Kindness | Sermon | The Grove Church, Port St. Lucie

Why the Best Things in Life Can’t Be Earned and Aren’t Free

God spoils you. Now spoil others.

Summary

Galatians 5:14–25 names kindness as the fifth fruit of the Spirit, and David Hancock, preaching at The Grove Church in Port St. Lucie, Florida, begins by separating kindness from niceness: being nice gives people what they deserve, while kindness spoils someone with undeserved favor they can never repay. He traces that favor to God’s promise to Abraham of a land, a people, and a blessing, pictures it in King David lifting the crippled Mephibosheth to the king’s table, and names the problem: the flesh in every person keeps a ledger and recoils at giving anything unearned, so marriages, parenting, and friendships become record-keeping instead of transformation. Kindness grows only in people who have tasted the kindness of God and depend daily on the Spirit to animate the kindness of Christ in them. The sermon ends at the cross, where Jesus, whose very name in Greek sounds like the word for kind, paid for everything to share His inheritance with people who deserved none of it.

Key Takeaways

Nice and kind are different things: niceness gives people what they have earned and can be repaid, while kindness spoils someone with lavish, undeserved favor they can never pay back.
The kindness of God is an inheritance of a land like Eden that cannot be lost, a people whose love is given rather than earned, and the blessing of God’s own presence; it is received the way a son receives an inheritance, because of who his Father is.
The flesh keeps a ledger with everyone, so trying harder to be kind only uses the monster to fight the monster; kindness comes from tasting and seeing God’s kindness and walking by the Spirit daily so that Christ’s kindness grows in you like fruit on a branch.
Showing kindness feels like giving away your crown, your power to get even, but a royal son or daughter of God can afford it because the inheritance never runs dry and the seats at the table are endless.

Read Galatians 5:14-25 (ESV)

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Talk about it

1. When was the last time someone did something for you that you had not earned and could not repay? How did it feel to receive it?

Nice Is Not Kind: What Is the Difference Between Being Nice and Being Kind?

Nice and kind are very different things. A nice day is a slightly above average day, and nice weather is not beautiful, just pleasant. To be nice to someone is to give them what they deserve, and they can pay you back with niceness. Kindness is something else entirely: spoiling someone with undeserved favor they can never repay, giving them something lavish and breathtaking they did not earn.

That is the favor God promised Abraham and everyone who believes: an inheritance of a land like Eden that cannot be lost, a people whose love is given rather than earned, and the blessing that makes both possible, which is God Himself. We are like a child jumping for something on a high shelf, and kindness is when someone takes it down and hands it to us.

KEY WORD: NICE The English word “nice” comes from the Latin nescius, which for centuries meant ignorant or foolish; only later did it soften into “pleasant.” Being nice gives people roughly what they deserve and expects niceness in return. Kindness, the fruit Paul names in Galatians 5:22, works on a different economy: it lavishes undeserved favor on someone who cannot pay it back. The Bible’s picture is 2 Samuel 9, where King David gives Mephibosheth, the crippled grandson of his enemy Saul, all of Saul’s land and a permanent seat at the king’s table. Mephibosheth had to be carried there; he paid for nothing and deserved none of it.

Talk about it

2. The sermon told the story of Mephibosheth, carried into the palace expecting execution and lifted instead to the king’s table. Who in your life gets your niceness, favor measured out to what they have earned, when what they need is kindness? What would it look like to give them a seat they did not earn?

The Ledger: Why Can’t We Stop Keeping Score?

Paul reveals a battle inside every person between the flesh and the Spirit. The flesh is our dark side, a fleshy monster in all of us, and it is also a kind of self-reliance. So when we try hard to kill the monster, we are using the monster to kill the monster, and when we try to be kind, the monster recoils and insists that anything we give must be earned. The same monster lives in everyone around us, so instead of offering the kindness God offered us, we keep score, and they keep score with us. At best, we are monsters trying to be nice to each other.

The sermon named where the ledger lives: the marriage that quietly stacks resentment for years until something blows up, or both die angry; the parenting that manipulates children with their good record or their bad record; the grown child waiting for parents to earn the right to be parents again; the friendships kept superficial because no one has proven worthy of trust. The end of it is loneliness, a life of being nice to people just to get through the day.

Talk about it

3. Where are you keeping a ledger right now, with a spouse, a parent, a child, a friend? What entry on it are you least willing to tear up, and what has keeping it cost you?

