The Abundant Life

The Abundant Life

Ted Matteson / General

Life / John 10:10; Matthew 6:33; Philippians 4:19, Matthew 6:33, 1 Corinthians 11:1

What God Gives Is More

The Life Abundantly

Prayer: Pray with me...Father…like Moses, your servant, I have no tongue for public speaking and nor do I have someone like Arron who can speak for me…but I do have you and I pray for your recharging of your Holy Spirit that is within me…I pray that you rid me of this nervous feelings and strengthen me for the deliverance of Your Word which you have given me…I pray that what I speak will bring honor and glory to only you...in Jesus’ name…Amen

Some of the thoughts I use today are not my own and if you would like to know where they were derived…see me after the service and I will gladly give you the source.

The general flow of this talk is”

First…base line understanding in definitions and relevant scripture,

Second…look at scripture pertinent to our discussion of abundant life,

Third…how do we get abundant life, and

Finally…a summary.

Today…when a Christian looks at Scripture we most always immediately go to the “spiritual” meaning of text. While this is good and proper…it keeps God only in the “spiritual” realm. God is to be real in our life. God “created” everything, and he described it as “good.”

Ge 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

and Gen 1:25 .... And God saw that it was good.

His reality is also found in the real visible and touchable universe and by default our world. I’m not even beginning to suggest God is in everything theology. Nor does this sermon remotely suggest the “prosperity gospel.” But let’s start with some understanding the “English” definitions of words in this scripture.

Our Lord said...

John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Relevant to this sermon are the two key words: Life and Abundantly.

The Webster Dictionary of 1828 defines Abundant as

ABUND'ANT, adjective Plentiful; in great quantity; fully sufficient; as an abundant supply. In scripture, abounding; having in great quantity; overflowing with.

The Lord God is abundant in goodness and truth. Exodus 34:6.

ABUND'ANTLY, adverb Fully; amply; plentifully; in a sufficient degree.

The word “life” has 26 definition variations… for the purposes of this sermon we will use 1, 5, and 6.

Life.

1. The present state of existence; the time from birth to death. The life of man seldom exceeds seventy years.

5. Manner of living; conduct; in regard to morals.

6. Condition; course of living, in regard to happiness and misery. We say, a man's life has been a series of prosperity, or misfortune.

The Believers’ Bible Commentary states John 10:10 The purpose of the thief is to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. He comes for purely selfish motives. In order to gain his own desires, he would even kill the sheep. But the Lord Jesus does not come to the human heart for any selfish reason. He comes to give, not to get. He comes that people may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. We receive life the moment we accept Him as our Savior. After we are saved, however, we find that there are various degrees of enjoyment of this life. The more we turn ourselves over to the Holy Spirit, the more we enjoy the life which has been given to us. We not only have life then, but we have it more abundantly.

Jesus promised in John 10:10 that we could “have life and have it in abundance.” Who doesn’t yearn to live a satisfied life infused with contentment and joy? Bookstore shelves are filled with thousands of titles such as “Your Best Life Now; Your Personal Code for Living a Better, Happier, More Successful life,” or “Better Than Good; Creating a Life You Can’t Wait to Live,” and “The Life You Always Wanted.” And “Help Lord! I’m having a Senior Moment: A Note to God on Growing Old.” Sounds like something I should read…! But the problem is, as we all know, that many times life has a way of tripping us up and knocking us down. How can we capture this abundant life Jesus promised and experience life at its best? God’s Word provides the answer.

Only when we regulate our days according to God’s priorities and learn to focus on Jesus will we begin to realize what Jesus meant by the promise of John 10:10.

John 3:15 tells us; For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

The only way to have eternal life is through trust in Christ as personal Savior. There is no other way, name, nor are there any religions whereby anyone can be saved.

But we should not stop here; to have eternal life is great—but there is more.

Christ came that we might have life abundantly.

All believers have eternal life, but not all believers have abundant life.

