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Good morning, every one of you. Good to see everyone here. It is fun to see mountains. I came in last night about eight thirty, so it was pitch black dark, and I might as well have been driving around Wadsworth. Everything was dark. And then you wake up this morning and think, “Oh, that’s right. This is what the West looks like.” And suddenly, there’re just mountains all around us. It’s just an absolutely beautiful view.

It’s certainly early enough in the feast that I wanted to set a little bit of a tone, a little bit of an overall kind of approach to where you and I can see each other of what we do, how we interact, not just with each other, brethren, but all the folks you’re going to run into because You’re running into all sorts of people. The feast, in many ways, is a time where you interact with restaurants and store owners and various others outside your normal circle, unlike any other time of the year.

Even if no matter where you are in the world because, normally, you have a bit of a circle, don’t you? That you go to the folks you see at the office or the people that you’re around on a regular basis. It tends to be pretty much the same. I’m sure you even go to the bank, and if the... People still go to the bank, right? If you still go to the bank, I bet you recognize the teller, don’t you? It’s someone you know. It’s a circle that you pretty much are around all the time. But that changes at the feast.

Suddenly, now you’re being forced to interact with folks all the time and in different scenarios. But the feast is also something different. It’s concentrated. It’s focused. You and I are here picturing a time very soon, very, very soon, that you, me, all of us will get to teach all of those people that we keep interacting with about the Kingdom of God, about being part of the family of God. We will be in roles of leadership.

So, the feast, for us, is getting ready for those roles of leadership, developing and growing and thinking, “Okay, I’m not good at this area, but I could be better here.” And it’s a concentrated time where we can really focus in and grow and develop. My opening night message was all about growing and developing at the Feast of Tabernacles. Well, same thing here. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, that is why we’re at the feast. We’re getting training in a concentrated way.

So, if I was going to back up and kind of how the rubber hit the road and ask you, what do you think are the two single most important attributes of leadership? What would you say they are? Take a moment. Write it down. Put it on your sheet. You may get it right. The longer you’ve been living this way of life, the more likely you will get it right. You can write down two or three. If you want to get fancy, put a fourth one down. Increase your odds of getting at least two of them.

That’s a super important question. Organizations spend thousands of dollars to send people on courses to be able to develop leadership skills. Tens of thousands of dollars to study in detail. And then other organizations do studies on the studies to create the courses for people to spend the money on. It’s the nature of what we need in society. There needs to be leaders. It has to be a leader of the football team. There needs to be a leader of the mega-corporation and everything in between.

So, in many of these studies, they come back and say something that you wouldn’t expect because you would think, “Okay, good project management. Oh, okay, I’ve had a leader. I need to be able to work well with teams.” It would be things you would need, but many of the studies come back with two things, and these aren’t the two things we’re going to look at, but it will help frame it. The first one’s integrity. Integrity. And the second one is fairness. Integrity and fairness.

There’s been so many studies of this, and those two bubble to the surface. And those words in themselves contain a lot of meaning. To have integrity and to be fair means a lot about your character. But that’s not what we’re talking about today. We’re looking at but not really interested in what the world says about leadership. There’s a Forbes article that’s from a few years ago, and they’ve had follow-up articles that offer another study. They list a couple of items, and we’ll add to our list here if you want to. They have five key elements of leadership.

Enthusiasm. So, a leader has to inspire people, get people excited. Again, integrity, that overlaps. Communication skills. Okay, that makes sense. You need to talk, communicate to lead if you’re giving people instructions. Loyalty, which is interesting. Is it loyalty to them or loyalty to the people around them? And decisiveness. So that’s that project management decision-making side of things.

So, Forbes article big, huge study. Let’s look at another one. Brian Tracy International, well-known organization that is leadership training, speaking training, various other things. For you to be able to go to them and get some hands-on leadership training, you can pull out your wallet or your checkbook or your credit card and be prepared to pay twenty-five hundred dollars per hour. Per hour. And it may be higher than that. This is a couple of years ago than some of this research was, but you could pay a lot more than that.

But they have another list, and we’ll continue our lists. You may want to add a few of these, but you’ll see they overlap. Vision, courage. This is all more motivational speaking too. So, you can see why this is angled this way. Integrity. Again, that keeps coming up. Humility, strategic planning. Okay, we could see that. Focus and cooperation. Okay, that’s twenty-five hundred dollars an hour. You can learn those things. We happen to have a book that teaches most of them, that we don’t have to pay twenty-five hundred dollars an hour for.

And there’s the Center for Creative Leadership. I could list about, what do they have, fifteen courses here. Each of them will run you somewhere around ten thousand dollars per course for a five-day course. So that’s not bad. Two thousand dollars a day. Some go as high as fifteen, some are a little bit cheaper, but about ten thousand dollars per course. So, each day, eight hours a day, you are paying two thousand dollars. Suddenly that seems cheap compared to twenty-five hundred dollars an hour.

But you know what the trend is in these? If you hear those terms, you look at them as you go through the list of all the leadership skills that they describe, they’re more about how people see you than about who you are. Integrity could be an exception to that, very much so about putting on what you need to be to be a leader. And there is some truth to needing to put on things to be a leader, but God comes at it at a very different perspective.

You can’t go into a class, spend twenty-five hundred dollars an hour, ten thousand or whatever amount of money, and walk out of it a different person. Brethren, that is the difference you and I have. You can learn things. Oh, school is important and learning. And I went to school enough time and spent enough money on school to know that it gave me what I needed to be successful at least in the career I had before.

But school education couldn’t change who I was as a person. All it could do is augment who I was as a person. Whereas conversion, having God’s spirit, changes who we are as a person. That’s the difference of leadership in God’s way versus what the world teaches. All it can do is augment you. Whereas Christianity can change you. It’s a different focus, and it’s a focus more about changing ourselves than changing others.

So, we’re going to look at a few aspects here and often missed examples of leadership. And we’re going to focus on one of the most critical, and it seems so small, but is enormous and fundamental about who we should be. Let’s start in First Timothy. We’ll look at some examples, what it means to be a minister? There’s some qualifications. We’ve heard them read when someone’s being ordained. First Timothy three.

It is also in Titus one, but we’ll just look at First Timothy three. There’s mostly overlap, but a few things stand out. But we’ll use this one, in particular, verse one of First Timothy three. “This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work.” Being a minister is work. It’s not for the title. It’s not for the role. It’s not for the rank. It’s to do the work of helping other people, to be able to get up here and be able to talk about and teach from God’s word how you and I... Because when I preach, I’m preaching to myself just like I’m preaching to you. Because I have to grow and change and develop just like you do.

