Acts of Kindness

Kindness is a unique way of imitating the Messiah. What are some of the ways the Lord has shown us kindness, and what do we learn from this? Give a listen. 

Foundational Text: Genesis 24:10-21

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SPEAKER_00 0:18

Welcome to the Messiah in Life podcast, hosted by Bishop Justin D. L. of Restoration Fellowship International and Messiah Congregation in Washington Mills, New York. Due to some scheduling episodes, this week we will be studying a message delivered by Justin several years ago. This week's message was originally delivered in November of 2016 on the power of kindness to help transform the lives of the Lord's people. So pour yourself a tea or coffee. And let's open the word of God together. Now to Bishop Justin.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Kindness, when you read this portion, is the overarching theme. We find kindness right from the beginning all the way through, from the sons of Chet allowing Abraham to purchase the cave of Machpella, to bury Sarah, to the servant of Abraham Eliezer, traveling in order to find a bride for Isaac, and to Rebekah, showing kindness to Eliezer by drawing water for him and his camels. And we have touched on various parts of this over the years, but I don't think we have addressed the idea of kindness. Now, all of these things and many other things in the scriptures, this portion, are examples of kindness that have changed the lives of the people that they involve. Abraham purchased the first piece of property in the promised land. Eliezer finds a wife for Isaac. And this ensures the continuation of the promise that the Lord gave to Abraham. Because it'll be through the wedding of Isaac to Rebekah that they will bring forth Esau, and they'll bring forth Jacob, and Jacob will bring forth sons, and so on, and the promise will continue. Each of these acts almost seems incidental. But the acts of kindness actually bring the person to whom they were done to the place that they needed to be before the Lord. And it's important to note how seemingly incidental or inconsequential acts can actually place us exactly where God wants us to be. And that's what I want to focus on today. Rebecca makes her way to the well, which she would have done several times a day. When you're in nations that are not as developed as the United States, particularly when I've been in Kenya and even when I've been in India, you see the young girls go out to draw water, sometimes multiple times a day, depending on the size of the household. And for some it is quite a journey to get to where the water would be. Now, this water they cook with, they bathe with, they drink, but it's also the place where animals go to drink, to bathe, where some people go to bathe, where people wash their cars. They literally pull the car right into the water. And you see these girls that'll carry usually a yellow uh bucket of some sort on their head uphill and do this on numerous occasions. So you imagine how amazing that is. So there still are people doing this in the world today. I still see people, especially when I'm in Indiwa, see uh girls coming to the well. Uh, the well at the joy schools, where we have the well, that they pay a couple of shillings, they fill up as many buckets as they want. The water is absolutely clean and pure because it's such a deep well. And they will come and meet, and as they're filling up their buckets, they'll talk. And it becomes a social occasion. So we see this right back into biblical history, Rebecca doing this. But she has no idea that she's about to participate in an event that will change the lives of generations. And that simple act that is about to happen is even affecting our life here today, and that's an amazing thing. If you think about an event that happened over 2,000 years ago, she shows kindness to Eliezer, but not only Eliezer, she does an extraordinary bit of kindness to his camels as well. Now, if you've ever been around camels, uh, they're interesting creatures. When a camel drinks, in order to get full, it needs to drink about 10 gallons of water. Now, she says, I will give you to drink, but let me also give your camels to drink as well. So she fills Eliezer, but then she draws a hundred gallons of water in order to fill these ten camels. That is an extraordinary act of kindness, and perhaps that's why Eliezer voiced his prayer to the Lord in the way that he did. That she would say, Drink and let me water your camels too. I mean, think about this. What are the odds that a girl, a young girl, would come and volunteer to draw a hundred gallons of water for you? So he puts an extraordinary, well, we might say, fleece before the Lord, right? He puts this out before the Lord, and the Lord causes it to happen. But then, if she does this, if she does this, this will prove that this is certainly the woman for Isaac. This is the one that you have chosen. And then Eliezer tops all of his requests off by saying, And let me know this by this that you have shown kindness to my master. So I'm going to put this extraordinary petition out before the Lord, and then once you fill this, I'll know that you have shown kindness to my master. The Talmud teaches about kindness. It says the Torah begins with an act of kindness and it ends with an act of kindness. It begins with an act of kindness by saying God made garments of skin for them, for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. And it ends with an act of kindness, for it says he, God, buried him, Moses, in the valley. And we can go even from there to the end of Revelation, when God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. That's an extraordinary act of kindness, from there, meaning every one of us. I posted on Facebook a few days ago that the most common language in the world of the 6,000 languages that are spoken or so is the language of tears. Everyone can relate to the language of tears. So imitating God is one of the 613 commandments, that we are to walk in his ways and we are to imitate him. That is what godliness means, godlikeness, that we are imitating God. And then Paul draws that even further when he says, Become imitators of me, as I also am imitating the Messiah. 