Good morning central. How's everyone doing? Such an honor to be with you, to all my
friends watching and Glendale, and Tempe, Queen Creek, Mesa, all of you online. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. My name's Steve Carter. If we've not met, um, I moved to
Phoenix a couple of years ago. My wife is from here. Her name is Sarah. So I refer to this great
state as Sarah zona and, um, I love the chance to be a part. Of this church. And a few weeks ago, I had the
privilege to speak on the last night of high school camp. And after that service 20 plus
students came forward, given their life to Christ being baptized. And I just, I just think the world of
your student ministry, I think that they are doing incredible, incredible work. Well today we are going to
continue in this series called the credentialed life, and I've been
given the task to teach on the. Kindness. I think our world would be a little
bit better if we were more kind. Don't you agree? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. If you want to know where kindness
doesn't live, um, it's name is true. If you, if you want to know where kindness
gets like even crazier, the next door app, you've been on that recently, crazy. And people aren't even telling you
which neighborhood they live in. It's bizarre, but I'll tell
you this what kindness isn't. And I learned this from
my friend, Ashley Ireland. She's an amazing pastor. She wrote a book that came out
last year, called humankind, really talks about what kindness
is and how we desperately need it. She says that kindness. Is not niceness. And I think sometimes we think of
kindness as being really, really soft. It's just the sense of us being nice to
one another, but kindness is not niceness. It's so much deeper. And the original language,
the word kindness in Greek is the word Christ studies. Let me hear you say crazy. You got to say it, but you got
to put a little oomph into it. Yes, right there. I like that resonant. Well done. Well, here's, here's the deal. I'm still in paying back my college loans. So I, this helps me every time. Every month I write that check is
when you all repeat it back to me, it makes me feel like I learned something
that's still making me pay today. So can you with everything
in you say Cray started. Well done well done. Now, this is what the
idea of kindness was. The idea of kindness was when you
actually do some thing of profound. Good. Another and do not expect
anything in return. That's kindness, you doing something
so profoundly good for another and not expecting anything in return. See, I think that when we're like, I'm
just going to open the door for you. There's a whole movement of
like random acts of kindness. Rush really is random acts of niceness. And I think for many of
us, we do something hoping if I do this, then you'll. If I do this for my spouse, then,
then they'll do this for me. If I do this for my kids,
then they'll do this for me. If I do this for, uh, an employee,
then they'll do this for me. But friends, I'm telling you when Paul
writes about living this credentialed life, it's about the spirit of
God doing something inside of us. That is so about the other that
doesn't expect something in return. And for me, this can't
happen by sheer will. This happens when you go deep with
Jesus, Jesus even says that you will know who my disciples and the
Hebrew, that word is Talmud deem. You will know who my disciples, my
town, the Dee, my apprentices are by the fruit that their life bears. And Paul says, man, you know, that's. If you're going to be someone
who embodies the fruit of the spirit, it's going to be kindness. It's going to be one of the
central activities of a life that goes deep with Jesus. Kindness. What I want to do today is I want to
take you back to the ancient near east, and I want to teach you something. That's probably very. Uh, and in many ways you've probably
memorize this verse or this prayer, but what I want you to see in my opinion,
how this prayer manifests God's desire and God's heartbeat for how we can be
more kind in this world that we live in. If you have a Bible turn with me
to Luke chapter 11, verse one, and I love the sound of a church,
just turning pages in the book. And in Luke chapter 11, verse one, it
simply says this one day, Jesus, who was a rabbi who would travel around teaching
and offering up new interpretations. One day, Jesus was praying in a certain
place when he finished one of his Talmud deem his disciples, his apprentices
said to him, Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples. Now, when you ask someone, teach
me to pray, you weren't like. What do I do when I pray? Do I close my hands? Do I bow my head or close my eyes? And for some of us, we are taught
when we asked, how do we pray? Someone taught us the ax model, you
know, start with adoration, then go to confession, then dues, Thanksgiving,
and then lastly supplication. But none of us ever knew what
the word supplication meant. And for many of us, we were taught this
philosophy of like how we are to pray. That's not the question these days. And remember these disciples, 10 of
them are high school aged students. Peter's probably a little bit older
in college and one's probably just in junior high and they're asking
their rabbi, teach me how to pray. But what they're really asking is Jesus. What do you want to
accomplish here on earth? That is what would you would
say when you are asking a rabbi to teach me how to pray? You were literally asking him, Hey,
what gets you up in the morning? What are you begging? God? What do you hope to see
manifested in your ministry? This was like a mission
statement and truth. Be told. I meet many sincere Christ
