Kindness Eternal - John Humenik Ministry Weekly Podcast

Hello everyone, I hope you're having a great evening. We're here live again talking about Kindness Eternal. I'm so excited that you're here with me tonight because I know we've got a great program ahead. So let's go ahead and get started and talk about 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 4. We're going to go back to that, uh, good one that talks about love is patient, Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It's not proud. One of the things that I really want to start to hammer home tonight is the power of kindness and the importance of kindness in your life, because it actually is an aspect of love that is rooted in how you treat one another. It's so important to understand how kindness operates in the context of love, because that is the essence of love—is actual kindness. This. One of the things that we keep talking about over and over again is that love really isn't an emotion. It really, you know, what we see in the world is the world wants to be able to put that in as an attraction between 2 people, that they love each other, and that that's what they really want to do. But the reality is love is not an emotion. And what really it is, is it what's in the, the context of 1 Corinthians 13, chapter 4, that it's both patient And kind, and it's important to understand that kindness undergirds and supports the power of love. And if you don't have kindness, guess what? You don't have love. And so let's talk about how that's important. So what is the difference between biblical kindness and worldly kindness? So let's go out and let's break out the dictionary. I'm sorry, let's break out the dictionary and talk about it further and see because kindness is defined as a noun and a quality of being friendly, generous, and. Considerate. The root word is kind, and so that talks about your character or nature. But when you start to compare that with the spiritual side of things, of the biblical side of things, this is actually very, very much in line with what you would see in the fruit of the Spirit. And you would see that, okay, biblical kindness matches the worldly expectation of kindness. It's being friendly, it's being generous in those times of needs, it's being considerate of other people's opinions. stances, all kinds of situations that they may be in. And so it's a part of your character, it's your nature, it's something that people can see because it's a part of who you are. And so what is biblical kindness? And let's go ahead and dive into the scriptures a little deeper and talk about it. So Ephesians chapter 4, verse 32: Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as Christ God forgave you. What we're starting to see here is, is that kindness is more than just actions towards people. It's a stance that you have when you're in a situation with a relationship with another person that may have actually hurt you. Now, if you're in a spot where someone has hurt you, there you can still go through forgiveness. That does not allow the person who did the harm To justify the harm, and it doesn't put you in a position where you have to reconcile the relationship. We're not talking about that, but rather when you have a kindness about this, a compassion, what you're able to do is you're able to forgive that individual and move on and put yourself in a position where that unforgiveness no longer has bondage over you. That's what kindness does, because kindness sets you free. It's such a powerful and revealing thing that it allows you to be able to operate in a stance and a posture where you're now able to move on even when someone may have done something slightly bad to you. It doesn't even have to be something where, like, where you were physically hurt or you're struggling with something or they were verbally abusive. It could be just a situation where they forgot to show up for a lunch date, or maybe they were supposed to do something and they didn't do it because they promised it. It could be something as simple as that because kindness allows you to undergird that relationship in a position of compassion, in a position of understanding that allows you to move past that fault and allow you to love that person a little deeper. So let's talk about what Paul talks about, compassion and forgiveness, because Ephesians ties those 2 together with forgiveness. And the thing that I really want to say to people is, is that wherever you're at in your walk of life with Christ, whether you are saved and you've been walking with him for a long time, Or you don't even know who he is. One of the things I want to let you understand is, is that God's kindness is eternal. And part of that is because at one point, if you are saved, you had someone who was able to come up to you and be kind to you and preach the gospel to you and be in a position to show you a path forward, something that was right when you were in the wrong. You have to understand is, is, and I was in this boat too. When you're not saved, you are actually operating in the kingdom of darkness. You're not operating for the kingdom of heaven. In fact, if you're not in the kingdom, you're out of the kingdom. And so this is important because what you have here is, is you have a person in the kingdom of light, in the kingdom of God, and what that person's doing is being kind to every person. They're being kind to the other children of God, and they're being kind to the lost children of God, those people that are part of the world. And I was one of them. And I'm sure you're with one of them. And so now you have this situation where compassion and kindness is tied to forgiveness, and it wraps up the this beautiful bow of love that you can then cast over people. And that's why love is both patient and kind. And remember, when you when you were a sinner, when I was a sinner, we were all focused on. Very worldly desires. We were focused on ourselves. We weren't concerned about what the world— you know, even to the degree what the world wanted, what God wanted. We just wanted what we wanted, and we were out there for ourselves. We were satisfying our needs over everyone, including even family members. So Christ changed that, because Christ came along, and what he did is he came and forgave our sins. He blotted them out for all of eternity, and those people who have accepted Jesus get to be reborn into the kingdom of God as children of the Most High God. It's the most kind act in the history of all mankind that you have this God sitting on a throne that decides, I'm going to empty my glory, I'm going to come down, become a man, although I'm still God, but I'm going to be man. I'm going to empty myself of everything that I am, and I'm going to take on the flesh, and I'm going to go live a sinless life and model the life that a Christian needs to walk in order for them to see how they're supposed to operate. I'll die for them, but now I know that in 3 days I will be resurrected and then return to glory and sit at the right hand of God. So imagine that you have this God who at the beginning of time puts together this plan that says we're going to create 100 