The Abundant Life Of Jesus: Iii Series

The Abundant Life of Jesus:

Part III Not a Pigeon, an Eagle!

Intro: A pigeon had babies. Most of them grew

up and flew away as pigeons are supposed to do,

but one stayed. He stayed, enjoying room service,

food, mother cleaning up, right into his "teenage"

pigeon years. It was totally frustrating and one

day, Mother had had enough and said, "If you

don’t get out of this nest, and fly and I mean

NOW, I’m gonna get a rope and tie it around your

neck and tow you around behind me everywhere I

go."

Well, that did it; the pigeon took off, flying quite

well and mother flew after him and asked what

finally made him get out and fly. The pigeon said,

"Mom, I just couldn’t stand the thought of growing

up: Pigeon Towed."

God has called us to get out of our nests, but not

as pigeons, as Eagles; he made us with the

capacity of living an Abundant life, but most of us

settle for a "barely gettin’ by," kind of life. Well,

let’s switch.

Someone has said, "Knowledge is power." But

that’s not quite true, APPLIED knowledge is

power. The secret power of the abundant life is

found in: Mt. 7:24, Jesus said, "He who hears

these words of mine and does, does, does them . .

. Is the wise [, successful, joyful,] builder."

Another way of saying this is that you need to

know: Who does What, When, Why, Where,

How, and How Long!

Today: Who does What, When!

The bible speaks to every area of life, so

understanding how to make God’s word work can

help in things like finances, relationships, health,

etc.!

1. The power of Who! Nobody can live your life

for you, not even God. We make the mistake of

thinking that some wonderful and powerful

FEELING from God will come upon us and

enable us to do, easily, the things we struggle with,

normally. Not so.

Remember Peter walking on Water? All THE

apostles are on the boat; it’s calm, then waves,

storm, winds, and rain. Jesus is not in the boat,

and soon, he comes walking ON WATER. Peter

says, "Lord, if it’s you bid ME COME!" Jesus

did, and Peter got out and walked on the water

over towards Jesus.

Now Who did What, When? Jesus did NOT go

over, wrestle a reluctant Peter into submission,

drag him out of the boat and then, holding him by

the collar, enable him to walk on water!

Not! It was up to Peter to take the step, Jesus gave

him directions and he supplied the power!

In America today, we all seem to want to "hire it

done." We all want to find someone to live our

lives for us! We "hire" TV, Movies, Professional

sports, drugs, alcohol, counselors, institutions,

doctors to change our feelings to the point where

we are enabled to live a more interesting,

comfortable, powerful life! FOR US!

But, you’ve got to live your own life.

Jesus said, in effect, "If you want to walk, you can,

and if you don’t want to, like Thomas, Andrew, or

the others, stay in the boat! But, I am NOT going

to come and get you and drag you out."

A supposedly true story comes from the Ukraine

about a eagle egg that somehow fell out of its nest

and found its way into a Goose nest. It hatched

and the goose mothered the eagle and it grew up,

acting like a GOOSE! It tried real hard to walk

like a goose, eat like a goose and quack like a

goose, badly, but it tried. Then and eagle flew by,

and something about that eagle called to the true

nature of the "goose" eagle. It took a few steps and

flew, following the other eagle, high, as it was

created to do.

Aren’t we like that, created to fly right into the

Presence of God, enjoy the fellowship of angels,

cherubim and the worship of Heaven itself, and we

live like geese! Waiting for someone to change us

into eagles, but we already are!

2. The Power of What! Action! God created all

things, Moving, in great Variety and Good! It is

eastern philosophy that says material things are

evil.

First, Moving. All things? Hey, we’re standing

still, right here. No, the earth is moving 36

thousand miles a day, aroung 1500 miles an hour.

And the earth is going around the sun around 60

thousand miles an hour, then there’s the solar

system, rotating, constellations EVERYTHING

IS MOVING!

Then we come to church and DISCOURAGE

MOVEMENT! "Hey, kid, sit still, be quiet, don’t

move too much, we don’t want to disturb the

’?sanctity?’ of worship."

Wrong, move, clap, lift your hands, heads, kick

your heels up every now and then and Shout!