₦Sermon 40
YOUR KINDNESS WILL REWARD YOU
“Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you”
— Proverbs 11:17 NLT
Scriptures: Prov. 11:17, Matt. 18:23 – 35, Luke 10:30 – 37.
Kindness is a term that pictures out righteous deeds of a person towards a neighbour. It is what God desires to see His children do to one another and it has a reward attached to it. We see that the opposite of kindness is cruelty, wickedness, evil, nefariousness, maliciousness and malevolence. The scripture says: “Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you — Prov. 11:17. Do good tidings unto men, and one day your good deeds will return unto you. As it’s acclaimed in Ecclesiastics 11:1 “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days”. The preacher Solomon, David’s second son by Bathsheba did not mean we should take our bread unto water but rather unto men and it will be like erosion or water that goes round and after some days, it returns back to its origin. Our good deeds perhaps make a way for our children. I have seen under the sun some children of good will who were rewarded by the good seed their fathers sowed to others for many years past and other children of evil men who were rewarded with the evil their late or living parents did unto men.
The scripture, Proverb 11:17 gaudily pictures out two unrelated and contrastive phenomena.
Your kindness to your neighbour is what will reward you. Numerous people expect God to show them kindness but how kind or generous are they to one another? Though, a lot of people that try to show kindness to people – friends, brothers, relatives at times find themselves in a serious problem but at last what save them is their kindness which they have shown to some neighbours. The fact is that God will not reward a righteous with evil. This confirms the scripture that says: “the measure you use will be the measure you receive”, Matthew 7:2.
Everybody needs helps. We, in point of fact, need people to be kind enough to us, but are we kind enough to people? Are we so friendly with people? We tend to be happy drinking and eating in our friends’ houses but when they come to us, we begin to frown and give them less attention. Even when people come to borrow money from us and we know that we have the money at the moment, we begin to tell them come today or tomorrow. And we forget that we should not withhold anything from people that need it from us. At times we lend money with interest. What nonsense is it! What really distinguishes you from a pagan? Even some pagans have learnt how to do good unto men but what about you that carry bible day by day to church? “A righteous man lends money and charges no interest; he does not take bribes to testify against the innocent – psalm 15:5. If you are such people that lend money without interest, you will stand at the holy hill of Jehovah and nothing can move you. So many people lend money unto men but nobody gives them back. Well, it is only God that will reward you but those who borrow without paying back; their evil is what will destroy them.
_ There was a woman who borrowed money from one organisation. This woman had a co-wife but they were not in good terms. One day the members of the association (organisation) came to her house including her rivalrous co-wife to have their money back. This woman went into her house and fetched acid attempting to pour it particularly on that her contending co-wife, fortunately the co-wife escaped it and the acid spattered on her body as she fell down. All her face was cruelly damaged.
Brethren, have you seen that the reward of kindness is at work, even the reward of cruelty. The evil woman was rewarded with destruction. The scripture says: “the righteousness of the good man will make his way straight, but the sin of the evil-doer will be the cause of his fall” — Prov. 11:5.
Besides, we should be reminded that if someone shows us kindness, we owe a debt to other people. If not your unkindness to people will bring you a disaster. Let us consider the parable of the unforgiving debtor.
A king decided that all his servants should come and render their account. It was only one man whose account was not up to date. The king ordered that he should be sold along with his children, wife and everything he owed to pay the debt. This man pleaded with the king until the king, his master was filled with pity. He released him.
This man left the king to grab his servant who owned him some money. The servant begged but he didn’t listen, he arrested the man and put him into prison. When the king heard this act of cruelty, he ordered that the man should be punished since after forgiving him he went to other man to make case with him without showing mercy as he was shown. Some of us are like that. We neither show mercy nor forgive our neighbours. The King in this scriptural context is God. When he forgives us on one hand and we on the other hand forgive not our neighbours, he’ll come upon us with great annoyance and irking fury to destroy our unforgiving souls.
Brethren, there’s a reward in anything we do in this world. Don’t let evil conquer you but conquer evil by doing good — Romans 12:21. God bless you.
————Meditation Point——————
O LORD may you certainly extend your kindness to me for the sake of your son JESUS CHRIST and make me a regular guest at your feast table. Amen!