Taste and See: How Do You Become a Kind Person?

You become the kind of person who throws down the ledger only by seeing that God has already thrown His down and offered you, specifically, a favor so great that you look spoiled. If Christianity does not sound like the greatest news you have ever heard, you have not understood it yet; you have not tasted and seen the kindness of God. The psalm says, “Taste and see that the LORD is good,” and Peter reuses that line with a word that means kind, not morally good but good as in the good life, given as a gift. Religion says earn the good life, keep your ledger clean, and you are in. This belief turns you into a person who plays god over everyone else, checking whether they have earned a life with you. Kindness is God coming down to people who cannot reach the deepest desire of their souls. A son does not earn his inheritance; it is given because of who his father is, and Christ came to make you His brother or sister and share His inheritance with you.

The way to receive it daily is to walk by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit: a daily habit, kept with discipline, of depending on the Spirit to animate the kindness of Christ in you, the way a vine pushes nutrients up into a branch so that fruit appears.

KEY PHRASE: TASTE AND SEE Psalm 34:8 says, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!” When Peter borrows the line in 1 Peter 2:3 (“if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good”), the Greek word for good is chrēstos, which means kind; it describes the goodness of a gift, not the goodness of a rule-keeper. Spoken aloud, chrēstos sounds almost identical to Christos, Christ, and a few early manuscripts of 1 Peter 2:3 actually read “the Lord is Christ.” The point stands either way: to taste the Lord’s kindness is to taste Christ.

Talk about it

4. The sermon put it bluntly: if someone says they are a Christian because God sees them trying hard to be good, they do not yet know the kindness of God and cannot give it. Why are you a Christian? When was the last time God’s kindness to you made your eyes go wide, and what has dulled that since?

Giving Away Your Crown: What Does Kindness Cost You?

David’s kindness to Mephibosheth was first given to David by Jonathan. Jonathan was Saul’s son and the rightful heir, yet he saw God’s favor on David and handed him the throne in his heart, giving away his own crown. Years later David asked whether anyone was left of Jonathan’s house to whom he could show “the kindness of God,” and the kindness passed to Jonathan’s son. When you show kindness, it can be seen as the very kindness of God coming to someone through you, but it will feel like giving away your crown. Every time you offer favor to someone who does not deserve it, you give up your power to get even. You can afford that as a royal son or daughter of God, because your inheritance cannot run dry; the seats at the table are endless.

Spoiling people with the land means feeding the poor and being generous to someone who can never pay you back.

Spoiling people with a people means learning names, including outsiders, and treating the person at your table as if you were talking to an angel.

Spoiling people with the blessing means telling them God keeps no ledger with you, and if they ask, He will keep none with them.

Talk about it

5. The sermon asked, what crown are you holding onto that kindness is asking for? Name the person you have the power to get even with. Which of the three, your resources, your table, or the news of God’s kindness, could you give them this week at no cost to them?

The Heart of It: How Is Jesus the Kindness of God?

The best things in life are not earned by us and are not free; Christ paid for them. He is the perfect expression of kindness. He threw down the ledger and came to offer Himself. The same way kindness comes down from above and spoils people who do not deserve it, Christ came down from heaven chasing people who did not deserve Him. As our big brother, He shares everything that is His with us, and all of creation is His. He spoils us with forgiveness, yes, but also with the favor given to a royal son or daughter who receives an inheritance. All that is His is ours.

He died in our place, not because we were worthy but to make us worthy.

Like the fruit of kindness, He grew in the belly of death to bring life to what had not earned it.

Then He gave the Spirit, who animates Christ’s life in us so we might spoil others as we have been spoiled.

Talk about it

6. Kindness comes down and grows in you because Christ came down and lives in you. Where have you been living like someone who must earn what Christ already paid for? What would change in your closest relationship this week if you lived like the spoiled child of a King whose table never runs out of seats?

Questions This Sermon Answers

What is the difference between being nice and being kind?

Being nice gives someone what they deserve, and they can pay you back with niceness; a nice day is only slightly above average. Kindness gives someone lavish, undeserved favor they can never repay. The word nice even comes from the Latin nescius, meaning ignorant, while kindness in Galatians 5:22 means spoiling people with grace.

What does kindness mean in Galatians 5:22?

Kindness, the fifth fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22, means spoiling someone with undeserved favor they cannot pay back. It mirrors the way God treats His people: He promised Abraham an inheritance of a land, a people, and a blessing, and gives it freely to those who could never reach it on their own.

