More about Jesus would I know, More of His grace to others show!

More about Jesus would I know, More of His grace to others show.
Former President, George W. Bush once said that, “America is the land of the second chance...” Full Quote
If our country can be known as a place of second chances, then how can the churches lead the way in this area and be the trendsetters? Could it possibly be by preaching and practicing grace as much as possible?
What is grace? One author states that, “Grace is an essential part of God’s character. Grace is closely related to God’s benevolence, love, and mercy. Grace can be variously defined as ‘God’s favor toward the unworthy’ or ‘God’s benevolence on the undeserving.’ In His grace, God is willing to forgive us and bless us abundantly, in spite of the fact that we don’t deserve to be treated so well or dealt with so generously.” From gotquestions.org
The point of this lesson can be found in the old hymn More About Jesus. The first line reads as follows, “More about Jesus would I know, More of His grace to others show.” As followers of Christ, we need to allow Him to be our True example of showing grace to others. Our light in a dark world needs to relay the message that God’s grace is amazing, rather than not so amazing. It is of no use to us to know what grace is if we never intend to apply it. James 4:17 (NLT) “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” Therefore, it is sin to know what you ought to do with grace and then not do it. So how do we know how to show or what to do with grace?
As followers of Christ, I’d like to encourage each of us to take a step back, reevaluate, and rethink outside of the traditional / status quo mindsets concerning how we’ve been implementing grace and then begin viewing and applying it the way Jesus did.

Let us consider who Christ chose to do life with and show grace towards, regardless of how any of them ever treated Him. Christ provided us an example of choosing to do life with and show grace towards the ones who…

