Kindness: Speaking Kind Words
*Sunday | November 12, 2023*
ray@crossroadsny.org

Kindness:
Kindness is a behavior best expressed by having kind actions and words, especially when it’s not convenient.

Proverbs 12:25 / NIV, “Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.”

Proverbs 15:4 / MSG, “Kind words heal and help; cutting words wound and maim.”

1. Kind words come from a healthy

Reveal Answer

Genesis 45:4-5 / ESV, “So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.”

Luke 6:35 / NLT, “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”

2. Kind words speak timely

Reveal Answer

Genesis 45:6-11 / ESV, “For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 9 Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry. 10 You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. 11 There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.’”

Proverbs 15:23 / CSB, “A person takes joy in giving an answer; and a timely word—how good that is!”

3. Kind words work

Genesis 45:12-15 / ESV, “And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. 13 You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” 14 Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him.”

My next steps

Read: Luke 17:11-19
Memorize: Proverbs 12:25; Luke 6:35
Take inventory of my communication and seek to speak kind words.
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