Introduction: Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Welcome to Exploring Missions, connecting mission needs with those equipped by God to meet those needs across the world or across town. And now, the host of Exploring Missions, Bert Harper.

Nathan Harper: Thank you for listening to Exploring Missions today. This is Nathan Harper with my dad, Bert Harper. Question for you: Have any of you read the recent best-selling book—it's a fiction book by a gentleman named Alan Levi. The book is called Theo of Golden. I'm wondering if anybody has read that. Well, apparently a lot of people have because it's a bestseller. Theo of Golden was Alan Levi's first novel. If you are not familiar with it, you might want to check that out. Or if—Dad, I know you're not a big fiction kind of fan, so you might just want to hear somebody talk about it instead of reading it yourself.

Bert Harper: Well, I'm interested in this program for that reason. I want to hear this, and you was telling me about it, and I said, "Hey Nathan, you usually take the lead on all these teaching programs, and for today it really will be that." So I'm looking forward to hearing about this.

Nathan Harper: Well, don't worry if you have not read the book, Theo of Golden by Alan Levi. There are no spoilers here, so don't worry. In fact, we won't even really discuss the book very much at all. But as I was reading, there were several things that just jumped out at me that relate to what you would say is incarnational ministry, incarnational missions. And low and behold, I found ten principles right there in the book that were described and written about. It's a fiction book, so they're not written down as principles—it's a narrative—but they really still just jumped out to me.

So I thought today we would talk about spreading kindness like Theo. Another way of saying that might be purposeful acts of kindness. Dad, you've probably heard or seen either a bumper sticker or heard people talk about random acts of kindness. Have you heard of that phrase?

Bert Harper: Right. Yes, quite a bit. And let me just say this: if anyone's going to read a book and they're going to find a missional purpose in that book, unless it's Nathan, I'd put you on that list. And so I appreciate you doing this. I'm excited about it. And purposeful—this is the whole idea. Missions has got to be on purpose. I know as you go, you make disciples, but you're making them on purpose as you go. So I'm ready for that list, brother.

Nathan Harper: Okay. Before we get to the list, let me just read the—if you were to pick up like a hard copy of Theo of Golden, the book, and just how you can flip it over to the back cover and read the brief little paragraph description about it—let me just read that for us so you kind of have a little bit of an inkling of what the book might be about.

"One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small Southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from or why. His name is Theo, and he asks a lot more questions than he answers. Theo visits the local coffeehouse, where 92 pencil portraits hang on the walls—portraits of the people of Golden done by a local artist. He begins purchasing them one at a time and putting them back in the hands of their rightful owners. With each exchange, a story is told, a friendship is born, and a life altered. A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted novel about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the invisible threads of kindness that binds us to one another."

So anyway, that's a little bit of just a real overview of what that novel is about. But purposeful acts of kindness—I never liked the phrase "random acts of kindness" because it might seem random to some, but it takes intention on the part of the one who is showing the kindness. Don't you believe that?

Bert Harper: I guarantee you it is. It's just that way. And I remember the first time I ever heard or saw that was handing out water—glasses of water to help people in different ways in different places. And I always thought, "Man, that is the way to do it," because water is so important. And if you're ever without water because of some contamination or a pipe bursting and you don't have water, you find out how important it is. And I would say it wouldn't be random; it would be purposeful for somebody to help you out during that. So I agree with you, it should be purposeful.

Nathan Harper: So I'm thinking of this passage in Titus chapter 3. Verse 4 says—and we'll talk about more of the context here just for a second, but it says, "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared..." So understand that kindness comes from God, and it shows up in Jesus. Sometimes we might have a mistaken concept of what kindness is. You like to use this word, Dad: "mushy." It's not a mushy kind of thing. There's a strength to kindness. In fact, you have to be very strong to show kindness to some people in and in some circumstances. Think about Jesus, who he showed kindness to and love of God to when Jesus appeared. And so kindness is something that appears in someone's life—they see it. They can visualize it or they can experience it.

And so what is that context in Titus chapter 3? Well, verse 3 says, "At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another." So imagine a community of people like that. And to show kindness to people like that, what kind of strength and grit does that kind of require?

Bert Harper: Wow. That is some contrast, Nathan. In verse 4 it starts, "But when the kindness..." That's... that's kind of what He's brought us from too, isn't it?