• Betrayed Him
  • Judas (Matthew 26:14-16; Luke 22:48).
  • To invest in him, to love him, to dine with him, and to serve him/wash his feet.
• Persecuted Him.
  • Saul…chiefest of sinners (Acts 9:4; 1 Timothy 1:15).
  • To continue to prick his heart.
• Rejected Him.
  • His own didn’t receive Him (John 1:11-13).
  • His own wanted him dead.
  • His own ran away from Him (The Prodigal Son).
  • To still choose to love them and die for them.
• Denied Him.
  • Peter (Luke 22:54-62).
  • To seek him out, forgive him and entrust him to feed his sheep.
• Yet because of His nature, grace was always His first go-to response.
• Christ also responded by loving, forgiving, inviting, awaiting and chasing after, rather than chasing out.
  • Loving.
    • John 15:12 (NIV) My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
    • Mark 12:30-31 (NIV) 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
      • He loves you whether it was your first time and or only offense, or whether it was a repeated offense of yours. Nothing can separate you from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39).
    • One of the verses from the love chapter is 1 Corinthians 13:5 (NIV) [Love] It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
    • 1 John 4:19-21 (NIV) 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
  • Forgiving.
    • Ephesians 4:32 (NIV) Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
    • Luke 23:34 (NIV) Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
    • He lived out his 70 x 7 model of forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-22; John 4:1-42, the woman at the well; John 8:1-11 the woman caught in adultery; Revelation 3:19-20, the erring church…He rebukes, forgives and disciplines/chastens the one’s He loves).
  • Inviting.
    • Zacchaeus…went to his house to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:1-10).
    • Paul and Peter…join me in feeding my sheep (John 21:17), come with Me into all the world (Mark 16:15).
    • Call and be saved (Romans 10:13). Come and follow me (Matthew 4:19).
  • Awaiting.
    • The Parable of the Lost Son / The Prodigal Son
  • Chasing After.
    • Matthew 18:10-14 (NIV) The Parable of the Wandering Sheep
      • “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. [11]  12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.
    • Mark 2:17 (NLT) When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
  • Chasing Out…describes a Pharisee.
    • Matthew 23:13-15, 23 (NLT)
      13 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either. 15 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!
      • “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law--justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.
    • 1 Corinthians 11:17-34…Correcting an Abuse of the Lord’s Supper
• Your responses.
  • Find your identity in Christ, not necessarily some Church or Christian institution. Ultimately the Bible – IT judges the heart, not some man-made handbook, board or committee. When man judges aside from God’s word, it is no wonder our young people live as though they can never please anyone, or that they can't be used, or that they could never be forgiven for what they've done, and then leave their Church/faith because of how the legalists / judgmentalists have treated them.
    • Matthew 7:1-5 (NLT) “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. 2 For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. 3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
• Matthew 18:15-35 Dealing with Sin in the Church
• 1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV) But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
• Hebrews 4:12 (NIV) For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
• Just keep in mind and remember these truths…
  • CHRIST is THE perfect example of One who preached and practice distributing GRACE. One author states that, “Jesus Christ is the embodiment of grace, coupled with truth (John 1:14).” From gotquestions.org. Sounds like a good source to turn to and learn from.
    • John 1:14 (ESV) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
    • John 1:17 (ESV) For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
    • John 1:16 (ESV) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
      One author points out and reminds us that, “Jesus is full of grace, and John says that, from that fullness, we (John, his original readers, and the rest of us who have trusted in Christ) have received grace and more grace. One hallmark of any interaction with Jesus is grace. Christians receive grace and then more grace—grace served on top of grace—grace and then, in place of that, more grace. The point is that Christ is full of grace, and those who know Him get showered with grace.
      The Amplified Bible translates John 1:16 this way: ‘Out of His fullness [the superabundance of His grace and truth] we have all received grace upon grace [spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, favor upon favor, and gift heaped upon gift].’ What’s abundantly clear is that, when we come to Christ, He dishes out grace in heaping, huge servings.
      In John 1:17 Christ is contrasted with Moses and the law. Of course, the law and God’s dealings with Israel did involve grace and truth, but the emphasis was more on obedience and punishment. In the New Testament, law is often contrasted with grace. The law emphasized God’s divine standards and the inability of fallen mankind to meet them, while grace rescues fallen humanity from deserved punishment. The law pinpoints the problem, and grace fixes the problem.
      Romans 5:20–21 says the same thing in a slightly different way: ‘The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’” From gotquestions.org
  • We all have a past, present and future.
    • 1 Kings 8:38 (KJV) which shall know every man the plague of his own heart
    • 1 Corinthians 6:11 (NLT) “Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
  • That God Himself is the agent working on and changing the heart in someone’s life…we can’t do that.
  • Don’t give up on God doing His work (thinking He can’t do this without my intervention and assistance), and don’t give up on those He’s doing a work in.
    • Romans 7 records for us that the Apostle Paul really struggled doing that which was right. Yet God went on to use Paul in amazing ways. Praise the Lord that He didn’t give up on Paul and that He doesn’t give up on you and I either.
  • We’re all in a sanctification process (allow for God’s perfect way and timing to mature the heart of another).
  • None of us have arrived.
  • And we’re all in trouble the day we forget these truths.
  • Satan would love to distract and disrupt God’s working in each of our hearts. Satan would also love to discourage us during the process of growing and assisting others. Don’t panic. It takes time. You may never personally witness the huge victories, but don’t fail to celebrate the small or any victories as you notice them occurring along the way.
  • Christ will see to it that consequences fit the crime…He alone knows how to perfectly reach the heart so that it can respond with proper change.
    • Sometimes we want the sinner to pay for their sin. We must not forget, “The fact that grace is a gift means that nothing is owed in return.” From gotquestions.org
• Resist beating yourself up for the rest of your life as a constant reminder / self-inflicted punishment.
  • Even though man’s actions don’t reflect forgiveness, and even though man at times can’t await to release the guillotine…just understand this TRUTH about Who He is.
    • 1 John 1:9 (NIV) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
    • See Matthew West’s lyrics below under Grace Wins. Many times we allow the guilty verdict applied to us by others to define us…to become our identity. “If you find me guilty and continue to remind me of my wrong doing, then I must accept that I'm guilty for life.” Let’s put an end to allowing guilt to win every time. Place yourself around others who remind you that grace wins every time, not around those who remind you of the chains that you should put back on and live in until they unlock them for you when they see fit / think you’ve suffered long enough…suffering until you’ve fully appeased them and they can now release you from your guilt.
• Self-Examination.
  • Lamentations 3:40 (NIV) [Therefore,] Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.
• Repent.
  • Revelation 3:19b (NIV) So be earnest and repent.
• Go and sin no more.
  • John 8:10-11 (NLT) Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
  • Don’t abuse grace.
    • Romans 6:1-2; 14-15 (ESV) What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
• There is hope found in distributing and receiving grace.
  • 2 Thessalonians 2:16 (NIV) May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,
  • One author reminds us that “Grace does not stop once we are saved; God is gracious to us for the rest of our lives, working within and upon us. The Bible encourages us with many additional benefits that grace secures for every believer:
    • Grace justifies us before a holy God (Romans 3:24; Ephesians 1:6; Titus 3:7).
    • Grace provides us access to God to communicate and fellowship with Him (Ephesians 1:6; Hebrews 4:16).
    • Grace wins for us a new relationship of intimacy with God (Exodus 33:17).
    • Grace disciplines and trains us to live in a way that honors God (Titus 2:11–14; 2 Corinthians 8:7).
    • Grace grants us immeasurable spiritual riches (Proverbs 10:22; Ephesians 2:7).
    • Grace helps us in our every need (Hebrews 4:16).
    • Grace is the reason behind our every deliverance (Psalm 44:3–8; Hebrews 4:16).
    • Grace preserves us and comforts, encourages, and strengthens us (2 Corinthians 13:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:16–17; 2 Timothy 2:1).
    • Grace is actively and continually working in the lives of God’s people. Paul credited the success of his ministry not to his own substantial labors but to ‘the grace of God that was with me’ (1 Corinthians 15:10). Grace is the ongoing, benevolent act of God working in us, without which we can do nothing (John 15:5). Grace is greater than our sin (Romans 5:20), more abundant than we expect (1 Timothy 1:14), and too wonderful for words (2 Corinthians 9:15). As the recipients of God’s grace, Christians are to be gracious to others. Grace is given to us to serve others and to exercise our spiritual gifts for the building up of the church (Romans 12:6; Ephesians 3:2, 7; 4:7; 1 Peter 4:10).” From gotquestions.org
    • So where would we be without any evidences of grace? If we’d all just be thankful and realize that our country distributes second chances, and that God forgives 70 x 7, then think about how that’d help improve our mental health. Striving to expect or be perfect in the eyes of man will only create tension, frustration and depression. Let’s do our part in improving the well-being of others and follow God’s lead in this area of grace by showing it each time in every situation. Trust me, the more you learn about Jesus, the easier it will become to distribute grace. Learn about Him in His word, not a man-made book.
• Hymns:
  • Amazing Grace by Chris Tomlin 
  • More About Jesus The first line reads as follows, “More about Jesus would I know, More of His grace to others show.”
• Songs:
  • Broken Things by Matthew West
    • “The pages of history they tell me it’s true
      That it’s never the perfect; it’s always the ones with the scars that You use
      Oh, it’s the rebels and the prodigals; it’s the humble and the weak
      All the misfit heroes You chose, tell me there’s hope for sinners like me” Full Lyrics
  • Grace Wins by Matthew West
    • There’s a war between guilt and grace
      And there fighting for a sacred space
      But I’m living proof
      Grace wins every time Full Lyrics
  • Cody Carnes – Run To The Father lyrics
    • [Verse 1]
      I've carried a burden for too long on my own
      I wasn't created to bear it alone
      I hear Your invitation to let it all go
      I see it now, I'm laying it down
      And I know that I need You
      