YOUR KINDNESS WILL REWARD YOU
“Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you”
— Proverbs 11:17 NLT
Scriptures: Prov. 11:17, Matt. 18:23 – 35, Luke 10:30 – 37.
Kindness is a term that pictures out righteous deeds of a person towards a neighbour. It is what God desires to see His children do to one another and it has a reward attached to it. We see that the opposite of kindness is cruelty, wickedness, evil, nefariousness, maliciousness and malevolence. The scripture says: “Your kindness will reward you, but your cruelty will destroy you — Prov. 11:17. Do good tidings unto men, and one day your good deeds will return unto you. As it’s acclaimed in Ecclesiastics 11:1 “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days”. The preacher Solomon, David’s second son by Bathsheba did not mean we should take our bread unto water but rather unto men and it will be like erosion or water that goes round and after some days, it returns back to its origin. Our good deeds perhaps make a way for our children. I have seen under the sun some children of good will who were rewarded by the good seed their fathers sowed to others for many years past and other children of evil men who were rewarded with the evil their late or living parents did unto men.
The scripture, Proverb 11:17 gaudily pictures out two unrelated and contrastive phenomena.
Your kindness to your neighbour is what will reward you. Numerous people expect God to show them kindness but how kind or generous are they to one another? Though, a lot of people that try to show kindness to people – friends, brothers, relatives at times find themselves in a serious problem but at last what save them is their kindness which they have shown to some neighbours. The fact is that God will not reward a righteous with evil. This confirms the scripture that says: “the measure you use will be the measure you receive”, Matthew 7:2.
Everybody needs helps. We, in point of fact, need people to be kind enough to us, but are we kind enough to people? Are we so friendly with people? We tend to be happy drinking and eating in our friends’ houses but when they come to us, we begin to frown and give them less attention. Even when people come to borrow money from us and we know that we have the money at the moment, we begin to tell them come today or tomorrow. And we forget that we should not withhold anything from people that need it from us. At times we lend money with interest. What nonsense is it! What really distinguishes you from a pagan? Even some pagans have learnt how to do good unto men but what about you that carry bible day by day to church? “A righteous man lends money and charges no interest; he does not take bribes to testify against the innocent – psalm 15:5. If you are such people that lend money without interest, you will stand at the holy hill of Jehovah and nothing can move you. So many people lend money unto men but nobody gives them back. Well, it is only God that will reward you but those who borrow without paying back; their evil is what will destroy them.
_ There was a woman who borrowed money from one organisation. This woman had a co-wife but they were not in good terms. One day the members of the association (organisation) came to her house including her rivalrous co-wife to have their money back. This woman went into her house and fetched acid attempting to pour it particularly on that her contending co-wife, fortunately the co-wife escaped it and the acid spattered on her body as she fell down. All her face was cruelly damaged.
Brethren, have you seen that the reward of kindness is at work, even the reward of cruelty. The evil woman was rewarded with destruction. The scripture says: “the righteousness of the good man will make his way straight, but the sin of the evil-doer will be the cause of his fall” — Prov. 11:5.
Besides, we should be reminded that if someone shows us kindness, we owe a debt to other people. If not your unkindness to people will bring you a disaster. Let us consider the parable of the unforgiving debtor.
A king decided that all his servants should come and render their account. It was only one man whose account was not up to date. The king ordered that he should be sold along with his children, wife and everything he owed to pay the debt. This man pleaded with the king until the king, his master was filled with pity. He released him.
This man left the king to grab his servant who owned him some money. The servant begged but he didn’t listen, he arrested the man and put him into prison. When the king heard this act of cruelty, he ordered that the man should be punished since after forgiving him he went to other man to make case with him without showing mercy as he was shown. Some of us are like that. We neither show mercy nor forgive our neighbours. The King in this scriptural context is God. When he forgives us on one hand and we on the other hand forgive not our neighbours, he’ll come upon us with great annoyance and irking fury to destroy our unforgiving souls.
Brethren, there’s a reward in anything we do in this world. Don’t let evil conquer you but conquer evil by doing good — Romans 12:21. God bless you.
————Meditation Point——————
O LORD may you certainly extend your kindness to me for the sake of your son JESUS CHRIST and make me a regular guest at your feast table. Amen!
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