LIVING RIGHT PODCAST EP #36 w/ Zoe McDowell | "Walking In the Spirit - Cultivating the Fruit of Kindness"

LIVING RIGHT PODCAST w/ Zoe McDowell
"Walking In the Spirit - Cultivating the Fruit of Kindness"

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Lucis mcgowels, Samia Right, SamSamir Radmi. Welcome back and welcome to

(00:41):
you, Lucius McDowell Living Writes Podcast. I am your host tonight, Zoe
McDowell. I am the daughter ofLucius mcgowell, and so I am so
excited to be with you guys tonight. I had the opportunity to share with
you guys last week, and Isaid and graciously asked to come back and
do it again this week. Sohey, everybody, welcome. Like I

(01:06):
said, my name is DELI.Last week I didn't really get to I
didn't really take time to introduce myselfto you all or to share anything about
myself, and so I wanted todo that really quickly before I jump into
the podcast or into our topic tonight. But I, like I said,
I'm super grateful to be here.Both of my parents are wonderful ministers of
the gospel, Lucius McGowan and DonaldMcDowell. I happen to be their daughter.

(01:32):
I am a Georgia peach from Atlanta, Georgia. And by Atlanta,
Georgia, I really mean the suburbsof Atlanta. I can't claim the zone.
I'm not trying to claim the zone. So don't nobody come for me,
Okay from Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia. I have a degree from clarks
Atlanta University, a degree in biologyshout out to my cu Panthers. And

(01:53):
I have a master's in help sciencefrom a Heary Medical College, and so
spend a lot of time a coupleof years in Nashville. I've just relocated
back home to be with my familyand my folks in Georgia. But that's
just a quick kind up git aboutmy life and who I am. One
of the things that I love,love, love, love, love to
do, and if anybody knows mein real life, they know this about

(02:15):
me too. I love to skate. Skating is one of my very fun
pastimes. It is, uh,you know, just a great way to
smile and to get your body moving. And so that's one of my hobbies.
And another thing that I love doingis traveling. I love to go
and see what the Lord has donethat he created the world. I've been

(02:38):
honored and blessed to be a welltraveled young person in her twenties by way
of her parents' dollars. Let's bevery clear, but I'm super grateful that
my parents exposed us to so manydifferent things, and I, you know,
I've always I have grown this appreciationfor getting out seeing the world,

(03:01):
seeing what it has to offer.And I think one of my most recent
trips that I really I think it'smy favorite trip thus far. It was
actually a trip to Iceland. AndI want to tell you the world that
the Lord created, the way thathe crafted Iceland is it's quite otherworldly.

(03:23):
It is other worldly, I youknow, and I was in the season,
and I'm gonna give you some backstoryabout my trip to Iceland just because
I think it might be helpful forour conversation tonight. But I loved,
you know, just everything. Iwas able to see someone in my I
was in a season of life wherethings were kind of hard, so and
solved the weirdness saw me. Youknow, when you're tired and it's visible

(03:46):
to other people and they're like,hmm, maybe you need a spot,
do you need a break? Whatdo you need? And so one of
my friends who was witnessing, youknow, just what I was going through,
and he was like, hey,if you take a sabbatical, I
will cover it. And I said, the Lord is kind okay, And
so I was able to take thistrip. And it was five days in

(04:12):
Iceland, and I was by myself. And now it's one thing to go
travel with families, to travel withfriends, there's another thing to go alone.
And so I had ventured overseas withoutyou know, a phone. You
know you don't. I didn't purchasea plan because I'm not sending extra dollars
in stants. You're gonna connect tothis Wi Fi and we have it available.

(04:35):
But I was able to at theseason of life, I was really
wrestling with the Lord about a lotof things, and it was just the
overwhelming goodness of the Lord that Iwas able to experience Iceland, that I
was able to just just in theland. I mean, I remember having

(04:55):
multiple holy moments by myself. Rightit's just me and Jesus and the water,
or it's me and Jesus and themountains and I every time I would
come across the mountain one I wouldrecognize and see just how like, just
how gigantic mountains are the hills.Some mountain in Atlanta, Georgia is not

(05:18):
that is not a real mountain.I love that we call this at but
the mountains that I was able tosee it I was like, my God,
I mean, they say that mostmountains at minimum are at a height
of thirty thousand feet, and Ijust you know, I was wrestling with
so much things, with so manythings with the Lord, and I just

(05:39):
was I would look at a mountainand I almost wanted to park my car
and walk up to the mountains standnext to it. But that's kind of
crazy and it's set up to bekidnapped, so we did not do.
I would drive past the mountains andI would think, Oh, God,
how good are you that you wouldcreate this thing? And then I would
think about the mountains. I wouldthink about the where just how long they've

(06:01):
been in existence, and how howbig and how grand they are, how
much space they take up, andthen I compared them to little old mes
right, and the at this pointin time, this is the little me
who was wrestling God, who isfighting God, who is not happy with
him. But a lot of questionsand the the revelation that I came to

(06:29):
was life changing, and it justis like if these mountains have been here
for styles, these mountains have seen, you know, centuries of the land,
these mountains have seen. Oh Ithink I'm getting if somebody drinking.
I don't know what's happening. Thesemountains have seen centuries of the land.

