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Fruit of the Spirit-Kindness · The Father's Business Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The Father's Business was founded by Sylvia Gunter to encourage people to a deeper relationship with God.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I'm Elizabeth Gunter Powell.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: And I am Kimberly Roddy.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Father's Business Podcast.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: We are so glad that you've joined us.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Hey everybody, we are so excited because we are going to have our first in-person conference in several years, coming up in October.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: That's going to be October 16 to 18.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: And we are going to be at the Sandy Cove Retreat Center in Maryland.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: It is a beautiful location.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: It's on the Chesapeake Bay.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Both the nature around it and the accommodations are five star and we think you're really going to love it.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: It's going to be a great time to gather together with other people who have already been through the Ruach Journey study before.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: So this is a Ruach Journey level two conference.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: It's for anyone who either has attended one of our conferences in the past or you have gone through the Ruach Journey video study that is available for sale on our website.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: You've been listening to our podcast last fall and we did like a 13-week series on Ruach Journey.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: So anyone who has been through the basic material that is in the Ruach Journey study.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: This is for people who are looking for more.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: So there's still plenty of time.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: If you want to come and join us for this conference and you have not yet done the rut journey study, you can go on our website, wwwthefathersbusinesscom and purchase the study.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: There are videos you watch each week.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: You could do it on your own, you could gather some friends together and do it as a group, and you'll have plenty of time to get prepared for the fall when we're going to be together October 16 and 18.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: And one of the things I love most about this conference is it's not just about the teaching time from the front.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: It's about meeting and gathering with and talking to other people who've also been through this study and learning from one another.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: So, elizabeth, I am excited about this conference as well.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: I think it's going to be great, I think the location is going to be beautiful.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: So can anyone attend this conference?
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Yes, this is open to both men and women.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Anyone who has been through the Rock Journey study, has attended a conference in the past or has been listening to the Rock Journey podcast.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: As long as you've done the work to get your heart prepared and understand the basic principles of living with our spirit, soul and body in alignment with Father, son and Holy Spirit, you are welcome to join us for this conference.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Great.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: So one way to get prepared is that we are also going to be offering some events leading up to October.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: So we are going to be calling these events Road to Ruach because they're going to prepare us, just like Elizabeth said.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: They're going to help us have the right understanding and the right frame of mind, prepare our hearts as we come into the Ruach Journey 2 conference in October.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: One of the first ones that we're going to be doing is going to be in May.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: It's going to be on May 18th and it's going to be in Memphis.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: It's going to be at the Memphis Botanic Gardens and we're so excited about that.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: It's a beautiful area.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: If you live in the Memphis area, you want to travel to the Memphis area, you are welcome.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Come join us that day.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Pray for a beautiful day, because it's going to be a gorgeous location.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: We would love to have you join us.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: You can check out more details on our website, which is thefathersbusinesscom.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: There is a link on our website for events and you can find both the Memphis event and the October Ruach Journey 2 event at the Sandy Cove Conference Center in Maryland on that event page.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: So thefathersbusinesscom backslash events.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Check that out, sign up, join us in Memphis.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Join us in Maryland.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: There are going to be two wonderful events and stay tuned for other things coming your way as we prepare for the road to Ruach.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: So we hope that you enjoy today's podcast.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Thanks for being with us.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Well, welcome back to our podcast.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Today we are excited to have you join us as we are continuing to talk about the fruit of the spirit, and so far we have covered love, joy, peace, patience, and today is kindness.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Yay, kindness.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: We have talked about how we've wrestled in the laboratories of each of the fruit of the spirit, as we have discussed them and we are sure that you are too.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: I have a.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: It's a piece of art in my office that says human, kind, be both.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: And I really like this piece of art because it's a reminder, and for me and my office in particular.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: I do a lot of conflict resolution and so it's a really good reminder for us as we sit here in this space, often with people who are in conflict, to be both human and be kind.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: But I think it's a really good reminder of where kindness comes from and what kindness really is, because we live in a society that's probably not super kind these days, and yet in the scriptures, jesus is often calling us to put on kindness.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: We mentioned last week that you have this idea in Colossians of the putting off and the putting on passage, and so you've got like we are called to put on kindness.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: And in the fruit of the spirit, in Galatians, it says that as we walk with the spirit, we will walk in kindness.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: So, elizabeth, when you think about kindness, I know it's not just about being nice, we know that.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: So when you think about the word kindness, and kindness as a fruit of the Spirit.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: What do you think that that looks like?