followers and I ask them, Hey, tell me about your prayer life. What are you praying for? And they'll pray, pray for my
family, praying for a job, praying for safety, praying for health,
but there isn't like a mission. I'm like, Hey, how do you pray? And they walk me through a philosophy
of how they pray and which chair they pray and which room they pray in. But it's not anything that literally
gets them up in the morning. And this is what Jesus wanted to teach you
and what he wanted to teach his disciples. And so in Matthew chapter six, he walks
through the same passage in Luke 11, but I just like how it said in Matthew
six is what we know is the Lord. And Matthew six verse nine. It says this hour, either in
heaven, hallowed, be your name. I love it. Jesus starts. And he's telling his disciples. If you want to know how I pray, I
pray our father because I recognize that we are God's children. I recognize that we are
brothers and sisters. My ministry, whole intent is
to help people understand that they have access to my father. That's why. Do they can step foot in the presence of
God and have access to this great father. It's not just my father, but this God
is heartbeat is for all of humanity. Our father who's in heaven. And then there's a word that many
of us don't know what it means. Hallowed be your name and this word
hallowed literally means holy and set apart is your name, our father in heaven. Holy instead of parts is your name,
but I imagine these high school aged disciples are sitting there. How do we make God's name
hallowed here on earth? Ha how do I know God's name is holy? I know it was like Elohim and
Yahweh in the Hebrew language. I know it was like big and other,
but like how do I make that name? So holy for my friends
who were far from God. Oh, for those disciples, the Roman empire. How do I help people see the magnificent. Of God's goodness. And God's glory here on earth. And I want you to understand that
this prayer, this prayer is profoundly spiritual and deeply tangible, profoundly
spiritual, and deeply tangible. And then many of us, we grew up
memorizing this and we just learned it and we can probably even recite
it with our eyes closed, but deep down, I think we've missed. How profoundly spiritual,
how deeply tangible this is. And this is what I want you to see,
because if you can understand what Jesus was trying to teach his apprentices,
I think we will be able to manifest kindness and live out this credentialed
life more deeply and profoundly with every person we come across. Look what it says in Matthew
six, verse 10, your kingdom. And it's all under the guise of how do we
make God's name hallowed here on earth. Your kingdom come, your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Dallas Willard says the kingdom is
literally the rule and reign of God. So like your kingdom, your rule, your rain
come your will your desire, your intention be done on earth as it is in heaven. I simple prayer that I started
praying many, many years ago. That's when I move into a new city,
I would just start to pray in Arizona as it is in heaven in Maricopa county,
as it is in heaven, in Phoenix, as it is in heaven with the Phoenix suns,
as it is in heaven and the snore and foothills where I live as it is. Of Davalle valley exit, as it is. And heaven. I started walking down to my street
as it is and heaven, and I get to the point where I even look at my own life
and go, may your kingdom come, may your rule and reign come, may your
good desires and intent for my life. Your will be done, not just in Arizona,
not just in Maricopa, not just here in central Christian, not just here in
Phoenix and beyond put in me as it is. And heaven. And if we were actually going to be the
kind of people that manifest kindness, where we are doing profound, good,
expecting nothing in return, then we have to be the kind of people who deeply
they understand how spiritual this prayer is and how deeply tangible it is. So how do we do it? Look what Jesus says. Verse 11, verse 11. He says this, give us today. Our daily. Give us today, our daily bread. Now, many of us grew up and we
learned about these devotions called our daily bread. And I remember early on in kind
of my faith journey, I would get these and I would read them. And the whole idea was that God's word
was like the bread of life, kind of taken off that I am statement where
Jesus says I'm the bread of life. And we saw that, like this
could feed our spiritual soul. Uh, God's word. It would like literally it's,
it's, it's inspired and inspired, literally means heaven's breath. And this is like the breath that
we breathe and it inspires us to be the people God has called us to
be, but what's amazing is that's profoundly spiritual and we need to. And John 15, 10 times in the first
10 verses it talks about how we must remain in the vine, remain in Christ. Some translations say abide in abide
comes from the word abode, which literally means to make your home. And the goal for every single one
of us is to remain abide abode, make our home in Christ and Jesus. When you do this, you're going to
bear to the kind of fruit, as amazing as growing up as a, as a preacher,
people used to always say, Steve, you got to keep the main thing. The main. That is funny that Jesus just teaches. All of his disciples is to keep
the remain thing, the main thing. And when you begin to remain studying
God's word, it's going to feed you. And when it feeds you, your heart and
your mind become more like Christ. But imagine growing up under
Roman occupation, imagine being taxed so much money. Imagine not knowing where your
next meal would come from. Imagine the worry and
the anxiety and the fear. And Jesus, I believe is saying something