So as a minister, it’s work to prepare a sermon, put it together. But this is a true saying, an office of a bishop desires a good work. “A bishop must then be blameless, husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, and apt to teach...” Very familiar if you’ve heard this before. “...not given to wine...” doesn’t drink too much, “...not a striker,” as in someone who strikes deals, or also talks to another about fighting, “...not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler...” there it is, “...not covetousness,” not here for the money.

I’ve been at headquarters now for, what? Twenty-three years. Two thousand two. Oh no, I guess it’s coming up on. No, twenty-two years it will be this year. And I can look back at the many faces who have come and gone and moved to the field, and they’re still there. No one came to headquarters to upscale their salary. I’ll say that for this. Everyone took a big hit when they went there because that’s not what it’s about. It’s not about being covetous. It’s not about the money.

“One that rules his own house well, having his children in subjection with all gravity.” So where are the leadership elements in this? As we read through, keep that in the back of your mind. “With all gravity, (For if a man not know how to rule his house, how can he take care of the church of God?)” And verse six, “Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have a good report of them that were without.”

So not just inside the church, outside the church, your colleagues, your friends, your acquaintances. “Lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” And I picked Timothy for this reason because it includes some aspects of a deacon. Likewise, verse eight, “deacons must be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine.” I always find that funny. If you look at it, sometimes the Bible wording is partly King James, but it’s partly not, but I’m still going to enjoy it.

So, verse three, bishops or ministers can’t be given to wine, but if you’re a deacon, you can’t be given too much wine. Lucky deacons. But sorry, not greedy a filthy lucre. Verse nine, “Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscious.” But this is what’s important, and it’s why it’s important for you and I. Let these also first be proved.

When I was made a deacon and my wife was made a deacon, it’s years and years ago now, we were surprised. I think I’ve said this before, because it never crossed our mind in any way, shape, or form that we would be made deacon deaconess. Why would we be ordained? We’re here. We’re serving. That’s what we do. Because that’s what you do as a Christian, you get help, you get to do all the fun stuff that makes life, I don’t want say headquarters, even beyond that.

But we were explained, no, you were doing the work of a deacon. So, it’s an acknowledgment. Same with ordinations, it’s the same thing. Before you’re ordained, you’re not anointing people, but you’re serving and caring and showing that you have the love of a shepherd caring about God’s people.

“Let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. Even so their wives must be grave, not slanderers. And let deacons be husband and one wife,” et cetera, same parameters. So, big list. We went through quite a few items there. But really, what in there stands out that would be the, what I was talking about, these major massive leadership qualities that are going to... we’re going to draw into today?

Because that list, while super important, can be completely obliterated and someone wouldn’t be ordained because of certain other aspects. They may not be a fit for leadership because they’re missing something. I’ve alluded to it already. Mr. Pack has said many, many times that, as a leader, you have to have these qualities pouring out of you. Both what’s listed in Timothy there, but others as well. Summarized in one place.

Go over to Micah, Micah chapter six. It’s interesting to watch the world move in this direction too. I’ll talk about this later, but you’ll see as we set it up. Micah chapter six, and we’ll start in verse one. Verse, one reads, “Hear ye now what the Lord says; Arise, contend before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s controversy, and you strong foundations of the earth: for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.”

Verse three, “O my people, what have I done unto you? and wherein I have wearied you? testify against me, God says. For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” We’re picturing the coming out of Egypt at the feast. “And redeemed you out of the house of servants; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered unto Shittim and Gilgal; and what you may know the righteousness of the Lord.” Pay attention, God’s saying.

“Wherewith I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offers, with calves of a year old?” Is that what God wants? He wants those offerings? “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?” Rivers, not just anointing oils, rivers of them, ten thousands of rivers.

“Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, and the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Is that what God is looking for? Is that what he wants to see in his people? Because, even in Old Testament Israel, God had the vision, of course, to look ahead and see what they could become. And we know of the numbers that were converted through the Old Testament were small but not inconsequential. Those who looked beyond the sacrifice, looked beyond the goats, looked beyond the vials, and saw what God wanted them to be.

Verse eight, “He has showed you, O man,” God has, “what is good; and what the Lord requires of you, but to do,” action, “justly,” to do justly. “To love mercy.” Not just appreciate it, not be merciful, love mercy. “And to walk humbly with your God?” That word mercy is an interesting one because it’s not really mercy. As the Bible often does, it tricks you sometimes in the King James where they give you a word that’s something similar, but you can see how they’ll be attached. And these two words are so attached that you can forgive the translators.

That word actually means kindness. Kindness. Let’s go back to Proverbs chapter nineteen. We’re in the Old Testament. Proverbs chapter nineteen, and we’ll start in verse twenty. Proverbs nineteen verse twenty. Verse twenty reads, “Hear counsel, and receive instruction,” that’s what we’re doing today, “that you may be wise in thy latter end.” So, at the last part of our lives, doesn’t matter our age, the last part of our physical lives, that could be right up to the grave, but it also could be at the moment Christ cuts it short with his arrival.

Verse twenty-one, “There are many devices in a man’s heart.” Mostly bad, if you think of Jeremiah seventeen, nine. “Nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.” That shall stand. Okay, so what’s that counsel? Proverbs nineteen twenty-two. Verse twenty-two reads, “The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar.” It’s a good translation, but the New American Standard does it a little bit better.

So, the same verse, the New American Standard says, “What is desirable in a man is his kindness.” What makes human beings desirable? Remember those list of attributes? Loyalty, the things that draw people to someone who’s leading. So, if you want to be a good leader, the key to being a good leader is to be kind. As it says, what is desirable in a man is his kindness. We’re just getting started. There’s so much more here.

Let’s move ahead to the New Testament, Second Corinthians six. Kindness is a massive subject in the Bible. It’s everywhere as you go through it, and it’s a subject we often don’t really focus on because it gets blurred up with other terms that we’ll see that are used throughout the Bible that are connected, and in intrinsically so, but connected and usually get most of our attention.

Second Corinthians six verse one. Verse one reads… Second Corinthians six verse one, “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vain.” So, work at it, use it, where he says, you’ve heard time accepted and jump down here. Verse four, “But in all things approving ourselves as ministers of God…” another conversation with ministers here, “…in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses.” We’re all training for that role to be kings and priests.

