The Abundant Life Of Jesus: Vii Series

The Abundant Life of Jesus:

Part VII - How Long?!

John 10:10; and 10:7-15

We’ve been following a series of questions to help us thing

properly about the Abundant Life of Jesus, asking the

questions: Who, does What, When, Why, Where, How and

How Long! There’s power in each of these, check out previous

sermoms in the series, to fill in any gaps.

If you’ve been thinking about today’s question, "How Long?", you

might think about the idea of NOT QUITTING!

Not quitting, persevering, don’t give up, this is a good thing. A

man had a son who was having a hard time in Algebra and wanted

to drop the course, and take an easier math. Dad gave him the

"Don’t quit," lecture. "Hey, don’t quit, what would have happened if

Albert Einstein would have quit, or Thomas Edison, or Frank

Shorter, the last American to win the Olympic Marathon, or George

Kefunkle?"

At this the boy piped in, and asked, "Who??!!"

And dad said, "Right you don’t know who he is, you know why,

because HE QUIT!"

Well, I DON’T want to talk about persistence, as helpful as that

might be, I want to talk about living the abundant life, ALL

YOUR LIFE! How long? A life time long! I’ve been a Christian

35 years and it’s different.

I remember when I was little, we lived about a mile away from the

French Quarter in New Orleans and every year our family would

hike down during the parades of Mardi Gras and hike home. It was

relatively safe then, a real family outing, and my brother, Wilson

and I just love it, playing with all the other kids, excitement,

interesting food.

I was just about 3 or 4 years old then and I remember walking home

and I was so tired, I just sat down on a curb and fell asleep.

Now, I wasn’t really "little," I come from an Italian family where

"Skinny people were UNHEALTHY people." I was definitely

HEALTHY!,

Well I fell asleep and I remember waking up in my bed the next

morning. A miracle?

No, my dad. You see, I was tired, really couldn’t hardly go another

step, I needed someone big enough and strong enough to help me,

to actually carry little? me home. That someone was my dad.

Big enough, Strong enough!

That’s what we need, WE CAN’T LIVE THIS LIFE ON OUR

OWN! We need someone big enough and strong enough, when

we’re tired, when we want to quit, when we can’t go on, we

absolutely need Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!

Now, following through on much that we have said in recent weeks,

we don’t have to GO AND GET JESUS. He’s right here. His

strength is always working with us to help us live this life. He’s

like the dad that holds his son’s hands whcn he’s learning how to

help him walk.

Jesus is here; all of Jesus is here! The Lamb and the Lion, the Rider

upon the White Horse, the Bridegroom, the Rock, the Fortress, all

that Jesus ever was, or will be is HERE!

Let the Holy Spirit work with your mind and see, look around and

see Jesus! He is right here in this room. And he has a message for

YOU! Mt. 11:28, "Come unto Me," Jesus said, "I will give you

rest!" He’s big enough and strong enough to carry us and our

burden and to live the Abundant Life!

Illus. A pastor in Korea was riding a city bus when a lady got on.

She was carrying a big, and obviously heavy package. She juggled

the package to pay the fare then stood (no seats available), held on

and kept holding her package. The pastor (also standing) said,

"Lady, why don’t you let the bus carry your package? Put it down,

the bus is strong enough!" She smiled and did. What a relief.

Well, John 10:10 is in the context of Jesus’ teaching on the Good

Shepherd. And, of course Jesus is a really, really G O O D

Shepherd.

10: 14, Three points (1) I am the good shepherd

(2) I Know my sheep

(3) They know me.

1) I am the Good Shepherd.

This is in the context of the bad shepherds, the false shepherd, the

legalist, the fatalist, the religious person who is not a christian,

of whom the pharisees were the chief examples.

Legalists love rules and use them to control and hurt people.

Legalists are mean, expressing no love at all.

In John 9, Jesus healed a man born blind. A great miracle, the

Legalist, Pharisees, Bad Shepherds called the man in and said,

"You broke the rules,"

"But, I’ve been healed," he said.

"Who helped you break the rules," the bad shepherds angrily asked.

"But," the ex-blind man said, "I was born blind, Who do you