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: How do you define that a little bit.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Well, I think honestly, when I tell someone, you know, be kind, what I really am trying to do is say be nice to me.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: You know, there is, especially in Southern culture in the United States, there is a level of kindness, niceness, politeness that we just kind of expect out of people in our culture.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: And I think one of the ways that I kind of define kindness versus being nice is nice can be very fake.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I say what is pleasant on the outside, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm feeling that way about you on the inside.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: And I even thought about the phrase earlier today that we often joke and tell people well, you're just going to kill them with kindness.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: And I think what they really mean is you're going to kill them with niceness, which is I'm just going to be so you're irritating to me, but I'm going to be so super sweet to you that I'm basically going to shame you into feeling bad for the way that you're irritating me, kind of thing.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: And kindness is a much deeper thing.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I don't think you can have kindness without empathy and compassion.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: I don't think an understanding and grace.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: There is a much deeper inner motivation of why it's not my outward actions, it's not well, that was kind of you.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I do say that to people If someone does a favor for me, I'm like, well, that was very kind of you.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: But it's not the action that was kind.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: It was the thought and the intent behind that.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: They went out of their way, they sacrificed something of themselves in order to put my needs before their needs, and so I think it's a much deeper and bigger word because, you know, even talking about the kindness of God is what leads us to repentance, and I mean Jesus.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: I mean you could say we just celebrated Easter recently, in the end of March, and you can say that was a miraculous kindness that he chose to go through all of that for us.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: And I don't think people often think of you know, we don't sing songs about the kindness of Jesus on Easter weekend, but that that is what kind, true kindness I think is.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: It's I'm willing to sacrifice myself for you because I have compassion on you and I want to be grace-filled towards you.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: And I think you even see it, not only in Christian circles, but I've seen it a lot, especially since 2020 and COVID on a lot of social media platforms and COVID on a lot of social media platforms.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: There are certain channels and people that are committed to pointing out acts of kindness, because there is so much negativity in the news and life does feel hard and dark that we're all so hungry just to hear the story about the person who gave of themselves so that someone else could succeed kind of stories that you can find and there's the be kind movement, and how can you do a random act of kindness for someone?
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: And so there's this we have a hunger for a taste of this graciousness and compassion that I think is at the core of kindness.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: When I was younger, I memorized the version of Ephesians I think it's Ephesians 4.32, be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving one another, as God in Christ Jesus forgave you.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: And the word tenderhearted there also.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: It said that what you're saying there, that motive, that deep-seated underneath the action, is this tenderhearted choice.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is a choice to be tender with you, and I think that's what kindness really is.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: It's a choice to be tender, it's a choice to see you, and that's why I love this sign, as I even look at it right here human kind.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: When God breathed breath into man and created humans, he did that with his own breath, which was sacrificial.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: What we're talking about it was a giving of himself to give life, and so humanity is designed with intention.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: You're knit together in your mother's womb, and so when we think about the essence of humanity, we've lost that piece of it.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: We've lost that.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: We are fearfully and wonderfully made, right.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: So if I could pause and recognize that the people around me are fearfully and wonderfully made, and recognize that the people around me are fearfully and wonderfully made and that Jesus sees them and he made them for a reason they are humankind and I need to be kind to humans.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: So it is.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: It's that humankind be both.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: I need to be human, I need to live and be about the way that God really intended us to live, and I need to be kind as I do that.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: And so I think those things go hand in hand.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: And it really is like when Ephesians says be kind to one another, it goes on to say it's tenderhearted.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: It's forgiving, as God forgave you.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: So we have the picture Again.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: That's where these spirits of spirit fall into place.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Right, we have experienced, as believers, the forgiveness of God, the tenderheartedness of God, the kindness, the compassion that has led us to repentance, which is how we became believers.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: We saw that sacrifice.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: He prompted our hearts to turn towards him and we are renewed in Christ and therefore we walk by the spirit and we do that for others.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and as you're reading that verse, it's like to tell someone to be kind again.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: My mind goes more towards nice, which means I can be friendly with you on the outside, but that doesn't mean I really like you on the inside.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: But as that verse keeps going, being tenderhearted and then forgiving one another.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Forgiveness is hard and forgiveness takes a lot of choosing that I'm not going to hold on to what I believe is my right to be offended and I'm going to let that go.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: And so I think sometimes people think people who are kind are weak or meek and they're not a choice, and it takes a lot of strength, I believe, to overlook an offense, to forgive someone and be kind to them, even if they've hurt you.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: You know, elizabeth, you were talking about kind of in the South, that nice culture, you know, and that sugary, sweet, right, like let's be sweet and that's that, you know.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: It's like when we say bless your heart, what do we really mean, right?
