Worship at Spencerville · Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church

"Be Kind" with Pastor Chad Stuart - Resolutions That Matter for Others: Part One - Jan. 3, 2026

January 7, 2026·29 min·2 clips

Pastor Stuart opened every single door for a college date who told him it was 'a social construct to oppress women' — just to watch her seethe — then admits God would have looked at that act and said 'this has no value.'

1. Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church opens 'Be Kind,' the first installment of a five-part January series titled 'Be ___,' a resolution-centered series about serving others rather than self. 2. Pastor Chad Stuart is the sole speaker; no outside guest appears; he references the congregation members Liz and Lyle for the worship segment and Carla for the slide presentation. 3. The sermon's thesis is that the popular sentiment 'kindness is free — sprinkle it everywhere' misrepresents biblical kindness, which costs the one thing human sinful nature values most: self. 4. Stuart opens with the bumper sticker and T-shirt slogan 'Kindness is free. Sprinkle it everywhere' and acknowledges the cultural context — almost nobody today claims society is getting kinder. 5. Matthew 24:9 is cited: Jesus tells followers they will 'be hated by all people for my name's sake,' with each subsequent verse (betrayal in v.10, lawlessness in v.12) framing increasing meanness as prophetically predictable. 6. 2 Timothy 3:1-4 is read in full: Paul lists that 'times of difficulty' will be characterized by people who are 'lovers of self, proud, arrogant, abusive, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, brutal, without self-control.' 7. Stuart addresses the impulse to obsess over cultural meanness and redirects: 'What I'm more worried about is that the meanness out there comes in here, into my heart.' 8. He introduces the concept of 'keyboard demons' — people who post cruel things online but smile at the door — to argue that church members are not immune to the harshness they criticize in others. 9. Paul's instruction to Timothy is cited: 'As the Lord's servant you must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone' — framed as a directive that applies to adversarial people, not just agreeable ones. 10. Stuart argues that biblical kindness does not mean silence or acquiescence to wrong, but that 'kindness is not about agreeing with everything in society — it is about how we respond to people when we disagree,' citing Timothy's phrase 'correcting opponents with gentleness.' 11. The Joseph example from Matthew 1 is presented: rather than publicly shaming a pregnant Mary, Joseph chose to 'divorce her quietly,' which the Bible calls righteous — contrasted with how social media culture today would demand public cancellation. 12. Luke 6's expanded version of the love-your-enemies command is read aloud, including 'to the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other' and 'lend, expecting nothing in return,' with a direct challenge to think of one specific person the listener is most annoyed with. 13. Stuart lists the personal costs of living out Luke 6: giving up pride, the satisfaction of a held grudge, the pleasure of a snide remark about someone when they're absent, and the social awkwardness of having to repair a broken relationship rather than avoid it. 14. Micah 6:8 is presented as a three-part interdependent framework: do justice, love kindness (hesed), walk humbly with God — with the argument that these three commands cannot be separated without losing their value. 15. Linguist Hans Walter Wolff is cited for the analysis that the Hebrew genitive construction ahava hesed appears only once in the entire Old Testament and means that 'the practice of justice has not achieved its goal if it is not accomplished in loving-kindness.' 16. The college date story illustrates the gap: Stuart deliberately opened every door for a date who called door-opening an 'oppressive social construct,' purely to watch her seethe — and concedes that God would have called those acts valueless because the motive was spite. 17. The third element of Micah 6:8 — walking humbly with God — is presented as the only power source for the first two: loving-kindness as a heart orientation is not naturally available without surrender to Jesus. 18. The tone is warm, self-deprecating, and conversational, with audience-interactive moments (asking listeners to blink twice if they have someone they're annoyed with) and humor at Stuart's own expense in the dating story. 19. People interested in practical Christian ethics, the theological cost of kindness, and how biblical commands relate to cultural polarization will find this episode applicable. 20. Listeners expecting expository Bible teaching or a more exegetically dense sermon may find the structure light; the dating story and interactive moments suggest a broad congregational audience.

As heard by us

A plainspoken call to kindness that treats love for enemies as costly, not sentimental.

A January sermon opens a five Sabbath series by asking for kindness that still holds when it costs something. It moves from personal resolutions to service and blessing, then grounds the point in scripture, a Joseph example, and direct questions to the room.

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Why you'd press play

When you need a sermon that turns kindness into a concrete choice, not a soft sentiment.

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