(06:49):
These mountains are they take up somuch space, and yet they're submitted to
God. And if little old me, who is? If little O me,
who is? You know, onlytwenty eight years of age and I
weigh immasingly, you know, onehundred and thirty pounds. I you know,

(07:12):
in my existence, I don't getto question God. I don't get
to tussle with him and fight withhim and demand that he makes his way
my way. I left that tripsaying, God, you are so good,
You're so mighty powerful. Grant howdo I find myself in your story?
How do I find myself in yourway? In your plan? And

(07:33):
that I think was a revelation thatI needed to send me into, catapult
me into this next season of mywalk with the Lord. But it was
only by the hand of someone whowas walking in kindness, only by the
hand of someone walking in kindness.And so I set all that up to

(07:55):
say that we're going to be talkingabout kindness tonight. And so before we
get into the teaching into our word, I do want to just read a
scripture that we always cover on thepodcast, which is tewod Timothy three sixteen
through seventeen, and it says allscripture is given by the inspiration of God,

(08:16):
and it is profitable for doctrine andfor reproof and for correction, for
instruction and righteousness, that the Manof God may be perfect man and woman,
period thoroughly furnace and to all goodworks. And so we know that
the Word of God is our path. It is I just say, it's

(08:41):
our map for our path. Itis the direction by which we can find
God and find his will and hispurpose. And we follow that thing out
until we see that thing manifested inour lives, the goodness of God manifested
in our lives. Of course,in Proverbs fourth it says verse seven,
wisdom is the principal thing. Sotherefore get wisdom, and with all,

(09:03):
by getting, get understanding. Andso I pray that as you hear what
we talk about tonight, that youare brought into another realm or level of
understanding, because that's what God wantsus to have. And he tells us
that we can ask the Holy Spiritto give us wisdom if you don't have

(09:24):
it as Holy Spirit, like hey, I don't really know what to do
here. I don't know how tohandle this as holy spirit, and watch,
guys show up in your life inan amazing way. And so we're
talking about the key to successful living, which is we're going to delve into
Galatians five, verses sixteen through twentyseven, and I'm going to read it

(09:50):
from I'm gonna read it from theNIV and we can see it. I'll
want you guys, if you guyscan, y'all can turn there and the
NIV, the EESV. I giveyou guys some time, Okay, excellent

(10:13):
Relatians five point sixteen, and itsays, so I say walk by the
spirit, and you will not gratifythe desires of the flesh. Toward the
flesh desires what is contrary to thespirit and the spirit what is contrary to

(10:35):
the flesh. They are in conflictwith each other. So you are not
to do whatever you want. Butif you are led by the spirit,
you are not under the laws Versenineteen. The acts of the flesh are
obvious textual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord,

(10:58):
jealousy of rage, selfish, ambition, dissensions, factions and envy,
drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did
before, that those who live likethis will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit islove, joy, forbearance of patience,

(11:22):
kindness, goodness, peace. Well, sorry, I think I sit
peace, love, joy, peace, patience, or forbearance, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and selfcontrol. Against such things, there is
no law. Those who belong toChrist Jesus have crucified the flesh with its

(11:43):
passions and desires. Since we liveby the spirit, let us then keep
in step with the spirits. Amen. Amen, Well, I'm gonna pray
really cookie before we get this intothe mean of things. Lord, thank
you for an opportunity to share yourwords, an opportunity to be slow and

(12:05):
at peace with ourselves wherever we're listeningor tuning in that I pray that you
would just work. God. Ipray that you would work on our hearts.
That you are actively turning our heartsof stone to hearts of flesh.
God, I thank you that youare doing something new in us, and
that we have the expectation, theposture of expectation to see it come forth

(12:31):
in this life God, on thisside of heaven. And so I thank
you that you are leading us andguiding us and giving us instruction and giving
us podcasts and giving us devotions.But God also giving us your words.
Let I pray that we lean intoit and that it would be edifying for
our spirits and Jesus Mighty matches name. Amen Amen. Okay, So let's

(12:56):
talk about highness. Kinda is definedas being of a friendly, a generous,
or considerate quality. Right, Sothe quality of being friendly, generous,
or considerate, it is also havinga sympathetic or helpful nature. Who

(13:20):
are my helpers out there, shoutout to you guys. To be kind
is to have a gentle, forbearingnature or a patient nature. Don't we
love that? Don't we love howthe other fruits that we already covered kind
of show up in the current fruitsthat we talk about. And I think
that's something that should be like atleast kind of like taken, because they're

(13:45):
all connected. All of the fruitsof the spirit are connected. Another definition
says arising from or characterized by sympathyor having forbearance, which also means patient.
And so last week we were ableto talk about. We talked about
patients that I know that my dadcovered love and joy the weeks before,

(14:09):
but it is amazing what we uncoveredin patience and what it requires to be
patient patients requiring trial, patients engaging, you know, us having to wait,
calmly, wait with a disposition thatis unchanged, to wait with the
disposition that that doesn't get thrown offby our circumstances and situations around us.

