We are going to take a break from the Fruit of the Spirit study for today.

Why?

Cuz, I’m in a bit of a funk. It’s not just today. It’s been days, weeks, a season of funk. I don’t even know how to describe it, but I don’t like it.

• I don’t like this season of pandemic.
• I don’t like that we can’t see each other and worship together.
• I don’t like that when I visit my daughter in Seattle that I can’t give her a hug.
• I don’t like that I can’t get together with my friends.
• I don’t like it.

I don’t like that the numbers are going the wrong direction. I don’t like that there seems to be no end to the pandemic in the near future.

It’s not that I don’t trust God or love God. It’s not that I don’t think God loves me. It’s not that I don’t have hope or joy in all that God has done for us on the cross.

Then what is it? I am not sure. I’ve never been a global pandemic lasting for months before. This is just a funky season.

I want to let you know of a couple of things:

1. There is no doubt that God wants you and his church to grow and thrive during this season. Nothing happening is taking God by surprise so God has given to us everything we need to grow and thrive during this season.
2. Growing and thriving does not equal being “happy” and “giddy.” Growing and thriving is filled with joy. Happy is not the same thing as being joy-filled. Don’t confuse the two. Happiness is an emotion we feel when good things happen.

It would be ludicrous for God to expect people going through trials, sufferings, and persecution to feel “happy” and “giddy” about that. However, God does call us to “rejoice always” (1 Thessalonians 5:16). “In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials” (1 Peter 1:6).

Joy doesn’t depend on happenstance. Joy is dependent upon all that God has already done for us in Jesus Christ. Joy is not an emotion but a reality, truth, an outlook we take based on what God has done in Jesus Christ through the cross. It is the ability to remain hope-filled even when difficult things are happening in one’s life.

God doesn’t want us to pretend that things are great when they are not. One of the greatest encouragements to me is that out of the 150 psalms, over 50 are psalms of lament and complaints!!! God doesn’t need us to make-believe we are happy and giddy. God is okay with us not feeling okay when things aren’t okay. But even when things aren’t okay, we can remain joy-filled, hope-filled because our joy and hope doesn’t depend on things yet to happen. Our joy and hope is based on what’s already been done.

And perhaps, this is the most apt description/definition of God’s kindness. That God shows up for us just when we need him and how we need him in the midst of our funk.

Praying for all of you who are in a bit of a funk.

“All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one!” (Romans 3:12).

One of the keys to the gospel is the reality that we are all sinners. And this is one of the greatest sticking points to so many in our modern world. “What do you mean I am a sinner? I am a good person. Just ask anyone. I am not perfect. No one is, but I am a good person.”

The problem with this view of ourselves is twofold:

1. If we are good, we do not need a Savior. We just need to live out our inherent goodness. If one doesn’t need a Savior, the cross of Jesus is irrelevant.
2. This is not at all what the Bible says.

The scriptures tell us a totally bleak picture of who we are:

• “All have turned aside…” (Romans 3:12)
• “There is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one!” (Romans 3:12)
• “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)
• “There is no one who does good” (Psalm 53:1)
• “There is no one who does good, no, not one“ (Psalm 53:3)
• “There have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no not one” (Psalm 14:3)

That’s the reason why we are told, “You were dead through the trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).

There isn’t much a dead person can do. The only hope for the dead is a Savior.

That’s the good news of the Bible. Because God loves us, God sent his Son to die on the cross and pay the penalty of sin. God did for us, in Jesus, that which we could not do for ourselves. This is good news! This is kindness. This is God’s kindness to us.

“There is no one who shows kindness” because we cannot give what we do not have. Only after having received God’s love and kindness for us in Jesus, can we become ones who meet the practical needs of others in God’s way and in God’s time. This is not talking about doing nice things. This is about doing things that show others who God is.

The good news of Jesus Christ is good news because we are sinners desperately in need of a Savior. Amen!

 

“…so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7)

I feel bad for Ephesians 2:7.

Most people have heard of Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”

But who’s ever heard of Ephesians 2:7?

I’ve read Ephesians 2:7 dozens of times but never memorized it like I have Ephesians 2:8-9. But because of these studies in the Fruit of the Spirit I had the opportunity to pause and study Ephesians 2:7 and I am extremely thankful.

Ephesians 2:7 begins with, “so that.” Obviously, whatever preceded the so that is essential to understanding the rest of Ephesians 2:7. The sentence begins in Ephesians 2:4. It reads:

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

Wow! What a sentence! In it contains the entirety of the gospel!

Even when we were dead through our trespasses…

• No, we aren’t good people who have a few flaws. We were dead in our trespasses.
• Spiritually concerned, we were good as dead.
• What can the dead do? Nothing!!!
• That’s the point of the gospel of grace. There is nothing we can do to earn it or deserve it. It is all grace. It is all God.

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us…made us alive together with Christ…and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that…he might show his immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

• Salvation is all God’s doing. It is all mercy. It is all because of his great love toward us.
• Because of his love for us, he did for us what we could not ever do for ourselves. Jesus paid the debt of sin and bore the punishment in his body, on the cross.
• And Christ rose again from the dead, so that we too might rise with him.
• God did all this for us in Christ Jesus.
• All this is the sign of God’s kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

Remember, kindness in the Greek means meeting the real needs of someone in God’s way in God’s timing. That’s Jesus Christ! That’s the gospel! That’s good news!

Salvations is not about works. It’s not about what we can do. It’s all about what God has already done!

That is meeting a need in a practical way. That’s God’s kindness.