How many of you own a dog?  Many of us do. Over the past twenty years, we’ve owned two dogs.  The first one was a Labrador Retriever named Champ.  He was the best dog ever.  We got him a couple of years before  Abby, our older daughter, was born.  He learned quickly, and was a faithful companion from the start.  Abby learned to walk by grabbing Champ’s tail or the fur on his side and pulling herself up.  Champ always stood there and took it.  Once, when were still living in Cincinnati, Nancy called me, and she was very upset.  She told me I had to come home right away because Champ was eating a baby duck.  There was a pay lake behind our home and a baby duck had made its way inside our fenced-in yard.  I rushed home and sure enough, there was Champ with the feet of  a baby duck hanging out of his mouth, but he wasn’t eating it.  He was just “holding it.”  I pulled Champ’s mouth open, the baby duck flopped out and waddled away.  Champ “set the bar high” if you will, when it came to family pets. 

     When Champ died we didn’t have a dog for a while.  Then one of Nancy’s friends called and told us she had a dog, which had given birth to a litter of puppies. She said we should come over and “look” at them. The mother was a beagle and the father was a Lab.  The puppies were cute, as most puppies are.  One of them was black and looked a lot like Champ.  The girls preferred another puppy in the litter, which was a brown color, but somehow I imagined that the puppy who looked like Champ, would be like Champ, so I convinced them to take him.  We left choosing the puppy’s name to Abby.  She chose Champ.  Now the dog who looked like Champ, was also named Champ.  It didn’t take very long for us to realize, though, that he was definitely NOT Champ.  This new Champ learned slowly, and showed a tendency to growl and nip if you touched his hind quarters.  He didn’t like to be brushed or bathed, and by that I mean he would try to take off your hand if you brushed him, and bathing him was not a pretty experience.  Champ and I soon developed a mutual dislike for each other.  While I’m the dog lover in the family, I didn’t like Champ much and he didn’t like me much.  Why do I share all that with you?  Because today’s aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit is KINDNESS.  When the Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Galatian Christians:  ²²But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23 NLT  I don’t think he had me and my relationship with Champ II, in mind necessarily, but over the years I’ve come to realize that the best way for me to test my level of KINDNESS is to see how I’m treating Champ.  The rest of the aspects of the Fruit of the Spirit:  love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are primarily carried out people to people.  Certainly, kindness is primarily for people, too.  But I’ve discovered over the years that when I’m not being KIND to Champ, I’m not living the Fruit of the Spirit.

     For many years what I just said was a common sense truth, if you will.  It seemed true, but I didn’t have any Scripture to back it up.  Then I came across a proverb that actually DOES affirm that KINDNESS to animals is part of a godly life.  Today’s supportive Scripture for KINDNESS is Proverbs 11:17.  Let’s look at it before we turn to the proverb that relates to Champ and me, and to you and your pets.  It’s only one verse, so I’m not going to ask you to stand up as we read it, but would you please read Proverbs 11:17 aloud with me now?  ¹⁷Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you.  Proverbs 11:17NLT  Let’s pray………… Amen.

     ¹⁷Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you.  Proverbs 11:17NLT That’s a strong statement isn’t it?  While love, joy, peace, patience all seem to be “first line” aspects of the Spirit’s work in our lives, kindness seems to be one that isn’t necessarily so spiritual on the face of it.  After all, kindness is something that even non-Christians exhibit, right?  Actually, non-Christians can exhibit all the aspects of the Fruit of the Spirit in an imperfect form, but only when the Holy Spirit is in control of our lives will we exhibit the nine traits we’ve been working our way through for five weeks now in their “godly” form.  What do I mean by that?  I mean that people who don’t know Jesus certainly show love, right?  They make sacrifices for their spouses, family members, even strangers.  But only when we’re connected to Jesus, abiding in Him as John 15 puts it, can we display true “agape,” true sacrificial love.  As we go down through the list, the same is true of every characteristic.  There’s a worldly form of joy, that internal state of well-being, but it can’t endure on-going hardship and pain the way God’s joy in our lives does.

