In this sermon, the speaker shares stories of individuals who have experienced the power of kindness and compassion in their lives. He emphasizes the importance of showing God's glory through acts of kindness and how it can bring revival to a city. The speaker also highlights the impact of simple acts of kindness, such as sitting with a grieving person or being nice to others, in changing lives and potentially even winning nations for Christ. He encourages listeners to listen to God, look for opportunities to show kindness, and trust that their actions can make a significant difference in their community.

We start with him, and we go on with him. There was such a sweet guy that we met a few years ago when we were doing an outreach. And he looks very thin, and he has a dark skin, and he's a little bit upset. Well, I suppose you would be upset if you lived in the street for such a long time. And he got thinner and thinner, and he had a dog which got fatter and fatter. In fact, it was a really gross dog. Looked more like a pig. And it was very ugly, and he really loved this dog. And it was quite a famous dog in the street in which he slept. It was so fat that the people in the street used to play chess on it. I mean, it really was that fat it could hardly move, too. Because he gave it all his foot. And we were doing an outreach. I don't know if you do outreaches. Maybe you did one today. Did you? Any of you do an outreach? Well, we were doing an outreach in the park, you know, which is when we stand on a platform and sing about him. And then we get down from the platform and we touch people. But he was too frightened to be touched. And I could see him. And that the seeing, I don't know quite how it works, but, you know, Gary was talking about not understanding what John Wimber and Blaine were talking about seeing the spirit. And you think, how can I see? But you can learn. And with the seeing, I don't know quite how it works, but you can learn. You can see somehow, you must touch this one now. So I walked around the park. And I stayed about ten yards away from him at least, because I knew he couldn't stand anybody to be closer. And we walked around several times. And after about three times, a very big concrete park, after several times, I just got a bit closer. Of course, I couldn't physically touch him at this time. That's too much. And that was all that day. That was all. And then another day, a little closer. And then another day, a little closer. Until we knew his name and he knew how to find us. And he was a heroin addict. And he used to come up to... We had addict meetings. And of course, he came to know Jesus very quickly. And he is wonderful. Wonderful at understanding Scripture. Wonderful. I'll give you some examples of how our people understand Scripture. This is quite extraordinary. And I'm telling you these stories because I want you to be jealous. Because people often say, Jackie, where do you get your teaching from? And I say, well, I get it from the Holy Spirit and the people that I'm with. And one day in an addict meeting like this one that he came to, it was Easter. And all we ever do in these addict meetings is worship. And we go through gospel stories. I won't allow epistles at this point. Only gospel stories. And we were doing the resurrection appearances of Jesus. And so I asked them, because I don't teach Bible at these meetings, when they're born again, they're still on drugs, most of them, the Holy Spirit can teach them Scripture. There's no point in my preaching at them because their brains are half-sogged with heroin. You know, they're really... But they can hear God, so I get them to teach me what they hear. And I really believe the Holy Spirit can do this. It's wonderful. So I said at this Easter time, we were doing the story of Jesus appearing to the disciples in the room. And I said, okay, how did he get there? Well, this guy who had come four days earlier, that means he was a four-day-old Christian, had brought a friend with him, which is awful because they're always doing this. And his friend had come to know Jesus half an hour. Well, the half an hour one said, oh, yeah, it says the door was locked. He must have got in through the wall. I said, okay, how did he get in through the wall? Well, the half an hour one said, he's a ghost. And the four-day-old one said, no, he's not. On Wednesday we did that. He's got flesh and bones. I said, okay, he's got flesh and bones. How did he get through the wall? And they're all on the edge of their seats. I mean, this is real fun stuff, you know. The rest of the world's filling in salvation booklets, and our guys are doing, how did Jesus get through a wall? And so I said, how did he get there? And the four-day-old one said, fatly. Which means he's got miraculous power or magic power. I said, okay, how long did he have this fatly? Well, he said, Jesus always had fatly. But before he died, he never used it on himself. This guy's still on heroin. And I said, do we get fatly? And he said, yeah, we get fatly. He said, now it happens in our heart. Later it'll happen in our body. Not bad. I mean, fancy understanding resurrection of the body when you're four days old. Anyway, this guy is like this. He understands scripture. Now, you see, they receive it spiritually. I don't teach them. I learn from what they share with me. And this guy still looks awful. And he looks so awful. And he's still so wounded that he can't bear us to pray for him. Because he feels dirty. He feels ashamed. And he's not used to people, you see. He's just used to his dog. And so he used to come week after week after week. And he loved worshiping. He sings most terribly. But he's a wonderful guy to be near and worship. He just worships. And sometimes I found that the only way I could get to pray for him in these meetings was to go to him. And I did this quite genuinely. And I would say to him, Daito, I'm so tired this evening. I'm so exhausted. Would you mind praying for me? And he always would. And when he put