We are living beneath our privileges if we are a believer and not enjoying the abundant life.

When the Bible tells us that we are to live our lives abundantly it is not talking about what some people may think.

I am afraid some think, to have the abundant life means

Having a really good paying job. Having a home. Having a vacation home, or insert whatever else one would say that determines the abundant life. (By world standards these might be….)

All these maybe good to have but they in themselves do not impart the abundant life Jesus is talking about.

There are Christians who have none of these things; good pay jobs, etc., but they know how to live the abundant life.

For life to be abundant it must have abundant resources, and the only unlimited resources for life are in the person Jesus Christ the Son of God.

In John 15 verse 1 Jesus says that He is the True Vine. Then down in verses 4 and 5 Jesus continues with these words

4. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit ‍‍of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

5. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

To possess this fuller life, the believer must abide in Christ Jesus.

You may say “that abundant life is for preachers, Sunday school teachers, and other leaders….but me I don’t know.”

The abundant life is not just for a few, it is God norm for the Christian life.

It is spiritual life in depth, and without it, the Christian life becomes immature and meaningless.

If you are not living the abundant life, you will soon yield to the fleshly life around you.

o The fleshly life is circumstance—controlled.

o The abundant life is Holy Spirit—controlled.

o The fleshly Christian’s life leads to defeat.

o The abundant life leads to victory in Christ over sin.

Man seems to know everything about life except how to live it abundantly.

You may ask; “If the abundant life is God’s norm for every Christian, then how do I get the abundant life?” Romans 6: 10-13

10. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13. and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

To have the abundant life it must be a “Yielded life.”

How do we yield our life to God? By faith and trust.

When we first come to God by faith that is eternal life.

We should not stop here; to have eternal life is great—but there is more than just having eternal life.

The more is when we by faith yield control of our lives to Christ and His Lordship in our lives. Romans 6: 13

And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God

So why do most Christians live beneath the privilege of living the abundant life?

It is a choice; we can yield to God by trust and live the abundant life or we can yield to sin’s temptations and endure a defeated life.

The abundant life is a life of service. Romans 12: 1-2 states:

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

If we are to live abundantly, we must serve the Lord Jesus Christ. After all His life was an example of obedient service all the way to the Cross.

The abundant life is a separated life. Romans 1:1 Tells us this:

1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.

May favorite Scripture of Paul is 1 Corinthians 11:1

Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

When we were saved God called us to come out of this sin sick world to separate us from the world for service unto His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

His eyes, His ears, His mouth, His hands, His feet.

We must not let sin reign in us but by trust separate our lives to serve the living God.

The abundant life is a Spirit-filled life. Ephesians 5: 18 says:

18. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.

When you were saved you received the Holy Spirit.

Even though we have the Spirit dwelling in us we are not always being filled by the Spirit.

Making poor choices to not separate ourselves form the draw of this world will quench the Spirit in us and we cannot be filled by the Spirit.

When we are filled, we are to have joy, to be of service, to be His witnesses, to be ready for the hour of persecution, to walk by the Spirit and to be led by the Spirit

To be filled by the Spirit we must by faith and trust believe and ask Him to fill us.

The abundant life is a mature life.

2nd Peter 3 verse 18 tells us that we are to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

The spiritual growth as a Christian is a lot like our physical growth and maturing., you know the baby, child, adult stages.

All through the New Testament we are encouraged to grow spiritually so that we will be able to stand strong against sin that so easily ensnares.

Paul told the Corinthians that they were babes in Christ that they were carnal Christians.

He told them that they were still living in the fresh since there was jealousy and strife among them and that they were still living like any other person. They were not maturing in their Christian life and so they were not living the abundant life that God had intended for them to live.

What should the abundant life look like? Paul writing to the Galatians gives us insight into the characteristics of a person having the abundant life.

