The Abundant Life Of Jesus: V Series

The Abundant Life of Jesus:

Part V: The Power of Where!

John 10:10 & James 1:2

Abundant Life Questions:

Who does What, When, Why, Where, How, and How Lord!

Today, Where? Where do we need to apply the principles of

positive, God-Directed action? James 1:2, right where it hurts;

exactly where the trials, pains, struggles, tragedies and troubles of

life are.

Today, also we want to deal with probably the second biggest

sabotaging pattern of thinking (Procrastination is the first), and that

is the belief that "I can’t!" We believe our most fundamental

problem and obstacle to living the Abundant Life of Jesus is

WEAKNESS, but, as someone once said, "Miracles come in

CANS!" And God says, I CAN do all things through Christ,

Who Strengthens me!"

Some years ago I heard about a man who was called to be a

minister among American Indians out westa hundred years ago, or

so.

This man was a good, sincere, dedicated man who loved the

Indians. He learned a lot from them and was always fascinated at

their ability to put their ears to the ground and tell who, and how

many horses, or wagons were coming. The minister would try,

putting his ear to the ground and always come up wrong, but, it

seemed, every time the Indians saw him, he was practicing.

One day they came and found him with his ear to the ground. He

said in stilted tones, "Two wagons, one with 4 horses, one with 2;

one horse brown, two white, the rest black; two men in first wagon,

woman and dog in second."

"Wow," the Indians said, "we’ve never been able to do THAT, how

can you tell all that?"

"Not tell," minister said, "wagons-run-over-me-20-minutes-ago!"

***************

When it comes to the Abundant Life of Jesus, we need to realize the

most amazing truth: We can, CAN, REALLY WE CAN, live this

life, exactly where we need it most: In the hard times, trials,

tragedies, sorrows, griefs, etc. of life.

Paul makes this clear in Phil. 4:4, the famous, "Rejoice in the Lord

Always, Again, I say Rejoice."

He doesn’t say, "when you feel like it, rejoice," nor, "when

everything’s going well, rejoice," nor, "grit your teeth and smile,"

which is not rejoicing but running away from the pain.

He says, in effect, "Look your pain, sorrow, tragedy, failure, etc.

right in the eye, and, with tears and a sigh, perhaps, rejoice in the

Lord!"

The word, "Rejoice," can be translated, "Do the things that resemble

Joy!" "Repeat, the joyful pattern!"

Of course, if you’re human and honest, you looks at this and say,

"Sounds good, but nobody can to that." "I would LOVE to, but I

can’t."

Why can’t we; inevitably we say, "I’m just too weak!"

But, according to the Bible, we’re not weak, we’re rebels. It’s not

that we "can’t" it is that we won’t. We take our strength and yield it

to sin, self, and situations outside of the will of God and we CAN

yield our strength to God, but we don’t.

NO MATTER HOW GOOD THINGS ARE WE OFTEN

FIND A REASON TO COMPLAIN!" Reverse this. No matter

how bad things are, find a reason to rejoice!

We’re not weak, we’re rebels! It’s often our very strength,

stubborness, pride, arrogance, that gets us in the biggest trouble.

Illus. 1978, I was called to a situation in which a married couple

was threatening each other with violence. I came into a situation of

yelling and broken pieces of plates and things on the floor. I sat

there and tried to reason, calm, comfort, and generally diffuse the

situation, to no avail. It seemed out of control and I thought the

police would have to be called.

Then, the telephone rang. A TELEPHONE. They’re in the midst of

SEEMINGLY UNCONTROLABLE rage and shouting, when the

telephone rang, THEY BOTH STOPPED! Aburptly. The silence

was deafening. The lady answered the phone, while her husband

waited, politely, said something like "I can’t talk right now." Hung

up and went right back to yelling.

"Wait," I said, "do you see what just happened?" They both looked

surprised when I pointed out that they both calmed down enough

for the phone, how about for some real communication.

They are still together, by the way.

But I learned something, they (and we) were not weak, nor out of

control, they had control, and they had strength; it’s just how they

were CHOOSING TO USE IT, that made it such a bad scene.

Now, if you’ve ever said "No!" to something bad, food when

you’re dieting, a bad TV program, etc. you exercised your

STRENGTH in that situation, then you CAN do that more often!

You already know how, you just need to do what you already know

more consistently!