I Dare You | To Be Kind

all right well good morning i want to
0:03
welcome everybody here today i want to
0:05
welcome everybody in monroe and saginaw
0:07
everybody watching online um
0:09
hey we we are just jumping into uh
0:12
another series of i dare you and i don't
0:14
know when it comes to daring people
0:16
there's two different groups of people
0:17
they're the people that get dared
0:21
and then there's the the people that
0:22
dare them right there's the people that
0:24
get dared and maybe the other way to say
0:26
it is and then there's the smart people
0:29
guess which one i am
0:31
yeah i'm the one that's like oh let's
0:33
dare grant to do it right so when i was
0:35
a kid my brother and i were next to the
0:37
hog fence electric fence and my
0:38
brother's over your turn you touch it i
0:40
was like i'll do it and i'll do it
0:43
grab a hold of it
0:45
when i'm in high school somebody dared
0:47
me to jump off a bridge into two feet of
0:49
water
0:50
did that didn't die almost drowned in
0:52
two feet of water because i
0:54
anyway later on in high school somebody
0:56
dared me to get up on a roof and like
0:58
strip down and jump into a snowdrift did
1:00
that
1:01
but then it didn't stop right like you
1:03
people grow out of this i'm like 32
1:05
years old right
1:06
i'm a pastor and somebody had taken a
1:09
casket and dropped it off at the church
1:11
i was serving at at the time and it was
1:13
just this casket in the dark room and
1:14
the rest of the staff our question was
1:17
is there somebody in it
1:19
we didn't know
1:20
and so they're like i dare you to go
1:22
look
1:24
so i was i was actually curious but i
1:26
also was like i'll do it i'll do it i
1:28
wouldn't have done it except they said
1:30
those words so i walk in there in a dark
1:32
auditorium
1:33
and i sneak in there and i open the lid
1:35
and yep yep no there was somebody in
1:38
there that was terrifying right
1:42
i've done a lot of dares uh in my life
1:44
and i'm trying to be smarter so today
1:46
i'm trying to dare
1:47
you i want to dare you and we've been
1:49
daring each week this week we want to
1:52
dare
1:52
you to be
1:55
kind
1:57
i know that doesn't really sound like a
1:59
dare does it right you usually the dares
2:01
like a jury dare you go pick a fight
2:03
dare you
2:04
and we're like dare you i dare you to
2:07
love people
2:09
that doesn't really fit the nature of
2:11
love but i want to tell you this whole
2:12
idea of being kind i think it actually
2:14
is more of a dare than we might
2:16
realize
2:17
the bible the new testament especially
2:19
is covered all over the place with
2:21
reminding us over and over and over that
2:22
we need to be
2:24
kind people in colossians chapter 3 it
2:27
says this
2:29
therefore as god's chosen people like
2:33
that's that's probably worth underlying
2:35
he's saying because because you are a
2:37
follower of christ because your life has
2:39
been
2:40
changed because god has chosen you
2:44
holy and dearly loved
2:46
clothe yourselves with
2:49
compassion
2:51
kindness
2:52
humility
2:54
gentleness
2:56
and patience
2:57
as you read those words as you look at
2:59
them they all kind of are sort of
3:01
similar words and and they're all even
3:03
in the greek they're very similar words
3:05
they're words that are
3:07
kind of words of weakness
3:09
kindness gentleness patience
3:13
really kind of the dare in the process
3:15
of being kind is i dare you to do the
3:17
the most brave thing sometimes and that
3:19
is to be
3:20
weak
3:22
the word kindness in the greek actually
3:24
is a very simple word that just means
3:26
crestotis which is a word that means
3:28
meeting real
3:30
needs
3:31
like that's what it means it's a very
3:33
simple concept i just i just want you to
3:35
meet real needs in people's lives
3:38
so again we see this all over the new
3:40
testament where this is this is the
3:42
people you're supposed to be it's not
3:43
just a matter of what we're doing but
3:45
it's how
3:46
we do it first thessalonians very
3:49
similar
3:50
in verse 15 515 says make sure that
3:53
nobody pays back wrong