(14:33):
And so now it's been Now we'reseeing that kindness actually kindness actually plays off
of our ability to be patient.And we'll get into that, but I
know you guys can kind of puttwo into together, right, You sometimes
have to be patient in your kindnesstowards other people or you operating in kindness?

(14:54):
Is you operating in patience? Andso just a lot of good nuggets
already, right, But yeah,we know that it's the kindness can be
given to or how should I saythis, to give or provide somebody with

(15:16):
pleasure or relief. Right, Sowe are being kind to relieve pressure,
We're showing up for our friends,we're doing something for our loved ones.
That is another way to embody kindness. And here's a great definition that I
really appreciated. It is a behaviormarked by acts of generosity, consideration,

(15:39):
rendering, assistance, or concern forothers. Here's a kicker without expecting praise
or reward in return, and sokindness has all of these attributes in it.
But at the end of the day, it's not expecting anything in return.
And I wonder why that is.But we'll get into that in just

(16:02):
a little bit. But I thinkit's cool. Like I said, you
can see the different fruits that arebeing engaged in in kindness. Right.
We see that it includes gentleness,we see that it requires goodness, and
and it most suddenly involves love.Right, kindness is love, and it

(16:26):
actually, you know, spiritual actuallytells us that very clearly, and we
can actually go to it in oneTwenteens thirteen. That is the lovest chapter
of the Bible for those who don'tknow. And so whenever you find yourself
tripping and you like, I don'tknow if I'm walking in love, pull
up this chapter. Okay, itwill get you right. One of the

(16:48):
women, the woman that the woman, the woman that I'm walking with intimately,
she oftentimes pulls this, uh,this chunk of text she asks me,
Okay, Zoe, are we youknow? Can we say this about
ourselves? Can we save this aboutourselves? And if we can't say it
about ourselves, then we can't saythat we're walking in love. Yeah,

(17:11):
Yi streaks, But here we go. Let's let's get into it. Verse
four and says love is patient.Love is kind. Right there, it's
in the first inience right there.Love is kind. It does not envy,
It does not boast. It isnot proud. It does not dishonor
others. It is not self seeking. It is not easily angered. It

(17:34):
keeps no record or wrong. Lovedoes not delight in evil, but it
rejoices with the truth. It alwaysprotects, It always trusts, It always
hopes, and it always perseveres.Love never fails. That's so good to
me. Kindness is love, Loveis kindness. They are one in the

(17:57):
same. And I then I evenmore so appreciate. You know, when
you just when you're able to,when you want to study something, you
know, you go to different differentversions of the text, different versions of
the Bible. And the amplified versionis really yummy. It's got a lot
of good things in here. Theamplified version, the classic verse Sport says,

(18:18):
love endures long and is patient andkind. So how tell me?
It's all three of our all threeof our fruits. So you've just covered
in one sentence. Right, loveis patient, it is long suffering,
it endures long, and it iskind. All of these fruits are bundled
together. They're all attached to thesame vine, right, which is cool

(18:41):
because you know the scriptures talk aboutus being a part of the vine.
Right, we can't do anything outsideof Jesus Christ. He is the vine.
We are the branches, and sothey're all a part of the fruit
of the vine. And his wouldhave continues to say. Love is never
envious, nor boiled over with jealousy. It is not boastful or vinglorious.

(19:06):
It is not seeking to celebrate itself. It does not display itself haughtily.
It is not put itself is itto put itself on a high pedical This
is all the things that love isright. It is not conceded, arrogant
and inflated with pride. It isnot rude, it is not it's not
unmannerly, and it does not actunbecomingly. God's love in us does not

(19:30):
insist on its own rights or inits own way. Yikes, that is
a good one to show on God'slove in us does not insist on its
own rights or its own way.For it is not self seeking, It
is not touchy, it is notfretful, it is not resentful. It
takes no account of the evil doneto it. And in the parentheses it

(19:53):
says it pays no attention to asuffered wrong. Now, I know,
oh that's hard for everybody, andwe're gonna talk about that a little bit
but later. But it doesn't payattention to suffer wrong. It does not
rejoice at injustice and and unrighteousness,but it rejoices when the right and truth

(20:17):
is prevailed, right, when theright, when the right and truth prevails.
Verse seven says that the love bearsup under anything and everything that comes,
is ever ready to believe the bestof every person. Now, this
is going to be key in ourconversation. It is ever ready at the

(20:37):
like at the go right. Ithink about in track and field. I
ran in track and field for manyyears, and how all of our when
we were racist, back into ourblocks and we are anticipating the the go
of the gun to get down thetrack that is how love. Love wants
to believe the best about people.It is. It is anticipating to believe

(21:02):
the best about people. It hopesit helps our side see back up.
Yeah, it believes the best aboutevery person. It hopes. Its hopes
are faithless under all circumstances, andit endures everything without weakening. There is
no weak love. There is noyou know, over time it goes away

(21:23):
or uh something happening, it can'tbe regained. And it says in verse
eight, love never fails. Itnever fades out or becomes obsolete or comes
to an end. And so Ithought I was reading this and working my
way through this, uh this particularpassage, I thought about how I said,

