KINGDOM CULTURE: Responding to Grace
Mercy – not getting what we deserve. Grace – getting what we don’t deserve.
We joyfully experience the astounding, undeserved love of God and His ongoing power to transform us. His transforming love and power are inseparable from one another.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
John 3:16-17
God scandalously loves His lost creation and extends grace to us, empowering us to love Him and others at a higher standard than the law.
For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:7-8
Deeply experiencing grace teaches us about righteousness, which empowers us to overcome sin and failure. The Father’s love keeps us from focusing on sin or hiding in shame if we fail.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14-21
God’s grace breaks the mentality that says “I am a powerless victim of circumstances” and creates a new identity that declares, “In Christ, I am a victorious overcomer, no matter the situation.”
Our old self is dead–crucified with Christ. We are free and empowered to live in His righteousness and share in His suffering.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.
Romans 6:1-7
God is always loving and is passionate about fulfilling His purposes for our lives.
Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love.
Ephesians 1:4
We grow into Christ-like, spiritual maturity when we allow His love and power to transform us.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18
We partner with Holy Spirit and fellow believers to be changed and led into personal transformation.
Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
James 5: 13-16
God has given us access to unlimited resources so that we can do His good works and change the world.
Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in Heaven.
Matthew 18:18
God’s grace empowers us to be unique, to dream, and create with Him.
As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
1 Peter 4:10
None of us has attained perfection; there is still room for us all to grow.
Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-15
We may still be tempted by old sinful habits, but we recognize that these temptations have nothing to do with our identities.
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the LordJesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
We are never content with sin remaining in our lives.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
Ephesians 5:1-4
We co-labor with Jesus so that He gets His full reward.
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Matthew 28:19
We choose daily to live in the fullness of His abundant grace.
The Lord’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23
There is a hell and not everyone will choose salvation.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
2 Corinthians 5:10
Our desires must be submitted to the will of God.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6
We have a responsibility to steward and manage the grace, resources, and gifts that we have been given.
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.
Colossians 3:23-24
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.”
Psalm 51:10-13
DECLARATIONS
- I joyfully experience the astounding, undeserved love of God each and every day!
- Because of God’s incredible love and grace for me, I am able to love Him and others at a higher level!
- I am not a slave to sin! My sinful nature is dead. In Christ, I am free and empowered to live in His righteousness every day!
- No matter my circumstance or situation, in Christ, I am a victorious overcomer!
- In Christ, I have joy that is greater than anything I face!
- I partner with the Holy Spirit to experience personal transformation by His power and love!
