Where is the life I wanted?

John 10:7-10

· Are you living the life you always wanted?  Is Your Life “Super-Sized” or more like a kid’s meal?

· Let me share with you a parable of sorts:

o       A parent who comes in through the front door with the keys is the owner.

o       The family at his house will greet him and welcome him because they know him

o       They wouldn’t do the same for a thief or a intruder.

o       As a matter of fact, they would run from him, or resist him.

o       A visitor who comes in through the window or by breaking a lock is a thief or a intruder.

o       A thief or intruder just comes to steal, injure or kill.

o       A good parent goes out to work and comes home in the process of caring for the family, trying to give the very best life possible.

XI.       Scripture: John 10:7-10

XII.   where is the life i wanted?

· Religion was more rules-based in J’s day than ours.  It was life-sucking.  To them he said “life, and life to the full.

· A little girl once went to visit her grandmother in the country.  Things were fine until Sunday. This lady went to an very old fashioned Church that kept the Sabbath by forbidding all work, fun, levity, laughing and playing. The little girl woke up Sunday and started right off playing and laughing, as little girls do. Her grandmother immediately rebuked her for breaking the Sabbath.  Well, she quieted down, went to Church and later went for a walk out by the barn. She went over to an old mule, a droopy eyed, sad faced, long-eared mule. She looked at the mule for a while, then said, "Mr. Mule, you look like you go to my grandmother’s Church!"

· Life to the Full in Jesus alone

· In other plans that look better the thief steals and destroys

XIII.                       Thieves & robbers

· Everyone and everything else who tried to create a home for your soul, and give you the life you wanted, was a thief and a robber of life.

· Do you want stacks and stacks of money?  Why?  For the money itself, or what it can buy?  Now, ask yourself, do you really want what it can buy, or do you want the feelings and experiences that come with what you buy?  I think what we all want is the joy, peace, contentment, excitement, pleasure, etc, that we think comes with what we buy.  But most often we are disappointed after a while, or even immediately.

· Sometimes they come not by raw force, but with a con.  They look great, but it doesn’t work out as they claim.  And they never intended that it would.  They just wanted it to look that way.  Sex, Money, Intoxication, Power, Diversions all can drain the life out of you when they become the goal of life, the thing we pursue.

· While walking through the forest one day, a man found a young eagle who had fallen out of his nest. He took it home and put it in his barnyard where it soon learned to eat and behave like the chickens. One day a passerby saw it and asked why it was that the king of all birds should be confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens. The farmer replied that since he had given it chicken feed and it lived with the chickens, it had never learned to fly, and thought it was a chickens, and not an eagle.
"We are an eagles.  Let’s stretch our wings and learn to fly."

XIV.                      Life to the full

· Jesus is the front door to that life.  All who would enter through him would be accepted, loved, cared for, restored, have their life wounds tended and healed.

· That person will come for rest, go out for challenge and adventure, and find themselves well fed spiritually and emotionally.

· How does a guy who lived back in the first century help me find myself in the 21st century?

o       I am forgiven and free: sin, guilt and shame suck the life out of us.  That is not life to the full.

§         As a fair judge, God punishes sin, but Jesus took our place.  Passion movie

§         If we confess ours sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

o       I am valuable.  So much so that Jesus died for me.  Again, Passion movie.

o       Remember back to when you were a little kid playing some game in your neighborhood or at school, lets say kickball, and it is that crucial and anxious time when the teams are being chosen. Everyone is lined up and the two captains are looking people over. You are scared to death because you are wondering if anyone will chose you, and then if you do get chosen when will it come? Will you be the last person picked, the one that nobody wants or will you be the person that the captains fight over to get first pick?  Those are the same feelings we are still facing today in our search for significance and purpose, when will we be picked?

o       Abundant life needs a purpose.  God has provided this in inviting us to join his team.  Not his fans, his team.  Players.

o       A loving family for the hurting.  Life was not meant to be lived alone.  The sting fo many failures can be removed by being loved anyway for who you are, not how you did.  1 Pe 4:8 - Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

o       A people to party with!  Life should have more celebration that isn’t followed by shame and pain the next morning.

· Jesus is the one who really cares about us, and wants to shepherd our souls into joy and life to the full.

XV.  getting yours

· “Suppose a great doctor discovers a cure for cancer. Once that cure is found, it is there. But before it can become available for everyone, it must be taken out to the world. Doctors and surgeons must know about it and be trained to use it. The cure is there, but one person cannot take it out to all the world; a corps of doctors must be the agents whereby it arrives at all the world’s sufferers. “That precisely is what the church is to Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus that all people and all nations can be reconciled to God. But before that can happen, they must know about Jesus Christ, and it is the task of the church to bring that about. Christ is the head; the church is the body. The head must have a body through which it can work. The church is quite literally hands to do Christ’s work, feet to run upon His errands, and a voice to speak His words.” - William Barclay

· Giving yourself to Christ

XVI.                      INVITE:

· What if I have questions:

o       Are they small enough that you could give him your life and work out the questions with him as you go?  If so then do it today.

o       If not, then isn’t it worth it to spend some time investigating to see if it’s true?