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Right, If anyone ever says that to you they don't mean it.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I grew up in South Carolina.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: I've been in Virginia for a long time now, so I kind of have a lot of.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: You got the mid-Atlantic here, you got the Meridian North and the South, and so there's pieces of lots of that here too, but it's a little different and so I don't hear it as much.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: But I grew up with a lot of, and I think even in Christian circles there's just this idea of we need to be nice to one another and we say be kind, like you're talking about, and I do think we need to recognize the nice thing or the kind thing.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: It's really the motive of our heart and what's driving us there, and so when we look at Christ being kind to us, it's his kindness that leads us to repentance.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: It was utter sacrifice.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: It was motivated by a love for his father and a love for his children, and so I think a lot of times when I'm choosing to be kind, I'm using air quotes People can't see me because we're not doing video yet, but doing these air quotes here.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: When I'm choosing to be kind, I might need to stop and check myself.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: Why am I being kind?
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Because I know I'm not just being nice, I feel like I'm being kind.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: I could be choosing to be kind because I hope for something in return.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: Rather than just straight out motivated by a love for someone else, motivated by a love for my father, motivated by obedience to my father, motivated by a desire to just see the world be good and human and kind and flourish With any of the fruit of the spirit.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: It is really hard to get ourselves 100% out of the way, because we're human and we live in this fallen world with our fallen state.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: And yet we do have the ability, especially as we talk about these things and we try to grow in an awareness and an understanding.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: We do have an ability to ask ourselves those questions and to reflect and to meditate and to think about why am I doing what I'm doing?
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: And if we're doing something that is kind out of a selfish motivation, then we need to recognize it and we need to stop.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Stop it.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: But I genuinely mean like we got to work on that, we got to be aware of it and we've got to choose to go okay.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Okay, I'm not going to be kind just so someone else will be kind to me.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be kind regardless of if they're kind to me.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be kind because one jesus, first and foremost jesus was so kind with me and, and, then yet, and, and yet.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: How often do I wrestle with?
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know if jesus is really kind with me, which we'll get at next week when we talk about goodness.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I wrestle with, do I not?
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: I don't know, do I?
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I feel that Jesus was kind with me, but the truth is, his kindness led us to repentance, his kindness on the cross.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: He was forgiving.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: He is forgiving.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: His acts were sacrificial and so, whether I feel it, I'm wrestling through it or not, I got to recognize that out of that love for Christ is where this being in step with the Spirit has to flow, out of it has to right, right, and I think, just think about Jesus and how he displayed kindness while he was here, because you were just saying, you know, sometimes it doesn't feel like kindness, but it is.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: You look at him and I mean he did heal the sick, he fed the hungry.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: You know, let the little children come to me.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: There's all these beautiful pictures of this sweet kindness, meeting the needs of others, part of him.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: But he also called people out, yeah, and I think sometimes we think, well, I can't speak into someone's life, I can't confront someone on these types of things, because that wouldn't be being kind.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: And so there are times when the kindest thing that we can do especially, like you know, you and me can play for each other.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: There's times when the kindest thing we can do is kind of call each other out and go.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: You know, can we talk about this why?
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: You know what, what's going on in this part of your life over here?
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Because he was also kind when he met with the woman at the well and he showed compassion to her by speaking to her, which most people wouldn't.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: But he also didn't leave without saying but this is what I know to be true about you and asking her to to go and and do life differently.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: So I think, kimberly, I would be one that would maybe lean more towards the side of not wanting to say something to someone Cause I don't want to be, I don't want to be seen as not kind.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: And again, I think that's when you get back to this nice versus kind thing.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: It may not feel nice for me to go to a brother or a sister in Christ and say, hey, can we talk about this?
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: But as you deal with conflict resolution all the time, sometimes you got to have the hard conversations and that is the kindest thing you can do.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: But then, on the other extreme of that, I think sometimes the kindest things you can do is just overlook an offense and like not everything in your world has got to be a conflict, right?