1 Corinthians 11:1. He's imitating Messiah. So imitate him. Messiah was showing us what the Father in heaven is doing. He could only do what he saw the Father in heaven doing. So in this, we are commanded to be like God. But the Lord, of course, became discouraged by the hearts of his people. In Hosea 6, 6, he says, for I desire kindness and not sacrifice. But he commanded sacrifice. He desires sacrifice, but above all, he desires kindness. Khesed. Kindness. Kindness is of such importance to the life of faith that the rabbis in a vote, The Ethics of the Fathers, say this: the world stands on three pillars: Torah, worship, and acts of kindness. The law, worship, and actions of kindness. Rabbi Joseph Toluskin explains this. In identifying God's three most important demands of human beings, the prophet Micah speaks of doing justice, walking humbly with God, and loving kindness. Micah 6.8. In depicting the ideal human being, God apparently wishes people not only to act with kindness, but to also love doing kindness, loving kindness. That when we do our acts of kindness, we should do so, loving to do it, encouraged to do it, not doing it begrudgingly. Here's my good deed for the day. That we would actually love to do an act of kindness because in that we are imitating our Father in heaven, who shown such incredible and extraordinary kindness to us as well. I submit to you that kindness should be the way that we walk. It should be what goes before us, it should be what we're known for. It should not be secondary. Because we are shining forth he who has been placed in us, in these earthen vessels that we have. Messiah, the countenance of Messiah in us. That wonderful thing about kindness is this: that you never, never know when it will be needed, and you cannot plan for it. So therefore, kindness must be part of your identity, part of who you are. You never know if you walk out this door that you might need to show kindness to someone standing outside the door, or in the marketplace, or in your place of work. Kindness might be required when you're not ready or in the mood to show kindness. Have you ever noticed that that there are times when you're not in the mood to be godly? Has that ever happened to you, or is it just me? You're just not particularly in the mood, right, to be godly. In fact, you'd like to be very ungodly. It would be a wonderful thing just to be ungodly. And then the Holy Spirit grabs a hold of you before you put your foot in your mouth and draws you back to where you should be. There are times when my phone goes off. I said to my sister-in-law last night, your phone is worse than mine. Because hers was pinging and beeping and booping and bopping, and I turned mine to silent, which was beautiful. There are times when that thing rings or chimes or chirps or burps or whatever it does, where the first words aren't praise the Lord. It's annoying. But we never know how transformative the act of kindness that we're about to do just might be. We think it's insignificant. But the reality is that kindness done in faith, done because of who is implanted in us, who has renewed us, who has remade us, is going to be powerful. That is the power of kindness. And I submit to you this none of you would be here today except for an act of kindness. I want to take you back many, many, many years. I was going to a parent teacher night at school, at a school that my boys were going to. And I stood at the door, and I, as I was walking to the doors, I could see the reflection of someone walking up behind me. So I opened the door and I stood there and I kind of stepped aside to let them go through. Now they noticed that I had back then I was a little bit more kosher than I am now. I had my tzitsi that could just be seen under my jacket or my shirt or whatever it was, and they saw that, they said shalom, and they walked by, and we ended up having a conversation. And from that conversation, other doors were opened. In fact, this congregation back in, I think Teresa's the only one here that might remember this, this congregation planted when we were in Herkimer, we were called Bethesid, House of Kindness. Because we were established upon an action of kindness. A simple action of kindness holding the door open for someone led to other doors being opened, which has led to, think about what we have done in the last uh whatever towards us 10 years, just 10 years, the last 10 years alone, what we've been able to do because what the Lord has done. Everything all over the world that we've been involved with came from a simple act of kindness. Do you not see the power in kindness? Hold the door open for someone and your life might be changed. It seems so insignificant. It couldn't possi. If it's unless it's someone speaking in tongues over you and putting their hands on you and giving you a whole list of prayer, you know, unless it's powerful, it's never going to be meaningful. But doesn't our God go before us? Doesn't our God order our steps? So if you open a door for someone, is He not already setting the steps that we will follow that'll lead us to where we are? So here we are today because those years ago, I saw a reflection, I opened the door, I held it open, and we talked on the other side of that door. Talk about walking through the door of hope from one action. One bit of kindness has sent me around the world more times than I want to think about. Kindness is different from charity. This is where we are mistaken in Christianity. Kindness is different from charity. It's a daqqa. And here are three distinctions. Charity is only done with money. Charity is only done with money, but kindness can be performed with body and money. So there's a difference. Difference number two. Charity is only to the poor. But kindness can be shown to the rich and the poor alike. Now I'm not much of a Bruce Springsteen fan anymore. But a couple of guys on bikes found a man stranded on the side of the road two weeks ago, his bike broken down. Of course, it was in New Jersey, and he takes off his helmet and it's Bruce Springsteen. He took him to dinner as he waited for someone to come pick him up, gave him free tickets to some show that they that he was doing. So an act of kindness led to a pretty good time. You can do kindness with to the rich and to the poor. I mean, I've done enough funerals to know that we all die the same way, whether we're rich or whether we're poor. I don't know if you've noticed