his hands on me and prayed for me, I sneaked one in for him. This is how it worked. And he came to live in our house. And he never could last very long, you see. We've got wonderful helpers. But, you know, it's hard for our helpers. You know how we get people off drugs? We have six men looking after one man for one day. That is, we have six people doing a four-hour duty. They never leave him. They go into the toilet with him, into the bathroom. They never leave him alone for a day, a minute, a second. They're always there praying for him, massaging him, bathing him, worshiping, and so on. Six in one day. In ten days, that means 60 Christians have helped. So, you know, it's hard for our helpers because they're tired. The awful thing is if 20 people get saved in one week, can you add up how many people we need? And why the church needs to be mobilized? You see, it's actually not that hard a job, but our people are tired. And when you've got a funny guy in the house, who's not lived in a house, and who doesn't really understand sort of getting up and, you know, normal things, sometimes it's hard for them to be patient because they're short on sleep, and, you know, they're not all that perfected either. And so he never lasted very long, and he used to go back to the streets and go back to heroin. And he was so ashamed of himself when this happened, that he never would come back to our addicts' meetings for a long time, because he felt unworthy, until the Holy Spirit attracted him back again. He couldn't really stay away that long. But, you know, I think he's wonderful, this guy. You know, after two times in our house, and this was after knowing him for about two years, he would come to our addicts' meetings in a suit. And he's the only one that wears a suit. The rest of us wear T-shirts and shorts, and he would come. He's a street sleeper. He would come in a suit. And he would come two hours early, and he would go into the toilet and scrub it cleaner than you've ever seen. It was wonderful. He served us. He'd been touched with kindness, and he was so kind to us. And when he had scrubbed it so clean, he would sit by the door, because we have an answer phone, and he would make it his job to answer the answer phone. So when people buzzed at the door at the bottom, he was the one that pressed the come in knob. And he liked doing that. And I look at him. I often look at him. And just like Gary said on Thursday night, I think, oh, from where he started to where he's come, he's got so much further than I have. I'm proud to call him my brother, and I honor what God has done in him, and I honor his courage in allowing it. And the last time was just a few weeks ago. He failed our house again. I mean, fancy failing a Christian program. At this time, he came back to the meeting quite quick, and I said to him, Thay Thao, have you any idea what made you run? And he said, yes. He said there are things inside me that make me frightened, and I'm frightened to face them. The extraordinary thing is, he could hear my question and answer it. I don't know many people that could answer that question. I thought, this man is brilliant. I mean, never mind he's still on heroin. He has come so far. He understands, and he allows God's grace in his life, and he acts, and he serves, and he does good works while he's still being saved. You may start to see one such as he. In 1 John 3, 16, this is what it says. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. Past tense. He laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our life for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions, and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Now, it says if anyone has material possessions. It doesn't say if anybody's got many. It says if anyone has material possessions. That's all of us. Sees his brother in need, but has no compassion on him. How can the love of God be in him? Says John. How can God's love be in him, if when he sees his brother, he doesn't act? And apparently it's something to do with material possessions. If anyone has material possessions. And the implication is that we might share what we've got with someone else. And this is the heart that I'm longing to see more and more. And you know, it's so exciting. Because in the last few years, there've been quite a few Canadian hearts. Of course, there would be thousands more that I don't know of. But I've seen a few young people like some who've shared in the past few days. They haven't got a lot. And they're not very experienced. And they're not very mature. But they are willing to share what they've got. Their time. Their sleep. Their holidays. That's all. The tough people might know how kind God is. How would they know he was kind unless someone touched them? There was a man I knew. He was a doctor, actually. He read this passage. And he said, Jackie, would you pray for me that I will have compassion? Because I don't have love. Now, I'm a little bit wary about praying for people to have compassion, honestly. Because I'm not sure it happens here. You see, compassion really is when you need it. There. Why would you have it here? This is sort of a wasted thing, I suppose. You see, it's for when you have gone and seen. And are moved by his heart to understand how they feel with them and with some kind of solution. Because compassion brings some kind of solution. At least the touch of Jesus. But anyway, this man asked me to pray. And I said, well, I'll use the old-fashioned Bible to pray for you. Because the old-fashioned Bible in this passage says, If anyone sees his brother in need but does not open his bowels of compassion. So, I put my hands on this doctor and I said, Lord, open his bowels. He had diarrhea for three days. True. And about time, too. Half of the church is constipated. Very uncomfortable being constipated. We say, more, Lord! More, Lord! More, Lord! But... See? Not only supposed to do it once a week, you know. Keep the body healthy. So, it's something to do with those we've seen. Now, I