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love is you know, is kindand kindness I believe is love.
And I think that if you wantedto, you could go through and replace
love with kindness and find a wayfor it to embody love in the way
that the scripture talks about. Andso, like I said, we'll talk
about some of those things just alittle bit. But I just wanted to

(22:06):
understand, like all of these thingsare blended, they are blended experience.
I think, why am I makingI want to say, why am I
making such a Why am I tryingto emphasize this, I'm making a point
of this. It's because the fruitof the spirit, these are not just
the little character points that we workor strive to achieve. Right. We
don't say, oh, I didX, Y and Z, and so

(22:27):
that's proof that I've been working hardto achieve my love fruit. Or we
don't say, oh, I gavethis to this family, or I donated
this to this charity. So Idid my time things for the week,
and now I have the fruit ofkindness. No, that's actually missing the
point, right. The fruit ofthe spirit is a blended display of God's

(22:51):
goodness to his creation through his creation. I'm gonna say it again. The
fruit of the Spirit is a blendeddisplay of God's goodness to his creation through
his creation. That means that itinvolves us, it involves a recipient,
it involves another party. And it'snot just what we see in these scriptures

(23:18):
as we as we read, evenin the amplified version, there are so
many additional thoughts and additional explanations thatcome even from the nine listed fruits in
of the spirit in the you know, in the King James version, in
the n ivy. But what thetruth of the matter is is that the
list of the of the fruits ofthe spirit is inexhaustible. There are,

(23:45):
I mean ways upon ways that youcan chew on the fruits of the spirit
and see it meaning something different,and it means, oh, I need
to walk like this, and itmeans, oh, I need to carry
myself this way. And so it'snot just a one stop shop. It
can't be a one stop shop becausethey involve each other, the fruits involve

(24:07):
each other. But it's definitely somethingthat we have to uh to walk in
the fullness of. And last weekwe talked about the fruit of the spirit
being a byproduct of what God hasalready done right emphasis on already done right,
because it's what happens in your spiritwhen you accept Jesus Christ, that

(24:29):
your Lord and savior. Now whathe's actually doing in your heart as you
watch out this process called sanctification thatis, you know, that's that's what
embodying, learning how to embody thefruits of the spirit is about. We
already have the capability to embody it. Now it's just a matter of doing
it. And you know, Imentioned you know, when you accept Jesus

(24:52):
as Lord and savior or Savior andLord. A lot of times sometimes Christians
will do the first part right,well, it except Jesus as savior.
Right, He's saved us from sin, he saved us from hell, he
saved us from death, he savedus from ourselves, whatever thing, whatever
thing that the enemy is trying tokeep you bound with, He's saved us

(25:14):
from and we are easy and excitedto admit that and to say that and
to and we, I mean peoplerun to altars to have that type of
freedom and to have that type ofsecurity in Christ. But then there's the
other part, right, Savior andLord. The lord part is a part
of your sanctification. That's what we'retalking about. The lord part is you

(25:37):
submitting, you know, to him. To make somebody lord is to walk
in in the submission of to toembrace their rules, to embrace their order,
their call on things. It activelymeans that we're practicing submission. And

(26:03):
I want us to remember that ussaying yes to Jesus is just packed the
battle right. In the amplified versionof Galatians five, verse twenty four and
twenty five, it says, andthose who belong to Christ, Jesus,
the Messiahs have crucified the flesh,the godless human nature. So as we

(26:26):
are walking out the process of sanctification, we're also actively crucifying our flesh.
And I want us to understand thatthe godless human nature, that's not by
happenstance, if they chose those words. Our human nature is in fact godless.
Our human nature is rooted in shin. Our human nature wants nothing to

(26:49):
do. I mean, we wantour way, We want what is comforting
to us. We want what isenjoyable to us, and we don't naturally
think of those things as evil orwrong. But the truth of the matter
is born into sin, born intoiniquity. It is the natural state of
being. And so it is whenwe become the children of Christ, we

(27:14):
embrace Him as Lord and Savior,that we are crucifying the flesh. Back
to the verse, and it says, with its passions and appetites and desires,
we let it go. And inverse twenty five it says, if
we live by the Holy Spirit,who lets us also walk, let us
also then walk by the Spirit.If by the Holy Spirit we have our

(27:38):
life in God, let us goforward walking in line our conduct controlled by
the spirit, and so that isit. That's the sanctification part. And
I want us to just remember thatit's not something you have to fight.
It had once you've accepted Christ,it's yours. The fruit is there.
It's just a matter that we needto work to embody it. We need

(28:00):
to embrace them body and get.And so I hope that as we have
this conversation that we notice that weare continually engaging our syntification process. And
that means that we're making him Lord, and that means that you know,
we're doing our part to engage,to engage God in our transformation. Okay,

(28:21):
so just let's you know, jumpinto kindness. We already just find
it, but I just want totalk about what it is just a little
bit. And as I was reflecting, I thought, you know, kindness
is in its essence always meant tobe a blessing to somebody else. Yeah,
which is already hard against our humannature to think and to be considered

(28:45):
about somebody else. Right with thewhole spirit, it's not impossible. Kindness
in its essence is always meant tobe a blessing to somebody else. It
has no other shape or form kindnessthrough and three will always be a blessing.
And now I know that sometimes wethink about kindness, and we think