3:56
for wrong
3:58
but always strive to do what is good
4:00
for each other and for every
4:04
one else right this isn't a tough
4:06
concept just don't pay back evil for
4:08
evil but do what is
4:09
good
4:11
it seems like there's a lot of times
4:12
where we were like yeah of course i
4:14
wouldn't pay back evil for evil i'm not
4:16
going to return bad or bad with bad i'm
4:18
going to i'm going to be good
4:20
but then a scenario happens and we feel
4:23
like this is our opportunity to not i'm
4:25
trying to think of something that might
4:26
have happened in the headlines recently
4:27
but it seemed maybe i've got a picture
4:29
here of something
4:31
right this is like big news even in the
4:33
ukraine they're like oh that's big news
4:35
that's big news i mean there's rush of
4:36
things bigger but did you hear about
4:38
will smith well
4:40
like this is a this is a big deal right
4:42
all over the news and i think some of us
4:45
put ourselves in that will smith
4:46
scenario
4:47
where it's just like yeah of course i
4:49
would never do anything wrong or i'd
4:51
never do anything evil i never pay that
4:52
back
4:53
unless
4:55
you talk about my wife
4:57
unless you insult me
4:59
it's almost like we've got these little
5:01
bit of loopholes and jesus is like i'm
5:03
telling you there's no loophole
5:05
there's no there's no time where you
5:08
would ever do anything where you're not
5:09
returning it with kindness with with
5:11
goodness
5:13
another passage here
5:15
book of philippians he says let your
5:17
gentleness be evident to all check out
5:19
what he says here
5:20
the lord is near
5:23
sometimes it feels like we're just out
5:24
there doing life and we're not even
5:26
realizing that like god's near
5:28
when my kids were little um they used to
5:30
get in fights and sometimes like you
5:33
know name call or bite each other that's
5:35
that's normal right
5:37
okay so anyway my kids when they were
5:39
little like they would be in their room
5:41
and and i would hear something sort of
5:43
escalating like you took my toy or this
5:45
happened or whatever and uh and so i
5:47
would go and this is i would just stand
5:49
just outside the room
5:51
anybody else do that like i'm not going
5:52
to barge in there and i'm just going to
5:54
stand outside let's see what transpires
5:57
right let's see what happens
5:59
so there would be happening they'd be
6:00
fighting a little bit back and forth and
6:02
it starts to escalate and then all of a
6:04
sudden
6:05
something happens right somebody bites
6:07
somebody or somebody calls a name or
6:09
somebody screams at somebody or
6:11
somebody's just awful right and in that
6:13
moment that's where i jump around the
6:14
corner and go
6:17
and i catch them and i know which one i
6:20
know which one and they're like i didn't
6:21
i didn't know i'm like no i was watching
6:22
the whole thing right i was here for
6:24
every minute of it i know exactly what
6:27
happened
6:29
and sometimes i forget i think we forget
6:31
that that's exactly our position like
6:34
god's always
6:36
near the lord is near he's present he's
6:38
watching he's seeing our interactions
6:40
sometimes we we we interact with people
6:42
that he created in his image as if he
6:45
isn't just standing right there with us
6:48
and so he's like let your goodness
6:50
always be shown to
6:52
everyone now my point is this is all
6:54
over the new testament this is what
6:56
we're supposed to it's not just what we
6:57
do it's how we
6:59
do it probably the ultimate example of
7:01
this
7:02
is a story that jesus shares in luke
7:06
chapter 10
7:07
it says on on one occasion an expert in
7:10
the law stood up to test jesus
7:13
teacher he asked
7:15
what must i do to inherit eternal life
7:18
what is written in the law jesus replied
7:20
he replied
7:21
how do you read it
7:24
so the guy says he answered
7:26
love the lord your god with all your
7:27
heart and with all your soul and with
7:30
all your strength
7:32
and with all your mind and love your
7:34
neighbor as yourself
7:37
the guy actually
7:39
