We Need to Create a Culture of Grace and Kindness in Our Country Today Which Gives Others the Benefit of the Doubt and Visibly Values Other People

We Need to Create a Culture of Grace and Kindness in Our Country Today Which Gives Others the Benefit of the Doubt and Visibly Values Other People

MESSAGE SUMMARY: We need to create a Culture of Grace and Kindness in our families, our churches, our work, and in our country. What is a Culture of Grace and Kindness? This Culture of Grace and Kindness involves: 1) an atmosphere or environment in which there is no griping or complaining – no putting people down; 2) giving others the benefit of the doubt; 3) visibly valuing other people; and 4) being filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

A Culture of Grace and Kindness flows from: 1) keeping Jesus Lord – as Jesus instructed us in Mark 12:29-30: “Jesus answered, ‘The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”; 2) loving your neighbor as yourself – as Jesus instructed us in Mark 12:31: “’The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.’”. 3) practicing the “Golden Rule” – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”; and 4) “having the attitude of the Canaanite Woman” – in Matthew 15:25-28, she exhibited humility without pride: “But she came and knelt before him, saying, ’Lord, help me.’ And he answered, ‘It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed instantly."

Too often in our families, work, and church, we forget, in the way we treat others, that we to are sinners and not perfect. Therefore, we exhibit a culture without grace and kindness. Without a Culture of Grace and Kindness, we miss many blessings from God. In Matthew 15:25-28, the “Canaanite Woman” received the blessing, in her faith and humility, from Jesus when “her daughter was healed instantly”.

Additionally, some are unhappy in their current “Christian walk”.  Those who are unhappy in their Christian walk have forgotten that what Jesus wants from them is for them to “love Him”. The Lord, in Revelation 2:4, was telling the Church in Ephesus the three things that will enable us to get back to our love of Jesus: 1) remember – remember how we loved God when we first started walking with the Lord; 2) repent and return to the Lord – ask God to fill you with a sense of longing for Him; and 3) repeat the things we performed when our faith was on fire for God. Do not get away from doing those things that provided a direct link for you to have a personal relationship with God and made you, in your eyes and the eyes of others, a Follower of Jesus.

Is your life “ communicating”, through your works, actions, words, and deeds, the Culture of Grace and Kindness expected of a Follower of Jesus? If not, why not?

 

TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: Today, because of I am filled with the Holy Spirit, I will not be controlled by my Inconsistencies. Rather, I will walk in the Spirit’s fruit of Faithfulness. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22f).

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): Galatians 5:22; Mark 12:28-31; Luke 6:31; Matthew 15:21-28; Ephesians 4:29-32; Colossians 3:12-17; Revelation 2: 1-7.

THIS SUNDAY’S AUDIO SERMON: You can listen to Archbishop Beach’s Current Sunday Sermon: “Without Jesus In Our Lives and the Life of Our Country There Is No Person or Institution to “Face Our Difficult Circumstances” With Us", at our Website: https://awtlser.podbean.com/

WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S SERMON VIDEO – “We All Need “Hope” in Today’s World of Fear, Doubt in Our Faith, and Feelings of “Hopelessness”; and God Is this “Hope””:  www.AWFTL.org/watch

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