What is the story of David and Mephibosheth about?

In 2 Samuel 9, King David searches for any survivor of his enemy Saul’s house so he can show “the kindness of God.” He finds Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s crippled son hiding in Lo-debar, restores all of Saul’s land to him, and gives him a permanent seat at the king’s table. Mephibosheth earned none of it; he was carried there.

What inheritance does God promise His children?

God’s promise to Abraham was threefold: a land, a people, and a blessing. The land is an Eden that provides, protects, and cannot be lost; the people are those who love you with loyal, unearned love; the blessing is God Himself, His own love, joy, and peace. Believers receive it as adopted royal sons and daughters.

Why is it so hard to be kind to people?

Paul says the flesh wars against the Spirit, and the flesh is a kind of self-reliance that insists everything must be earned. Trying harder to be kind uses the monster to fight the monster. The same flesh in everyone else keeps score with us, so at best we become monsters trying to be nice to each other.

What does “taste and see that the Lord is good” mean?

Psalm 34:8 invites people to experience God’s goodness firsthand. When 1 Peter 2:3 quotes it, the Greek word for good is chrēstos, which means kind and describes the good life given as a gift, not moral rule-keeping. Spoken aloud, chrēstos sounds like Christos, so to taste the Lord’s kindness is to taste Christ.

How do you become a kind person?

Not by effort. You become kind by first seeing how spoiled you are in Christ, then walking by the Spirit and keeping in step with Him, a disciplined daily habit of depending on the Spirit to animate the kindness of Christ in you. Like a branch drawing from a vine, the Spirit pulls Christ’s kindness up into you as fruit.

How does Jesus show the kindness of God?

Jesus is the perfect expression of kindness. He threw down the ledger, came chasing people who did not deserve Him, and died in their place to make them worthy sons and daughters. As our big brother He shares all that is His and gives the Spirit, who animates His life in us so we might spoil others as we have been spoiled.

Vision for the Christian Life

The Christian life this passage envisions is a community of spoiled people. They have tasted and seen that the Lord is kind, and it shows: eyes wide with wonder at an inheritance they could never reach, gratitude where there used to be striving, rest where there used to be a ledger. Because their land cannot be lost and their seat cannot be taken, they can afford to give away their crowns, to feed those who cannot repay, to learn the names of outsiders, to tell the record-keepers of the world that God keeps no record against them.

The kindness they received keeps passing down the line, as it passed from Jonathan to David to a crippled man carried to the king’s table. The seats are endless. Keep pulling up chairs. He will fill the house.

Discussion Questions for Small Groups: Galatians 5

When was the last time someone did something for you that you had not earned and could not repay? How did it feel to receive it?
The sermon told the story of Mephibosheth, carried into the palace expecting execution and lifted instead to the king’s table. Who in your life gets your niceness, favor measured out to what they have earned, when what they need is kindness? What would it look like to give them a seat they did not earn?
Where are you keeping a ledger right now, with a spouse, a parent, a child, a friend? What entry on it are you least willing to tear up, and what has keeping it cost you?
The sermon put it bluntly: if someone says they are a Christian because God sees them trying hard to be good, they do not yet know the kindness of God and cannot give it. Why are you a Christian? When was the last time God’s kindness to you made your eyes go wide, and what has dulled that since?
The sermon asked, what crown are you holding onto that kindness is asking for? Name the person you have the power to get even with. Which of the three, your resources, your table, or the news of God’s kindness, could you give them this week at no cost to them?
Kindness comes down and grows in you because Christ came down and lives in you. Where have you been living like someone who must earn what Christ already paid for? What would change in your closest relationship this week if you lived like the spoiled child of a King whose table never runs out of seats?

Related Messages in This Series

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Pastor David Hancock is the Lead Pastor of The Grove Church in Port St. Lucie, FL, a church where believers and skeptics wrestle honestly with faith and doubt.

Wrestling with a question this raised? You can text in your question on any Sunday and hear it answered after the sermon. Or come sit with people asking the same things. Plan Your Visit

Read the full sermon manuscript

We live in a world that demands we earn everything. At the same time, we are told the best things in life are free. How can both be true? They can’t. Today we find the best things in life aren’t free and aren’t earned by us. The message of Christianity is that someone else pays the cost and spoils us with undeserved favor and an undeserved inheritance.