nails it nobody gets it that right but
7:41
he's there to trap jesus remember to
7:43
test him
7:44
he says you have answered correctly
7:46
jesus replied do this and you will
7:49
live
7:52
but he
7:53
wanted
7:54
to justify himself
7:58
so he asked jesus
8:00
and who is my neighbor now i want to
8:01
pause there for just a second
8:04
we all do that
8:06
we all
8:08
justify ourselves figuring out the right
8:10
thing to do is usually not a very
8:12
difficult thing to do
8:14
in this scenario the guy's like yeah i'm
8:16
supposed to love my neighbor but he
8:18
found this loophole he found this moment
8:20
he's like yeah but but but
8:23
who's my neighbor
8:24
i think we do this all the time
8:26
i think we do it in our marriages i
8:28
think we do in our relationships i think
8:29
we do it with every command we find in
8:31
scripture we're constantly coming across
8:33
stuff and going
8:34
man i need to do that except i'm not
8:36
sure that that really applies to me
8:38
and we try to justify ourselves this guy
8:41
is in a moment where he thinks he's
8:42
found the loophole he's like well of
8:44
course i'm supposed to love everybody
8:45
but jesus i i need to try to understand
8:48
here who do you think my neighbor really
8:51
is i think that's important to pause
8:54
because jesus is going to tell the story
8:56
of the good samaritan
8:57
and this is a story that we've probably
8:59
even if you've never come to church
9:00
before in your life you probably know
9:02
the story of the good samaritan right
9:04
we've heard this before
9:06
but we need to remember that there's a
9:08
reason why jesus is telling the story
9:11
and it's because there's somebody who's
9:12
trying to justify their behavior there's
9:16
somebody that's trying to say i don't
9:18
want to be kind to everyone there's
9:20
somebody who's saying i don't want to
9:22
love everyone there's somebody that's
9:24
going i don't want to in every
9:26
circumstance be this so maybe i could
9:29
just justify myself and maybe rule out a
9:33
group
9:33
of people
9:35
i think he very literally has on his
9:37
mind
9:39
samaritans
9:41
that jews and samaritans didn't get
9:42
along it would be it would be so much
9:45
more volatile than this but the best
9:46
comparison i can imagine is if you took
9:49
a far left liberal and you took a far
9:52
right conservative and you put them in a
9:54
smart car to drive to san francisco
9:58
like that's the tension that would
10:00
happen on that trip
10:02
is about as close as we can imagine in
10:04
our culture to what like it would be but
10:06
they they hated each other and they were
10:08
outspoken about hating each other and
10:10
especially jews would look down on to
10:13
look down their nose
10:16
at
10:16
samaritans and so jesus is about to tell
10:19
a story to a jew who just asked the
10:21
question who is my neighbor do i really
10:23
need to love all those people
10:26
and jesus can that's where he tells the
10:28
story
10:29
in reply jesus said
10:31
a man was going down from jerusalem to
10:33
jericho when he was attacked by robbers
10:35
they stripped him of his clothes beat
10:37
him and went away leaving him half dead
10:42
a priest happened to be going down the
10:44
same road and when he saw the man he
10:45
passed by on the other side so too a
10:48
levite when he came to the place saw him
10:51
passed by
10:52
on the other side
10:54
but a
10:55
samaritan i think as jesus is telling
10:58
the story there's like a
11:01
in the crowd
11:02
like did you just say that out loud
11:04
but a samaritan
11:07
as he traveled came where the man was
11:09
and when he saw him he
11:11
took pity
11:13
on him he went
11:15
to him and bandaged his wounds pouring
11:18
oil pouring on oil and wine
11:21
then he put the man on his donkey
11:23
brought him to an inn and took care of
11:25
him the next day he took out two daenery
11:27
and gave them to the innkeeper
11:30
look after him he said and when i return
11:33
i will reimburse you for any extra
11:36
expense you have and then jesus kind of
11:38
comes to the
11:40
to the hook
11:41
the reason jesus told the story