      [Chorus]
      I run to the Father, I fall into grace
      I'm done with the hiding, no reason to wait
      My heart needs a surgeon, my soul needs a friend
      So I'll run to the Father again and again and again and again
      Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh
      
      [Verse 2]
      You saw my condition, had a plan from the start
      Your Son for redemption, the price for my heart
      And I don't have a context for that kind of love
      I don't understand, I can't comprehend
      All I know is I need You
      
      [Chorus]
      I run to the Father, I fall into grace
      I'm done with the hiding, no reason to wait
      My heart needs a surgeon, my soul needs a friend
      So I'll run to the Father again and again and again and again
      Oh-oh, oh-oh…
      Again and again and again and again (Oh-oh, oh-oh)
      Oh-oh, oh-oh… (Oh-ohh)
      
      [Bridge]
      My heart has been in Your sights
      Long before my first breath
      Running into Your arms
      Is running to life from death
      And I feel this rush deep in my chest
      Your mercy is calling out
      Just as I am You pull me in
      And I know I need You now
      
      [Chorus]
      I run to the Father, I fall into grace
      I'm done with the hiding, no reason to wait
      My heart needs a surgeon, my soul needs a friend
      So I'll run to the Father again and again
      I run to the Father, I fall into grace
      I'm done with the hiding, no reason to wait
      And my heart found a surgeon, my soul found a friend
      So I'll run to the Father again and again and again and again
      Oh-oh, oh-oh…
      Again and again and again and again (Oh-oh, oh-oh)
      Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh
      Again and again Link to Lyrics
  • The God Who Stays by Matthew West.
    • You're the God who stays
      You're the one who runs in my direction
      When the whole world walks away
      You're the God who stands
      With wide open arms
      And You tell me nothing I have ever done can separate my heart
      From the God who stays Full Lyrics

What about you? Would you be willing to love on someone who you knew would either or had already betrayed, persecuted, rejected or denied you? Maybe you relate with one of the examples above…do you believe that God loves you no matter what and that He continues to eternally pursue you? He still desired for the above examples to follow Him and to be used by Him after their sin…He’s not finished with you (Philippians 1:6).