suppose that there are two kinds of ways that we might see people. Some of you, when we prayed on Thursday night, began to see people with your mind's eye. We were praying once in the World City and we saw someone. We actually saw a beam of light falling upon a thin lady. And we... This was a kind of picture, you know, or a revelation. And we described the thin lady and one of the guys there who'd recently got off drugs said, that's my mother. And so we said, well, where is she? And he took us across the harbour and we found her living in what you would call a closet. But she is a very small lady. You... When you opened the door to her place, you had to immediately half lie on the bed because there wasn't any other place to go. So the place was about four and a half feet long and about three feet wide, that was it. And she was a very old lady and she had lived most of her life grieving for the loss of her husband and a helpless son. And we knocked upon the door and she came to the door, this thin little lady. And the only living she ever made was she collected the surplus bits of cloth from the factories and made simple things and sold them in the street. And when she opened the door, we said, hello, we've come to tell you about Jesus. And she said, about time too. She was waiting. But many are. Of course they might not know it's Jesus they're waiting for. But how would they know unless somebody went and told them. Another time, we saw somebody actually. And as you walk around your streets, you will begin to see people. And all we have to do is touch the ones we've seen. That's all. Now somebody just now tonight came up to me and said, Jackie, I did what you said. I prayed in tongues over this alcoholic and he wasn't changed. But why changes them? And somewhere people need to be touched by the kindness of God. Then when we pray in tongues over them, it might quicken their understanding of who it was that showed kindness. You see, praying in tongues over people is not a substitute for wasting our life on them. It's kindness. It's Jesus coming kindly to save us. He didn't stay in heaven and pray in tongues. He came and was the Word. Tongues is but a wonderful gift to help us call upon the mercy of the Lord that it be revealed to people who need touching. Touching. And we can't always finish the job. Sometimes if we see somebody we just pray for them, that's all. And we might not have the courage to get any closer. Or it could be that if we're a lady and it's a man, it wouldn't be smart to get closer. But we can at least do something. We can begin to pray for them. But there might be something more. Could be a cup of cold water. What I often do with the strangers that I see is I look at them and I honor them. I mean they're God's creation. I will acknowledge them as precious people. I will honor them and acknowledge them and greet them. Not pass by because I don't know what to do. That just might be all in Acts 4 chapter 9. Peter and John have healed a cripple and he was a cripple from birth and they got into terrible trouble for healing this cripple and they got arrested and they got before the leaders and Peter said why have we got into trouble for an act of kindness? That's it. Now Gary was talking about reaching out to bring the kingdom of God here now. How did Peter and John know on that day whether it would work or not? They did it anyway. They said well we haven't got any money. Sometimes we might give money. They said we haven't got silver or gold but we will give you what we've got. And they had a bash and it worked and the man stood up and leapt and danced and Peter said we've got all this trouble for an act of kindness. And that's all we have to do is an act of kindness. Sometimes we can tell people I'm doing the act of kindness in the name of my Jesus of Nazareth. Sometimes we might not be able to say the words. I told you yesterday about the Vietnamese refugees when we laid our hands on the oranges. Well we weren't allowed to say they were Christian oranges. You know. But we sent them anyway. It was wonderful you know. Because I don't know. The refugees got to sort of understand. I don't know how they understood the oranges came from God or Christians but when they moved to their next place they used to send requests to us saying would you mind please setting us some underpants in the name of Jesus. Sometimes people know we're from Jesus. Sometimes they don't. I was in the States once and I was in a car with a young man and we were discussing how you learn to see. And we were driving from Lancaster to Anaheim. And you know Johnny's talked about eating noodles for breakfast but what we're very shocked about when we come to California is how gross their burgers are. And we were to stop at one of the grossest of gross burger places. You know I mean huge. And we were coming around the corner of a block and I said to my friend I just saw a man standing in the street. I could just see his shadow and I said that man's poor. That man's hungry. And my driver said how do you know? And I said I don't know how I know. I can see him. That's all. Anyway we went into the burger place and we chose these gross burgers you know. I mean with fries and all the stuff. And this man came in and I saw him reading the menu on the wall and I knew he was pretending. He was pretending to choose. And I knew he couldn't choose. And finally he came up to the counter and he ordered of course the smallest bag of fries because that's all he could afford. And so he said to the waitress we'll have one more order of what we just ordered for ourselves and would you please give it to that man? And she said do you want me to tell him that you gave it to him? And I said no. You can just say some Christians gave it to him. We weren't at that time about to go and sock him with a bible verse. He needed at that time a hamburger. And it could have brought him salvation. Kindness can. Sometimes we say the words. Sometimes we can finish the job. Sometimes we just take one