billion plus people. Because that's how many people have been created in the history of the world so far. We'll put 100-some billion people on this earth, and we're going to love them through this entire process. But we know that they can't redeem themselves. We know that at the very beginning, this mistake is going to happen, and it's going to cascade and run and run rampant throughout history. And yet he does it anyway. He knows that Adam and Eve are going to sin before they sin, even before Genesis 1:1. God knew, Jesus knew that men would fall, and so he creates them anyway. He creates the angels anyway and allows this process to unfold because this gives him an opportunity to show the true love that he has. And he shows it through his patience, constantly enduring us and guiding us and pushing us forward and showing kindness to us, loving us, and being able to be in a position where he's constantly Being compassionate and forgiving. So he's showing this and modeling this to the world. And so this is the story. This is the greatest story of kindness. And I know Christmas is coming up, and so it's an amazing and a beautiful thing that's wrapped up. Even though we were evil, someone decided to extend an olive branch and was able to be kind to us and allowed us to turn our hearts back towards God, even though at that time we were evil. And I know that's a strong term to use because, again, I put myself in that boat too. But it's the truth. And I want to make sure that people understand that the truth is designed to set you free. The truth doesn't condemn, but rather what it does is it puts us in a posture where we can receive it and we can shed the lies that we have on our life and we can move forward. And so we're born into the world. So when we're born into the world, we're not made right with God. But once God redeems us, we then can focus on the things of the kingdom and move forward in kindness towards others. And so you're probably wondering, why would I title this video Kindness Eternal? And so it's important to note that when you're dealing with the context of kindness, that there is really no situation where you have to be anything but kind. Jesus modeled that whenever he was here on earth. He had the power to do anything he wanted at any time. Remember, in the Gospel of John, as he's going towards the cross, the Father had given everything under the authority of Jesus. At that point, one of the things that people recognize is, well, during Jesus's beginning of his ministry, the devil came and tempted him after the 40 days of fasting. And so many people believe That, that was the greatest temptation for Jesus, was at that moment at the beginning of his ministry. He's hungry, he wants food, and so the devil comes and wants to destroy that, similar to what the devil did during Adam and Eve's time. But I will beg to differ that the greatest temptation occurred during the time leading up to the cross, because at that point Jesus is fully empowered. He has no limit. Right. He's still in the human body, but everything was under his control. Even Jesus says, if I remember correctly, in the Gospel of Matthew, that I can call legions of angels towards me and be able to set me free. If, if this was my kingdom, my people would be fighting for me. So you have to understand that that moment of time of trial and tribulations, he was so stressed, he's bleeding, he's literally sweating blood, he's bleeding out. Through his pores because of the stress of the moment. And yet, though he has all the power in the universe to put an end to it, he goes through with it because it's an epic act of kindness. And so it's— I, I want to be able to make sure you understand is that as Jesus is moving forward in your life and being able to offer you a hope and a salvation, a hope to lift you up and to push you forward, it's something that Kindness is supposed to be a part of every action that you have. It's meant to reflect every tone, every conversation, no matter if it's something where you're having stress at work, or your kids are driving you crazy, or you're overwhelmed with schoolwork, wherever you may be in a walk of life, a broken friendship, a broken relationship, even a broken marriage. The key aspect is kindness is supposed to undergird your actions, because that is the essence of love. And again, we'll go back to the 2 commandments: love your God and love your neighbor. And so when you're— but what is love? Love is patience, love is kind. And so now you start to see what God really meant when he said those things, because it's action, not emotion. And so one of the things that you'll start to notice is whenever you are caught up in a situation, be very conscious of how the Holy Spirit will operate in your life. Because if you're not familiar with how the Holy Spirit works and you don't and you haven't watched my video Hearing the Voice of God, which is a great video, you can do a search on my channel and look it up. There's I've got an entire podcast series on it. It really will set aside an opportunity for you to understand how the Holy Spirit works. The Holy Spirit doesn't come to talk to you like you and me. Now, if you're a non-believer. You'll actually could have— you could possibly hear the audible voice of God. But if you've got the Holy Spirit on the inside, you're not going to hear the audible voice of God. You're going to hear him on the inside. If anything, you'll think you're talking to yourself. And what you'll notice is in those moments— and this is what I want you people to start to recognize— in those moments when, when the devil is trying to get you to sin, the Holy Spirit will come in those moments and tug Gently on your heart to show some kindness. And I want you to recognize that the Holy Spirit speaks in different expressions. The Holy Spirit just doesn't talk with an audible voice like I'm talking to you now. He talks through visions and dreams and emotions and, and actually even physical things where you can actually feel him moving. There's so many aspects to him because remember, this is God we're talking about. The Holy Spirit is God. And whenever you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, He's going to be able to speak to you in many different dimensions and ways. And one of them is, is he'll start to tug on you to show some kindness in those moments when we need it. And so we have to be able to recognize at that right moment when the Holy Spirit is pulling on your heartstring and just pulling on you, maybe speaking to you and saying, slow down, stop, show some kindness in this moment. You don't have to overreact. You don't have to raise your voice. You don't have to do this. I got this. Stay with me. Watch those moments when you're in there because he's present in those moments when the devil wants to come and try to put a wedge between you and the person that you, you should be showing kindness to, but you may not initially want to. And so that's when God is sending this beautiful messenger into our lives at that moment to be able to push us forward. And then when we recognize that and we receive it, our heart will be in the right place at the right