(29:06):
about it, you know, ina simple way of like referring to blessing
or material things, or somebody gaveme this, Oh I'm being kind and
I received that. And don't wantget me wrong. Those things do pertain
to kindness. But I want totalk about kindness in the mere action,
right in the simplicity of its essenceand its existence. Kindness is just a

(29:27):
kind thing, a kind gesture toanother person. It could be a hug,
a smile, giving a compliment,and each of those things are rooted
in blessing. They should always berooted in blessing. And if you do,
I want it to bring I wantto bring this to your attention.
If for doing any of those thingsand the motive is not to bless the

(29:52):
other person, then we have shiftedfrom Relations five twenty two and twenty three
to Galatians five nineteen and two.Anyone, right, we have now we
have now shifted from walking in thespirit to gratifying the things that the flesh.
And I know that sounds pretty hard, but I think it is in

(30:14):
verse nineteen that it reads lustee inverse nineteen. Yeah, it talks about
you know, we say special immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, which
past and those things are so big, right, But if hatred, discord,
jealousy, fits of rage, selfishambition, sometimes people are timed for

(30:37):
self gain, for selfish ambition,for dissensions or faction, any of these
things, in any of these things, any of the things that are like
this. So just as the fruitof this spirit is not an exhaustible list,
it's an inexhaustible list, this isalso an inexhaustible place. There is
not you know, oh, theseare the only things that are qualify as

(30:59):
sin far to be wrong. Butno, it's it is all of you
know, all of the above inany way that the enegy can be creative,
and to distort what God is createdto be good is considered sin is
considered to be evil. And sowe have to remember that as we are
walking in our attempt to sactify ourselvesinto to embody kindness and goodness towards other

(31:25):
people, that we're making sure thatthe motive is right. We're making sure
that we're not blessing another person forus to be seen. We're not blessing
another person to make ourselves feel good, but we're doing it out of the
kindness and the goodness of God,out of the kindness and goodness of His
heart, because it is through hisis through his kindness, that we are

(31:49):
able to be good to His creation. And I think, if you need,
I want to make sure I saythe right thing. Yeah, I

(32:12):
think sometimes we have to sit downand question or if they're just send some
time with our motives right, becausethere are things that can impede our ability
to be kind. And I knownobody wants to admit it. Oh no,
I'm the kindest person in the world, you know. You know,
we think we're Jesus's baby brother,baby sisters. But the truth of the

(32:36):
matter is that sometimes there are thingsthat impede us for being able to walk
in kindness towards each other. AndI want, I wanted to, I
don't know, explore that, asksome questions what impease our ability to be
kind? Sometimes we don't give peoplethe benefit of the doubt. Sometimes we

(32:59):
don't believe the best about people.Sometimes we misjudge people and their circumstances.
And sometimes we don't slow down enoughto search for the deeper why to ask,
you know, to ask in consideration, why why would this person act
this? Why would they do this? Why would they do that? Can

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I encourage you that doing any ofthose things would be helpful in helping you
practice kindness? But the reason wedon't do it is because we ourselves lack
humility. Yeah, I know it'sa hard pill to follow, but the

(33:44):
truth to play that we lack humility. And some of you might be saying,
what do you mean we we lackhubility? We understand that. Let
me explain sometimes, well, actuallyme, let me just define humility,
because humility is a modest or alow view of oneself one's own importance.

(34:06):
It is a humbleness. The stateof being humble is humility. It is
an outward expression of an appropriate inwardself regard. It is having an awareness
of who you are in your humanityas a human. And sometimes we don't
give that. We don't give thebenefit of the doubt, We don't give

(34:28):
that to other people. Right,We oftentimes don't extend kindness when we see
ourselves above the situation, or abovewhat is happening, or above what is
going on. Right, I thinkabout, you know, driving on the
highway and somebody cuts you off,and immediately you're frustrated. But to walk

(34:52):
in a pride or I don't know, an arrogance is like, well,
they should have did this, andthey should this, did that, and
I don't appreciate how they you know, they cut me off. These people
don't know how to drive, blahblah blahlah blah, And we're thinking that
we're the better driver, we areabove how their conduct when the reality could

(35:13):
have been, oh, like youknow, the kindness would be extending the
possibility of in their humanities, likeoh maybe they maybe it's a it's a
last turn, or they needed tomake a late turn and they had to
cut over, or maybe they don'tknow where they're going. This is an
unfamiliar area and they need you know, this is what they had to do

(35:35):
to get over. Like, beingable to go out of your way to
extend grace towards people is what weis. Where we see kindness enter into
the chat right kindness into into thepicture. And I think recognizing our ability
to come up stored in the sameway that the person that your judging might

(36:00):
be coming up in is a wayto give and embrace kindness. Right,
it's saying like, hey, thatcould easily have been me. I am
not too far amoved from where theyare and what they're experiencing is, you
know, is common. And choosingfrom that position of awareness to be for

(36:21):
somebody else what you would have neededin that moment, that is humility at
its fineness, and that brings agreater capacity for us to have empathy for
others, to empathize with other people'sexperiences, to have just a grace for
them. That humility is a hugepiece. And I think, you know,

(36:47):
like I said earlier, like pridewould say, well, they should
have been on time, They shouldhave been, they knew what time they
had to get here. This isyou know what it is. This is
what it's always going to be.I don't care what the weather was,
care was you know what the trafficlooks like? Whatever. And then humility,
because you remember that you were humanin that one once upon a time,

(37:07):
you are probably running into something says, you know what, I don't
know what they had, what kindof morning they had, what kind of
uh, you know, rough daythey they've had. But I have had
those before too, And so frommy humility and my humbleness, and remembering
where I like being in their shoes, I'm going to extend them kindness.