11:44
he says which of these three
11:46
do you think was a neighbor to the man
11:48
who fell into the hands
11:50
of robbers and even a guy that came
11:52
there to test jesus
11:55
testing jesus did not go well normally
11:57
even a guy that came to test jesus
12:00
had to admit
12:02
the expert in the law replied
12:04
the one who had mercy on him jesus told
12:07
him go
12:09
and do
12:11
likewise
12:13
i i think
12:14
jesus is making a simple point like hey
12:16
you're trying to justify yourself you're
12:18
trying to convince yourself that there's
12:20
somebody that you don't have to love
12:22
there's somebody you don't have to be
12:23
kind to you're trying to convince
12:24
yourself if somebody insults your wife
12:27
then you don't have to be kind to them
12:28
if somebody disagrees with you if
12:30
somebody makes fun of you if somebody is
12:31
insulting then you don't have to if you
12:35
if you're in that spot and jesus says
12:37
i'm telling you
12:38
there's
12:39
there's no body
12:43
now
12:44
i think
12:45
this is an important thing for us to
12:47
hear because i've been thinking about
12:48
this all week
12:50
it's just like do we
12:52
do we really as a church as a people
12:55
followers of jesus been reading the
12:56
bible
12:57
do we really need another message on
12:59
kindness
13:01
do we
13:02
do we need to hear it again do we need
13:04
to hear the story of the good samaritan
13:08
again
13:10
because here's what i think we do with
13:11
that story i i think we go out and we
13:14
try to be nice to people which is good
13:17
but what i mean by that is i don't man i
13:20
don't know of anybody at any of our
13:21
campuses there's nobody i don't i i
13:23
don't think so there's nobody here in
13:25
brighton nobody's sagging on nobody in
13:27
monroe i wouldn't say there's anybody at
13:29
any one of our seven locations
13:31
that if you went out today and you saw
13:33
somebody laying alongside the road who
13:35
had been stripped and had the crap
13:38
kicked out of them
13:40
wouldn't make a phone call
13:42
like you would right
13:44
i think we'd all do that
13:46
i mean there might be some of you out
13:48
there i don't know who you are there's
13:49
probably some guy in monroe like no i'm
13:51
not you probably got problems anyway
13:52
you're probably root for ohio state or
13:54
whatever you know you
13:57
i'm sure there's somebody but for the
13:58
most part
14:00
i don't think that's jesus's point
14:03
i don't think jesus is out there so when
14:05
you leave here today make sure that you
14:07
look in the ditches
14:09
make sure you're paying attention
14:10
somebody might got beat up and you need
14:12
to take care of them
14:13
i think that's sometimes what we do with
14:15
this message is we run out there and we
14:16
like look for people that that have
14:19
needs and a lot of times we're looking
14:20
for people that we don't know there's
14:22
the guy at the at the stop with the
14:24
cardboard sign and you might think oh
14:26
yeah that's good samaritan i'll give him
14:27
five dollars or maybe you're helping out
14:29
your neighbor and snow blowing the yard
14:30
or their driveway too because it's april
14:33
but we're gonna get another snow you
14:34
know like
14:36
and we we think about being nice
14:38
sometimes the
14:41
strangers
14:43
or people we don't know or maybe people
14:45
we like
14:46
but the point is that we need to be
14:49
we need to be kind like model the heart
14:51
of jesus when it really matters
14:54
with people we disagree with
14:57
like vehemently disagree with
15:00
those are the people
15:01
that we need to love now here's why i
15:03
think this is important for people who
15:04
are followers of jesus
15:07
i think this is really important because
15:10
i don't know if you know this or not but
15:12
you disagree with a lot of people
15:15
if you're a follower of jesus you
15:17
disagree with the majority of the world
15:18
jesus said that the the way is narrow
15:21
that leads to eternal life but the path
15:23
to destruction is broad in other words
15:26
the majority of people that you know are