Remember, so when you see anything about what it means to be a minister, that’s something we all have to be developing. Remember, you do the office, you do the role before you’re acknowledged in this life or in the Kingdom of God. Verse five, “In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watching, in fastings…” How do they do it, though? “By pureness…” never get jaded, “…by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness…”

Have you ever thought much about kindness? You probably do a little bit more now these days, because it’s become a bit of a bumper sticker. You see it everywhere of, like, “Positive vibes only,” like social media posts, or things along those lines. It’s turned something that you’re going to see as huge, in God’s mind, into something that’s trite, just like a bumper sticker, just a funny thing. It’s funny, it’s my son’s school, so kindergarten through what, grade four. Pre-kindergarten through grade four.

The grizzlies are kind. That’s one of the three attributes they require those kids, because people are learning more and more as they’ve developed over time, that this is a fundamental quality of human beings. And if you start young, because we’ll see God’s kindness is different than the kindness we can learn, but most of the kindness you and I can have… this is why it’s tough… If you’re mean, I’m sorry, you can’t change it. Bummer, isn’t it?

So, well, here at the feast, I’m mean, I’m not going to be able to change it. But good news, that’s only human kindness. Most kindness that can be instilled in someone happens when they’re kids, and it becomes a fundamental way of how they look at the world. That’s why it’s so drilled into, and it’s one of the elements of school where our son goes. But that’s different than the kindness of God. The kindness of God comes through his Spirit.

Remember, training in the world can augment who you are. Training in God’s Church with God’s Spirit changes who you are. Very much the fundamental difference, by kindness. So that’s what it means to be a minister, to do those things. It’s amazingly how… just it’s trendy. I can think of memes in my head, and they just pop into my head when I think of it because I’m so well-versed on memes. I really am not. But you get the, “Be positive. Be kind. Positive vibes only,” because that’s how they’re saying it when they’re posting it. In my head at least it’s just a picture, but is that like, “Yes, cool.” It’s proving how cool I am.

There’s acknowledgement there, but it’s fake. It’s all surface. It’s the kind of plastic-coating of things. It’s not real. So, kindness. Now, I’m going to give you another test here. I guess I could… now, I won’t ask for a show of hands because if one of you got it, then you’ve just taken all the wind out of my sail. So, I’ll find out after, you can come up to me if you said kindness. But now this is maybe if you did, this will humble you.

I’m going to give you ten seconds. Write down your definition of kindness. How would you define it? How would you define kindness? Some of you you’re writing stuff down and you’re thinking, “Hmm, that’s hard.” Well, it’s kind of like this. Well, kind of like is not a definition. So, if you’re just putting synonyms down, then that’s not a definition. So that’s ten seconds.

So, if you’re having trouble, you may have thrown those, “Well, it’s to be nice.” Okay, that’s a synonym. “Gentle.” Okay, that could be. Pleasant or caring, maybe compassionate. So maybe you’re hitting on some of the synonyms because that’s not the definition, but I’ll make you feel better because I made myself do this too and I failed miserably on my first pass of trying to come up with a definition. I wrote synonyms down, too.

So, what did I do? We went to the old-fashioned dictionary, well, the new-fashion dictionary, dictionary.com, and looked up kindness. I thought, “Okay, I’m going to get a dictionary definition of kindness.” And it is “the act of being kind.”

Don’t you love when dictionaries use circular logic when they give you a definition? So, I thought, “Okay, let’s follow the string, and what’s the definition of kind?” And this is the other problem with dictionaries, where they give you a word, you’re like, “I don’t know what that means either.” “Of a good or benevolent nature.” Okay. I kind of know what benevolent means, disposition. Having or showing a proceeding from benevolence.

Okay. So, I really need to know what benevolence means if I want to know what kindness means, and I only have a foggy of benevolence. So, let’s look at benevolence. “Characterized by or expressing goodwill or being kind.”

Okay. So that was not helpful. The dictionary is not a good spot to find out kindness, but it is building up synonyms in our mind to kind of understand what it is. It’s not simple to define kindness, to be able to wrap our arms around it. And if God expects this as a characteristic of you and I to be leaders, we’ve got to know what it is, not just kind of what it is. Okay, let’s take the Bible and make it tell us as opposed to the dictionary, or a class, or whatever it is.

Go to Luke chapter six. We’re going to set up here with some longer passages, and then we’ll really dig into it. And then we’re going to look a little bit into what we can do to be kind. Luke chapter six verse twenty-seven. Luke six twenty-seven, “But I say unto you which hear, love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto them that smite you on one cheek offer them the other; and him that takes away your cloak forbid them not to take your coat also.”

Okay. You know, let’s turn the other cheek, this passage. “Give to every man that asks of you; and of him that takes away your goods ask them not again.” Of course, this is a misunderstood verse. So, you’re walking down the street, and someone mugs you, and you think, “Oh, well, take my wallet.” “I don’t have another one. I’m turning the other cheek.” No, it’s not Christians are pushovers. The righteous are bold as a lion. This means you’re willing to help, and help, and help, and help, and help and not expect return from anything.

But continuing, “For if you love them which love you, what thank do you have?” You get something back. “For sinners also love those that love them. If you do good to them who do good to you, what do you have?” You got something back. You’ve got your reward. “For sinners also do even the same. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive…” a little quid pro quo, isn’t it? You expect something back. “…what thank have you? For sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and then your reward will be great…”

When you don’t expect it back, you give freely. That’s what that passage means. “…and you shall be the children of the Highest: for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.” So, God shows kindness to people who killed his son. If you just want to get the most dramatic version of what evil can be, the people that stood before him and everyone who sinned, that’s what required the sacrifice of Christ. But those you picture, they’re, “No, we want him to die.” God says, “I’m still going to be kind to them, because that’s what I do. That’s who I am.”

Verse thirty-six, “Be you therefore merciful, as your Father is also merciful.” There it’s getting tied in. “Judge not, and you shan’t be judged: and condemn not, and you shall not be condemned: forgive, and you shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, press down, shaken together, running over, shall men give into your bosom.” If you just keep giving, it comes back. “For the same measure that you meet...” that you do, that you’re willing to extend, “...and it shall be measured unto you again.”

It’s the amazing thing as a Christian. God promises in his word, if you do something for other people, you’re going to get something back. But as soon as you start expecting getting something back when you do something for other people, you stop getting the thing back because that’s not how God works. He wants you to walk in with that heart that wants to give, and then he’ll bless you.