(37:30):
Right. Pride says, well,you know what, they've got a nasty
attitude, so I could have anasty attitude that where humility says, you
know what, I don't know whatthey have going on in their personal life.
I don't know, you know,maybe. And then sometimes humility even
goes to the extent of creating astory for yourself to respond kindly to,
right, like, you know what, maybe maybe something is you know often

(37:55):
in the family or with or theirchildren are and thing, you know,
a hard time at school, andso that's stressing mom mouth. And so
that's why mom is going off onme in the Groscy you know line at
Kroger. I don't know, Idon't know what it could be like.
Sometimes we have to go out ofour way to remind ourselves that it could
easily be me. A hard situationcan easily come and touch my story,

(38:20):
and then I have to I haveto choose to respond in kindness, because
when I have those hard moments,I would want somebody to respond to me
in kindness. Right, And sowe could go. We can make up
little stories, and this list couldgo on forever and ever and ever.
Right, But I think what allof the stories are pointing to, or

(38:42):
those sineors that we can play outin our minds are pointing to, is
that humility coupled with empathy or believingthe gust about someone is what yields kindness.
So humility plus empathy equals kindness tillwe put, till we put,
and we see it. In verseseven of the Corinthians thirteen, Chapter thirteen,

(39:07):
Verse seven, it says love bearsup under anything and everything that comes,
and it is ready to believe thebest about a person. It is
ready to celebrate and to think thebest about a person, not to think
what is negative of what you know, pointing out what's wrong and pulling them
down and dragging them down. Itsays, you know what, they were

(39:28):
nasty with me, but I knowthat that's not who they really are,
or I you know, I knowthat they're just having a hard day,
and so I'm choosing to believe thebest about this person even despite what they're
presenting to you in the moment.That is kindness, but it's love and
its essence and so I mean,even as I was preparing to chat with

(39:53):
you guys tonight, one of thethings that I think has been really,
uh, I don't know, justpresent on my mind and I've been kind
of I don't want to say itwas ruminating, but it's just been.
It's been something that I've been thinkingabout for the last couple of weeks,
and it made sense to share ittonight. I think one thing that I

(40:14):
am grieved of, I mean grieved. I am grieved by the effects of
sin in our lives. And Iknow that people who hear this and they're
like, whoa, whoa, whoa. You know, nah, I don't.
I don't say I'm not a sinneror I'm not out here practicing debauchery,
and you know, I'm not outhere actively engaging sin. The people

(40:37):
who are, you know, thesuper saints. You know, it's all
right, that's not what I'm talkingabout. But when I say that I
am grieved by the effects of sinin our lives, I really am saying
that I'm grieved by the lasting effectsof the sinful nature in our everyday interactions.
You know, sometimes because someone choosesto offer in their flesh instead of

(41:00):
the spirit. Somebody ends up gettinghurt, somebody ends up getting cut,
right, and so someone you know, maybe an example is someone got cheated
out of a business deal and thenfrom that they decided, I'm never gonna
trust any potential business partner again.And so you come along trying to create

(41:21):
an opportunity and that you know,their their energy is impenetrable, Their energy
is nasty, their energy is neat, and their energy is kind of slick
and conniving. Right, it's becausethey got cut in the previous experience.
Sometimes maybe it's someone who got cheatedout of a business deal and decided,
oh, I just said that one. Maybe it's someone who who you know,

(41:45):
got hurt someone else gossiping about themand they decided, you know,
I'm you know what I mean,Come, I'm going to become exactly what
they just said, just so thatI could show them that they haven't even
seen the worst of it. Yeah, I don't know what is you know,
more fleshly right hearing being caught inthe active gossip or or or adding

(42:08):
fire to the flame. You know, you know what, I'm gonna show
up and I'm gonna be You thinkI'm nasty, you ain't seen nothing yet
right that, But the the responsewould not have come, and it's come
if the stimulus wasn't there. Andthe stimulus is the the gossip that that
custom, the gossips that made themfeel feel a certain way. And so

(42:30):
sin having a lasting effect on anotherperson or maybe some maybe it's uh,
someone got excluded from a friend groupand now they carry the weight of you
know, no one wants to bearound me anymore, no one something must
be wrong with me. It isthe It is the lasting effect of sin

(42:50):
that sticks with people. Someone gotpicked on and in their childhood and now
they're in here about every circle thatthey destined, that they said, even
all the way in through that theiradulthood. Sin has lasting, nasty effects.
And if we don't get in frontof it, and we don't confront
it, and we don't replace itwith the truth, then we can become
victims to the bondage of Satan inhis lives. And then here's the thing