step. And I was in India just a year ago and there's this lovely church in India. Actually the people are rather like you. They're really sweet people. It's a strange thing in India. And it would be hard for us to imagine that it would be like that over there. But the Christians are all middle class. And the people that feed the poor are the Christian aid agencies. Now they do feed some poor but it doesn't necessarily bring people to Christ. At least it feeds some people. But you see what touches people is when people like Jesus touch them one by one in kindness. So this whole church in Bombay where it decided that they would all start doing acts of kindness. That's all. Okay. This is what we're going to learn to do. Acts of kindness. Where shall we start? And we just said you start with the one you see. You don't need to plan an outreach. You don't need to plan a rally. You just pray God will you open my eyes and I'll touch the one I see. I'll do something. So a few weeks later I met one lady and she said I am very enjoying. I am very enjoying. There are these lepers and they are coming and I can speak their dialect and I am giving them some lunch and then I am going to the store to buy a dress for their daughter and I let them choose. That's all. That's all. A bit better than asking them to church, don't you think? And there was this pastor he's such a sweet guy. He I stayed in his house and I stayed there and he has two children he has two house guests and the whole of his house is about 600 square feet and I stayed there too. He has the church in his house. He also did a full time job at the dockyard and in order to get to the dockyard he used to take the train and he was saying please Lord show me what act of kindness I can do and he used to have to change trains to get to his journey and he had five minutes on the platform and when he got onto the platform he saw a man, that's all and he was a poor man and so he sat by the poor man that's all and the next day he sat by the poor man again and he was praying inside him Dear Lord please show me what to do and this went on for about a week and people began to notice him and he saw more and he found out that there were dozens of people that slept behind the platform a little child who was two and had never sat up got a lung disease and bones just weren't strong and lepers and old ladies and none of them were Christians of course but they were curious why do you sit on our platform and he said oh I just want to be your friend I'm a Christian and he just listened to him to them and this lady said to him would you mind very much coming to see my husband he's very sick and my pastor friend said I'm very sorry but I only am having five minutes so I don't have time to come and every time he went to the platform this lady said please come and see my husband so he decided one day to take an earlier train he's already only getting four hours sleep a night by the way but he thought he would take an earlier train so he could go and see the lady's husband and he got there already and the lady came up to him and she said you're too late he's just died and my friend sat on the platform and he put his head in his hands and he cried and he wept for thirty minutes and when he opened his eyes he was surrounded by all the people that live on the platform and they were all crying that's all he did that's all he had to give he wept with those who wept and from that moment on he could do everything for those people he was their friend for life and they trusted him as they trusted no other and he would go and everyday he would take medicine to the little baby and by now he's only getting three and a half hours sleep and he would have to take the medicine everyday because of the climate and also because when you live on the street and it's so dirty the medicine crumbles so he would take it everyday and after a few months the baby could sit and it would be after several moments that the baby could stand just a little thing just a little thing and he got to be very famous and when I spoke to him he said you know I am getting messages and the people from the other platform are saying will you do our platform and he said but I am thinking I should stick to the platform God has given me and all these people are coming to him and he said will you send some of your people so I went with my with some of our people now our people are very poor and we don't speak any Indian language but we do know about God's mercy and we do know about worship so we went onto the platform with him and our guys who can't read but who can hear about the resurrection of the body they worshipped on the platform and as they worshipped these two Hindu men who were drug addicts saw Jesus and they came to Christ and miracles like this happened no this wasn't us we were just allowed to go in and do that stuff because a poor pastor who is short on sleep walked first and all he all he had to give was his tears and later on so many people came to Christ we sent a team to pray them off drugs and we stayed with them in a house and saw them through a certain procedure of course the pastors had to give up his dock job now he's got a new church too on the platform that's how it goes when you touch someone you might not see any result or it might be that when you touch someone like the pastor did that a church is born, I don't know but that's up to God all we have to do is touch people anyway and that's not too hard is it and that's what we're going to bless you to do as you leave this place and young people you can do this too I was at a conference in Germany a couple of years ago and this little teenager came up and he's he's a surfboard freak and his name is Leif and I mean he's a German teenager and I mean he's very he's just a German teenager and he his father's a pastor and he found his son Leif I think he was 13 at the time after he came back from this teenage conference and he said what are you doing and he found his son in the kitchen making a thermos of