But if you walk in thinking, “God, I know you’re stuck, you promised,” no that’s not how I work. But if we go in with the right attitude, oh, that’s a totally different picture. And where are we today? This has always inspired me. One of the biggest takeaways of the knowledge God has revealed over the last eight years is huge subjects you could go down the list of them. I listed a bunch of them for the opening night message, even the more recent ones, talk about who the Father is or his role or the plan of God.

But you know what the takeaway for me, the one that is the most hair up in the back of my neck when you hear more about it moments? The mercy of God. Go back to what we used to believe in Worldwide. What happens in those three and a half years? You’ve heard Mr. Pack describe it. God why are you killing me? I don’t even know. In the most horrible ways, we heard how short the period of God actually punishing people is and how fast he wants it over. It can be intense.

If you’re a little kid and you’re getting a spanking, it’s pretty intense, but it’s also over. You don’t spank and spank and spank and spank and keep going. No, that’s not the purpose. It’s to change behavior. That’s what God does. We didn’t understand that. We didn’t understand how merciful our God is, how gentle and patient and kind he is with even those who are sinners. Over and over again we’ve learned that.

We’ve learned that how he gives people a second chance, just as something as simple as saints that can be incomplete. So, you have saints who get another chance. They could have made terrible decisions in their life, but they died with God’s spirit. And he said, “No, I’m not done with them yet,” because he’s mercifully, he’s kind. Go back to Genesis twenty-four.

It is all through the Bible. I could probably go two and a half hours if we went through all the passages that it covers. But we’ll spot through, and I’ll still struggle to cover everything. Genesis twenty-four in verse twelve, “And he said…” verse twelve, let you flip your page there. “...Oh Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray you, send me good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master Abraham.

Behold, I stand here at the well and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: Shall come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say, ‘Let the pitcher down’...” Obviously, here the account you know it. “...I pray you that you may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give the camels drink also: let this be she be you that may or be appointed for your servant Isaac.” See, you’re finding a wife. “And thereby shall I know that you have shown kindness unto my master,” not just him, but his household, his father.

“And it came to pass, before he had done speaking. Rebekah came out...” as it goes and fulfilled that prayer. Well, the word kindness here is the Old Testament just similar to what is in New. It means kindness by implication toward God. Piety: rarely as reproof or can also mean subjectively beauty. But generally, the definition is kindness.

It’s interesting it has a root word that means perhaps to bow in courtesy to an equal that is to be kind. That is fascinating. Because you know one of the things that stops us from being kind? When we don’t see people as equals. If we think we’re above someone, oh, wow, I don’t care who, it is... If I think I’m above someone, if you do... any of us think we’re above someone, well, they should be kind to me because look at where I am, what I’ve done. I’m up here.

No, as soon as we do that God says, absolutely not. That’s not how I’m looking because I’m a God of kindness. He came down, gave Christ to die. That sacrifice, it’s very different. It also means that that root words means to be kind, show self-merciful. Interesting. Just a lot of meaning in there.

But the fascinating part is that show self-merciful just got attached in the Old Testament to kindness. So, mercy got attached to kindness which makes you realize why it wasn’t that odd that you saw mercy translated the Hebrew word we saw earlier, kindness translated as mercy, because they’re connected. In your mind you think, “Okay, I can see that. If I’m merciful to someone I’m cutting them some slack if you will.”

They may have made a mistake. So, I’m just going to forgive that mistake and let it go, which is an act of kindness. But it’s not exactly the same, but they do go together. They do go together. Let’s go to First Samuel. So, talks of these a little bit more, and expand it out. First Samuel chapter twenty. Give you a chance to turn there. First Samuel chapter twenty.

We’ll jump in the middle of the account here with Jonathan and David, verse thirteen. First Samuel twenty, and verse thirteen. And I think Jonathan’s speaking here, saying, “The Lord do so and much more to Jonathan...” continues here, “...but if it pleases my father...” Jonathan speaking, “...to do evil, then I will show it to you...” David, “...and send you away.” Protecting David and close good friend, “...that you may go in peace...” basically hiding out from his father, who obviously that was an on again off again relationship. “...that you may go in peace: and the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father.”

Verse fourteen. “And you shall not only while yet I live show me the kindness of the Lord.” So, this is a person saying they can show the kindness of the Lord. This is a different kind of kindness if you will, “...that I die not.” Verse fifteen, “But also you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever: no, not when the Lord has cut off the enemies of David everyone from the face of the earth.” So, it’s juxtaposed. There is your kindness, a human kindness that we can all have versus the kindness of the Lord, which is obviously what we need to get to.

Okay, let’s go to Jonah, right before Micah. Some of those books, we don’t go to that often. After Obadiah, right before Micah. Jonah chapter four. We’ll start in verse one, Jonah four and verse one. You know, the account Jonah go back and forth here and gives a nature of God and his frustration, but he speaks to who God is.

Verse one, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, ‘I pray you, oh Lord, was not this my saying...” I knew it if you sent me there and then they repented. God, I know how you are. “...when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled unto Tarshish: for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, and slow to anger, and of great megas powerful filling full kindness, repent you of the evil. Therefore now, Lord, take, I beseech you, my life for me; for it’s better for me to die than to live.”

That’s, wow, Jonah, back it down. These people repented. He knew what was going to happen, that they were going to come after his people, but he knew God so well that he said, ‘I know if I go there and they actually respond, I know God because you’re so merciful, you’re so kind. I know you will forgive them, and then you won’t do the thing you were going to do because that’s God, thousands of years ago and still today. You notice, again, mercy is attached to kindness. Compassionate. Being compassionate is not being kind. It’s being merciful is being compassionate. When we’re gracious and compassionate that are tied to kindness, you’re starting to see some of those core fundamental aspects of who we need to be to be able to be leaders.

Brethren, this is not about the big coming kingdom of, “I’m going to give you a sermon. We’re going to cover the verses to talk about the kingdom of God.” No, we’re preparing for it. That’s fitting for us here. This is a training for us to be ready to rule in the kingdom, about to be those leaders. Not by taking coursework, but by being at God’s Feast and studying His Word. This is our coursework, if you will.

That, amazingly, God, because this is God, He’s the one that created the universe and has a plan to have his family expand to infinity, he allowed you to pay thousands of dollars for leadership coursework. Thousands of dollars. You saved up throughout the year, your hotel expenses, the food, the meals, the training, the classes, the interaction. You’ve spent massive amounts of money on leadership training.

But it didn’t hurt because God has a savings plan that allows you to come to the Feast of Tabernacles, but it costs. It doesn’t cost as much as those courses that don’t give you what God’s word give you, but you’ve spent money on it. Anytime we spend money on something, we want to take advantage of. You buy something that’s worthwhile, you treat it in a different way.