Nathan Harper: That's right. There was a point in time where there was not kindness to be found, but when Jesus shows up, then you can see the kindness and love of God, and it's appeared. Verse 5 then says—here's the difference kindness and love of Jesus will make. Verse 5: "He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." So it's a spiritual act. So a purposeful act of kindness is ultimately a spiritual act of kindness driven by the Holy Spirit, "whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior." And it goes on to say how we can become heirs having the hope of eternal life, and then we can devote ourselves to doing what is good. In other words, we can be extensions of that kindness into other people's lives. It says, "These things are excellent and profitable for everyone."

So that's Titus 3:3–8. You might want to read and study that yourself.

So kindness is central to what Jesus is doing in the world. There needs to be a kindness when we talk about missions and living on mission. That's kind of what this training is about. It's more to do with how to live on mission—that we're called, and we might be in a certain mission field. It's probably wherever you are or wherever you are going, as you are going, like you said. So these are some ten principles of how we can show purposeful acts of kindness—show the kindness and love of God through Jesus Christ wherever we go and however we go about that.

The overall overarching principles—biblical principles—we talked about the first one being intentional. It's a purposeful act. We are intentionally showing kindness. We have intent. The ultimate intent is to bring glory to our Lord, but also the intent is to show kindness to others. You've said it already: You can't really do that on accident, can you, Dad?

Bert Harper: You cannot. And again, this kindness has to be demonstrated. And sometimes it is in a word. The Bible talks about speaking a word that is fitly spoken at the right time, at the right place. And so actions and words are both part of this kindness.

Nathan Harper: That's right. It's action. In the book Theo of Golden, a lot of those actions were giving actions, like he was giving gifts. But also they were coupled with—in tandem with, working in tandem with—his words of kindness. So you're exactly right, but it's intentional. It's something that Theo, in his book, in his story, he decided to do this. He might not have purposefully came to the town of Golden knowing what he was doing; he just knew he had to be there. For certain reasons, when you read the book to the end, you see what some of those reasons are. But as he was there, there was a greater purpose also at work, and so he had to intend to carry out a little plan that sort of formed in his mind. So that plan was to show kindness to certain people.

But not only is it intentional, but kindness is also incarnational. So our witness, our mission, has to be done with intentionality, but also incarnationally. When you first hear the word "incarnational," Dad, what comes to mind when you hear that word?

Bert Harper: Well, you think of Jesus Christ, God becoming man—the Incarnation. That's it.

Nathan Harper: So think about John chapter 1, verse 14. It says, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." And then it says, "We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." If you think about it, you add grace and truth together, what's one of the things you get? Well, you get kindness out of that. You see it; you see His glory. So just like Titus—Paul would write in Titus that the kindness and love of God has appeared—something that people see and behold.

But the idea of incarnation is, in John 1:14, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Some of you are familiar with The Message translation or paraphrase of that phrase in John 1:14. It says, "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood."

I like that. That's a good picture of an incarnational witness or a mission that is done incarnationally, is that there's skin in the game, and that there is actual moving into the neighborhood. There's a moving in, there's a stepping forward, a stepping closer. There's a close proximity to people and their needs. And so when we are incarnational, you don't do that by proxy, and you don't do that remotely. You do that with flesh and blood—hand to hand, eye to eye, shoulder to shoulder.

Bert Harper: Wow. Mm.

Nathan Harper: So that's kind of the setup. But let me just run through this, and Dad, feel free to just jump in and comment on any of these that you would like to, especially how it relates to our living on mission. Where God has planted us, how can we bear fruit? How can we show kindness in a purposeful way?

The first one—and I won't refer to Theo in this; you'd have to read the book to kind of pick up on all these—but if you haven't read the book, just trust me, these are there. If you have read the book, you might recognize this.

So, number one—and these are in no particular order: One way, one principle of showing kindness in a purposeful way is to be a regular. Be a regular. In other words, keep going back to the same places over and over. Have a place where you hang out and live life. I'm not saying hide out. You know, don't go home and hide out from the world, or don't go into the four walls of the church and hide out. But have a place where there's people nearby, and you can invest in their lives by being a regular. For Theo, it was at a coffee shop.

Dad, are you a regular at any certain places?

Bert Harper: There is, and I go to this place where I live here in Tupelo, Mississippi, and yes, they do. They even know what I'm going to order every Monday at lunch. And if I change it, I'm in trouble. I've got a routine, and stick to it. Go ahead.

Nathan Harper: I'm the same way. There's a certain burger joint in town here where I live—or where I work, anyway. I go in about once a week or once every two weeks, and when I walk in, they say, "You want sweet tea, right?" And of course, yes, that's the answer. I do want sweet tea.

Bert Harper: For those of you that live above the Mason-Dixon line, you don't know what you're missing. Sweet tea. Go ahead.