15:29
going to be people that you
15:31
disagree with
15:33
and not only do you disagree with them
15:35
this is what it means to be a follower
15:37
of jesus but your mission in life is to
15:40
change
15:41
their mind did you know that
15:44
jesus says in matthew 28
15:47
he says therefore go and
15:49
really be nice to everybody
15:51
no that's implied
15:53
he says there go and make disciples of
15:55
all nations baptizing them in the name
15:57
of the father and the son and the holy
15:59
spirit and teaching them to obey
16:00
everything i have commanded you
16:02
in other words if you're a follower of
16:04
christ your mission when you wake up
16:06
every single day
16:09
is to convince people that you care
16:10
about
16:12
that jesus
16:14
is the only way
16:16
you're trying to
16:18
make disciples of people so what that
16:21
means is is that you're gonna disagree
16:23
and in that disagreement there's kind of
16:25
some hard pills to swallow
16:27
i don't know if you've you've thought
16:28
about this but at some point there's a
16:30
lot of good things in the message of
16:32
jesus that are that are easy to hear but
16:34
there's also some things that are
16:35
difficult
16:36
i just listed a few one of them is
16:39
god's right and you're wrong
16:41
that's i mean you don't say it like that
16:44
don't meet with somebody for coffee and
16:45
be like hey i just won't let you know
16:46
god's right and you're wrong
16:49
but it's a it's an inevitable truth that
16:51
needs to be expressed if you're going to
16:53
make disciples of all nations it's
16:54
something that you need to communicate
16:56
to somebody if you genuinely care about
16:58
them and it doesn't really matter if you
17:00
understand it or don't understand it
17:03
god it's right and you're wrong
17:06
another one
17:08
you need forgiveness
17:10
that that's becoming increasingly a
17:12
little bit more difficult because we
17:14
like to be we like the idea that we're
17:16
all just great fantastic people that
17:18
we're good and and we don't like the
17:20
idea that we might actually need to be
17:22
forgiven of something it doesn't sound
17:25
like it would be
17:26
but that's actually becoming sometimes a
17:28
very hard thing to communicate to
17:29
somebody which kind of leads ultimately
17:32
to one of the biggest pills the hardest
17:33
pills to swallow is repentance on your
17:36
part is required
17:38
like at some point if you're going to
17:39
genuinely make a disciple and lead
17:41
somebody to faith that means you're
17:42
going to have to talk about repentance
17:44
and and it doesn't matter what how you
17:46
grew up and it doesn't matter how you
17:47
viewed this before we met and it doesn't
17:49
matter anything about that at some point
17:51
to give your life to jesus you're going
17:53
to have to turn from
17:54
turn from sin and turn to god
17:57
now there's a whole bunch of forgiveness
17:59
and eternal life and god loves you and
18:01
peace through the holy spirit and
18:03
transform there's a whole lot of easy to
18:05
hear stuff but some of it's kind of
18:07
difficult
18:09
and what i find with that is
18:11
there's two different groups of people
18:14
two different groups of people and how
18:16
we handle this the first group of people
18:18
are the um
18:19
the tell it like it is people
18:22
right i probably lean a little bit more
18:24
this way anybody in here you're just
18:26
like i've ever said the line well i'll
18:27
just tell it like it is anybody do that
18:29
yeah
18:30
baby monroe
18:31
saginaw yeah
18:33
everybody hates you we know yeah that's
18:35
just just tell it like it is
18:38
and and don't get me wrong that probably
18:40
means that you don't have a problem
18:42
connecting and saying truthful things
18:45
and that's a good
18:47
thing to have but sometimes
18:50
sometimes what we do as followers of
18:52
christ is we tell people the right thing
18:54
but in
18:55
in the wrong way
18:58
it might be the message of jesus but it
18:59
sure isn't with the spirit of jesus
19:02
it might be the message of the gospel
19:04