We are in our series called Christian freedom in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and today we arrive at kindness, what Paul calls the 5th fruit of the Spirit. My aim for you today is that you would understand just how spoiled the Christian is. I mean so spoiled, in a way that transforms you into something totally new.

Galatians 5:14-26

14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

What is kindness? Nice and kind are very different things. If someone tells you to have a nice day they are saying have a slightly above average day. It’s not a memorable day; it’s not a day for the record books. How’s the weather? It’s nice. Beautiful, no, just nice.

To be nice to someone is to give them something they deserve. They can even pay you back with niceness.

In fact, nice comes from the Latin word nescius, which for centuries meant ignorant or foolish. Eventually the meaning changed to mean something like pleasant.

So what is kindness? It’s spoiling someone with undeserved favor they can’t pay back. It’s giving someone something beautiful, lavish, and breathtaking that they didn’t earn.

This week I got pulled over for speeding. My truck is also showing some potential transmission problems, and I also got a nail in the my tire that I noticed just after I got pulled over. On top of that, our water heater broke, flooded our garage, and needed to be replaced. All of this happened within a few hours. Thankfully, I preached on patience last week, so I was prepared. My patience lasted a day. The next day, I told Alyse, “ My patience is almost gone, she said, “ Yeah, I noticed that.

The cop returned to my truck and said, “I’m giving you a warning.”

You might say that was kind, but it was nice. Before he told me he was just giving me a warning, he said, “I checked your driving record, and it’s really good. He was saying you earned this warning.

Kind would have been him saying, I see a nail in your tire; here are my keys. I’ll go get this fixed. Then calls me and says, hey, your transmission needed some work, I covered it and brought your truck to your house. Your hot water heater busted, so I got a new one for you, and it’s being installed right now.

Enjoy; you owe me nothing.

That’s being spoiled with undeserved favor.

God made a promise to do this to Abraham, and through Abraham, all of us who believe with an undeserved inheritance.

This undeserved inheritance is a threefold promise of a land, a people, and a blessing.

The land we are thinking of is Eden. It provides for us, lavishing us with food, protection, and health. It doesn’t try to swallow us up in death like our world does; it grows us eternally.

The people are those we love and who love us. Not because of anything. It’s what they do. Loyal love.

The blessing is what makes the land and people possible. It’s God. His very presence. God is the pure and perfect expression of love, joy, and peace.

If you somehow snuck back into Eden, upon the mountain garden above, you would find God as three persons, each loving the other with the perfect light of love, each delighting with great joy expressing that love, and enjoying that love from the other. The peace of God is that love and joy are never lost.

This inheritance is becoming adopted as royal sons and daughters of God who receive all the promises. It’s to be raptured up into the very life of God’s love, joy, and peace. You in Him and He in you. To be promised a land, like Eden only better, one that can’t be lost. And a people who love you and there love isn’t earned but given freely.

This inheritance isn’t something we grab or earn. We are like a child jumping up and down trying to grab the land, people, and blessing but can’t reach it.

Kindness is when someone gives it to you even though you aren’t good enough to reach it.

This is a bit abstract still so let me give you a real story of it. David defeated Goliath and became a general in King Saul’s army who was successful in all of his missions.

David grew in great favor with everyone. Saul became jealous of David’s success and favor from the people. One day Saul picked up a spear, at dinner, and hurled it at David but missed. This started Saul’s hunt for David.

David for years, hid in caves from Saul and his men.

After Saul and his son Jonathan were killed in battle David was crowned king.

Back then, when a king from a new bloodline took the throne, the first thing he did was kill all those who had a claim to the throne.

That was Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson, son of Jonathan.

Now imagine this. Mephibosheth was crippled from when his nurse dropped him as they fled after Saul was killed in battle.

He went into hiding for years in a place called Lo-debar. One day there was a knock at the door. King David wanted to see Mephibosheth.

They carried him to the king’s palace, and he fell before David and said, “I am your servant.”

David says, “Don’t be afraid. All the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, all of it is yours again. The fields, the households, the harvest.”

More than that, David gives him a seat at the king’s table every night.

He couldn’t walk there. He was carried, lifted up to the table. He paid for nothing and deserved none of it.

That is kindness. And God is calling you to this same kindness today.

But there is a problem. Paul reveals a truth about humanity. A battle is going on inside every one of us. A battle between the flesh and the Spirit.