tea and a sandwich and he said what are you doing and he said I've seen a man and he gave a man a sandwich and a thermos of tea that's all and this boy became so famous amongst the man's friends that they all welcomed little Leif on a surf skateboard and little Leif became so famous that the whole church could go after him and you know so many people have come to Christ that the whole church has changed and the city has given them a building revival comes to that city through a 13 year old just a sandwich with his hand I wanted to sing a song about God's kindness and sing his glory that it doesn't matter nobody knows how to play it so it's one of Andy Park's songs but if you ever hear it and if you ever sing it remember what it means when you sing show us your glory it's a very strong and compassionate kind God who in a quaking mountain comes with kindness and forgiveness very slow anger and we want to pray for any of you who'd like to take a step in sharing the kindness that you've received with someone that's all now I expect you all to walk forward so would you unless of course you've not tasted his kindness I don't anticipate that this will be a very long ministry time but that doesn't mean it won't be a very important time of ministry because I think what Jackie has in her heart to do is simply in very simple ways to bless you but as I understand this blessing, it is a blessing to do and a blessing to do is a sort of double-edged sword because if we don't do it actually becomes judgment Jesus in John chapter 13 washed his disciples' feet so they would understand something of the importance of taking the kindness and the blessing that we've received and releasing it so he washed their feet and he said do you understand what I've done for you he said he showed them this example now that I have washed your feet so you ought to wash one another's feet this is one of the last things he left with his disciples and then he told them the significance of this he said I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him now that you know these things you will be blessed if you do them remember one time preaching a woe to you chorus and message in our church our church was growing very rapidly and increasingly I recognize there are so many people coming to receive a blessing and one time I don't know why I did this I think it was the Lord actually I turned to that passage woe to you chorus and I said look folks if you don't intend to do these things why are you coming go somewhere else where your judgment will be less you know where they talk about I don't know anything but why do you want to do this to yourself don't come please have a lesser judgment for yourself and go somewhere where you do not hear this I was being serious remember many years ago I went I won't draw this story out it's kind of a humorous story in some ways but John Wimber prayed for me before he really even knew who I was you know it was amazing I was very nervous there was other people behind me I didn't want to take much time and John he's always careful the way he prays but he looked at me and then he began to pray this prayer I was just feeling tremendously underpowered under blessed very needy and he prayed for me and as soon as he began to pray I got so excited because he prayed one of those you know pull the lever and three lemons line up it was just incredible he prayed all this great stuff may everything God's given to me be given to you a double portion I can just think this is mental I mean I can imagine having this staff striking the waters it was so incredible I thought boy these people behind me must be just seething with jealousy this is unbelievable then about half way through my heart just sunk because a revelation came to me you know Mr. Vineyard prayed the hottest prayer I could ever imagine and it wasn't working it wasn't working my knees weren't even shaking I didn't feel any oil in my hands I wasn't even sweating there was no buzz there was no intensity and I thought that's it the blessing came and I lost it nothing didn't happen it didn't work I don't know what I looked like walking back to my seat but I know I was just kind of shuffling my posture was even worse than usual I just thought woe is me I am undone the greatest guy in the movement prayed for me and it didn't work about half way back to my seat the Lord said to me very clearly how do you know you'll never know until you go to do these things Glenn Cook told me early on he said there is no blessing in the prayer the blessing is actualized when it's released the blessing comes when we do these things not when we know these things are we communicating and so Jackie in a sense I think is going to pray over you and bless you now that you know these things if you go and do them I'll tell you something there will be a blessing for you a tremendous blessing it was not too long after that time I had the blessing of seeing my father healed what a blessing that was but it could have never happened unless I prayed do you understand and there were a lot of pull the lever swallows my quarter prayers there was a lot of going out with seemingly no blessing but that's what's to be prayed over you now think about it for a second do you see how many people are here not much compared to the total population of Edmonton but what would happen if we simply went out and looked and acted in kindness I'm not talking about some great evangelistic explosion messages of wisdom persuasive power I'm just talking about being nice I commissioned the first church in Norway in Oslo Norwegian people are not that friendly really the pastor has a tremendous strategy to win the nation for Christ he said to his church be nice just be nice you may win the whole nation do you hear me because a cup of water can do incredible things in a dry and thirsty land so can you imagine the cumulative effect if we simply listened to God looked and did what he told us to do in the simplest ways I guarantee you this city would not be the same