     King Solomon tells us that KINDNESS rewards us, but that cruelty will destroy us.  That’s true physically.  Medical studies have shown that those who demonstrate kindness, who remain calm in situations that might trigger anger in others have lower incidence of high blood pressure, heart disease, digestive problems, even cancer.  It’s also true spiritually.  After all, in the Old Testament one of the traits frequently attributed to God is “lovingkindness.”  King David tells us in Psalm 63:3 that God’s lovingkindness is better than life!  What is God’s “lovingkindness”?  It’s God’s absolute commitment to us, even though we turn away from Him.  It’s God treating us better than we deserve, even when we growl or nip at Him.  In our lives, the quickest test of whether the Holy Spirit’s in control at any moment is whether we’re being kind or cruel.  Love may seem abstract at times. The same is true of joy and peace.   But kindness is concrete. We all know whether someone’s being kind or cruel to us and others. 

     Now, let’s turn to that verse in Proverbs about godliness and kindness to animals.  Here it is:  ¹⁰The godly care for their animals, but the wicked are always cruel.  Proverbs 12:10 NLT In Proverbs 11:17 we read:       ¹⁷Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you. Proverbs 11:17  One chapter later we read:    ¹⁰The godly care for their animals, but the wicked are always cruel.  Proverbs 12:10 NLT  One of my chief goals as a preacher is to ALWAYS give you something to take home, something to LIVE out in daily life.  This morning that’s as easy as it gets, because kindness is so tangible.  We live in a world where King Solomon’s words are all too often seen as lived out in the negative:  …your cruelty will destroy you.  …the wicked are always cruel.  Whether dealing with people or animals, as those living in the Spirit, we’re called to KINDNESS. 

     Champ is eight now.  He and I have come to appreciate each other.  He has his quirks.  I have mine.  What I’ve learned is he’s an animal.  His IQ is far less than mine.  In certain areas he’s dumber than a box of rocks.  Nevertheless, the godly care for their animals, and even kindness to animals is rewarded.  Champ never ceases to show appreciation for simple kindness.  If you feed Champ, he’s ecstatic.  If you take him for a walk, he wags his tail and jumps with joy or happiness or whatever it is dogs have when life is good.  When you come in the house, even if you’ve only been gone for five minutes, Champ greets you with enthusiasm.  Wouldn’t life be great if everyone responded to KINDNESS the way dogs do?

     But they don’t, do they?  Sometimes we offer an act of kindness to a person, and the person glares at us, or ignores us, or makes a rude comment to us.  That’s a key difference between dogs and people.  But King Solomon didn’t write, Your kindness will reward you with positive feedback from people in every situation. Did he?  He simply wrote:  Your kindness will reward you.  Sometimes we offer kindness to a person who’s hurting or cruel, and they return our kindness with scorn.  That’s when we’ll know whether our kindness is a part of the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives, or whether it’s just our attempt at being good people.  When we offer kindness and it’s rejected or ignored, if we’re operating out of the desire to be good people, we’ll be offended or hurt.  If we’re operating out of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, then we’ll recognize the response as an opportunity for prayer for the person and growth in the Spirit in our own lives.  Because when a person rejects acts of kindness, the person’s probably hurting.  Hurting people hurt people.  They need prayer.  So whether we’re kind and it’s rewarded with affirmation, or we’re kind and it’s “rewarded” with scorn, if it’s the kindness that flows from living in the Spirit it’s an opportunity for God’s presence to work through us to others!

