Showing Grace Part 3

Showing Grace – Part 3

The past two days we have talked about how to show grace to the people God puts in our lives. The bottom line is that apart from Christ doing that THROUGH you, you will find it impossible to do in your flesh.

Our model is Christ and a great passage to help us is Philippians 2:1-11. I will let the text speak for itself. I am giving it to you from The Message:

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if His love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care – then do me a favor:

Agree with each other
Love each other
Be deep-spirited friends.
Don’t push your way to the front.
Don’t sweet-talk your way to the top.
Put yourself aside.
Help others get ahead.
Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of Himself:

He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that He had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, He set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human He stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, He lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death – and the worst kind of death at that – a crucifixion.

Because of that obedience, God lifted Him high and honored Him far above beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth – even those long ago dead and buried – will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that He is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father!

Lots there to think about! Want to show grace to others? Allow Him to do it through you. Be a man who can have written on his tombstone – “He showed grace!” – Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s Keswick

GPS – God’s Positioning System: Ezekiel 9-12; Psalm 45; Proverbs 19

Compass Pointers: Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less!

Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: John 4:13-14; Level 2: John 4:34-38

Anchored to the Rock: Satan is far more anxious to keep us off our knees that he is to keep us off our feet. Ivor Powell