time to receive what God has for yourself and that person. I know that I've been in situations where I've had to be able to bless people who were actually in a posture of like basically cursing me. And I remember in those moments of kindness that when I was able to just break down and push through that moment and pray for them, I can actually feel the, the tension just come out of my chest. It was like someone put a tap right here and just pulled out all of the gunk and junk right out of my chest. It was an amazing feeling because it lifted me up and put me in a place of kindness so that whenever I'm going to be offended, which is a sin, I'm able to step back and say, no, I'm going to be kind instead and extend a heart of gratitude towards that person, a heart of love. And that's when your heart leaps for joy and recognizes that even though we are all fallible, we are all people that make mistakes from time to time, we know God knows we're sinners. But at that moment, even when we fall, we can repent. But that's when the Holy Spirit guides us into the place of kindness and is able to reset our emotions and reset who we are when we need it most. And then that's when we can give our lives, refocus to Jesus, and everything clicks back into place and moves forward. If you are a non-believer, the way this will really work for you is, is that the Holy Spirit will be able to come into your life, resurrect your dead spirit, and and bring you into a new life. Your old person is now dead, and you're the new person, a new creation in Christ. And just like that, eternity and salvation is yours. And all it takes is just declaring Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that the Father, or God, raised him from the dead. That's it. That's all that happens. If you look at the sinner on the cross, what, dying next to Jesus If you read that story in the Bible, what you'll see— what you'll see is— what's amazing is what you actually don't see. You don't see him getting baptized. You don't see him joining a local church. You don't see him doing good works. In fact, you don't even see him asking Jesus for forgiveness. He gets to go to heaven because he believes in Jesus. So when you think about all the religious people talking about that you have to ask for forgiveness every day, You have to be good works. You have to toil. That's not kindness. They're not showing you kindness. They're being religious and being focused on the lies that the world wants us to hear. But true kindness tells people the truth, that all it takes is faith in Jesus and your eternity is literally stamped. It even says that in the Bible. You're sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption. And so it means that you are—it's kind of like what you think about in the sense of like there's so many different ways to think about it. But think about from the perspective of like when a king would take some wax and then they would stamp it with their kingly seal. It basically means this is done. I'm I'm putting my approval on this letter. That's what it's like when God puts His seal upon you. He puts His approval on you and allows you. To receive this beautiful kindness that he is extending to you, but it also allows you to be able to be kind to others as well. And so we know that the Holy Spirit is the one who guides us into these places of kindness and pushes us and shows us and talks to us into those places with this small, gentle, still voice. And he allows us to understand, even in those moments. The depth of kindness that we have to show towards others, because there is levels of kindness as well as opportunities for us to do more, but, or for us just to do just enough. And in those moments, he gets to tell you how to be able to operate in a posture of kindness that allows you to move forward in a profound and powerful way. And so if you've been in a situation where you've had a person speak kind words over you, I want you to remember how you felt Imagine if you were in a posture of being, you know, downtrodden, you were sad, maybe you had some anxiety or worry, maybe you had a lost job or a fight with someone and you're kind of shook up, and someone was able to come by and speak those kind words to lift your spirit up. It really does change your perspective of that person because now you will always think highly of that person because of what they were willing to do to lift you up. In that moment. Now imagine if you were getting into an argument with someone and all of a sudden that person decides to be kind with you. It puts you in a position of like, wow, this is amazing, because now all of the tension and all of that anger and maybe all of that verbal jousting that was about to happen gets diffused because that person decided to be able to take the road of humility. And offer you a hand of peace and go through the posture of kindness. And it becomes amazing because God's grace will wash over both of you in that situation and allow you to continue on this beautiful journey that he's constantly ushering us. Think of it like when, when David called, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He penned that Psalm in the context of a shepherd guiding the flock, you have to understand that at that time shepherds were basically considered dirt. It would have been— think about, think of the most difficult or unworthy occupation, something that would just— no one would want to do. That job was what the shepherd was back then. So here you are, 1,000 years Before Christ was born, and before Jesus is born, and David says, the Lord is my shepherd. So now you have to understand something. David's the king of Israel, and he says that God is equivalent to the lowest role in all of society. The world looked at the shepherd functionally as dirt. And so, like I said, think of any role or occupation that you would never want to do. And now David is comparing the God of the universe to that. But what we see is, in that very vein, what he's saying is no, the shepherd isn't the lowly, worthless role, but rather it's a role of a king. It's a role of a God being able to constantly usher us and guide us into all those beautiful places of love In kindness and patience. And that's what he was saying, is, is this role was important because like those sheep, we are lost all the time. We get lost, we wander off, we don't know where we're going. In many cases, even on our faith walk, that's kind of the essence of the faith walk, is not knowing where you're going, just understanding enough to take the next step. That's the essence of faith. And so when God is your shepherd, you shall not want because he provides for your needs and your wants. He put those wants in your in your heart, so he already knows that, and so he can provide your needs and your wants when you're allowing him to shepherd you and guide you. That's the essence of kindness. Think about it from his perspective. Here is the king of the universe. It is totally. There is nothing that he can't do, but he has yielded and given dominion to mankind on this earth. And so in order to respect that yielding, as well as the fact that mankind has free will, he has to guide