(43:15):
about fruit, because even in itspositive, if it's good fruit, it
will produce a seed, and thatseed will be planted, and the thing
that is planted and water will growand produce more fruit. Right, And
that can be done for both thegood fruit and the bad. If we
sow seeds of nastiness, then morefruit of nastiness is produced. And then

(43:39):
you pick off, you know,you pick off somebody's fruit and you take
a bite and it's rotten, andso then you go and be rotten.
It's somebody else, right, Andso I think I'm grieved by the fact
that we we end up getting caughtin a endless cycle of fin of the

(44:00):
sin effects. And I think ifpeople will be more mindful to operate in
this spirit of kindness or whatever spiritof fruit of this pirit is, we
see a different world. We wouldsee difference in our friend groups, in
our churches, in our families,and you know, in our in our

(44:22):
communities, in our schools, allof the things, we would see a
difference. And I think I wantto go back to the fact that I
sit in churches because and hear me, hear me a lot and clear,
I am not ever going to knockthe people of God's right. I pray
that my words never from across asfashion or you know, anything painful,
because it's never my heart. SometimesI don't understand church people because they are

(44:47):
to be the hands and feed ofJesus, but they don't walk in highness.
We don't walk in the fruit ofkindness and love. That doesn't make
any sense to me, you know. And in Galatians chapter six, it
said, therefore, as we havethe opportunity, let us do good to
all people, especially those who belongto the family of believers. So not
only are we supposed to be ourchurch families, the people that we do

(45:14):
life with, we are supposed tobe kind to them. We are supposed
to be believing the best about them. And somehow we let the enemy slip
into the cracks of our heart andheart and he whispers lives, and then
we go back and repeat those lives, we meditate on them, and then
we've sown discord or or seeds ofa frustration or anger towards somebody else in

(45:36):
our church, in our own home. And then you go out and you
be nasty to the people at thegrocery store. It just doesn't make sense.
If we're supposed to be the handsand feet of Jesus, we have
to embody the fruit. And Iget it, because like we're humans,
right, and I think we getso caught up in our experience and in
our in our humanity like that,we let it overtake us because I get

(46:01):
it. Life's life's you know,life be lifned and it life's hard,
okay, But we can't afford tolet the world make us hard. We
can't afford for this life and thepeople we engage in it to make us
cold. Some will say, well, they didn't do right by me,
and you know, I don't carefor how they did this, and so

(46:23):
you then harbor the weight of theresponsibility of their action, when God never
intended for that to be the casein the first place. If anything,
you said, vengeance's mind, letme take care of it. If anything,
all you are to do is tocontinue to God embody the fruit,
continue to walk in love, continueto walk in patience, continue to walk

(46:45):
in kindness. And so that isour charge. That is our charge.
And whenever we refuse to walk inkindness with another person, it is showing,
like I said we talked earlier aboutearlier, it's showing our lack of
humility. And that would sound aboutright, that's on part right, that

(47:07):
sounds on brand, because it wouldthen indicate that we have forgotten how to
walk and receive, walk in andreceive the Lord's kindness and goodness for us.
It is only from a place thathumility that you can even receive Christ.
So if you can't give humility,you can't give kindness and from a

(47:28):
humble place, if you can't givelove from a humble place, then somewhere
we have forgotten how raggedy we were. And by raggedy, I don't even
mean that we was out here doingX, Y and Z steal in person.
You know whatever you know, Debaucherius, you know sin, you can
identify in your mind. That's notwhat I'm talking about. In our nature,

(47:51):
sin and iniquity. In our nature, we are separated from God.
And so when we remember and wereflect on the goodness and the kindness of
God, that he would step downfrom his throne in eternity, wrapped himself

(48:14):
in flesh to live a life thatwe were continuously failing to live, Okay,
and what I mean continuously like thechildren of Israel could not find a
way to get it right, eventhe right ones couldn't find a way to
get it right. The fact thathe would come down live a life that

(48:39):
we should be living but couldn't live. And then he gided death, that
we should have died but didn't haveto. That is the ultimate grand gesture
of kindness in the existence of theword. And so we take the time

(49:00):
to be humble, to humble ourselves, humble thyself and reflect on the goodness
of God. That he would havereached down into sin, and that he
would pull us up, He wouldpull Zoe Paigement that will out of sin,
and that he would cloak her inthe blood of Jesus. That would

(49:20):
be the perfect example, the perfectlife, the perfect sacrifice of atonement for
every sin that I could ever thinkthat I could commit, not even what
I do commit, the things thatI could imagine committing. That is the
humility that we are to a bodyevery day, and from that place,

(49:42):
from that space, we are ableto give people the kindness, the love,
the joy that God gives us becausewe recognize that it wasn't of our
own. It's not my own kindness, it's not my own love that I
get to give, It's God's.It started with him first. And I

(50:07):
think, as I've been talking aboutkindness, if you are human, then
there's probably been a moment in thelast twenty four hours to the last week,
to the last. I mean,it could be less than twenty four
hours where we have not walked inkindness, or we have not walked in

(50:28):
the love that God calls us totowards our brothers, our sisters, the
random bystander on the street, theperson driving the car that cut us off
today, Like, I don't knowthat we always embody love and the patience
and the kindness. And so Iwant us to take a moment. I'm

(50:49):
going to put a timer on beforewe transition to get out of here,
but I'm gonna give us maybe thirtyseconds to a minute to just think and
reflect on those moments where we failed. And you know what, the more
that you the more things that youwere able to pull in your time of
reflection, the more humility you're walkingin, and the more pleased God is

(51:14):
with you. Please, Like,do not take this moment as like a
time to be like, well,no, I don't really think I did
anything. Find something, Okay,I am Who are you to find something
so that you to to ask forforgiveness of God? I didn't. That
wasn't the most time that I couldhave been. That wasn't the most loving
that I could have been. Ihave not been moving with the best humility.

