it is a legitimate gripe that you have or a legitimate position.
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But if we are to demonstrate love in that disagreement, in that fight, and I always like,
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I learned this not too long after getting some tapes from Pastor Tommy Nelson in Texas.
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He says, you know, couples, it's okay to fight just as long as you fight clean.
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You remember that one, Lewis? Have you ever heard him say that? It's okay to fight just as long as you fight clean. And what he means by that is that if you're gonna have disagreements in your marriage, do it in a righteous way, do it in a godly way, do it in a controlled way, and do it in a way that you love each other.
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You truly do. Doing it, even when you're irritated, even when you're upset, do you first say, is the first thing that we say,
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I'm gonna be hurtful and I'm gonna give it right back at them? Or in love, are we going to say,
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I want to be useful? You see, this is not the way of this world in which we live, but this is the way of the world above.
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This is the way of the God who called us to be different, to be a peculiar people, to be a zealous people, peculiar of good works.
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In Titus chapter three, one of the verses I spoke about in Sunday school class this morning, with one of these statements that is a core doctrine or a statement that was well -known in the church.
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Paul writes here and he says, this is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.
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These things are good and profitable unto man. Something that we ought to have in our lives, our lives are to be characterized, we ought to be careful or we ought to exercise.
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And what that is in our lives is to maintain good works. And part of that good works, part of that righteous living is to live a life where we love other people and that love is gonna show itself in kindness.
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This is God's way because our God is love. And since we are his children, love is to be a very vital part of our behavior and conduct.
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It is to be the motivation behind our ministry. It is to be the power behind our thoughts and words and activities.
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For just a moment here, I'd like to speak to the young children. It's a blessing to have children in the service and they pick the hymns.
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They pick good hymns sometimes and they pick different hymns sometimes and that's okay.
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I hope they go away with memories. I hope they go away thinking that I went to church and they told us about Jesus and they told us the truth and we saw people who were preaching the truth of the word of God.
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Well, children, what do you do when your feelings are hurt by a friend or your brother or sister?
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What do you do? Do you give that person or your brother and sister a taste of their own medicine?
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Do you man the battle stations and try to blow them out of the water? Or wouldn't it be better to do it
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God's way by being different from everyone else and reacting in love with a patience and with a long suffering and then show some kindness by being useful to those people.
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Maybe somebody in school who has been hurtful to you. Maybe your brother or sister has not been kind to you but you don't answer it by being unkind.
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You be kind to them. And I'm gonna try to do that. I'm gonna try to give you some examples of that later. I think of a great example of this in where someone who had some brothers that really were unkind to him, that hated him, despised him was
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Joseph. You remember his brother sold him off to a caravan and took him away from his father and took him away from his country.
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Because of what his hateful brothers did. I don't know if you've ever read it in the scriptures. It says that Joseph was pleading in that pit and his brothers turned a deaf ear away from him.
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He was crying out for his brothers to spare him. And they turned away from him.
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And he spent a long time in prison and his life was very, very difficult. But later on when he meets his brothers in Genesis chapter 45, instead of retaliating, instead of seeking revenge, and could
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Joseph have done it? Of course he could have. What was his position? He's the prime minister of Egypt, basically.
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He's the second in command. He could have let him have it. In Genesis 45, 15, it says
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Joseph kissed all his brothers and wept on them. He did them good.
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You remember, he hit coals of fire upon them. He gave them grain, he gave them food and he took care of them.
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He didn't repay the evil with evil. I think of other examples of people in the scriptures who were kind to others.
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Remember Rahab taking care of the spies. What an act of kindness that had her own life's peril.
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She took care of those men. I think of even for children. I think kindness is being useful.
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Here's a little boy, a big crowd, a big multitude and Jesus has been ministering and there's no food to feed everybody.
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And he offers up his little lunch sack and he wants to be helpful and he wants to be useful. Then God takes that and multiplies it.
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He was kind, he gave it away. You probably could think of other examples in the scriptures where people were kind.
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This is the more excellent way. What about us at school or at home or at work or in the town in which we live, on our neighborhood, in the church?
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Let me ask us all this question. When we've just gotten our feelings hurt, when someone has made fun of us, when someone strikes out at us in anger, when they get right in our face and blast us, here's the question.