so beautiful saying, Hey, give us today. Our daily bread. Yes, let me go deeper with Jesus. Let me go deeper with God. Let me go deeper with the holy spirit,
but what I'm praying for, I'm praying that everybody would have bread. Profoundly spiritual and deeply practical. See kindness is not niceness, but
kindness embodies God's truth. So when you find yourself deep
with God's word, it's not just supposed to stay with you. There's not like a Hoover dam that
just holds up all the grace with. It has to flow through you. And Jesus is saying my dream, my prayer
for my disciples in the church, it's literally that they would seek after God
they've the remain thing, the main thing. But man, they would make sure
that everyone, their myths has enough bread to eat. It goes even farther. Right? Then it says this verse 12 and
forgive us our debts it's as we also have forgiven our debtors. Now the word forgive is the word a
female and Hebrew and a female literally means like to, to like almost release
and send away has it's like picture of the day of atonement or basically
the whole nation of Israel would put their sins and there's like go. And basically the sh lamb
would be like sent out. It would be like released and
sent away almost signifying that all of the deaths were gone. And what's so amazing about this is when
we understand the gospel story of Jesus. He forgave us of our debts,
something profoundly spiritual. The more that we'd go deeper with
Jesus, keep the remain thing. The main thing, the more we're going
to understand how forgiveness is so central to the hearts of God. But imagine once again, you live in Roman
occupation and in Roman occupation, you are taxed and not just tax, but Rome is
trying to take more and more of your. And you've grown up and this
has been your land and you have, I've held onto your land. Your history is connected to this
land and the Empire's taking it. If you ever then with someone who's
just racked up thousands of pumps, thousands of dollars in credit card
debt, and they just feel trapped. It's amazing to me, that chase
credit card, you know what they call their credit card, the freedom card. It does not bring freedom. It just brings slavery. And for many of us we've gotten
caught up in that thinking it's freeing us, but it's only freeing
us into more and more bondage. I sat with someone recently and they
had some health issues and they'd racked up hundreds of thousands
of dollars in medical bills, not just the fear, the anxiety. Have you ever sat with someone maybe
in the late two thousands, maybe in the nineties and someone who had just
felt like they were going to lose their house and the fear and the anxiety
and Jesus was seeing this happen. He was traveling around the ancient near
east and he was seeing people who were on the verge of losing their property. He goes, you know what? My dream is, my dream is
that people have bread. And my dream is that people understand
forgiveness of sins, but they also help forgive people of their debts so that
they can live, not an anxiety, worry or fear, but they can walk and freedom. Can you imagine a kind of church. They went so deeply spiritual with
Jesus and the spirit and the love of God that they understood the word and they
understood forgiveness, but they lived the kind of life that ensure that everyone
had something to eat and they ensure that people weren't walking in fear and
debt, but they actually could walk and freedom, not expecting anything in return. That was Jesus, his dream. And he goes, when you do
this, it's like heaven invade. Earth. It's like God's dream invades,
the tangible right here and right now, and then to do this though,
it's not just a church being nice. It's a church that
understands that kindness. One embodies God's truth and
kindness, dignifies God's people because they recognize
everyone is only one prayer away. Even Milwaukee bucks. Everyone matters to the heart of God. And so it wasn't some way
to say, oh no, no, we can't actually help you with your debt. We can't help you. We don't want you to, we are okay
with you walking in fear and anxiety. No, no, no, no. It said we are going to be the kind
of people who understand a female, understand forgiveness, understand
what Jesus did for us on the cross. And we want to do that when
it comes to spiritual matters. And we want to do that
when it comes to financial. And then Jesus ends the prayer
with this and lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
and lead us, not into temptation. And the temptation is
to make this about us. The temptation is to live in
if then life, if I do this for you, then you will do this. The temptation is to co-op something
for our benefit and literally evil CS Lewis defined it as co-opted
good in our, culture's fantastic at doing this when it comes to power,
co-opting it for our benefit money, co-opting it for our benefits sex. Co-opting it for us. And often we miss out on the heart of God. And the temptation is, is that Christ
followers have to understand the gospel of Jesus giving to us freely giving to us. We cannot earn grace. We cannot earn salvation. All we can do is receive it. And the gift of kindness when that is
manifested by the holy spirit in us, is that we know how to give, because we
recognize that kindness embodies God. Kindness, dignifies God's people and
kindness, preserves God's creation and anything that gets in the way of
that we recognize is the temptation of the evil, trying to co-opt it for
our own benefit or for his motivation. And when we fall into that, it's
like heaven gets farther away from invading and taking up residence
in our city or in our home. Or in our church or in our neighborhood,