Well, this is leadership training that is unique. We have to treat it in a different way and really take advantage of what God’s given us. Go to Psalm one seventeen. Expand on this more. We’ve attached mercy to kindness. Think of those two together. Psalm one seventeen verse one. Starting verse one reads, “O, praise the Lord. All you nation, praise him, all you people.”

Verse two, “For his merciful kindness...” Okay. There was a chance we were to separate those two ideas. They just got attached to the head. Did they? They’re tied together. “...merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.” So now, we’ve got mercy or merciful kindness attached to the truth. God ties those two together. That’s where, no matter how much money you spend out there, you can’t get to where God wants you to be because they don’t have the truth. They don’t understand it.

It’s only more recently that they’re starting to understand the fundamental reason why kindness is so important at a young age. Because there’s decades and decades of research starting to say, “Okay, if we don’t instill this when the kids are still moldable, we’re not going to instill it in.” And we have the mass shootings on a regular basis it seems in this country to demonstrate that kindness was not instilled in people at a young age. But again, we serve a God that changes who we are, not just augments what we already are.

Go ahead to Psalm one nineteen verse seventy-two. Verse seventy-two of Psalm one nineteen, expand on this a little bit more. Verse seventy-two reads, “The law of your mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silvers or precious. Your hands have made me and fashioned me, given me understanding that I may learn your commandments.” Okay. We’re setting the context here.

Verse seventy-four, “That they may fear you will be glad when they see me, because I have hoped in your word. I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right, and that you in faithfulness have afflicted me.” Sometimes God teaches us lessons so we grow. “Let I pray you, your merciful kindness...” again, “...be my comfort according to your word unto your servant. Let your tender mercies...” It’s the same as merciful, compassionate above. If you see compassionate and the previous verse are merciful, it’s the same word.

“Let your tender mercies or let your tender compassion come unto me, that I may live, for your law is my delight.” Again, attached to the law. So the law of God, by keeping it, obeying it, living it, allowed David to pray for kindness, allowed him to pray for compassion. Because he kept the law. He understood the truth. That’s why we have the avenue. That is our door into being able to develop the kindness of the Lord, not just the humankind.

Proverbs thirty-one. Last chapter of Proverbs. Proverbs thirty-one. Talking about Proverbs thirty-one, woman, some aspects. Verse twenty-four, we’ll jump into the middle of it. Verse twenty-four reads, “She makes fine linen and sells it. Delivers girdles under the merchant. Strength and honor are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in the time to come.” Productive woman, everyone’s seeking.

As a single man, looking for that Proverbs thirty-one, woman, and ladies try to be more like it. Although probably thankful, you don’t have to deliver girdles anymore. So verse twenty-six, “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness.” Well, of course, it’s a law. It’s attached to the law. The keeping of the law of God allows us to be able to pray and ask for kindness, so it is that law.

It’s the, in this case, the Torah. You think that’s the Torah, the Old Testament, the first five books of the Bible. That’s what that word is, the Torah of kindness. So could we extrapolate and say the law of God is kindness? There are many aspects of fulfilling the law of God, but at its fundament, the law of God is kindness. But if we want to have it on our tongue, it’s got to be in our mouths and in our minds.

It’s interesting that the law was read at the Feast, the time when everyone came together and they heard the law read at the Feast of Tabernacles. That’s why it’s important for us to understand how integral it was to be able to attach that to being kind. Imagine, not a couple of hundred people, imagine hundreds of thousands or millions of people coming together for the Feast. They heard the law being read to them. You can bet they’ve got kindness talked about.

Because, when you put that many people together, that’s sometimes when the lesser attributes of our personality that we’re trying to shave off come to the surface. And you can imagine that kindness and mercy and all of those things were drilled into them over and over again as that law was read. Let’s go back to Isaiah fifty-four. We’re at couple of chapters. So the Law of kindness, mercy, merciful kindness, truth, all of these interconnected.

Isaiah fifty-four verse seven. Verse seven reads, “For a small amount or a small moment have I forsaken you, but with great mercies...” which means compassion. Remember that word’s interchangeable, we saw before, “...will I gather you. In a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting...” that word means eternity, “...with everlasting kindness, will I have mercy or compassion on you, says the Lord your redeemer.”

So this isn’t a one-stop shop. We’re now in the Kingdom of God, and we build out this attribute. No, no, it’s eternal. And if it’s eternal, it is a fundamental characteristic of God. If there is eternal kindness, that means that’s a fundamental part of who God is. Of course, it is. We’ve read enough verses to understand that, but to really drive the point and think about it, that that’s who he is.

Brethren, that’s who we have to become, all the aspects of God. But in this sermon, the focus is that one thing that we’ve got to change because it changes the core of who we are. It changes how you look at everyone. We’ll see more and more what this shows. It is so important for you and I at the core of who we are to be kind. When we look at anyone or anything, we will have a different perspective. Go to the New Testament. Acts twenty-eight. It’s funny, growing up in Canada, kindness is a really big thing because the whole like polite story will open the door for you thing. And I forgot a picture on my computer that I saved from years ago. No, I found it on the internet, speaking of memes. It was a Petro-Canada, which is... I mean, in America, you have a choice. It’s a very funny thing in this country, whereas you go to the grocery store and there are like a hundred different kinds of peanut butter.

Like, you go to a grocery store in Canada, there’s like five because why do you have to have 100? Because America, but you have banks, we have five, you have a billion, and it, there’s a lot of those things. So Petro-Canada is one of the handful, like five or six gas stations. And the gas stations’ pumps have little displays on them. And one of the things on it says, “Be kind” because it’s one of the things that was drilled as a kid. You got to be kind, you got to be polite to people. Say you’re sorry and it is so effective. We’re known for saying sorry for like, “Oh, I meant to shake your hand. Sorry.”

But it’s drilled into our head, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t give me an advantage because it’s human kindness. It’s like teaching those little kids. It’s human kindness. It’s not the kindness of God. Kindness of the Lord we saw. You’re probably there in Acts 28:1, “But when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita.” I got that right there. “And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness.” Okay. That’s a double negative. So you could say, they showed us, because this is what the Greek means, they showed us extraordinary kindness.

“For they kindled the fire, and received us every one, because of the rain and because of the cold.” They were basically hospitable. They did something. They kindled the fire. They made an action. It wasn’t words and this is where this starts to shift gears. It’s not just words. It’s action that shows kindness because what we do is about who we are. Our actions show what we do.