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Is my first thought to get angry and get back at them or is my first thought, how can
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I repay their anger with kindness? I don't know if you've read the story.
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I just found it yesterday. I have a unique filing system at home. It's like the stuff goes everywhere and it's by the
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Lord's grace when I need something, it just, for the most part, I can find it. My wife's back there smiling.
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She's trying to hold the smile back. But I found this, a story of kindness. I don't know if you've ever read it.
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And it's about a man who has a neighbor who is just belligerent and he's just awful.
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And he just treats him and everything about him and his family and his dog, everything, just kicking everything and just ornery and ugly.
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And this neighbor who is a Christian, his desire is to win him to God, to win him to Christ.
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And the whole phrase that he uses is that he's going to kill him with kindness.
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Kill him with kindness. And I think that we have a challenge before us because we have a lot of people who are trying to kill us with evil in the world in which we live.
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They're trying to stomp on us at times. They're trying to do us wrong and they're persecuting.
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And if they haven't yet, they will. If you name the name of Christ, the
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Bible tells us that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, 2
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Timothy 3 .12. It's going to come our way sooner or later. And with that onslaught towards us, our desire ought to be that we kill him with kindness.
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That we live in such a way that we give them no excuse when they look at us. I mean, just think about this.
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How would this go? You go into the restaurant and the whole time you're in the restaurant, you're complaining.
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I mean, the water isn't even clear enough. Nothing is good. The waitress can't or the waiter cannot do anything right.
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And you let them know it. You're too slow. I don't like this.
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Why isn't this on the menu? And then when you get up from the table, you leave a track on the table and you say,
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I hope you come to Christ. I mean, foolishness, isn't it? I mean, think about that way. It's hypocrisy.
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It's not a great testimony. And what we ought to be is a people who are always kind, even if the food's bad, even if the service is bad.
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I mean, we don't have to eject or jettison our Christian principles and live in a way that is unloving and not being useful, but do what we can to be useful and find the opportunities to be able to help other people.
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I wonder how we measure up. Am I crazy? I mean, you know, I mean, I don't believe so because this is in God's word.
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1 Corinthians 13, chapter four, charity suffers long or charity is patient and charity is kind.
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It's generous. It's courteous. I mean, as a Christian, I think we ought to be the most courteous people on the face of the earth.
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I think that men, and I mean, I may be old school, but I think that men ought to open the doors for women. I think that the boys ought to open the doors for girls and the women go first and we say, please, and we say, thank you and no, sir, and no, ma 'am.
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And we're just kind and courteous to each other and to other people and treat each other in a fashion to where we are just very useful and edifying and helpful to those that are around us.
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The opposite of that, what is the opposite of love? Hate. And how does hatred demonstrate itself?
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Hatred is not kind. When a person hates another person, they show it by seeking revenge, by anger at other people and violent words and violent actions towards others and striking out at other people.
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And hatred is awfully severe. I mean, it cuts no slack.
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It's just brazen and it's in your face and it just comes after you and it's just a horrible onslaught.
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And it's also harsh. When someone hates someone, they are very harsh towards their feelings.
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They are not caring for them. They are not trying to help and lift that person up, but they just run over them like a steamroller.
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And I've seen that over and over again. And the workplace, and you probably have too for many of you have been in the workplace.
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It is just king of the hill. I want to get up to the top and I want to be number one. And it doesn't matter how
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I get there and who I step on, but the believer is one who humbles themselves under the mighty hand of God.
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And as we humble ourselves, we desire by the grace of God to be a people who truly love other people.
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And we may have a way to go, but thank God and praise God for how far we may have already come by his grace.
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In the light of what this Bible verse means, we need to apply God's word now, today, in every opportunity that we have here in this place, at home, in the neighborhood, in the towns in which we live, on the job.
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Parents, again, are you kind to your children? Are you truly kind and you want to be useful to your children and raise them in the nurture and admonition of the
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Lord, even when it's difficult, even when it doesn't seem like there's going to be any payback, even when it seems like it's not sinking in?
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Are you kind and looking for opportunities to be useful? And husbands and wives, are you kind to each other?