     Last Sunday when we focused on patience, I said that no patience is required when we we’re standing at the front of the line, when our health is perfect, when everything is going well in our relationships.  Patience is only required when we’re in the SLOWEST line at the grocery store, or when we just can’t get over that cold, or allergies, or worse, and it’s getting us down physically.  The same is true in exercising each aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit.  When we’re walking behind someone and they drop something out of their pocket or purse, and we see it, pick it up and hand it back to them—a simple act of kindness—their response isn’t our reward.  Sometimes we think it is.  When King Solomon said, “Your kindness will reward you,” he meant that God rewards us for kindness.  He sees when we help someone, when we encourage someone, when we go above and beyond the call of duty and exercise kindness. In the scenario I just mentioned, whether the persons says, “Thank you,” and continues on; or says, “Oh my gosh!  Thank You!  THANK YOU! That was so awesome of you!”; or glares at you as if you’ve just inconvenienced him or her; or doesn’t do anything--you have already received a reward.

     Jesus told us we aren’t supposed to store up treasure on earth—where thieves break in and steal and moths and rust destroy, but to store our treasures in heaven.  Typically, we think Jesus was talking about money, and He was, but He was talking about more than money.  After all, when we get to heaven, our reward, our treasure is not going to be money, is it?  It’s going to be living in the presence of God for eternity, and seeing others there, because of our lives.  Simple acts of kindness may not seem to be all that important, but sometimes those simple acts of kindness make all the difference in the world.  Sometimes people are just about at the breaking point.  The cruelty of this life becomes too much for them.  Then someone smiles, or offers an encouraging word, or invites that person into their life.  Simple acts of kindness, but they change the person’s life.  In the end, our reward is not based on how big the act of kindness is, or how great the response of the recipient is, the reward of kindness is God’s approval, and being representatives of God to others.

     Look again at Proverbs 12:10:  ¹⁰The godly care for their animals, but the wicked are always cruel.  Proverbs 12:10 NLT  When you think of being “godly” do you think of caring for your animals?  Probably not.  But being godly means being like God.  God doesn’t just care for those who are loving, or wealthy, or beautiful, or productive.  God cares for everyone. Being godly means caring for everyone, the good Champs and the bad ones.  Those of you who are pet owners, how have you been treating your animals?  Have you demonstrated godliness or wickedness?  That seems like a harsh question, doesn’t it?  But King Solomon put it in those black and white terms:  godly or wicked.  A lot of times, I wish being godly only applied to “church things.”  I do.  Then I could have a “breather” when somebody acts like a jerk out in the world, or when Champ throws up on the carpeting.  But there aren’t any “breathers” in our lives as followers of Jesus.  We get to pick up our crosses every day.  We get to live with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control—DAILY.  We GET to.  We don’t have to.  The transformation that Jesus works in our lives is evident in the way we treat each other, and even in the way we treat our animals.  A couple Sundays ago, I said that God had laid it on my heart to emphasize that the Christian life either works in the pain and struggle of our lives or it doesn’t work.  Today, I would say that God has laid it on my heart to emphasize that the Christian life works in the little, every day opportunities to exercise kindness or it doesn’t work.  The big things, the small things and everything in between are for us to lay before Jesus.  Living the Fruit of the Spirit is a 24/7/365 reality.  When we understand that, kindness becomes a “litmus test” for God’s control in us.  Here’s TODAY’S CHALLENGE:  I will be kind, whether those around me respond or not, so they may see Jesus!  When we do that we WILL receive Jesus’ reward in our lives and in eternity.  If that’s your desire today, to live the life that is truly life in the big and small matters of life, then say that challenge with me:  TODAY’S CHALLENGE:  I will be kind, whether those around me respond or not, so they may see Jesus!  Kindness.  At first glance, that doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but when we live kindness, those around us know what a big deal it is.  They see Jesus in us and we receive His reward.  As we go out today without a doubt someone or something we meet is going to need an act of kindness.  How we respond to the opportunities for showing kindness will reflect whether the Holy Spirit is leading and controlling our lives or not.  That’s basic, truly basic, but as we succeed in the basic areas of living in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, we’ll also succeed when the challenges are greater. The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, patience, KINDNESS, good, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Amen? Amen.  Let’s pray………………..Amen.