Philippians 1:10 That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;

Our lives are filled with making choices. Paul prays for the Philippians that God would give them discernment, judgment to choose correctly. We are to approve the excellent things, not just the good but the excellent.

That will be key to our being sincere and without offense. If we can discern and choose the excellent we will make all the difference in our lives. We can do that through the direction of the Holy Spirit!

We can learn how to choose by the leadership of the Holy Spirit as we study the Bible!

Romans 2:18 And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;

Where you will end up farther down the path is determined by small decisions. Each decision sets a direction. Will you choose the excellent? Will you do what is best or just what is ok?

Ephesians 4:1-3 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We are the sons of the living God. We have been called to serve and follow Him. We have a unique position and privilege. We should walk like who we are.

Whatever position you have been given should be honored. As His children He gives us some instruction about what He expects from our walk.

There should be humility, lowliness. We should not act like we think we are better than anyone because we have been rescued and saved. His saving us should be cause to thank Him not to think ourselves better than others. That will stop our judging, critical spirit.

We are to walk in meekness. Meekness has the idea that we will endure injury with patience and not seek vengeance. We will not get bitter or be filled with resentment.

We are to be long-suffering which means patient. It obviously means that we stick to it-long. That we suffer-suffering. That we endure what ever it takes to be who we are. That we deal with what happens in life with the right heart attitude.

We are to learn to deal with each other, to put up with each other. Our brothers and sisters in Christ will make mistakes. They will speak out of turn and incorrectly. They will say and do what they shouldn’t but we will forbear. We will take it and keep on loving them. We are not a resentful people. We are not easily offended and if we get offended we shake it off and go on.

We work at keeping the peace and unity in the family. We will be peacemakers not trouble makers. We will help others see the better in their brother or sister. We will not fall into the trap of fighting and fussing. We will be bigger than that.

We will walk like who we are. We are the children of almighty God through Jesus Christ!

Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

The law put us under a curse. We deserved the consequences of our disobedience. It was Christ who redeemed us. It was not our works, being circumcised, baptized, or any other thing that we could do.

Often people like to think that they can do things that makes up for their failures and sins. We like achieving, earning, paying, not being needy and weak. We like to boast about what we have done and how good we are.

When we do things we can see them and feel them. Believing and worshipping in spirit and truth takes faith and humility. We have no room for pride.

If you do things you can brag. Look how many I have won to Christ, look how large my ministry is, look at what I have done become our cry instead look at what Jesus did for me!

Jesus died on the cross to do for me what I couldn’t do for myself. He took the consequences of my rebellion, sin, and disobedience on Himself.

That is exactly what God said was going to happen. I must trust Christ and Him alone for everything in my life.

Hosea 5:11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, Because he willingly walked after the commandment.

Oppressed and broken in judgment because they walked after a human commandment. They did what men say do and not what God says do. That brought consequences on them.

How often have I followed what men said and suffered the consequences. We tend to get caught up in a church culture that is not always really what the Bible says. We say and do things because that is what is accepted. That happened with slavery even among good godly people.

We will find in the Bible what we are looking for to justify what we are doing or want to do.

But this verse shows that we will suffer the consequences.

He willing, on purpose, walked after man made precepts. That ought to never be how we live.

Get into the Word of God. Find out what God says and obey Him. Do you go along to get along? Do you just kind of think it is ok because everyone you know sees it that way? Do you check for yourself to see if that is what the Bible says?

You are responsible to find the truth and obey it. Do not just follow the crowd and willing obey carnal commandments.

II Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

It is not how good we are or what we can do but rather God who makes us able to accomplish His will. No glory for us to be given or taken!

If you think that it happens because of what you do then you can get an inflated ego! When you realize that it is God the people look to Him and not to you. You realize that you didn’t do anything but He did it!

Rules and what we do have a way of making us feel good about ourselves. But when we count successes as something that we did then the failures will be ours. That brings death and guilt. It takes away all of our joy.

It causes us to be constantly comparing ourselves with others. It puts us all in competition. The reason is that for some reason we think that our ability, our sufficiency is of ourselves.

I know what it is like to lose the joy of serving Jesus, to think that I do not measure up. That I am not as good as the other guy.

That is why we are to take ourselves off of ourselves and put them on Him.

We are not to think that we are anything!