us through kindness. And sometimes that process can take many, many years. It's not something that happens overnight. In fact, God's kindness is eternal. It is something that you get day in and day out. He can pour out his kindness over and over again in a way that will either radically change your life or slowly change it over time. And he'll continue to support you and guide you through this entire journey. He's willing to bear you up and lift you and guide you and strengthen you and refresh you. Over and over and over again. If you're in the storm of your life and you are dealing with things that you never thought was possible that you could handle at once, he's there holding onto your hand and ushering you through it. That's really the essence of Psalm 23, is that what you can see here is, and if you've been there, the valley of the shadow of death in Israel, there was this valley that looked very intimidating. And from what I've heard, I haven't been there, but from all the eyewitness accounts that I've heard secondhand, Is, is that you got to go through this really treacherous, scary-looking valley, but on the other side are these plush grasslands. So if you have a shepherd, what you would do is you would take your flock through this valley of the shadow of death and walk them through, and the sheep can't see anything but destruction and doom and gloom. But you know what's on the other side. That's the essence of God's kindness, because he knows on the other side Of that valley, on the other side of that bridge, on the other side of that mountain, on the other side of that point of despair, is a green plush valley where he can pour out his kindness all over you. And then he can repeat that process again and again and again. It's beautiful. That's the essence of biblical kindness. That's the essence of who God is. That's how God wants us to operate, because he knows. In those moments, he's lifting you up because he knows that what's on the other side is totally awesome. And so that's what God wants us to do, is to show that love through this endless patience, through this endless being able to be kind in every single moment. Because you know, because since God's promises are eternal, you know that at the end of the day He's won. You know, at the end of the day, something as awesome is happening on the other side. You know that you always go from faith to faith, glory to glory. It's never regression in the kingdom. You don't go backwards. That doesn't— it never happens. That's impossible. God goes from victory to victory. So if you are at a point where you're stuck and you need God to move, guess what? The currency of heaven is faith. Just walk through it in faith and kindness and watch him move mountains in your life, in your household, in your work, in your school, and it will just change the way you think. It applies to forgiveness. It applies to people you've wronged. It applies to people that have wronged you. It just is incredible. It allows you to intercede on people's behalves, and that way you can stand in the gap for them. It it really changes when you're in a posture of kindness. It changes the way. In the how you operate in this world, because it allows you to do the things you can't do in the natural. Because God, by your actions, he'll add his supernatural on top of it. So let's head back into the scriptures and talk a little bit more about Luke chapter 6, verse 35. It says, love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will— your reward will be great. And you will be children of the Most High God because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Now I want to make sure you understand a couple aspects about this. Is is that remember God says that I bring the rain on the good and the bad? Okay, he brings the sunshine on the good and the bad. And we know by the parables that Jesus taught when he was here, we know that both evil people and good people coexist because. God can't go and uproot all the evil in the world because society would literally fall apart. That's the essence of what he's doing. So when God's kindness falls on both good people and bad people, and the reason being is, is that God wants all the bad people, all the people that are part of the world, to be redeemed and come back to him. He's patient. That's the thing. Peter talks about this. Don't, um, Don't cast aside God's patience. Remember, patience is part of love. So don't cast aside God's love for the evil one or for your actions, because he's only being patient in order for you to come to a point of repentance. This is the thing that a lot of Christians struggle with, because what they do is, is they go through life and they go through willing sin because they can go and turn to God and ask for forgiveness, and they know God will forgive them if they have the right posture of heart. Because they can, they can basically live one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom. And if you hadn't seen my video on my testimony about two worlds colliding, that's the essence of that story is being able to live a free life where you don't have to ride two horses at the same time. And we know that you can't do that. You can't have one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world. But God's Patience, God's kindness falls on these people because he knows he wants them all to come to repentance and be in the situation that you and I were in at one point, where you were considered evil, I was considered evil, but someone was able to extend an olive branch and reset that process. And so it is important to love our enemies because at some point There's 2 things that happen in that situation. You could have one situation where that love will turn into a point where you can lead them to Jesus, or it plants a seed that gets watered and matures later. Or ultimately, God says in the Bible, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And so you are actually heaping coals upon them. So when, when you're operating in the context of biblical kindness, What it does is it positions God to move in a very powerful and profound way. And you don't know the way that that person's going to operate in 5 years or 10 years. You don't even know if that person is— that this is the last day of their life. What you know is you're commanded to love your enemies by showing them kindness, because God is showing them kindness and allowing them an opportunity to get to a point Where the tugs of the Holy Spirit, the gentle love, all of those beautiful words spoken over them ultimately lead them back to the feet of Jesus. And it's very important because you see that it's a super common theme in Jesus's ministry. Even all the way at the end on the cross, he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And so here he is, pierced, beaten, scourged, got a crown of thorns on his head. He's bleeding out. He, he literally has to lift himself up to breathe, and every, every motion is pain. And here you have this perfectly healthy 33-year-old man. Remember, this is Jesus, so he's going to have nothing lacking. And yet he dies on a cross within short order, and to the point where even