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I think of Ephesians chapter four in verse 32, 31 or 32, where it speaks of believers, and of course, hopefully it's great when a husband and wife are in Christ together.
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The Bible says, be ye kind one to another. Isn't that what it says? Be you kind, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you.
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Let me ask the question, was it kindness from the Lord to save us from the horrible condition we were in outside of Jesus Christ?
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Yes, it is a demonstration as Steve Lawson was speaking of in the Psalms, God's loving kindness, such kindness to us who did not deserve it.
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And God acted in that way toward us. And God gives us a new heart that beats for Him and has a desire to walk in the way of the
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Lord and to be holy as the Lord is holy, be distinct and be unique and be separate in the world in which we live.
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And as parents and as husbands and wives, are we kind to each other? Children, I'm gonna come back to you because I promised you
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I'd come back and give you some examples. Are you kind to your brothers and sisters in the house? Are you kind to them?
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I mean, really kind, or do you strike out at them when they've done something to make you upset?
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It's a daily effort that you'll have to undergo to try to be different.
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How about this? Here, let me give you a couple of examples to do what you could do. You could actually go into their room when they're not there, and you could pick up everything and put all the toys away and fold up all the clothes and stick them in the drawers or throw it in the laundry room.
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I mean, when it's their turn to do the dishes or to throw out the trash, or to let the dog out or feed the dog or whatever, you do it instead.
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That would be kind. You're making yourself useful. That's an actual real hands -on example.
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And I have it for the adults also. What about loving our neighbor as ourself?
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You wanna do something to really blow your neighbor's mind, as a good friend of mine used to say? When they go on vacation, mow their lawn or rake their lawn or go wash their windows or something or go wash their car, sweep the driveway when they're not there.
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And when they come home, they'll see that you were desirous to be kind. And you know who you do it to.
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You do it to the most ornery neighbor. You do it to the one who does not want you to be around and has nothing for Christianity and does not accept the things of God, does not want to hear the gospel.
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Be kind to them. Don't look for anything in return, but show love and true love.
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How about in the church? How about when it comes to BBC? What about our life as members in the church?
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How are we doing there when it comes to being kind? Are we only kind to the people we like?
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Are we only kind to the ones that we get along with? Love is kind and love gives and love acts and love isn't just plain being kind.
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It looks for opportunities over and over and over again. Love is on a mission.
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That's what the whole idea is. When you look at what Paul is teaching here, he's saying it's not just a principle.
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It's not just something in your head. It's not just some type of thoughts that we have.
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It's not concepts. It's not theory. It's action. It's doing what we say we profess.
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We profess to be Christians and we profess to be a people of love, of people who want to desire and live as Christ did.
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And Paul is making it very clear how we do that in our lives. And one of the ways is to be kind and to be useful to other people.
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Romans 12, 10, when it comes to brotherly kindness, the word of God says there that we are to have an affectionate love in the church, to have an affectionate love, a family sort of love.
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In the King James, it's be kindly affectioned one toward another.
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How about folks at work? Are you kind to your boss? Are you kind to your boss or do you talk about him behind his back?
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You disrespect him because you will let other people disrespect him in front of your ears and you don't walk away from it.
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Be kind to your boss. When everybody else is talking about the boss behind his back, why don't you go buy him or her something and stick it on their desk and make their day and be kind, go over and above.
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I really did like, I mean, there's some things that just stick in your mind. Do you remember Steve Lawson's admonition, practical admonition when it comes to the workplace for young people,
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I think he was recounting what John MacArthur was telling young people coming out of college, going into the workforce and he told them what to do.
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He said, first, show up on time, right? Show up and show up on time. And then secondly, do what you're told to do and do it with a good attitude.
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And I'd go beyond that, do what you do and do it with a good attitude and be kind at work.
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Don't look just for the promotion. Do you realize that promotion doesn't come from man?
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The scripture says promotion comes neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South, but God is the judge.
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He puts down one and he sets up another. Promotion comes from the Lord. And if we honor the
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Lord at our workplace, I believe that God will honor us. And in due time, he will bring us to the place where he wants us to be.
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And I just love doing things for other people as God gives me grace to do so.
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And I trust that you would be the same. You would desire to go over and above the world and live above it and be useful to other people.