Nathan Harper: Absolutely. Yeah, you go into a burger joint up in the North and you ask for sweet tea, they just kind of throw a Sweet'N Low packet at you or something. But wherever it is, whatever—it doesn't have to be food. It can be anywhere, but somewhere you normally go in the course of your life, but you want to go there with intention to show kindness to those that are there. But you want to do it on a regular basis. That way it's not random; it needs to be purposeful. So be a regular somewhere where you get to know people and you can invest in people's lives over like a course of time. This is not like a one-time hit-and-run thing. You're not being incarnational if you do that. So we've got to be a place where we repeatedly return and become a regular.

Nathan Harper: All right, number two. We might not have much to say about this one because you and I both, Dad, are not art connoisseurs or anything, but we are humans. And so this does touch us all to one degree or another. So, number two: Beauty is an avenue to the heart.

"Beauty is an avenue to the heart." In Theo of Golden, artwork is very central. Art, in all its forms really, is central to the story. But central to art is beauty, and I think central to being a human is recognizing and noticing when something beautiful is in front of you, and appreciating that. One, you want to give glory to the Creator who created the beauty that's all around us, but also, it can touch our hearts. It can change us in our core. I don't know if you have anything to say to add to that, but—

Bert Harper: Well, let me say this, Nathan: I believe that with all my heart. It's like music. I know you were talking about art, but I cannot produce music. You know that—I can't sing, Jan has tried to help me for all these years, I don't hit the right note right, but I sure do appreciate music. And it ministers to my soul. So beauty—we appreciate it even though we can't produce that. We know, "Man, look what God... the heavens declare the glory of God," and that's the beauty. And when people can put that beauty on canvas, it speaks very loudly, I think. I agree.

Nathan Harper: Yeah. So, you know, part of that is nothing's more beautiful than showing kindness to another person. But the whole point is you're trying to reach that person's heart. And so beauty is one of the avenues to their heart, and showing kindness to someone will reach their heart. But also if there is artwork in some way, whether it's visual art, or performing art, or music like you mentioned, that's an avenue to their heart. You won't really see this much in some sort of academic thesis, but one of the proofs in my mind, in my heart, that God exists is that music exists and beauty. Like, how do we know what's beautiful? Well, because God is beautiful. Everything He's created is done well, so...

Moving on. Number three. Number three: Go slowly.

Go slowly. Wherever you're going, if you're wanting to be purposeful, if you're wanting to live incarnationally as a faithful witness of Jesus and spread kindness, you have to do it slowly. You can't rush. You can't be in a hurry. There's so much that's missed when we're in a hurry, but if we go slowly, we can really make an impact.

Bert Harper: You're convicted! The two guys who are listening to you right now are feeling convicted—Devon, board op, "Let's get it done and let's go, let's go." So I'm—hey, go slowly. God help me to do that. I think a lot of us—and I'm saying this truthfully—Lord, help me to go slow enough to see what God is doing and not too fast to miss it. Good point, Nathan.

Nathan Harper: Yeah, we can't see where people are and what their needs are, and we can't see them as God sees them unless we take the time to even slow our glance—how we actually look at people. I mean, dare I say, gaze into somebody's eyes to see what you see? Jesus talked about that—the soul is visible in the eyes. So yeah, go slowly.

Number four: Get away and rest.

Take time from the busyness for yourself, and for your body, and for your relationship with Jesus to be focused on, to get away and to rest. Even Jesus Himself did that, did He not?

Bert Harper: He did. And He would leave the multitudes and go and rest. He would leave the multitudes to be with the twelve. It's spoken of quite often. So, someone has said if you don't get away and rest, you'll probably come to the point where you give up and you just don't go. You've got to have time away. Spend that time away with God; let Him bring rest to your soul.

Nathan Harper: Yeah, we've talked about that quite a bit on this program from time to time, and it comes up pretty often, and I think it's important because of that. So yeah, get away and rest.

Number five—here I am talking about food again, but number five, Theo did this a lot in his book: Share meals.

Share meals. Now, I think Theo probably picked that up from Jesus, because Jesus did a lot of that in His book. You read through the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—it's a very interesting Bible study to do to go through all the Gospels and see how many times Jesus was sharing a meal with someone. And so, a shared meal is sometimes the most intimate thing you could do with another person.

If you want to spread kindness—if you don't rest, you won't be able to be kind with someone, but a meal is an avenue where you can intentionally show kindness in your words and even your actions. Sometimes the simple act of giving a meal, sharing a meal, is the kindest thing that you can do for someone.

All right, are we at number six? Maybe I lost count.

Bert Harper: Oh, you're right. Number six.