Pilate was shocked that he passed away. Now we do know that Jesus gave up his spirit. And so that's the— he had the authority to, as he said in John chapter 2, that I have the authority to give up my life and, and then take it back. And so he also was a part of the resurrection. But remember, he gives these people who are literally killing him, literally in the moment of trying to kill him, people spitting on him, swearing at him, cursing at him, and just even the thief next to him that doesn't repent. He's showing him love through this kindness in these moments by asking the Father to forgive them. What a powerful statement, because that is important as a part of our walk. Because when you are in a posture of unforgiveness, what happens is, is that you block your prayers. Literally, that's, that's biblical. God will not hear your prayers if you're in a stance of unforgiveness. It doesn't matter if that's someone that's in good standing or not. If you're in a state of unforgiveness, God's going to not listen to your prayers until you get into a state where you can then place yourself in that path where you can forgive them and move on. And I know that's a hard thing to say, but again, this is the truth. The truth sets you free. And when you understand that, those people that have those clutches— I mean, you could have a family member who could be verbally abusive, who always puts you down, puts you in a situation where you're struggling and hurting, and all they can do is just give you bad word after bad word after bad word, you can break their power they have over you by forgiving them and being kind to them. Because now, even though they are ultimately— even though they may be family, they could become your enemy. But in that moment, by loving your enemy, you break the bondage they have on you, and those words just sail over your head. They no longer stick. They no longer become a part of who you are. They don't define you as a person. It allows God to move in a very powerful and effective way to set you free. And ultimately, when you start to understand these concepts of maturity and understanding how to walk in Jesus, these moments are exceptionally important to you because these are the things that set apart People that go from faith to faith and glory to glory. You can get stuck in a season for your entire life. I've seen it. I've seen people get stuck in a season, live it out for decades, and then die, and they never move on because they don't get— they can't mature. They can't handle the harder things of life because they haven't mastered the simpler things. This is so important if you want to be able to master the more difficult things in your life, whether you are trying to follow the will of God or not. The core of it is, is that kindness is a key aspect of your walk in this world, with Jesus or not. I'm just letting you know right now, it doesn't matter. When you have the ability to forgive and the ability to be kind through loving and being patient, you will never be held in a bondage by anyone ever. It's not possible because No one can hold you to that place because no one has authority over you because you will not allow that to happen. This is so important. That's why being kind eternally in every situation throughout your whole life allows you to be completely free from all these major league bondages. And when you understand it, when it goes a step further, when kindness ties to gratitude, it blows away addiction and it smashes anxieties, worries. I mean, it literally, it is a wrecking ball Of it'll just destroy evil in your life. It'll destroy sin in your life like you've never seen before and truly, truly set you free. And so it— you can see that. And so one of the biggest things that God is trying to show you throughout this whole place is that offense can become like a prison. It really can. And when you're caught in that prison of offense It's you can't break out of it. This is not something that you have the power to do. No different than if you're caught in a modern-day prison. Sure, you've seen a lot of videos where they create the picks and then they start digging their way out. But the reality is, is when you look at and understand modern-day prisons, modern-day prisons, you really don't break out of it anymore. Like, they're just very rare. And if anything, the new ones like the supermax facilities and everything else, When you go in, you don't come out. I mean, you do eventually, but that's in a different state. And so the when you're in the prison of offense and you're in the prison where you're caught, the only one that can set you free is Jesus. The only one that allows you to be able to be in a place where you can be healed is Jesus. Because at that moment, that's when God sets you free because He allows you to. Take the keys, unlock your cell, and move out. And it really ruins anything that the evil one is trying to build in your life, and it disarms all of the principalities that continue to come against you. Let's go ahead and talk a little bit about Romans 11, uh, verse 22. So Romans 11:22 reads, consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God— sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness; otherwise you'll be cut off. Now, when you think about this, Paul is talking about God's willingness to extend kindness to us while still being stern to those who fell. This is a pretty direct verse, and when you start to understand, it goes into the depth of who God really is. It, it brings about his personality in a way that changes the way things are. And so what, what he's talking about is, is that Paul's talking about how the Gentiles come into the body of Christ. So today, if the nation of Israel, the kingdom of Israel, the way it operates is And we're not talking about the country that's in the Middle East. We're talking about the spiritual kingdom. God has one kingdom. It's his kingdom, and it's attached to the nation of Israel. That's how everything came and brought and was birthed. If you're a Gentile, if you're not a Jew, you're a Gentile, what happens is you're grafted into that nation, that kingdom in the spiritual world. And so what Paul is saying is, is that whenever you understand God's kindness to graft you as sinner into the kingdom You have to understand that he was stern to those who fell. He even to those Israelites who then sinned, he was stern to them. He was a disciplinarian. God's a good father. He will he will correct his children, and so but when you become stubborn and hard-hearted, and you do not receive that correction, he cuts them off. And you see that throughout history over and over again. You see that in the wilderness. When they sinned, he had to cut them off. We saw it again with the, the Northern Kingdom and the Assyrians coming and just blowing up the Kingdom of Israel, just blew it up. And that all that was left was the Kingdom of Judah. And then Judah sinned, and then guess what? Babylon came by and wiped them out, all but a remnant. I think was only like 3,000 that survived. And so God is very kind to those who are obedient and follow his commands and love him. But he will cut you off if you're