Galatians 5: 22-25:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23) gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24) Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25) If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

The word “Spirit” is with a capital “S” – which means these 9 fruits are coming directly from the Holy Spirit, not from us.

What this means is that God’s love, peace, joy, goodness, and faithfulness can start to be transmitted up into our personality by the Holy Spirit.

Think about the ramifications of this – that God the Father Himself is allowing us to share in a part of His divine nature by allowing His Holy Spirit to transmit and impart these nine divine qualities right up into our soul and personality! THAT IS ABUNDANT LIVING!!

This is what happens when we as branches abide in Christ (the True Vine) and when we are walking according to the Spirit, we will be living the abundant life.

I am afraid that too many times people equate church membership to the abundant life.

As born-again believers, God’s Word demands that we examine our lives to see if there is anything that is contrary to the characteristics and attributes of the living God living within us.

Just before Paul wrote the words in verses 22-25 he wrote these words in verses 19-21: 19) Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, (Paul speaking of things contrary to God) which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20) idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21) envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Remember the first part of John 10:10, “The thief comes to steal, and kill, and destroy;”

Satan wants us to follow after the desires of the flesh, he wants to destroy our lives and steal our joy and keep us from the abundant life, and he wants to keep us babes in Christ.

If our lives exemplify the characteristics of this world, then we are living contrary to God, and we cannot live the abundant life.

We by faith believe God for salvation and by faith ask God to fill us and live His life in and through us; this is abundant living, and we can have it no matter what our life status maybe.

The abundant life is choosing God’s best for our lives by focusing on Jesus, being faithful to Him, growing spiritually, worshiping and witnessing with confidence, and being more consistent in our Christian walk. All we have is this one life to get it right. As Christians, we’re on our way to heaven. Wouldn’t it be a shame not to live life abundantly and enjoy the journey?

So how might this look like in the physical world? Please indulge me for a moment…

I’ve known about Christ all my life but was saved on a Saturday night March 31, 1997 at an Emmaus Weekend. Life has not been the same since. Abundant.

Enter the military in 1973 during the Viet Nam conflict and ended up servicing 26 years, 28 days in service and 16 years of Federal Civil Service for a total of 42 years to his great country. But I never saw combat. Abundant.

I’m a disable veteran with Multiple Sclerosis and Diabetes but have been blessed with 2 good doctors…I still stand before you...Abundant.

I married my childhood sweetheart Sherry whom God took from me in 2013 due to cancer but God gave me 42 years of blessed marriage to remember. Abundant.

We bought land here in Monroe in the early 2000s as a weigh station for travel to the north and to escape hurricanes hitting Florida, but this gave me a place to have a residence to come to near end of Sherry’s life and the introduction to this Community Church of Monroe who loved on Sherry until her death in 2013. And…God has given me a special peace...Abundant.

I had land to help daughter build a house but also God gave me a place to live in the garage (although well furnished) to live in without a mortgage. Abundant.

I really dislike grocery shopping and the expense of food. But God game someone the talent to build an app so someone can shop for me and all I do is pick up my groceries. Abundant.

All my life I’ve kept the number of true friends to the number of fingers I have on one hand and God gave me two of the friends here. Abundant.

Do not take this list as bragging, I’m merely stating a testimony that God is Good…All the time…Amen….?

In summary

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Am I abiding in Christ, living the abundant life with the characteristics and attributes of the Holy Spirit living in me?

2. Or am I really just a babe in Christ not really understanding or living the abundant life, is my life looking more like the world than that of a Spirit filled, abiding in Christ Christian?

This morning we all need to examine where we stand before God and if we are not living the abundant life, by trust…commit our life anew to Christ and start living life abundantly.

Maybe you have never surrendered your life to Christ. Verse 21 of Galatians 5says; “That those who practice (ON GOING) such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

That means separated from God for all eternity in a place the Bible calls hell. You can change that today; by faith give your life to Jesus today?

