Come Up Higher - God is Kindness

So today we will journey through God’s love story the Bible and explore another aspect of God’s character, and that is kindness. A kindness that is the very essence of God Himself. For God is kindness. God’s expression of His kindness is shown in His relationships with individuals and people groups throughout the ages. His kindness is intertwined with His unconditional love. As you listen be blessed, empowered and transformed in Jesus name.

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Transcript

00:00 Intro music and voice over.

Welcome to jesus loves the world podcast. For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name! 

00:21 Speaker

Following on from last week, we discovered that God continues to invite us to come up higher, to know and experience His patience towards us. 

A patience that is unending and intertwined with His selfless love. God’s heart’s desire is that none should perish. He waits for all who will come to Him have come. Until all those who want to enter into His eternal salvation are safe. So God waits patiently, before He brings down judgement. Just like in the days of Noah. When God waited until the ark of safety was completed before He brought judgement. The judgement that was upon the earth as a result of humanity aligning themselves with evil. 

So today we will journey through God’s love story the Bible and explore another aspect of God’s character, and that is kindness. A kindness that is the very essence of God Himself. For God is kindness.

God’s expression of His kindness is shown in His relationships with individuals and people groups throughout the ages. His kindness is intertwined with His unconditional love.

For a greater revelation of God and His unconditional love, please listen to the Jesus loves : the world podcast titled - Come Up Higher - God is Love.

In the New Testament the Apostle Paul had much to say about God’s character. Including how God’s love is intertwined with His kindness. 

In His letter to the church in Corinth, Paul outlines in chapter 13 what God’s love is like. Amongst the many divine attributes of God’s love, in this letter, God’s love is described as kind.

1 Corinthians 13:4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

The word that has been translated as kind is an action word. It has an aspect of reaching out through gifts or deeds to demonstrate compassion and mercy for the benefit of others. God’s ultimate expression of His kindness is in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. 

In another letter of Paul’s, this time to those in Ephesus who have received Jesus, received God, he again links God’s kindness with His great love and ultimate expression. That is His gift of eternal salvation in Christ Jesus. 

Ephesians 2:4-9 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

In this instance the word that has been translated as mercy, actually means kindness or goodwill towards those who are miserable and afflicted. Being joined with the desire to help them. 

So God who is abounding in mercy or kindness because of His unconditional love, desires to set humanity free. His desire is for all people, that is every individual, tribe and tongue to be truly free. Being enjoined with Him for all eternity. 

When evil is totally eliminated and we dwell physically as well as spiritually together with God. Where we are free from the destructive forces of evil and the selfish desires of humanity, and ultimately physical death. Until we receive God’s salvation in Jesus, we are trapped in all three.

However the good news is, God’s desire for humanity to be truly free is greater than the destructive forces of evil, our selfish desires and even death. In Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, God defeated death and evil. When Jesus returns, evil will be totally eliminated and we will inherit our eternal physical bodies.  

So even when we were enemies of God, Jesus came from heaven to earth, lived, died and rose again on high.

For us today having accepted Jesus’ right to rule and reign and yes to His sacrifice, we are spiritually in union with the divine. 

Everything that God accomplished in Jesus’ human form is for all humanity. However each one has a free choice to receive Him or reject Him. Having chosen to receive Jesus, we are made alive together with Jesus and raised up with Him. Spiritually seated with Him, in the Heavenly places.

This is all because of who God is, what He has done and will do. 

We are the evidence of God’s exceeding riches of amazing grace. An extravagant grace of underserved, divine favour displayed toward humanity. God in His kindness brings salvation to all people. To every individual and people group, of every, tribe, nation and tongue.

God lavished His kindness upon humanity, as a demonstration of His great love and amazing grace. 

For God is kindness. 

In another letter, this time to Titus who is referred to as a true son in the faith, Paul again links God’s kindness to His salvation.

Titus 3:4-7 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Upon salvation we receive His Holy Spirit within and undergo and a spiritual rebirth. We become co-heirs with Jesus.

That is the regeneration. However it is the daily journey of surrendering to God our thoughts, beliefs, desires and emotions. In taking a moment to surrender to Him, God renews our minds, beliefs, desires and emotions. Setting us free of their controlling, destructive forces. This  renewing of the Holy Spirit renovates our character to be more like His. More of His love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control.

Becoming more like God’s character and daily journey being enjoined with the divine. Taking a moment to surrender to Him and receive from Him. 