in a situation where you are in a place of persistent sin, of stubbornness, and you don't want to listen to the things he did. That's why it's so important to understand the context of this verse. The context of this verse is beautiful because what God is saying is, even though yet you were a sinner, even though yet you were not a part of the kingdom of Israel, Even though you are not born of this, I'm still willing to graft you in, adopt you into a sonship, adopt you into daughtership, and pull you in and and show you the same level of blessings and love that I show everyone else. And it just it it's game changing because now this shows that even though God chose the Israelites to bring forth Jesus. And he had to pick someone in order to follow this. So he picked Abraham, who became his friend, and then all their descendants. But out of that entire line of people came the king, which is Jesus, and he was also our high priest. And so that, that same moment, God didn't turn his back on those other nations. We see that with Lot, we see that with Edom, we see that with, um, which was Esau's descendants. We see God willing to bless other people. Job wasn't an Israelite. In fact, most people believe Job potentially predated Abraham. So here we have this person probably in the middle of the Saudi Arabian desert, just, um, literally in the middle of nowhere, and yet God loves him to the point he's able to brag about him to Satan. When Satan comes up and, and challenges— tries to challenge him. And so God is willing to extend, uh, beauty and love to anyone at any given time because he knows that he has deposited eternity in all of us. In every single situation, you have this beauty where he's able to come through and he will deliver. And you see this in Job's life, you see this in Ruth's life, the Moabite. You see this in Rahab because she was in Jericho, but she took care of the spies. You could just— there's just so many names throughout history where he just continually loved on people even though they weren't in the kingdom, but he still showed his kindness because God knows who they are even though if they don't know who they are themselves. He washes over them grace and grace again continually because he knows his goal Is to get them to turn to Jesus and reconcile their life and follow him. And so the sternness of God is the aspect of where it basically becomes, you know, the old saying is the carrot and the stick. God will continue to give you the carrot, but eventually you're going to get the stick because the carrots aren't working anymore. This is how God deals with sinners, and it's so important that he wants you to turn away from your sin. Because he knows the destructive nature of the sin. We may think we're getting punished by God, but God knows that sin is far worse. The punishment for sin is far worse because we know the wages of sin are death. And so as long as God is continually being kind, even if it comes with some level of sternness, even it comes with some level of patience, he is still pushing and guiding people into a place of love so that he can show them That he can heal them, redeem them, and restore them back to the way that he wants them to operate. He'll even see— you'll even see situations where God will send prophets into your life. He'll send evangelists into your life. He'll send people to come and speak blessings over your life because he wants you to receive this in a powerful and a profound way. And so this is the beauty of what God is, is he's able to show you kindness in every single moment, in every single point of your life, because he knows he's that shepherd. He's the one that sees the green pastures past the valley of the shadow of death, because he knows where you're going and he can help you get there. And that's the essence of the story of Israel. You see this over and over again, generation after generation. You see that in the period of Judges. You see this in the period of the kings. I mean, we know that there—that as far as I can remember, there wasn't a single king that was in Israel that was considered righteous. The Judah kings, though, seemed like it was like every other one was considered a righteous one. It's like they couldn't—they couldn't string some together. Even with Solomon, ultimately he fell away but had to come back. And so the this this this process in which God continues to love on his people and to continue to enjoy. and dote over them. It's just him showing kindness in a profound way, even when the people went to idol worship, even when they burned their kids to the, the false gods of Moloch and Baal and did such horrific things. And then they had the Asherah poles where they had all forms of immorality, both physical and spiritual. It's just awful. If, like, if you truly understand the depth of evil That the ancient Israelites committed, that the, the nations around them— like, today it would be unfathomable that the depth of evil that they did. Like, it— there would be no way that anyone in the United Nations wouldn't want them to be corrected because it would be just so difficult to understand. The evil was so great. And yet in those moments, God was still yet kind. to allow them to reach a point of repentance, or reach, as he mentioned in the Genesis, reach a point of fullness of their sin where then he had to, to cast them out. This is the thing that's the essence of who God is. It even talks about that if you want to look it up. It's in Genesis 15:16 where God talks about that the fullness of the sins of the 7 nations had to be met. Think about that. God knew That they were going to get to a point where their sin was so great that the only way to fix it was to literally wipe them out. That's how bad it was. That's how bad it was during the flood. Remember, the flood predated this conversation. So imagine God's kindness. We don't know how many thousands of years that led up to the flood, but we know that, that only 8 people made it. So if you think about all the people that were alive at that time, and estimates easily say they were in the billions, because remember, most of the people lived close to 1,000 years. And when you live that long, and are able to have kids, and what most people believe, you probably, they could probably start having kids around 60 years old, probably well into their 700s. Think about that. If you're living to like 900 years, Or even take that back to 500. If you could have kids from age 100 to 500, that's 400 years of childbearing. Now, that's assuming you're having one wife and one husband, and you don't get into all the other stuff, which I'm sure happened. So imagine the multiplication of people on the planet at that time, because they're living longer. And you could have this population explosion on a scale that It's just unfathomable. And yet only 8 survived. Imagine God's kindness in that moment, that he was willing to allow that much evil, that much harm to him, that much pain and suffering in the world, because he was showing kindness. He was being patient. He was loving them, giving them every single opportunity. It said Noah preached for like 120 years. Because we know it