Kill ’Em With Kindness // Receipts: The Proof Is In The Fruit (Part 9) // Michael Todd

Summary

1. Giving as a Practice of Trust and Obedience

Before preaching on kindness, Michael Todd gives an extended teaching on generosity. He frames giving as a way to trust God, not simply as a way to receive something in return. He says he once loved God but did not trust Him with his finances or future.

Todd describes three steps in giving:

• Tithing — obedience: He presents the tithe as giving 10% of one’s increase to God’s house. He describes it as returning what belongs to God, rather than an act of generosity, and encourages consistency over a large one-time gift. He says this is a starting point for learning to trust God.
• Offerings — trust: Giving beyond the tithe, he says, should happen wherever and whenever a person feels directed by God—not necessarily only at church. He encourages people to be ready to help meet others’ needs, even when doing so disrupts their own plans. He describes offerings as “seed” planted for future abundance.
• Sacrificial giving — being trusted: Todd describes this as giving something that costs the giver meaningfully. He shares an example from his and Natalie’s early marriage, when they gave sacrificially despite needing money to repair their home’s heat. He says the point is not that larger gifts are automatically better: obedience to what one believes God has asked is more important than giving more than instructed, which he says can deprive others of their opportunity to give.

He asks the congregation to consider its own next step in giving, while emphasizing that people should not feel condemned and should follow what they believe God is asking of them. He also describes Transformation Church’s generosity, including a recent gift of $600,000 to other churches.

2. “Kill Them with Kindness”

Todd’s central message is that Christians should respond to hostility with kindness rather than retaliation. Drawing on Romans 12, he teaches that people should:

• Not repay evil with evil or take revenge.
• Seek peace with others as far as possible.
• Leave room for God to judge and act.
• Respond to an enemy’s needs—such as hunger or thirst—with practical care.
• Overcome evil with good.

In practical terms, he urges listeners to step back from online arguments, retaliatory posts, and other situations that escalate conflict. His point is not to deny harm or pretend that conflict is easy, but to avoid taking revenge and let kindness shape the response.

3. Kindness Is Different from Niceness

Todd says kindness is not merely a pleasant personality trait; in his Christian framework, it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. He distinguishes it from niceness:

• Nice is often surface-level, polite, selective, and passive. Someone may appear agreeable to people they like while behaving differently in private.
• Kind is a deeper heart posture that leads to active, compassionate, and sometimes costly help. It can mean giving time or resources, noticing a need, and taking action without expecting repayment.

He stresses that kindness does not require agreeing with everyone or abandoning convictions and boundaries. A person can disagree, maintain limits, and still treat others with compassion and respect.

4. The Good Samaritan as an Example

Todd uses the parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10. In his telling, a religious leader and a worship leader pass by an injured man, while a Samaritan—an outsider to the injured man—stops to help. The Samaritan tends the man’s wounds, provides transportation and lodging, pays for his care, and offers to cover further costs.

Todd presents this as kindness in action: compassionate help that crosses social boundaries and involves real sacrifice. He challenges listeners not to limit kindness to people from their own group, church, political camp, or background. He also calls out racial and political divisions, arguing that people can be superficially polite while withholding genuine care.

5. Kindness Under Pressure

Todd uses the image of an egg placed in hot water: pressure can make a person hard, while other reactions can leave someone without firm convictions. He says the goal is neither hardness nor passivity. Instead, pressure should reveal the “sweet” character of Christ through the believer’s response.

He encourages listeners to ask the Holy Spirit to show them what attitudes or assumptions they need to release, and to practice kindness with family, coworkers, people who disagree with them, and even those who have criticized them. He closes this part with a prayer asking for the Spirit’s help to make kindness visible in people’s actions.

6. Invitation to Faith

Todd connects kindness to Christian salvation, citing Titus 3:3–5: people are saved not by their own good deeds, but through God’s mercy and kindness. He invites listeners to accept or recommit their lives to Jesus, leads a prayer, and directs those who respond to contact the church for support.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Charles, identified as an executive pastor at Transformation Church, gives the opening welcome and introduces the message.
• Michael Todd, the preacher, delivers the teaching and closing invitation.
• Unidentified congregation members are heard responding during the sermon.
• Biblical sources quoted or referenced: Romans 12:17–21; the fruit of the Spirit, including kindness (Galatians 5:22–23); the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30–37); and God’s kindness and mercy in salvation (Titus 3:3–5). Todd also refers to Solomon’s temple offering, the widow’s small offering, and the parable of the talents.
• Jesus and the respondent in the Good Samaritan passage are quoted within Todd’s retelling of the biblical text.