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I mean, I remember examples. Have you ever been in an airport? And you know, there's a mechanical delay or weather or something.
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And I've seen people treat the poor airline staff behind the counter as if, you know, with the anger and the verbal abuse, and it's not even their fault.
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And they just go after them. And I mean, they're not even thinking, what if it was you behind the counter?
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You know, how would you wanna be treated? And when it's all said and done and they've yelled at them and they've been angry and abusive to them, then when they want something, who do they go to?
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Right up to the counter again, and they just expect that they're gonna get treated well. I mean, it's foolishness.
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And I think that if we maintain, and here's what it is in our Christian lives, if we maintain a balance, and if we maintain a consistency that as we are in the church and outside of the church, at home, by ourselves in private, on the job, at school, in our neighborhoods, when we meet with our biological families, that we maintain a consistency.
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And we desire that with all of our hearts, we want to please the Lord. And in this one way, as we're looking at this evening, we want to be a people who are kind.
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Jesus said in Matthew 7, 12, therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them.
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One of the illustrations of kindness that I found years ago, and I remember actually seeing this, it was of a little brother and a sister.
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And in this film clip, they had like a wall and along the wall, there was this like shelf and they're walking up high so they can't step down off of it.
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And there's a shelf and then there's an opening and there's another shelf on the other side. And they're walking down this shelf and the gulf is too big, they can't get across.
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So how do they get across? The brother, the little boy lays down across it and his sister walks across his back to the other side and then she helps pull him over to the other side.
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And I believe that if we would be willing and it's going to take this, it's going to take a humbling of ourselves and a lowering of ourselves and a being stepped on sometimes, a selflessness, a sacrificial attitude, returning of kindness instead of revenge.
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And this is something we ought to do as we put on our clothes every day, we ought to put on kindness because the scriptures tell us to do that.
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In Colossians 3 .12, put on therefore as the elect of God and one of the things that we're to put on is, you guessed it, kindness.
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Kindness, just like putting on our regular clothes. Well, what is this?
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What is the whole thrust here this evening in this short message, in this short admonition for us?
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Look, we're not going to be anything and we're just going to be empty and we're just going to be a clanging symbol or a noisy gong and that could equate to in the pagan times when there were these symbols that were banged to the gods, to the false gods that Paul could have been referring to here that he had seen, that our life will be like that.
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It will be offered up for nothing. It just will be empty and meaningless and fruitless and we will be nothing and we will profit ourselves nothing nor those that around us.
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You remember that admonition in Titus 3 that we're to be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.
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It will be profitable for those around us if we put on kindness. If we look for opportunities and I think that if you go on the hunt for it, you're going to find the opportunities and then when the opportunity presents itself, take the opportunity, don't miss the opportunity because you all know what it's like when you had an opportunity to maybe speak to somebody or do something and you missed that and just the guilt and the shame that you feel because you missed it, but seize that opportunity and by the glory of God, by the grace of God, have yourself to be profitable to other people by being kind to them and I think more than anything, what it will do is it brings honor to Christ.
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It brings honor to the Lord who we say has saved us and because we're in Christ and old things are passed away, the old way that we used to act towards people is gone and it ought to be gone and the new life, the new heart, the spirit of God controlling us and influencing us, our life ought to take on this whole attitude of showing love by kindness.
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Let me ask this question as I close. When others look at your life, when others look at my life, when they look at the life of a family life within BBC, would they say that you and I are a kind person?
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Ladies, like I said in Proverbs 31, is the law of kindness upon your tongue? Are you like the widow in 1
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Timothy chapter five who is hospitable, helpful to other people, raising her children and as a mother, are you raising your children in kindness and as a father, are you kindly affection to your children?
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Are you men kind to people that the Lord puts in your path?
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Are you kind at work? Are you kind when you go to school if you claim to be a Christian?
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Are you kind in your community more than anything? And just don't put it as the word of just kind and smiling and all happy, but it's action.
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Love is action and it is making ourselves useful for others.
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Maybe Lord willing, by God's grace, he will put it in our hearts to strive to be like this, to desire to be a different people and maybe we'll have an opportunity this week to carry out this message.
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And if you come tomorrow at 1030, I'm sure there'll be an opportunity at the funeral service for Donna.