but it isn't actually an embodiment
19:07
of the gospel i think that's the parable
19:10
of the good samaritan i think he's
19:11
saying man people you disagree with
19:13
people that
19:15
that hate
19:16
what you believe in
19:18
you need to commit communicate that to
19:20
them with absolute kindness
19:24
that's what jesus did
19:26
jesus
19:27
disagreed with many many people
19:32
and then he
19:33
died for them
19:35
to take on the nature of the gospel
19:38
itself is to express god's truth and
19:41
god's love and then die for
19:44
that person
19:46
my
19:47
my grandpa had a dog that was
19:50
mentally handicapped
19:52
i mean i really genuinely think he was i
19:54
don't know how that classifies
19:56
officially but
19:57
he was a stupid animal
20:00
and like i mean like he would like run
20:01
up beside the truck and everything and
20:03
then you would slam on the brakes which
20:04
of course i never did on purpose and he
20:06
would like run into the back of the
20:08
truck and just
20:10
and uh the the thing that was the worst
20:12
about him is you would stand there and
20:14
you would call him his name was rusty he
20:15
was a golden retriever you'd be like
20:16
come here rusty come here rusty come
20:19
here and he would run up to you and he
20:21
would come back and he would run up to
20:23
you and then he'd go away and then you
20:24
get really close you could have like a
20:26
stake in your hand it didn't matter he'd
20:28
run up to you and then you run away and
20:29
you're like what is wrong with you
20:32
and then one day i realized what was
20:34
wrong with him my grandpa give him some
20:37
grace here he's an almost 90 year old
20:39
man at this point
20:41
the way he was training this young dog
20:44
to stay within the edges of the property
20:46
of the farm
20:47
because he was old
20:49
he would get out to the edge of the
20:50
property and when he would cross the
20:52
property line my grandpa would call him
20:54
back in and then smack him
20:57
that was how he was teaching where the
20:59
property line was
21:00
and so the dog didn't know the
21:03
difference between when grandpa was like
21:05
time to eat and time to get smacked like
21:08
there was no there was no difference
21:09
between the two
21:11
and so he yeah anyway he was a mentally
21:14
handicapped dog anyway there was
21:16
the hope for him was over
21:18
i think sometimes that's the way
21:20
we are with christianity you know we're
21:22
talking about love we're talking about
21:24
and then sometimes we get just downright
21:27
mean
21:28
with people we take a truth and it's
21:30
like we're punching them in the face
21:32
with it or we're
21:34
we're being judgmental and we are not
21:36
building a relationship so many times we
21:38
try to like try to share people with
21:40
what our truth our worldview is the
21:42
message of jesus without first
21:44
establishing the relationship
21:47
i think jesus is telling and man if
21:49
you're a follower of christ
21:50
there's never a time
21:53
to not be
21:55
kind and i got to tell you it gets more
21:57
and more challenging
21:59
because it's challenging when people
22:00
begin to challenge your beliefs and your
22:03
views when people make fun of your your
22:05
belief in in jesus
22:08
it's i somehow i'm on tick tock and
22:10
somehow i have found like i don't know
22:11
how the algorithm works but the
22:13
algorithm leads me straight to people
22:15
that are making fun of my faith i don't
22:17
know why i guess i watch too many of
22:18
these videos
22:20
but people just go in there and they
22:21
will just make fun of the church it's
22:22
probably because i like to make fun of
22:24
the church too maybe that's why the
22:26
algorithm kicks me that way but i just
22:28
watch video after video where they're
22:32
they're making fun of my jesus
22:35
and there's so much of me that gets
22:37
defensive and irritated and angry and
22:40
when that happens in real life not on
22:42
tick tock when that happens in real life
22:43
that's where the real challenge of being
22:45
kind comes in
22:47
now that's the first person