Nathan Harper: Okay. So number six: Look out for the least.

Look out for the least. In other words, watch for the people who get left behind. Watch for the people who are at the margins of life, or even in a community—who are the people that are neglected and forgotten and looked over? You know, Jesus did that quite a bit, did He not?

Bert Harper: He did. I've recently—I know The Chosen has been out for quite some time, but recently I decided, "Well, I'm just going to watch some." And one of the most amazing characters that they show that Dallas Jenkins shows in this is Matthew—had some autistic characteristics and rejected, and nobody why in the world would Jesus call someone like that. But that's—I think they got the heart of what Jesus is about when He looks out for the least. I agree with you.

Nathan Harper: That's right. And so you don't know what great things God has planned for that person who we would call the least of these. But God might use you to reach them, to touch them, to show His kindness. And what does the Bible say? It's God's kindness that leads us to repentance. Your kindness to someone who is the least of these may lead one day to that person doing some great things in God's kingdom. Look out for those who are the least.

All right, number seven: Meet people where they are.

Meet people where they are. Instead of assuming people are going to come to you where you are, we need to get out into the highways and the byways, the hedges, and meet people where they are. Both like physically, like go to the people—sometimes that requires a move. Like Theo in his book, he moved from New York City to Golden, Georgia, which is a fictional town. I think it's based after Columbus, Georgia, or maybe Macon, Georgia, but the whole idea is you have to go to where people are. But sometimes you have to do that emotionally or intellectually, not just physically, and you definitely have to do that spiritually, to meet people where they are. Isn't that what Jesus did for each of us?

Bert Harper: He did. He came to me. He did. When I couldn't go to Him, He came to me.

Nathan Harper: All right, number next, I think it's number eight: Not everyone will be reached.

That's a good reminder. Even Paul had to remind himself of this, that he talked about some, right? He goes to all, but not all will be saved. Some will. And so he wanted to see some come into the kingdom and follow Jesus, but he knew not everyone will be reached. No matter what we do, no matter how hard we try, no matter how fervently we pray, there are some who will not be reached. And so sometimes our purposeful acts of kindness, or even words of kindness, will be rejected and dismissed, and sometimes we can even be on the receiving end of an attack because of our kindness. So, not everyone will be reached. Is that a hard lesson to take in and learn?

Bert Harper: I heard it this morning as I was preparing to come in to the AFR, and heard about a story and I couldn't help but think: those of us, when you're persecuted for righteousness' sake, rejoice and be exceeding glad. Now that's easier to say than to do, but understand that's going to happen at some point, Nathan. It's going to happen at some time, yeah.

Nathan Harper: That's right. I'll be Alex for a time, that's no problem.

Bert Harper: I'm sorry.

Nathan Harper: Number nine: Personal resources are required.

If we're going to show purposeful acts of kindness, if we're going to live with intention and live incarnationally as a witness, as a disciple maker, as a gospel worker, or just simply as a faithful follower of Jesus, we'll have to pay a cost. There's a cost that will be paid. I can't tell you what that's going to be for you, but it probably will demand some sort of financial investment and resources on your end. It definitely will require time and energy. It might require more than that, even to the point of sacrificial giving. But personal resources will be required to be kind to people. There's a cost that has to be paid in that.

All right, number 10, ready? We're just going to end with two short words. Number 10: Love fiercely.

Love fiercely. Don't give up on people. Stay in the fire, even when it gets hot. Kindness is not a mushy, soft thing. That might be niceness, right? But Jesus has not called us to be nice. If you're just nice, you're not fierce, and you'll run away when it gets tough. But if you're kind, like Jesus was kind, you'll stay in it, and you'll stay involved in people's lives to love them through the difficulty, to love them in the middle of the hardship, no matter what the cost might be. And here's the idea: You're going to love them to Jesus with your kindness.

So, if you haven't read the book Theo of Golden by Alan Levi, I would invite you to do that. But you can spread kindness like Theo whether you've read his book or not, because ultimately it's being like Jesus: living intentionally, living incarnationally, and living on mission for our Lord Jesus Christ.

Bert Harper: Nathan, thank you for taking us through these. Being intentional and being kind—I want to just tell you, that's what God says we're to do. Thank you for taking this time to listen to Exploring Missions, and we pray you'll take these 10 principles and practice them where God has planted you. Again, thank you for listening to Exploring Missions.

Support Exploring Missions (Bert Harper): Hello, I'm Bert Harper. Did you know that Exploring Missions is a listener-supported program? Without people like you, this program would not exist. That's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio, specifically Exploring Missions, as we reach thousands of people each week with biblical truth. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.net/give.