kindness is a big deal, profound, good for another expecting nothing in return. And this is how the first
church lived their life. And I want you to see this. And again, remember that these,
these are high school aged student. Who've been entrusted after Jesus's
death, burial and resurrection. They have been in trusted deleted church. And it's not just the church
of a couple hundred people. This church because of acts two
in the giving of the holy spirit has now grown to over 3000 people. And I imagine like these
sophomores in high school going, dude, what are we you gonna do? I don't know. What should we do? Like seriously, what are we? I don't know what to do. What should we do? And I imagine one of them
going, Hey, remember when Jesus. You asked him, you asked him the question,
you asked him, teach us how to pray. And he says, this is what I hope to see. We should probably just do that. And I want you to see a familiar
passage and scripture, many churches have been planted and started
and modeled after this section of scripture that I want you to read. And I'm here to tell you all it is, is
the incarnation of the Lord's prayer. And if you don't believe me, just. Acts 2 42 through 47 says this,
they, this is being the first church. They devoted themselves to the
apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread. And to the prayer. So you think of this, you got
this, this first crew and what are they going to devote themselves? We're going to vote ourselves to teaching. That's going to help us embody and
keep the remain thing, the main thing to fellowship, because we actually
understand that this is better together and we are truly choosing community. And this word fellowship literally
means to be on mission together. And so this idea that
they had common, yes. Together. If we make it, I make it. And then they were breaking bread. Fascinating spiritual. Yes, probably a reminder of the communion
and what Jesus did on the cross, but deeply practical cause people around a
table and to prayer, to embodying the Lord's prayer continues on everyone. Everyone. And imagine people who are filled with
anxiety and worry, not knowing where their next meal would come, not knowing
if they were going to lose their land. People who had been ostracized
by the Roman empire, who didn't think that they were worthy enough. Everyone verse 43 was filled
with all at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together
and had everything in common. And look at this verse 40. They sold property and possessions
to give to anyone who had need, forgive us, our debts. As we forgive our debtors, I do
not want, I want you to walk in fear or anxiety or worry, and we
are relentless and incarnating. The Lord's prayer every day. They continued to meet
together in the temple courts. They broke bread. In their homes and ate together
with glad and sincere hearts. They did not have like the spirit
of like, I'm giving you food. Where are you going to do? For me? There was the sense of joy that
people were coming to the table. There was a sense of joy that people
were able to walk and freedom. There was the sense of joy that God
had entrusted them with this sense of kindness, that embodied God's truth. This sense of kindness, that dignified
God's people, this sense of kindness that preserve God's creation. And they were like, I get to do this. In other words, sincere in Greek,
the Greek language is fascinating because if you add like a letter
a before any other word, it means like anti, like against not of. And so sincere is the word, ah, hypocrite,
which literally means anti hypocrite. And so when somebody was sincere, they
were someone who didn't wear a mask, you actually saw who they really were see
in the Roman and Greek reality and world you'd have these massive amphitheaters. I mean, emphasis is that 25,000
people you'd have an actor who would come out and you have a bag
of masks and you put the masks. And he would pretend to be a
persona and they pretend to perform. And to be someone he'd often have
three or four masks in a bag and he would just put them on be pretending
to be a different character. Later on too often times many of
us in the church were just good at wearing a different mask. And when we are good and sincere
of what Jesus is up to in us and what the spirit is doing with us,
we can drop the mass and we can. We can celebrate it. Cause we're not expecting anything in
return because what we receive because of grace, we didn't deserve it and
we can show up and we can be honest. Ah, man, my marriage is struggling and
I got this dad, I got this addiction. I'm struggling. And all of a sudden we can watch how
the local church because of Christ and be in tuned to Christ and keep it
the remain thing, the main thing, and the spirit doing what the spirit does. We actually can be about
profound, good for another and not expect anything in return. And when a church is like this,
something profound happens. Look what it says. They broke bread in their homes and ate
together with glad and sincere hearts, verse 47, praising God and enjoy. The favor of all the people and the
Lord added to their number daily, those who are being saved because who
wouldn't want to be a part of that. And literally what this
verse is describing is heaven invading that context. And so a church of 3000 just began to
grow and grow and grow and grow and grow. Friends. Can you imagine if we were the kind
of people who said, man, I want to live this credentialed life. I want to be the kind of person that
gives the spirit more power to move. I want to be an embody, the kindness
of God that doesn't expect anything in return and I'm willing to forgive
and help people walk in freedom. I'm willing to go deeper in God's