took him 100 years to build the ark. But it said, I think if I remember correctly, 120 years Noah's preaching to the people and just saying, repent, repent, I'm building this ark, let's go. And I know that people hadn't seen rain at that time, and I know that people hadn't understood what that meant, probably didn't even see a cloud. And so think about that. Think about, think about being able to have a righteous man speak to you for 100 years and you still reject him and then get wiped out. That's the essence of God's love. That's the essence of what God showed those 7 nations, that he allowed the fullness of their sin to come because he knew that there would be people. So I see this as— I see this as an act of kindness because he knows that at that point when he made that statement, to the point when, uh, functionally, if I remember correctly, it was David who kind of finish the last, the last one. You, you probably have close to, I'm guessing, probably like 500 years, maybe a little bit more, give or take, from that point on. Uh, it's probably a little less, but you know, you have that situation where you have that thrust through. Um, imagine God's kindness that he was like, I'm gonna let these nations continue to sin because I know there's probably going to be just a small handful of people that are going to come through and be righteous. He literally didn't destroy those nations at that time because of those— some people, just maybe those fractions of people that were coming through— because he loved them that much. And that's powerful because we always look at that and say, well, wow, his wrath of God, why didn't he change it? Why didn't he enforce it? Because remember, God's not going to impose his will upon us unless it's a part of his his divine nature. And so we have dominion here on earth, and so he's going to allow us to operate in that dominion in a way that allows us to move forward and not be changed. And that's the essence of who he is. So if we go further and we look at Romans chapter 2, verse 4, it says, or do not show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness Is intended to lead you to repentance. This is so important to understand the essence of this verse. God's kindness is not showing that he approves of your sin. That's not the point. It's the exact opposite. He's willing to show you mercy and not punish you. He's willing to show you grace and still bless you so that it gets you to a point you realize, ah, I don't want to do this anymore. I want to repent and move on and leave that behind. I want to renounce it. I want to move on. I want to close that door. I don't ever want to see it again. It's gone. It's in the past. I'm going to forget about it. That's the essence of God's kindness. God's kindness is to drive, push you to a place where you realize, like, wow, God has loved me. He was so patient. He was so kind. He was willing to bear up my sins and all of the things that were going on to the point where I was like, I don't want to do this anymore because now I know that I'm actually I— from an emotional perspective, I'm hurting him. And that's the thing that people forget, is that God has emotions. That's what it talks about. Don't quench the Holy Spirit, because when you sin, you are actually— that he, he can't be in that presence. It emotionally hurts him. And so imagine the weight that he's had to bear of being able to just bear through that pain and suffering, no different than what Jesus experienced leading up to the cross, dealing with the Pharisees, arguing with the people in the synagogues, going through the towns, having his own, his own people that he grew up with reject him because they're like, he's a carpenter's son, that's all he ever is. They couldn't see him for who he was. They could only see for what he was in the past. And I'm sure people in your life have been like that, where they have looked at you and they can only see who you were. They can only see the person that was in high school. They could see the person that was in college, or maybe even in grade school, and they can never picture you the way you are today. The world wants to reject you. That's the thing. Satan wants to remind you of your past, but God wants to remind you of your future. And that's the essence of God's kindness. That's the essence of what he tries to do, is he tries to lift you up and push you forward, because when he's offering you The opportunity of grace. He doesn't want to make that a license for you to sin, but rather it's a license for you to get to a place of a higher plane and being able to move forward. And it's important because you don't want to be in a spot where you're saying, "I can go ahead and do this and ask for forgiveness later." No, what you want to do is you want to be able to reject it right then and there, and be able to show and show your God, show your God, your Father. your brother King Jesus in heaven, that you are willing to put the desires of your flesh underneath your feet because the, the principles in which you stand upon are greater than that. It's important. It's important to him. It's important to you. And that's what he wants you to accomplish. He wants you to be in that state of holiness and love that can lift you up and push you forward. Proverbs 21:21 talks about this further. Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life and righteousness and honor. So this is an interesting thing because it's like it gives you this picture of someone physically chasing something. So what the— what Solomon is saying at this time is saying, if you're willing to chase righteousness, if you're willing to chase kindness. Not only will you find that righteousness, but you will also find life, and you'll actually be honored in the process. That's a powerful statement, because kindness— when you can lump anything in the same category as righteousness, which is really the standard, you really start to understand the importance of kindness, because it does lead to life, it does lead to more righteousness, and leads to honor. And what that does is it allows you to operate at a level that few people in the history of the world gets to operate. Because what you're doing is, is you're casting the flesh aside, you're casting the worldly desires aside, and you're moving towards what God wants. You know that you can't take your flesh into heaven. So believe it or not, this is a statement that might hit hard for some people, but the reality is, is that the only heaven your flesh will ever see is earth. So that's why it doesn't have a problem getting you to sin over and over and over again, because it knows it's not going to heaven. It knows it's going to the grave. It's going to be basically functionally back to dust. From dust we came and dust they will return. That's the flesh. So the flesh knows where it's going. It knows that the only opportunity for it to enjoy itself is here on earth and to do whatever it wants to do, because it knows it can't go to heaven. And When you're able to subject the flesh and be able to crucify it on a daily basis, because you can't cast you out of you. Like, at the end of the day, your flesh