Okay. Let’s go to Titus three. Titus three one, “Put them in mind to be subject to the principalities and powers to obey magistrates, to be ready to do every good work, to speak evil of no man.” Titus 3:1. “Speak evil of no man, be no brawler but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.” Verse three, “For we ourselves, also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lust,” diverse or various lusts, “and pleasures.” Okay, yes, we did that. Yes. Okay, sorry. Yep. “Pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.” Well, we’re all guilty of that at some level as human beings.

“But after that, the kindness and love of God our savior toward men appeared.” So what happened? God for us who were foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy and hateful and hating one another. God said, “I’m going to do the ultimate act of kindness.” And you can imagine not just God, Christ did the ultimate act of kindness and said, “I’m willing to die for those people who are foolish, disobedient, deceived, et cetera, et cetera.” When there were still evil, He did it, but also connects another element here to kindness, but after that, verse four, again, “The kindness and love” you can say of God, Christ, they connect people over and over again.

Mercy, love, truth, all centered around this core of kindness. It’s the center of them. It’s the elements because you could say, “Well, what about... but there’s God. God is love.” Well, yes, God is love. It’s what He’s made of. It’s God. God is love. He’s not kind of like it or has an attribute of love. He is love. That’s what He’s made of, but that’s who He is. How that comes out, how we see God’s love is through kindness, through that action, through that mercy, love, kindness.

First Corinthians thirteen. So let’s see a little bit more about love then. It’s such a simple subject, but it’s kind of amazing, isn’t it? How it’s just sprinkled through the entirety of God’s word attached to so many important parts of what it means to be a Christian, but yet, have you ever thought really in-depth about Christian kindness? Because it is what we’re here to do, what we’re here to train about. First Corinthians thirteen one, “Though I speak as the tongue of men and angels and I have not charity or love, I become a sounding grass or a tinkling cymbal.” As though I have the gift of prophecy and all these things, but if you have not love, we’re nothing.

If I give good to the poor, verse three and my body be burned and I do all these things, but I don’t have love, I’m nothing because love or charity suffers long and is kind. Love is kind. So it’s an attribute not only that you can attach to kindness, it’s an attribute that love actually has. So if you think of God is love, of course, He’s kind because that’s how love is shown. And then it goes on envy’s not and doesn’t vaunt itself, et cetera.

So you could say this is a sermon about kindness, but you could also say it’s a sermon about love because they’re so connected. If you love and I love and care about people, then the natural extension of that is to do things to them that are kind, to think about them in a kind way and it’s not just people. And this is where our fundamental of human beings change. When you start to think as a Christian with the love of kindness or the law of kindness or the kindness of the Lord, God doesn’t just look at people and say, “I want to be kind to them.” God looks at everything and extends kindness.

You think of creation as groaning for the kingdom of God because what is going to come from that? Go to Acts twenty-seven. When we care about things around us, ww. We are exhibiting kindness, exhibiting love, but when we do things about the things around us is when we’re showing our kindness. Acts twenty-seven. So it’s bigger than just people. Obviously, that’s who God is working with, ultimately be part of the family of God, but it’s bigger than that. Act twenty-seven, one, “And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus’s band.” And then continuing down here on verse three. And they get there. “And the next day we touched at Siden and Julius courteously entreated Paul.” It’s a weird way to describe that. “And gave him liberty to go unto his friends and to refresh himself.”

Courteous. “And when he landed there and sailed under Cyprus because the winds are contrary.” What does that word mean, Julius courteously entreated Paul? Well, Paul’s a prisoner. So that’s a funny way to describe it, but it’s an adverb. It’s a compound adverb. It means fondly, that is humanely to be courteous. Okay. That’s interesting, but not as interesting as the root of it. The root is characterized as humanly to be tender, to have compassion, to have sympathy for people and animals, especially if they’re suffering or they’re in distress.

Nothing should kick in the human and the divine kindness in us as seeing someone in distress. If someone’s suffering, going through things, that’s when it should well up in us to say, “What can I do to help them?” We may not be able to. It may be a trial they have to get through, but as brother and sister in Christ or your colleague or your neighbor or a suffering, and it doesn’t matter where that kindness that’s in us because we have God’s spirit in us. And that’s when it starts to really drive home what it means to be a Christian because we look at anything out there that’s alive and know that God created it, know the potential, especially of people, mostly people, but sometimes you throw animals to the curb a little bit, but at the same time, God doesn’t not look at anything He created that way. So he wants to show kindness. It’s interesting, you really start to break that compound down, you get to the word philios.

Philios, which of course, brotherly love, fondly, friendly. So, if we really want to be kind, we need to be friendly. Remember we talked about the onset of the message, whereas that word can mean you don’t look down, you’re an equal, you’re a peer, which is easier to be kind to people when you consider them on the same playing field as you.

So, if you’re kind, you will treat everyone like they are close friends. It doesn’t mean you’re going to go up to the stranger in the supermarket. Don’t get me wrong here. You’re walking in a supermarket, they’re looking at one of the hundred kinds of peanut butter and you say, oh, this is my favorite peanut butter. And I say, thank you. By the way, I’ve had a really tough week No, that’s not the close friend side of it you’re going with.

You’re thinking about that person in the peanut butter aisle, let’s use the example, and they’re just, “I just don’t know. I don’t.” The first time I came to America and saw the peanut butter aisle... it’s always fresh in my mind because it was always like, man, this country has abundance but so if they’re confused, they’re probably a foreigner and they’re standing at the peanut butter aisle and that’s where you can look, go over to and say, well, maybe not put your hand on their shoulder, but go with the crunchy one.

It’s just peanuts. The creamy is really overrated. I just made friends and enemies in the room, but you care. You see them struggling and you want to help them. I’ve done it many times and it’s because of one of the things I like when it becomes the rye whiskey, I’ll be in giant eagle or local store and they’re just walking around and I kind of I’m a little bit geeky about beer and whiskey. And I’ll be like, well, what are you doing with it because I just see them perplexed.

Or they’ll ask me first, I usually try to hold off and let them ask me first. And often I think it’s the case it’s because I’m wearing a tie so therefore they think I work there. So you’d be surprised the number of times they ask me. So what would you recommend? Not as a, sorry to excuse me, as if just I must work there so therefore they’re going to ask me my opinion.

But in my defense, I like doing it so well since you asked because you know they’re struggling. There’s something minor, but you want to help them. That’s what we want to do as Christians. We want to help people because you and I are training to help the entire world. There’s stuff about who we are and what we get to do that you can’t get your head around it.