word, but I'm also how we're willing to help people who don't have food. Somehow heaven, invades that and people
get to see what God's heart is all about. A number of years ago, I, uh, had the
privilege to kind of share the stage with one of your pastors here at central
is a man by the name of Dean keys. Some of you probably know. Dean. And I had the privilege to, um, share
some final thoughts and remarks about a man that was very, very dear to us
was Dean's best friend and growing up. And it was my mentor. And I remember, um, I was living in
Chicago at the time, and I remember that they were having a hard time
finding out a location of where they were going to meet because. They thought, ah, it's probably
about 150 people will show up to the funeral and then they kept
getting word that no 500 people. So they found a new venue. Then they found out 750 people. So they found our new venue. It finally ended on a venue that
was just sat almost 2000 people. And so I show up to this funeral, NAS
pat, and I'll never forget these words, that Dean ke shared when talking about his
best friend, he said that this man's life. Was like one gigantic welcome
mat and everywhere he went, he literally put out the welcome mat. Didn't expect anything in
return from other people. He just wanted them to know that
they were welcomed in his life. Welcome in his home, welcome at his table. And I kid you not, I just thought it
was one of the most beautiful examples that truly spoke to who my friend. And then I spoke after Dean and I
looked at this room and I looked at the room and I saw people who
are red state and blue state. I saw people of every race. I saw people who were far from God
and people who were close to God. I saw city manager, Phoenix and
politicians and other religious leaders. I even looked off to the left
and I saw the local Phoenix. And as I sat back and I watched
this room filled with people, I knew that Dean was right. This man had lived a life
that said, you're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome. I'm not expecting anything in return. I just want you to get as close as
possible to taste and see what God's. Goodness is all about. I got on a plane and I'm
flying back to Chicago. I grabbed my journal. I grabbed my Bible and I just
start writing and reflecting. And I start to think to myself,
if I were to die today, who would show up to my funeral and real gut-check I started right
down a whole bunch of people that look like me thought, like me acted
like me, probably voted like me. Probably thought the same
things that I thought. And then I started to really
reflect on that the, my life didn't really have a welcome mat. My life actually had an if then kind
of continuum, these people are good to me, then I'll be good to them. If these people do what I want, then
I'll, then I'll, they'll help them out. If these people can help
me, then I'll help them out. And that is the antithesis of the gospel. That's the antithesis of kindness. And what I've come to realize more
than ever, that the people who go deeper and deeper and deeper with the
way of Jesus, keep the remain thing. The main thing are the people who want
to see heaven, invade birth in their hearts, in their home and in their city. But to do that is profoundly spiritual
and it's deeply tangible and kindness is when you actually start to go, man. Kindness must embody God's truth. Kindness must dignify God's people and
kindness must preserve God's creation. And when we do this, it's like
we're putting a welcome mat. When we do this, people are less anxious
and worried and driven by fear and stress, but are beginning to experience the
favor and the goodness of God and heaven beginning to get closer and closer to. Central. I don't know where you are today, but I
want to end just with two quick questions. And the first question simply is
this, what is the prayer or the prayer and the life that you are
hoping to accomplish here on earth? It was the prayer. Is it just simply just for my
health or for my finances or for my job or for my kids, kids. What's the prayer that
gets you up in them. And maybe for some of us in this summer
season of this credential life series, maybe we just got to get back to the
Lord's prayer and say, God, make that my mission statement, make heaven,
invade my neighborhood in my city, in my church, in my heart and my home. Let me be about the spiritual and the
tangible, or maybe even deeper than that. How will you allow God's
name to be hallowed hero? How will you help make God's
name holy and set apart? Not just in your mind because
you're choosing daily bread of God's word or coming on a weekend
to worship or watching online. But I'm talking about in your one and
only life manifesting the fruit of kindness, expecting nothing in return. And when we live like that, Heaven
just gets closer and closer and closer, and people get to experience
the gladness, the goodness, and the sincerity of God's heart for them. Let's pray. God, thank you. Thank you for what you are
stirring in this church. I pray for every one of us that we
would know that when we leave this place, maybe go to a barbecue today,
maybe go into the backyard of a name. Maybe outside watching the fireworks
that were carrying this welcome mat. And God, I pray that you by your holy
spirit would begin to do a work in us that isn't just nice, but embodies your truth. It dignifies your people
that preserves your creation. And that through our one and only
life, the ways that we choose to hallow make your name whole, and
holy here on earth, people can taste and see what you are all about. Make us kind through your power and your
strength and all God's people said, amen.