that. And whether you're rich or poor, nobody's talking in the casket. I don't know if you've noticed that at all either. So the rich and the poor we can show kindness to. Point number three: charity is only given to the living. We only give charity to the living. Well, kindness can be performed for both the living and the dead. Now, how do we perform kindness for the dead? Well, we see to their burial. Think of this. Think of the action that the Lord did for Moses. Think of what he did for Moses. He personally, the Lord personally buried Moses. An extraordinary act of kindness. Now, how did they how did he do that? How did the Lord bury Moses without a Theophany? Without a Christophany, without the lawgiver and Moses being buried by the lawgiver Messiah. Think about that. It's kind of interesting. I think that would preach a message pretty nicely. But there are acts of kindness, are acts of kindness important to the Messianic faith? Are they important for our faith today? And I'll conclude very quickly. In Matthew 25, verses 34 through 36, I'm not going to read from it. I'm simply referencing two most important statements. Yeshua illustrates the separation of the sheep from the goats. It's an extraordinary chapter of eschatology if you want to read it. The sheep go to the right hand. Why do they go to the right hand? Well, that's where he is. He's at the right hand of God the Father. So the sheep will go to where he is. I will come, I will take you to myself that where I am, you will be also. So his sheep will go to the right side. The goats go to the what? The left side, the left hand. But what is it that separates these two groups? What separates the sheep from the goats? Very simply, an act of kindness. You don't believe that there's power and kindness? Look at this. To the sheep, the Lord says, Truly I say to you, insofar as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. To the goats, he says, Truly I say to you, insomuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. He's speaking of kindness there. Simple kindness. You want to know? Think about this. Who's going to the right? Who's going to the left? Did you do this for the least of these, my brothers? Think about that. So does the Lord place a hefty, a hefty uh amount of thought on kindness? Yes. He said, Lizavah, I desire kindness. I desire kindness. I want kindness more than sacrifice. Remember, didn't we do this in your name, Lord? Didn't we do that in your name, Lord? Didn't we do all of these things in your name? Yes, you did. But I didn't know you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. How great can an act of kindness be while the sky is the limit? How small? Give someone a glass of water. Fill their thirst. Fill their need. And there you have it. Kindness is a powerful means of transforming lives. Powerful. And there's no limit to it. We're still experiencing kindness of years ago. We're still experiencing the power of kindness from 2,000 years ago, from 4,000 years ago. We're still experiencing the act of kindness. We're still experiencing the act of kindness and that the Lord covered Adam and Eve. We're still experiencing the power of kindness and that the Lord created the heavens and the earth and all their array. We're still living from God's kindness. And he expects us to walk in his ways and to show forth that kindness as well. You say, well, this isn't a very inspiring, powerful message. Then you've missed the boat on what the gospel is. It was an act of extraordinary kindness that while we were yet sinners, God through Christ died for us. Extraordinary kindness is the season that we're living through. And here's the wonderful thing, at least on our part. Kindness does not cost us a thing. But the rewards, the benefits, the blessings are beyond our calculation. Rebecca didn't have to draw water for Eliezer. She didn't have to draw, certainly didn't have to draw water for his camels. She said, she could have said, I'll give you, I'll give you some water. You water your camels yourself. Because I've had it with you all. But she didn't. She could have. But she didn't. And in that, she joined herself to a chain of events of four thousand years that have remarkably, dramatically, unchangeably altered human history. Acts of kindness. That's what the Lord gave us these actions for, that we would be like Him. The old question of Mihamocha, which is, who is like thee, O Lord, among the gods? If we stop and think about that, who is like thee? We should answer, we are. We should say, we're trying to be. We're trying to be like you. We are trying to walk in your perfection as you are perfect, in your holiness as you are holy. We're trying to walk in your ways by your grace in order to impact the world. We're trying to do these things by your grace and your mercy, by your extraordinary kindness. So, friends, and you don't have to be a scholar, you don't have to be the most spirit-filled individual, you don't have to be the most charismatic individual to show an act of kindness. You can leave this building and show an act of kindness before you get to your car. You can walk before you even walk out of the sanctuary, you can show an act of kindness to someone. Are you hearing me today? Simple. Simple. But how hard is it to show kindness? Pretty hard. Otherwise, the Lord would not remind us that we need to be kind to one another. I know Messiah said, love each other as I have loved you. We had a hard time doing that. Can I get a witness? We have a hard time doing that, yes? Kindness. Yeah, Tom said something to me as we were greeting one another today. He said, you people really like each other. Or something like that. I'm paraphrasing. I said, yeah, we do. I said, except for him. So friends, I pray, I hope and pray. I hope and pray. I do, I love you all. I do love you all. Because God said. But I hope and pray today you found something of value for your time and inspirational for your faith.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

Amen. Thank you for listening. If you would like to buy Justin a coffee or tea, or just leave a small tip to help support the podcast, please see the link in the description of this episode. Thank you for your continued prayers and support. Until next time, may the Lord bless and keep you in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.