All of you in the room, myself included, are sitting at the Feast of Tabernacles because God called you before the foundation of the world to be leaders with every single human being who has ever lived for all time and eternity. What? That’s what our calling is. That’s why we have to build kindness. Go to Second Peter, Second Peter one.

Verse one of Second Peter, one, one, “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through righteousness of God and our savior, Jesus Christ.” Jumping down to... let’s go down to verse four. “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these,” as I just described, one of the most big promises, precious, massive, “that these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

And besides this,” all the things I described above, “giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, add to your virtue knowledge, to your knowledge temperance, and to temperance add patience and to patience add godliness, and to godliness add brotherly kindness.” Brethren, brotherly kindness is one step away from having agape, agape the love of God because to add brotherly kindness, charity.

How important is kindness? It is the key aspect to reach to the point that you and I need to get to be love, to be God, to be spirit, to be made of love. We need to be able to take these steps. Patience, hopefulness, get there, godliness, but before we can have the love of God, agape love, we have to have kindness, brotherly kindness, fraternal love, brothers and sisters, all of us.

People in the world, everyone you run into, it doesn’t matter. That’s what our picture is always bigger. So many verses focus on how we help each other because we should support each other. We’re walking a path that’s different than the world understands, knows, or can appreciate, but when they see our example, when we’re a light, that’s one of the ways that you’re different.

If you interact with the world very often and in fact we’ll hear it at the end of the Feast from one or five or ten Feast sites, we will hear something back from the coordinators about the hotel, this group, the catering service, one will come back with tales about how those people were so different because they may not use the word, but they’ll describe it because they were so sweet and so nice and polite and kind and patient.

We made a mistake and they just... because that’s what it means to be a light. Let’s go further. Let’s take it a little step further as we have time to do. Kindness is about yes, what we do, but as you saw, God is kindness. God is love. Kindness is a step toward love. Kindness needs to become over time because it starts that way. It starts acts of kindness.

You’ve heard that expression, random acts of kindness. If you’ve ever done it, it’s fun. And then it becomes very silly because what happens is what everything in the world does, it becomes out of control. And then you see the newspaper articles about traffic jams at Starbucks because they’re trying to pay forward whatever was happening and now the person in the line didn’t so now there’s a public shaming of the one person who couldn’t afford to pay for 15 people’s coffees.

That’s the reward that comes back. The attention of it, that’s different. Whereas remember, we do it in a way that we don’t care, but it something we do, yes, but ultimately what it has to become, it’s got to become who we are. Kindness needs to become who we are.

When we look at people, when we’re tired or impatient or whatever, it needs to be the central driving factor of us to say, you know what, because this will help you understand if it’s where it is the corner core of your being. That person who was annoying, cut me off, is rude, or whatever the case be, when people are nice, it’s easy. When they’re not nice, it’s more difficult.

Whatever they say to you or do, you can look at them and stop in your mind, feel that kind of your heart soften a little bit and look and think, say this, but your action will be different, but look and think that’s a future God being, they just don’t know what I know. They weren’t picked from the foundation of the world. How dare I get upset with them?

And if they keep being mean, then look at them and say, you’re a future God being, you shouldn’t be so. They will leave the conversation in a jiff.

Okay. So we talked about doing and what we can become, how we can show love, how we can show kindness. So God is love, God is kindness. So how do we become kind? Okay, let’s return to Second Peter six. We were here before. Second Peter chapter 6. Sorry, chapter one. Excuse me. Having a hard time finding a sixth chapter, weren’t you? Going to leave you hanging. Did I bring the wrong Bible? Second Peter, one six, “And to knowledge temperance, temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity.” Okay, we saw that. Next verse here, verse eight. “For if these things be in you and abound.” So not just in us, which is good. It’s a start.

We start wherever we are. “And abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord, Jesus Christ. But he that lacks these things is blind.” So we don’t have them or they’re minimal. We have some degree of blindness. So if we don’t have them at all, we’re blind. If we have just a tiny little bit, our vision’s dim. I’m wearing glasses now because my vision’s not what it used to be.

This would be a very difficult sermon if I had to look down without my glasses on. So there’s degrees of blindness. “…Blind and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” That’s when... that’s when the human being comes, we forgot, oh yeah, that’s right, Christ died for us. We walk... we’ve chosen to walk a different path first, and “Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence, so work at it to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fail.” You will be God. That’s what that ultimately means.

We start with human kindness and then through God’s kindness and His grace, He gives us the spirit of God, or if you’re not yet baptized, is working with you. That allows us to build the goodness of God and the kindness of God. And if we build those two things together, because it will also be the love of God, we will never fail. No matter how difficult the trial, no matter how much time God gives us, we expect Christ to return to this face. If He doesn’t, we just keep going, don’t we? Because we keep building, we keep growing, we keep developing. And His promise to us, all of us, is if we build love and kindness in us, we will never fail. Never.

Not, maybe you’ll fail and do better… Never fail. Doesn’t mean you... you won’t hit bumps. You’ve heard me say many times, Christianity is not about standing upright all the time. It’s about tripping and falling, but being willing to get back up and keep walking forward no matter what trial, tribulation, obstacle, health problem, it’s walk forward, walk forward, walk forward. Father, I fell. Okay, help me get back up. I’m going to keep walking until I make it to the door of the kingdom of God. But if we have kindness and love, God promises us we cannot fail.

Let’s go to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4:29. So if we find ourselves lacking kindness, then we’ve got to figure out how to improve it. This tells us very clearly. Ephesians four verse twenty-nine, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying…” building people up, “…that it may minister grace into the hearers.” You’re friends with people, you joke and you tease and you have fun. But is the vast majority of what comes out of your and my mouth edifying, uplifting, positive?

Verse thirty, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby you were sealed into the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.” It’s just the... it’s the word of God sometimes. So with all like malice, like you think, that’s an attitude I shouldn’t have. No, when it comes to clamor, anger, wrath, bitterness, and evil speaking, no, you have malice too, so you hate them. And then that gives you room because if those are in us of the clamoring and the anger and you’re jealous and this person has that and I should have that role, but I wanted to do this.

If we put that out of us, it gives room for verse thirty-two, “And be you kind to one another. Tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven you.” That’s the bar we always need to look back to when we start to get too big for our britches. We look back and think, “Oh, you know what? No. I... I was a sinner just like everyone else. God gave me the opportunity to be here and I need to remember the person across from me is training to be a god being or will have the potential at some point to be so.” Colossians 3. Colossians 3, and we’ll start in verse three.

