The Kindness Of The King

THE KINDNESS OF THE KING

TITUS 3:4

One day, a little girl is sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly notices that her mother has several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head. "Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?" she asks. Her mother replies, "Well, every time you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white." The little girl thinks about this awhile, then asks, "So how come ALL of Grandma’s hairs are white?"

I am sure that we all have caused some white hairs in our moms and of course our dads. While we may have caused our parents grief at times I am sure that many times we showed them kindness. That is what I want to talk to you about this morning. Kindness.

What was the greatest act of kindness that you ever received from another person? I think the greatest act of kindness for me was when Darleen said yes when I asked her to marry me. I am not sure whether is was an act of kindness or pity.

But anyway what was the greatest act of kindness that someone showed to you? How did someone display goodness to you? Besides my wife I have received many acts kindness, a lot of those coming from some of you. Gifts, favors, blessings, too many to list.

Today I want us to talk about the kindness of God. Whether we acknowledge it or not, every person here as been blessed by the kindness or goodness of God. His kindness is seen all around us, all we need do is to look for it.

Please turn with me to our passage for today, that would be Titus 3:4. We are getting back into our study of Titus this week. As we have been away from Titus for a couple weeks now. Titus 3:4;

“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,”

In the context of this verse, Paul in verse 3 tells us the type of persons that we once were. Now he begins to tell us how we came to be the people that we are now. Children of God, people who seek to serve God, people who seek God’s glory in their lives. He begin to tell us of that transformation, of our salvation by saying that it comes to us through the kindness and love of God. As I stated today we will look at the kindness of God, next week we will begin to look at the love of God.

Now the Greek word translated kindness in this verse, can also be translated “goodness”. We see this in Romans 2:4; “Or do you despise the riches of His (God’s) goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”

The same word used in Romans 2:4 is used in Titus 3:4. I just want you to understand that when we speak of the kindness of God, and the Goodness of God we are speaking of the same thing.

As we look at this I want to point out to you that our perception of God matters. What we think we know about God matters. I matters to God, and should matter to us. For any relationship to be healthy whether it is with God or with others, we need to have an accurate view of the other person. If we desire for our relationship with God to grow it means we must see Him for who He is. That is see Him in light of how He is revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures.

Listen to what Paul states in Romans 11:22; ““Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God:”

In this passage Paul points out the need to not only examine the goodness or kindness of God, but of the severity of God as well. We often have people who will emphasize one attribute of God to the point of doing harm to another. Thus they get a distorted view of God. If we are to grow in our relationship with God we must have an accurate and balanced view of God as reveal in the Bible.

I want you to keep that in mind as we look at the kindness or goodness of God.

Now there are many verses that speak of the goodness of God. Too many to look at them all here. But when we mention the goodness of God, we should understand that it speaks of the absolute perfection that is God’s very nature. God is a being that is not wanting in anything that is good. There is nothing that is defective in God. We cannot add to God’s nature to make it better.