Not only being transformed by Him, receiving more of Him but coming into a greater understanding and experience of Him. 

God continues to invite humanity to come up higher. For God is kindness.

Throughout the Old Testament, God frequently revealed that He is abounding in kindness or mercy towards the miserable and afflicted. With a desire to be enjoined with them, so that He can deliver them. 

God reveals His mercy or lovingkindness endures forever. He is bound to His covenant of love.

God’s expression of His loyalty and devotion to His covenant of love is inseparable from His kindness. For it is because of His great love, a love that is kind, that He brings salvation. A salvation that comes from being enjoined with Him.

God in His lovingkindness journeyed with the Ancient Israelites. Even in their rebellion and wanderings He was there. Through the highs and lows of this life, He dwelt amongst them. Even when they had rejected Him and worshipped other gods, He still pursued them in love. 

During the time when the people of Judah had chosen to align themselves with evil, just like the surrounding nations, God sent His prophet Isaiah. Isaiah whose name means the Eternal One has saved. 

So God said to Isaiah in amongst the evil of the Ancient Israelites and humanity, come up higher. Remember who I am, what I have done and promise to do. For I must judge evil as evil and those who choose to align themselves with evil, come under that judgement. Yet I remain loyal to My covenant of love and am abounding in kindness.

This is you must reveal to the people of Judah. So let us go that passage of scripture and listen to what the prophet Isaiah declares to the people. 

Isaiah 63:7-14 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD And the praises of the LORD, According to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies, According to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses. For He said, “Surely they are My people, Children who will not lie.” So He became their Savior. In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the Angel of His Presence saved them; In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; And He bore them and carried them All the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; So He turned Himself against them as an enemy, And He fought against them. Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying: “Where is He who brought them up out of the sea With the shepherd of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit within them, Who led them by the right hand of Moses, With His glorious arm, Dividing the water before them To make for Himself an everlasting name, Who led them through the deep, As a horse in the wilderness, That they might not stumble?” As a beast goes down into the valley, And the Spirit of the LORD causes him to rest, So You lead Your people, To make Yourself a glorious name.

The prophet Isaiah knows and declares that He will mention the lovingkindness of the Eternal One. For it is because of His lovingkindness, that God has given all to them. Everything God has done, is doing and will do is according to God’s mercies and the vast multitude of His loving kindness. For God is in a covenant relationship of which God Himself, has personally and intimately fulfilled.

As God’s presence is enjoined with those who receive Him, He communed with the Ancient Israelites. In amongst the death that was passing through the land of their oppressors, God the Eternal One came in and communed with them. Death passed over the ones who in that moment had chosen to align themselves with God. As the ones who chose to reject God, aligned themselves with the gods of the land of their oppressors. The gods of their oppressors, in this instance were the gods of Egypt. God had said in bring deliverance to the Ancient Israelites the gods of Egypt came under judgement. The lies and deceptions of the gods of Egypt were exposed for all to see. So each one, whether the Ancient Israelites of the Egyptians had free choice. A free choice to choose God and salvation, or the gods of Egypt and judgement.

Yet even tho God had heard their cries and delivered the Ancient Israelites from the hands of their oppressors, when they were set free, rebelled. They grieved the precious Holy Spirit of God by choosing to align themselves with evil. In doing so effectively declared war on God.

Isaiah concluded that God in His lovingkindness leads His people to a place of rest. Not only leads them to a place of rest but causes them or empowers them to rest.

As God is the same, yesterday, today and forever, His desire to set humanity free and be enjoined with them has never changed.

Centuries after the deliverance of the Ancient Israelites God personally and intimately stepped down into humanity’s darkness. In His lovingkindness, God - Father, Son and Spirit - made a new covenant with humanity. 

The Eternal One, God Himself became human. The Son of God, the very essence of God Himself, suffered the full human condition. In Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, God has intimately and personally gifted us eternal salvation.

God in His lovingkindess continues to invite us to come up higher. To know and experience Him more and more each and every day. Being transformed by Him, receiving more of His loving kindness. In transforming us new each day, we are living in the fullness of all He has done and given to us in Himself. 

God’s kindness is for all people to know and experience. We simply say yes to Him and give total allegiance of our worship to Him.

So as we enter into this new season, God is inviting us to come up higher. To know and experience Him and His kindness more and more each day. A kindness that is pure and loving, selfless and divine. For God is and always will be, kindness.

19:40 Outro music and voice over. 

For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name!