Verse three reads, “For you are dead and your life is hid with Christ Jesus. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall you appear with Him in glory. Mortify therefore your members, which are upon the earth, fornication.” These are all the works of the flesh, things that get into us are still in us, no matter how... how long you’ve lived God’s way, you and I are still flesh. So every single one of you, they’re innocent to some degree. “Fornication, uncleanliness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, which is idolatry. For which things sake... for which things sake, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience, in the which you also walked in sometime when you lived in them.” Of course we did, we all did.

“But now, you also put off all of these.” You put them off. Remember, we put them off with malice, but this is, as you read it, you have to put off anger, wrath, and malice. So with malice, put off malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another and seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds. And verse 10, “And have put on a new man, which is renewed in the knowledge of the image of him that created him. There’d be no neither Greek nor Jew circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all.

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. If any have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you, you do the same, especially of the household of God. But above all these things put on charity or love, which is the bond of perfectness…” of completion. So, brethren, if we don’t yet have enough kindness, fake it. That’s what God’s saying. He’s saying fake it, put it on. Put on what you know he wants you to be and then say, “God, I’m faking it, God. I’m not maybe very hospitable or I may not be very patient, but I’m working at it.

So I’m going to fake being hospital and I’m going to fake being patient. And I’m going to fake being kind. But I need you to give me more of it. Give me more of your spirit so it doesn’t become something I’m putting on, I’m faking. It becomes who I am.” That’s what we have to do. And you can fake it at the Feast. And by the end of the Feast, who knows how much it will be faking it. Smile. Say hello. Oh, if I didn’t smile or say hello when I was a kid and I get to do it now to mine. But I would be in so much trouble from my mother. Thank you. We didn’t say thank you. We didn’t say please and didn’t open doors or hold doors.

It was just... it was drilled in from a young age because I didn’t want to be spanked. So it was very, very motivated as a little kid, but made me put on some of... some of that human kindness. Again, it’s different than what the kindness of God is. And that’s partly you’ll have gotten the human kindness. You can look back and if it’s something that people say about you, you can thank your parents. That’s why often so much of what we do is we can’t take credit for ourselves. What we have and what we’ve learned and your experiences. You think, okay, God opened the door for me.

But kindness is a big one. You didn’t learn kindness when you were a teenager in your twenties. No, your parents instilled it as you were a kid. So if you’re kind, thank mom and dad. Let’s go to Galatians. Start to wrap up here, a little more verses. Galatians 5, recognize these, you know the fruits of the spirit, but you may not realize one of them. Galatians 5:22 reads, “But the fruit of the spirit is love....” we know that, “joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such is there no law.” Okay, why did we turn here?

Why did in a sermon about kindness so we turn there, well, the word that is translated goodness means kindness. That is moral excellence. So God considers usefulness is another way to describe that word. So to have goodness, kindness also means as we’re wrapping this up, to be useful to God. Of course, it is because God wants us to be useful in the kingdom of God that we’re picturing at the Feast of Tabernacles that we’re training for.

Kindness requires us to focus on people and be useful. To be serving, to be merciful like God is to us. Philippians three, over a few pages. So if someone’s wronged you or you’ve had a problem or something’s happened, forgive them. It’s life. We’re all going to mess up. We’re human beings. If we were perfect, you wouldn’t see us, we’d be spirit, but if we were close to perfect, then God couldn’t call us because then we wouldn’t pay attention because we’d be so full of ourselves. You don’t see a lot of Elon Musk’s in the church of God, or other of the world’s high figures because they’re not, they think they’re God, they’re not going to obey God.

Philippians 3:10 reads “That I may know him and the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings…” Christ is speaking about “being made conformable unto his death. If by any means that I maintain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained…” we can act like, okay, we can be confident if we obey God, that we’ll make it there, don’t act like we’ve already got it. “…either were already perfect…” we’ve talked about that, we can’t already be, “…but I follow after if that I may apprehend that, which I also I’m apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended…” None of us should, not there yet. We don’t have hold of it yet. We don’t walk around thinking “I have arrived. I’ve made it. I’m going to be in the kingdom of God.” We can in our minds think, “I’m not going to do anything that allows us to stop me from being in the kingdom of God,” but we never act like we’ve made it.

“…but this one thing I do…” one thing that he lists, Paul, “…forgetting those things, which are behind.” We’re going to mess up, we’re going to make mistakes, we’re going to sin, we’re going to offend people, forgive, move on. That’s what God does. “And reaching forth unto the things which are before. I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ. Let us, therefore, as many be perfect…” or complete is what that means “… be thus minded, and if anything, you’d be otherwise minded, God shall reveal this unto you.” If we don’t have kindness or don’t have any attribute of God, in this case, kindness, we’re focused on, God can show us that. And then again, we can fake it until we get to the point where we make it, if you will, fake it till you make it, but we’ve got to start where we are. So how can we do things? A little bit of time left, a few minutes here. One more verse before we wrap up. Do stuff. What is that stuff? Mr. Schleifer, figure it out. This is the Feast; this is a chance to do it.

I’ll give you a couple of easy ones, smile. That’s an easy one. I’ve seen a lot of you today smile. There’s a lot of smiles in the room. Walk in every time, the number of people that I got, I got to arrive late into the Feast and see people that walk down the hall every time, big smile, handshake. Be happy. Open doors. Ask someone if they need help, spot needs, don’t ignore them. Ask God for more of a spirit and the fruit of goodness, which is kindness. We have time to do it. We have time to build it throughout the Feast.

Let’s turn to Proverbs 21, so we finish the last verse. Proverbs 21 on our last tie to mercy and kindness in verse 21. Proverbs 21, we’ll read it first in the King James and then the Revised Standard. The King James then reads of Proverbs 21, “He that follows after righteousness and mercy finds life, righteousness, and honor, but it’s not mercy.” The Revised Standard 21, “He who pursues righteousness and kindness…” brethren, we have to pursue it, “…will find life, eternal life, and honor.”

Brethren, let’s pursue righteousness. Let’s pursue kindness throughout this Feast of Tabernacles. Let’s dig in. People spend thousands of dollars to get leadership training that doesn’t hold a candle to what we get here. We’re going to teach this subject to people in the kingdom of God. Let’s pursue kindness. Let’s utilize the time at the Feast and then develop more and more of the character of God until we are the kindness of the Lord.