22:50
the first person is to tell it like it
22:51
is and you don't really care about
22:53
people's emotions or relationships or
22:55
anything like that you just got to tell
22:57
people how it is
22:58
you need to be
23:00
more kind
23:01
the other group of people
23:04
are the
23:06
passive people
23:08
the people that are like well you know i
23:10
want the relationship so much and i want
23:12
to love people so much that i just want
23:13
to make sure and so you end up sometimes
23:15
not even ever talking to them
23:18
about anything that actually matters
23:20
right you've you've heard the line
23:22
francis of assisi coined it and we say
23:24
it a lot the line goes like this
23:26
preach the gospel at all times and if
23:27
necessary use words right i always like
23:30
to remind people i understand the heart
23:32
behind that but at the same time that's
23:34
dumb like why don't we have that same
23:37
plan in our school systems right learn
23:39
math all the time teach math all the
23:41
time and sometimes use words right
23:44
it doesn't it doesn't work like that you
23:46
have to at some point yes you have to be
23:48
loving but at some point you have to
23:49
communicate something
23:51
but i think sometimes we want the
23:52
relationship so much that we
23:54
we become passive
23:57
king david had
23:59
bad kids i don't know if you know
24:01
that or not but king david in the bible
24:03
he had he was a man after going with
24:04
god's own heart but he had bad kids
24:06
which sometimes is
24:08
super comforting to me but anyway he had
24:10
he had children that were difficult i
24:12
don't mean bad like you know whatever
24:13
they didn't get good grades or whatever
24:15
i i mean they were bad as in like one of
24:17
them like kind of killed the other one
24:18
and then tried to take over david's
24:20
kingdom that kind of bad
24:22
and there's one little line in scripture
24:25
where god kind of turns into david and
24:27
says and and here's the problem with
24:29
that it isn't that i expect you to have
24:30
perfect kids the problem is
24:33
and he says this line he says
24:36
but david never even asked them why they
24:39
behave the way they do
24:41
that's it that's the only critique god
24:43
ever gives david on his parenting really
24:46
he just never stopped and said hey why
24:47
do you behave the way you do
24:50
i think i think when it comes to being
24:52
followers of christ there's something
24:53
like man i want love i want a
24:54
relationship i want to be supportive i
24:55
want to be on your team but sometimes i
24:57
need to be kind and loving by making
24:59
sure that i
25:00
i talk to him i ask him questions about
25:02
things that really matter
25:05
and really ultimately to talk about what
25:07
it means that jesus died on a cross and
25:09
they rose from the dead
25:11
years ago there was a was a thing that
25:14
popped up in the early 18th century
25:15
called universalism you may be familiar
25:17
with universalism universalism is
25:19
basically the idea where yeah like at
25:21
the end of the day everybody goes to
25:23
heaven everybody got a good relation god
25:25
loves everybody and he's gonna he's
25:27
gonna do whatever he can so it's really
25:29
not necessarily important what you
25:32
believe
25:34
and i get the appeal of that there is
25:36
such an appeal to that the only problem
25:38
actually the only problem i have with it
25:40
is it betrays almost every verse in the
25:41
new testament that's the only problem i
25:43
have with it
25:45
it's just this idea that everybody's
25:46
good no matter what
25:48
and i feel like we're in a time period
25:50
where
25:51
kindness
25:53
is the new universalism
25:55
and what i mean by that is well let's
25:57
just be kind let's talk about love let's
25:59
be kind let's talk about love let's be
26:01
kind let's talk about all we're trying
26:02
to do is serve people in our communities
26:04
and help people and everything and let's
26:05
just be kind people which don't get me
26:08
wrong is a good thing
26:12
but that's not what we were called to do
26:13