The flesh is our dark side. Imagine something like a fleshy monster in all of us.

So we seek to kill this monster in us. This only makes it worse. Why?

Paul also calls the flesh a kind of self-reliance. So when you try with great effort to kill the monster you are using the monster to kill the monster.

Even more, when you seek to spoil someone with favor, you are using the monster to do that, and the monster immediately recoils at kindness and demands, anything you offer any one is earned.

That monster is also in others. So instead of offering the kindness God offered us, the monster in us keeps score with everyone in our life.

And they are doing the same with us.

So at best, we are monsters trying to be nice to each other.

So we are left with a world full of people in our life walking around checking a box anytime we do something wrong, and we do the same with others.

We keep a ledger with our spouse, and quietly both build resentment toward each other for years until someone does something, and it blows up, or both die with a quiet anger in them toward the other. No one makes the first move of kindness. They can’t. Their flesh won’t let them. There is a verse that says, kindness leads to repentance. That means transformation. So the marriage never becomes a place of transformation but record-keeping. Sound familiar.

We parent in a way that manipulates our kids into being what we want them to be, and when they don’t act a certain way, we treat them like the world does, biting them subtly to get them to earn good standing with us. We seek their transformation by showing them their bad record or their good record. Showing them a good record and saying I’m proud of you isn’t kindness; it’s them earning your favor.

Or we are angry with our parents for doing that with us, for manipulating us with guilt and shame, and now we are waiting for them to earn the right to be our parents, and we don’t let them back into our life until they prove they are worthy, but they just see you as the kid who rebelled and doesn’t understand that they love you.

We struggle to trust people, so we build barriers in our friendships, walls we will bring down if they earn them, but we end up believing no one is worthy of our trust, so we stay in superficial friendships.

Now we are lonely and stuck in lives where we are nice to the people around us, but only to get through the day.

How do we become the kind of people who throw down our ledgers and spoil people with grace and loving kindness?

You must see that God has thrown down the ledger and has offered you, specifically, a favor so great that you look like you have been spoiled with something you could never deserve or earn.

I’m sorry, but do you really understand just how spoiled you are in Christ? I’m sorry, you don’t look like people who are spoiled. I see you and you look tired, trying to earn what must be given as an undeserved gift.

If you hear about Christianity and it doesn’t sound like the greatest news you have ever heard, you haven’t understood it. You haven’t tasted and seen the kindness of God.

You understand the kindness of God when you taste and see His grace.

The man who tasted God’s grace, has eyes that grow wide in wonder. That God would give Him something so unearned.

Taste and see that the lord is good. The word good here is the same word Peter uses for kindness. It’s not moral goodness, but the quality of the good life. The blessed life that was given to you as a gift.

To many of you think Christianity is like other religions that say you must earn the good life, heaven, nirvana. Make sure your ledger is good and you are in.

Do you know what that does. It makes you the kind of person who looks at everyone else like their god, and you keep a ledger over them, seeing if they have earned a life with you.

The kindness of God is God coming down to people who can’t reach the deepest desire of our souls. Their inheritance.

Does a son earn his inheritance? No, it’s given because of who his father is.

Christ came to make you his brother and sister to share His inheritance with you.

The land, people, and blessing.

And I’m sorry to say that you, we aren’t responding like we have tasted the loving kindness of God. We aren’t responding like spoiled people filled with gratitude.

We aren’t spoiling people as we have been spoiled.

We aren’t living like we know God will take care of us.

Do you really understand Christianity?

Ask someone why they are a Christian. If they say because God sees that I’m trying hard to be good, they don’t know the kindness of God and will never be able to offer it. You can’t give what you haven’t received.

How do you stop keeping score and spoil people with favor?

Walk by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit.

To walk by the Spirit means to have a daily habit. To keep in step with the Spirit is a military phrase that means to be disciplined in daily keep that habit.

What’s the habit? Dependance on the Spirit to animate the kindness of Christ in you.

To animate means to give the breath of life to something. Spirit also means wind or breath.

So the Spirit is giving breath to the kindness of Christ in you, so it might be expressed as fruit in your life.

Jesus says it like this: He is the vine, and we are branches, and without Him we can’t bear any fruit.

The vine is like the divine root system. Christ’s kindness is deep in the belly of your soul and it grows dormant without dependance on the Spirit. in Christ.

The Spirit is the vein that pulls the nutrients of kindness up from Christ into you, the branch, to be expressed as fruit.