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah for sure, because if I don't let some things go in my relationships, we would always be in your office, kimberly, trying to resolve another conflict.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: And so it is that, as you're saying, being in step with the Spirit, being in step with Him, so that I can know when it's kindness to speak and when it's kindness to go.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: You know what God has forgiven me of so much.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: I just need to let that go.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it feels like let's see if I can find the words, because I can sense it a little bit here the idea of kindness, not like super soft, mushy kind of stuff, but the word that keeps coming to mind is genuine.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: When I think about tenderhearted, I think about being able to speak.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: There's the side of mushy tenderheartedness and then there's also this on one spectrum and on the other end you've got that what you're talking about speaking.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: Sometimes the kind thing to do is be able to speak truth and to hold each other accountable, and sometimes we're afraid to do it because it doesn't feel kind.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: But I think in the element of kindness, tenderheartedness, when Jesus spoke to the woman at the well I guess that's a good example where you brought that up he was just genuine, he was just Jesus.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: It's almost like I can't find all the words to describe what I'm sensing here, but it is just kindness, seems to be just this genuine, seems to be just this genuine, tenderhearted, compassionate, empathetic.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Not love, but kindness.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: It's a different word for a reason.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: It's not encapsulated with love, it's a separate word.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: And I think, if I can sit in that space and I don't like the space of how that word, what that word really means and the essence of what it feels and is.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Like I long for that, like we long for, you know, all these social media channels that have random acts of kindness and different, like we celebrate the runner carrying the other runner across the line when they're so dead tired at the end.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: If I could hang on to that essence of kindness and let that permeate how I live my moments of interactions with others, then I think that brings about this true sense of peace, a true sense of alignment, a sense of like Selah.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Like.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: This is how things are supposed to be.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: So, in light of that, we want to bless our spirits with the fruit of kindness.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: So, spirit, listen to God's word for you in Galatians 5.22.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: The fruit of the Spirit is kindness, and in Psalm 145.17, the Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his deeds.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Spirit, be blessed to know the depths of God's kindness that leads you to repentance.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: His kindness to you is responsible for your belonging to his kingdom.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: He showed you the incomparable riches of his grace and the magnitude of his kindness to you in Christ Jesus.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: He predestined to adopt you for himself as a son through Jesus Christ, according to the kindness of his will and to the glory of his grace, which he freely gave you in his beloved son.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: The kindness and love of God, your Savior, saved you in his mercy.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: He renewed you in the Holy Spirit, whom he generously poured out on you.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: You are a living heir of the hope of eternal life because of his kindness, which is God's goodness in action.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: His kindness is your strength and comfort, even when he sits as a friend with you and doesn't say a word.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: His kindness relieves your sense of aloneness.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: He is a kind companion who shares your life.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: You have tasted his kindness, so let it cause you to hunger for more of him, so that you grow up into him and look more like him.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: King David ministered the kindness of God daily to the grandson of his enemy.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: King Jesus was kind to you when you were his enemy.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: So be blessed to love your enemies and do good to them and expect nothing back from them.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Be blessed to prove yourself to be a son or daughter of the Most High, because his kindness actively lives in you, to be a peacemaker at all times.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Spirit.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Kindness to others gives evidence that you have forgiven them.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: When you don't feel kind, take your feelings to God to work forgiveness in you for them.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: His unfailing compassion toward you never runs out as the source of your kindness.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Jesus is sympathetic, affectionate, displaying the mercy of his Father toward you.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: His kindness saw sheep without a shepherd.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: Because of his kindness, the hungry were fed, the blind saw lepers were cleansed and the ignorant and innocent were taught.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: He knows your pain, your grief, your difficulty in living in a world where others sin and have sickness that you can do nothing about.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: He cares, he reaches out to touch, as he touched lepers and the rejects of the religious order of the day.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Be blessed to live in the sweet and compassionate disposition of God's Spirit living in you.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Be blessed to pass on the kindness shown to you by doing what is best and profitable for others.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: The kindness and compassion of your kinsman.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Redeemer, sees and restores the alien and the desolate.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Let him respect, appreciate, esteem and honor others through you and all of your relationships, circumstances and decisions.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Spirit be blessed with the nature of jesus that does not cut others off or cut them short.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Be blessed with his grace that pervades your whole, being softening all that could be harsh.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Be blessed with being mellowed in the sweet character of jesus, like wine that mellows with age.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Be blessed to reflect the nature of the dove of the Holy Spirit in you in acts of words and kindness.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Be blessed with the fruit of kindness that the Holy Spirit produces in you, your grateful response to unmerited kindness from him.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: I want to thank you for listening to the Father's Business Podcast.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Father's Business Podcast.