is there. It's going to hang out till you die. So you're going to be constantly in this battle day in, day out. This is why it's a daily dying to self. Pick up your cross and follow Jesus. Like, you hear all these Christian sayings over and over and over again, but the essence it is, is that Your flesh wants desire, your flesh wants pleasure, but if you're able to subject your flesh to the will of God, you will find life and you'll find righteousness and you will find honor. Continuing on to Titus chapter 3, verses 4 through 6, we see Paul writing to his friend. But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done at righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. We see that God's kindness peaked when Jesus came. That doesn't mean it doesn't peak elsewhere, but what we were able to see is the manifestation of Jesus Christ is this highest level of love and honor that he was able to put on earth. And through that, we continually receive that high peak. This is the thing that a lot of people miss. When they read the Gospels, when Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit heaven opened up and the Holy Spirit descended. People forget that in that scripture it doesn't say that heaven closed. Think about that. Think about for that for a moment. It never said that heaven closed. So we're operating under an open heaven even two thousand years later. So when we look at this scripture, we understand. That in the, in the peak of God's kindness, it came through Jesus Christ. And so now we're operating at that peak 2,000 years later. We're operating because the Holy Spirit continually gets poured into us. We get refreshed and renewed and strengthened that he's able to operate at the highest level. And so we are too, and we're able to continue to move forward in power and strength. Because of God's kindness. Think about that. Here he is coming into a world filled with death and destruction. You've got empire after empire after empire subjecting the nation of Israel, subjecting the world to grief and false idolatry and all these horrible things that they're implementing throughout society. And yet Jesus comes in, appears, and resets this whole thing in just ultimately 3 and a half years. We see this further in Nehemiah chapter 9, verse 19. It says, they refused to listen and did not remember your wondrous deeds which you had performed among them. So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt, but you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness. You did not forsake them. In Nehemiah's time, the lost kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah was coming back together. To rebuild the nation of Israel, rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, ultimately rebuilding the second building, the Second Temple, or rebuilding the temple. The people before them had lost their way. Think about this: they wanted to go back to Egypt moments after they left Egypt with Moses, even hundreds and years later. And I think Nehemiah was probably closer to 1,000. Imagine that, that the very same people are like, let's go back into bondage and go back to slavery. Let's go back to the slavery. But what they weren't doing, they didn't realize that, that what they were becoming was slaves to sin. Think about that. When you— you can only serve one master. You're going to either serve freedom and God, or you're going to serve sin and death. So when they kept choosing to sin, what they were doing is they were returning to the very bondage that God set them free from. What a powerful thought that God was able to still, even in those moments, love them, forgive them, and guide them through his generosity and compassion to a place of love, because he was kind to them and knew that through all of this, that he was willing to just get them in his posture of love. And greatness. It is incredible to even think about that, that he was willing to bear them up, a nation that he cared for. He fed in the desert. He gave them food literally out of the heavens. He brought quail. Their clothes didn't wear out. You know, they saw miracle after miracle after miracle. Fire came down on the mountain, like stuff that today you could never deny. Like today you don't see fire dropping down on a mountain. I mean, The only thing that fire drops from the sky is a meteor. Like, you don't see that. Like, those kinds of things. And yet they still rejected him because they loved the bondage that they had, which was sin. They didn't want the freedom that they had in God. And yet through all of it, God loved them. And so I'm going to go ahead and close out this, uh, this video. Uh, I— we have a very, very exciting mission here at John Humenik Ministries. And I want you to partner with us. If you will prayerfully consider becoming a monthly partner or even just do a one-time donation, we will ensure that your money goes back into the ministry to help spread the gospel. Our vision is to be able to take the word of God and get it out into the world before the rapture. We want to be a part of the gospel reaching all the nations that's spoken of in Matthew 24 and be able to help people come back to Jesus. We'll be talking about here soon in one of the prophetic messages that next year, the year 2024, will be considered the year of expansion. I've heard it already called the year of open doors, but it really is ultimately because it's a year of expansion. And it's more than just winning souls back to the kingdom. But that's where this ministry—we're on the front lines, putting the gospel out so that we can serve them. So if you feel it in your heart to support us, go to our website www.humenik.com/give. It's spelled H-U-M-E-N-I-K dot com slash give. You can go ahead and make a one-time donation or become a monthly partner, and we will be able to reuse those proceeds to be able to go out there. Hire more people, get more upgraded equipment, and spread this gospel to all the races, nations, and kingdoms. So let me go ahead and pray for everyone here. Father, for everyone under the sound of my voice, I wanted to thank you and bless them with the opportunity to understand the essence of your eternal kindness, that you are able to continue to lift us up and bear us up even when we don't want to even be able to accept that level of kindness. Father, you know what's best for us. You are our shepherd who continues to guide us through all the valleys of darkness and destruction. But through it all, you continue to love us through patience and kindness. You show it over and over again because you know that the destination we're going is higher than we're at today, and that if we could put our faith and trust in you, we will be able to receive that through your grace, through your Son, powered and guided by your Holy Spirit. I pray this, that the people here be blessed by the opportunity to hear your gospel being preached, and that you will be able to serve them in new and exciting ways going forward, so all they can do is give you glory day in and day out. I pray this in Jesus' most holy and matchless name. Amen. God bless everyone. Have a wonderful day. We'll catch up with you again soon.