The challenge for you today is will you walk around with the ledger, or throw it the ground and give people a love they don’t deserve?

If that idea of spoiling people who don’t deserve it makes you cringe a little, then you need to stop and examine if you really understand how kind God has been to you.

It means there is still something in you that thinks you have earned God’s favor or it means in that moment you aren’t tasting and seeing the grace and loving kindness of God, and it’s time to realize all over again what God has done for you.

God is calling you to show the same kindness to others that He has shown you. He gave it to you, now calls you to let it grow in you as fruit to give to others.

David’s kindness to Mephibosheth was first given to David by Jonathan.

Jonathan was Saul’s son, and rightful heir to the throne, and David and Jonathan became best friends. Jonathan saw the favor God had for David and said to David, I know you will be king. He didn’t fight him for the throne; instead, he essentially handed it to him in his heart.

David had no earthly right to the throne, but Jonathan was ready to give it to him. To give him his very crown.

That kindness passed from David to Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth.

Now here is what is wild. It seems David saw Jonathan's kindness as the kindness of God. He asked if there is anyone of Jonahtan’s household that I can show God’s kindness to? To show God’s kindness to Jonathan’s son as Jonathan showed to David.

When you show others kindness, it can be seen as the very kindness of God to others through you.

But it will feel like giving away your crown.

Every time you offer favor to someone who doesn’t deserve it, it feels like you've given up your power to get even and instead given grace.

But you can do that as a royal son and daughter of God, because you have an inheritance that can’t run dry. It will feel like a sacrifice, but after you will see there is even more than you had before. God is taking care of His sons and daughters.

The seats at the table are endless so spoil people with those seats.

The reward is that the kingdom of God comes, the people of God are established, and the blessing of God is given as a foretaste that encourages the world to go and taste and see that the Lord is good, and it produces a growing community of people who are ready to give you what you don’t deserve.

Here is my question to you: What crown are you holding onto that kindness is asking for?

What seek are you keeping from someone who hasn’t earned it, but you could give it to them at no cost?

When you spoil people with the inheritance of the land it means you feed the poor, help someone who doesn’t have the ability to help you back, are generous to someone who doesn’t have the ability to pay you back.

When you spoil someone with the inheritance of a people, that means you learn their names, include people who are on the outside, invite someone to your table as if they are the most important person in the world, and talk to them as if you are talking to an angel. As the book of Hebrews says, some of you have entertained angels unaware of it. Or as Jesus says, what you do to the least of these you do to me. How have you been treating Jesus through the least of these?

When you spoil someone with the blessing of the inheritance it means you invite them into the very kindness of God that you have already received. You tell them that God doesn’t keep a ledger with you and if they ask, He won’t keep a ledger with them.

Now, how do we get the courage to tell people of the kindness of God, the love to show people, the loving kindness that God has shown you, and the generosity of giving and serving others as God has given and served you?

Look at Christ.

The best things in life aren’t earned by us and aren’t free. Christ paid the cost and gave us the inheritance for free, but He paid it at great cost.

He paid for everything to spoil us with undeserved favor.

This is Jesus, the perfect expression of kindness.

He threw down the ledger and came to offer himself to us. He is the perfect expression of kindness.

In fact, Peter writes that the Lord is kind; some of the earliest manuscripts read the Lord is Christ. Do you know why? When you say the Lord is kind out loud in Greek, it sounds just like the Lord is Christ. Kind and Christ sound almost like the same word.

But not only do they sound the same, they act the same.

The same way kindness comes down from above and spoils people who don’t deserve it

The same way Christ comes down from heaven, chasing after people who don’t deserve it.

He comes as our big brother to share all that is his with us. He is Christ, the Son of God and all of Creation we are told is His, and He comes to share it with us.

To spoil us with forgiveness yes, but also with the favor that is given to a royal son or daughter who receives his inheritance that he shares with us.

All that is His is ours. All of it. That’s the inheritance.

And the cost was great that He paid for us to have this.

He came and died in our place, not because we are worthy but to make us worthy sons and daughters.

He entered death, and, like the fruit of kindness, He grew in the belly of death to bring life to what hasn’t earned it.

Kindness comes down and grows in us because Christ comes down and lives in us.

Then He gave us the gift of the Spirit, who animates the very life of Christ the life of God in us, so we might spoil others as we have been spoiled as royal sons and daughters of the living God.