Because God is the “creator” and “sustainer” of all things, there is a very real and physical side of spiritual truth. God provides for your “need” and “not your wants.” Again…God provides for your “needs” and “not your wants.” That is abundant.

Let me add some final Scripture to round out this thought of abundant life. My life Scriptures are Mathew 6:33 and Phil 4:19. Life Scripture is those special words God has given you and you claim as the authority or control for your life…God’s Words that you live by….

Matthew 6:333 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

The Believers’ Bible Commentary states in 6:33 The Lord, therefore, makes a covenant with His followers. He says, in effect, “If you will put God’s interests first in your life, I (God) will guarantee your future needs. If you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then I (God) will see that you never lack the necessities of life.” And the second Scripture is:

Philippians 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Again, the Believers’ Bible Commentary states in 4:19 says now Paul adds what is perhaps the best-known and best-loved verse in this entire chapter. We should notice that this promise follows the description of their faithful stewardship. In other words, because they had given of their material resources to God, even to the point where their own livelihood was endangered, God would supply their every need. How easy it is to take this verse out of context and use it as a soft pillow for Christians who are squandering their money on themselves with seldom a thought for the work of God! “That’s all right. God will supply all your need.”

While it is true in a general sense that God does supply the needs of His people, this is a specific promise that those who are faithful and devoted in their giving to Christ will never suffer lack.

It has often been remarked that God supplies the needs of His people—not out of His riches, but according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. If a millionaire gave a dime to a child, he would be giving out of his riches. But if he gave a hundred thousand dollars to some worthy cause, he would be giving according to his riches. God’s supply is according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus, and nothing could be richer than that!

Abundant life is not all about what we have. It’s not about what we get. It’s not about what we claim. Ultimately, abundant life is about what we receive as a gift from the Lord and to live knowing we are stewards of the blessings of God.

It’s not a sin to be rich (though it might be missing the point if we die rich). Furthermore, stewardship is not measure by what we have received, but by what we have given.

At the end of the day, perhaps that is how we know we have an abundant life—when we have shared our life with others through intentional relationships. When we have enough of the blessings of God (mercy, peace, love, grace, wisdom, etc.) to share with our others, and then actually do it; that’s when we truly have abundant life.

Will you pray with me…?

Dear Lord,

We think of the words of Jesus, that he came to give life that satisfies. We confess that we have been trying to find things of this world to satisfy us and they aren’t working. Lord, we believe that you alone can do that, that you have already done that.

Lord, we thank you for freeing us, freeing us from the chains that bound us, from trying to keep up with this world, from the law of sin and death. Lord, because you have freed us, we can experience abundant life.

Because you have set us free, Lord, we can have a new perspective. We are thankful for your gift of salvation, for eternal life. We grateful for the inheritance you have given us. We are thankful that we can communicate with you and can experience the beauty of your presence.

Lord, we thank you for sending the Holy Spirit, who guides us and reveals wisdom. Thank you for this “deposit guaranteeing our inheritance,” who reminds me that we are sons and daughters of God. (Eph 1:14) We thank you that he leads us to minister to others, to help free them from their chains and offer them this same abundant life.

God, help us to remember these promises when the world looks more appealing or we get distracted by things going on around us. Help us not to envy those who seem to have it all. Lord, We have it all, because of you.

We thank you for the eternal inheritance you have given us and that one day, we can enjoy the beauty of your Kingdom and your presence forever.

In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.

Sources:

1. https://sermons.faithlife.com/sermons/109853-the-abundant-life

2. https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/march/what-does-it-mean-to-have-abundant-life.html

3. MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments. (A. Farstad, Ed.) (p. 1525). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

4. https://www.christianity.com/wiki/prayer/ abundance-prayers-pray-to-god-for-an-abundant-life.html

5. The New King James Version. (1982). (Ge 1:25). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

6. The Holy Bible: King James Version. (1995). (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version., Mt 6:33). Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.