(51:36):
I think that I'm, you know, so much greater than these people
are. I displayed it in thismoment. It wasn't right. Please take
the time to do it. Andwhat I want you to do for those
who are I mean, if you'redriving, cooking, clean, whatever you
do, I want you to listento this podcast. I want you to
pause, and if you're you know, if you have a pen and paper

(51:58):
or you know you're taking notes,I want you to jot down the names
of people that we haven't been walkingthe best with or towards. I want
you to think about those instances andI want you to drop them down.
And then if you're in the middle, you know, whatever you're doing,
I want you to say those namesout loud to the Lord. I want
you to have a moment of introspectionand reflection. And then if for some

(52:20):
of us we need to forgive people, if we need to forgive, I
want you to say, Lord,I release da da da da dah.
Right, release them whoever it is, whatever the scenario is, I release
them from the punishment. I thinkthey deserve right. Because we get caught
up in our humanity, they shouldn'twe shouldn't. They should never talk to
me like that. Whatever, whatever, whatever release it, ask for forgiveness

(52:45):
and walk in love and kindness.Okay, I'm giving us. I'm giving
us one minute, and then I'lltime back in and we'll pray over our
time, and then we'll get readyto depart Usa. God. Lord,

(54:14):
I just thank you so much forthe time that we have been able to
spend to delve deep into your wordand to let it tell us about ourselves
honestly and truly. God, Ithank you for the opportunity to remember and
to try again right so remember wherewe have not re fallen short. We

(54:37):
haven't been as humble, we thoughtwe were better than other people, and
that we haven't extended kindness towards them. God, I pray that you would
forgive us. I pray that youwill forgive us for those moments, that
you would wash our hearts clean,that you would give us a new perspective,
a new awareness of the Lord.I thank you that when the next

(54:57):
opportunity presents itself, we won't fallshort. We won't we won't fail to
embody the fruit of kindness and thelove towards people. God, but we
will we will uh will see theenemy at work, and we're able to
call them out in that moment andsay, you know what we're going to
do. We're going to live theway that God called us to live,
and that's above and so God,I just thank you for that. And

(55:19):
Lord, I thank you for thosewho went through the process of asking for
forgiveness or and and and forgiving otherpeople. God. Lord, I know
that you, uh, your wordsays that you you call us to that
you call us to forgiveness, youcall us to reconciliation. And so I
thank you that as people have beenhonest and uh just reflective in their walk

(55:43):
for the last couple of hours,the last day, the last week,
God, that they were able towalk in forgiveness towards those things that they
didn't that they handled, you know, in a way that didn't honor you
or bring you glory or please you. God. I thank you that you
hear them, God, and nowthank you that they are they are from
the burden of that they're free fromfrom you know, the shame of maybe

(56:04):
how they handle themselves or they madethem feel er, or how the relationship
between them and that person is.God. I thank you that You are
just restoring all things, and you'rerestoring us not just to a good thing
God, but to a great,perfect thing, which is You yourself.
You're restoring us to You. Andso I thank you that we as we
walk out our process of sanctification everyday, every day, God, I

(56:30):
pray that you will remind us thatwe are we are embodying the spirit God,
but we're embodying the work that hasalready been done in our spirit.
So it is nothing but a decisionto walk in the fruit of the spirit,
to walk in the process of sanctificationthat blesses ourselves but also blesses other

(56:51):
people. And so I pray thatwe will be a witness to them as
we go about our days and ournights. I pray that you would that
you would just get glory from allthe things that we do. And then
Jesus's mighty matchless name, I prayAmen, Amen, and Amen. Well,
everybody, thank you so much againfor joining me tonight. Like I

(57:15):
said, it is an honor tobe able to stand in and to hold
down before for my father, pastor, Bishop, Doctor Reverend Lucius for Noil
McDowell, and I look forward tothe opportunity where I can join you guys
again. In the meantime, becommitted, okay to living right, okay

(57:37):
to doing the things that God callsus to do, into doing it with
obedience and eagerness and with joy andso. Like I said, if you
guys last time, if you guysyou know, want to keep up with
me, you can follow me onInstagram at double Underscore d OE n C
d O W E l L.That's Double Underscore Dollie McDowell and you fellow

(58:00):
my sooncoming encouragement page at Lilies dotboom on Instagram l I L L I
E S dot b l M.Until next time, you guys, be
blessed and we'll see you soon.MS episode bad rhyme on rhymes