we weren't called to just be kind we
26:15
were kind of called to share the truth
26:18
in love
26:20
romans
26:21
chapter 2 explains god's kindness he
26:24
says or do you show contempt for the
26:26
riches of his kindness
26:28
forbearance and patience not realizing
26:30
that god's kindness
26:33
is intended to lead you to repentance
26:36
like there's a purpose behind his
26:37
kindness he
26:39
he loves and cares for and is kind and
26:41
gentle and patient with all of us
26:44
ultimately
26:47
he wants to lead us to
26:48
repentance
26:50
i don't know who you are as a follower
26:52
of christ you might have just begun your
26:54
journey or you might have been a
26:55
christian for a very long time or maybe
26:58
maybe you haven't even made that
27:00
decision today
27:01
but i want you to know that this is the
27:03
calling
27:04
not that we would tell it like it is and
27:06
not that we would love the relationship
27:08
so much that we aren't kind enough to
27:10
share with them the the truth
27:12
but that we would look at the gospels
27:15
and that we would model the life of
27:17
jesus so much and we would care about
27:19
people so passionately that we would
27:21
love them serve them care for them see a
27:23
need meet a need doesn't matter if they
27:25
they hate us or love us that's
27:27
irrelevant
27:29
and we would share the message of christ
27:31
so the dare i want to double dog dare
27:33
you to do this i dare you to present the
27:35
message of christ to someone
27:37
with kindness
27:39
not not just with one coffee meeting not
27:42
just with one message right
27:45
but with your life
27:47
communicate the gospel in every
27:50
way my uh
27:52
my wife reminded me
27:55
that when the kids were little
27:57
they liked to touch the stove because it
27:59
was hot right
28:01
i don't know why they looked red and
28:02
they're like we're gonna go touch it and
28:04
she would constantly have to redirect
28:05
them and she would constantly have to
28:07
read her her and i have very different
28:09
strategies on that she she wants to do
28:11
that i'm just like let them touch it
28:12
they're only gonna do it once you know
28:16
but she was just talking and she was
28:18
reminding me and she was like yeah like
28:20
like that's what it is like you as much
28:22
as you love your kids you're never just
28:23
gonna let them go do something
28:25
terrible
28:26
you're just not gonna let them do that
28:27
and i think when we look at people we
28:29
gotta we gotta loving and care for them
28:31
but that means sometimes we we have to
28:32
jump in if my kids are trying to touch
28:34
the hot stove i'm gonna try to keep them
28:36
from doing that if they want to run out
28:37
in the street i want to keep them from
28:38
doing that now that i have a 23 year old
28:41
son if he comes home and says dad you
28:42
know what i've just decided is really
28:44
great
28:45
it's heroin
28:47
right and he didn't say that
28:50
but if he did
28:52
what would i do how would i respond
28:54
i wouldn't kick him out of the house but
28:56
i also wouldn't go buy him heroin
28:59
i would say man i love you and i just
29:00
got to tell you no like no not that
29:04
god is calling us to live in that
29:05
tension of
29:07
both
29:09
and sometimes
29:10
that's going to be challenging and
29:11
difficult i don't know if you know this
29:13
but they uh
29:14
they killed jesus for it
29:16
they didn't crucify him because
29:18
because he was so full of truth they
29:20
crucified him
29:21
because he was all of it
29:23
he was love he was truth let me pray for
29:26
you today
29:28
father god we believe that you have the
29:31
the hope and the truth god we believe
29:34
that you've shined that light on our
29:35
hearts and you've given us that hope
29:37
that is
29:38
that is both in this life but far beyond
29:41
in the next life
29:43
god we thank you for that and i pray
29:45
that we would go and do the same i pray
29:46
that we would be equipped and empowered
29:48
to be people who have received this
29:51
grace
29:52
and are giving this grace
29:55
and i pray that in your name amen