Title: Enjoy Life
Text: John 10:9-11
If you’re a Christian, you should be enjoying life. If you are born again, if you have made Jesus Christ your Lord, you should be so satisfied, so joyful, so overflowing with life that you should seem almost ridiculously optimistic to the unbelievers around you. How many people can honestly say that they have met a number of Christians that enjoy life to this capacity? You should expect everyday to be so filled with the goodness of God that others around you watch you and wonder and ask, “How can you be so full of hope when the world is so dark?
That is the kind of question the Early New Testament believers heard all the time. That is why Peter said in I Peter 3:15; “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is within you.” Peter didn’t say this to the Christians just to tell them to have an answer for everything. He was saying your joy or your hope should be so evident upon your face that you need to tell people why you have such hope. In other words, he wasn’t saying, if you are asked, he was saying when you are asked, be ready to give an answer. Apparently, those first century disciples understood what many long faced, discouraged Christians today do not.
They realized that Jesus truly meant it when He said in John 10:9-10; “I am the Door; anyone who enters in through Me will be saved (will live). He will come in and he will go out (freely), and will find pasture. The thief comes only in order to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).” (The Amplified Bible)
These disciples understood that Jesus came to give them life in abundance. That means Jesus wants them to enjoy life. He doesn’t want us to think it is a struggle to serve Him. Some people say that it is such a struggle to serve Jesus and then we wonder why no one will get saved. Why would they want to be saved just to struggle like we do? We need to have a hope that others want.
Most believers can quote these verses, but few fully believe them. They don’t realize if we, as Christians, are not enjoying abundant life we are missing it somewhere. We are not taking hold by faith of what Jesus came to give us. He wants us to have life. If you don’t believe that Jesus came to give us life, then I really believe that you may be in the wrong church. Because we believe that He came to give us hope, life and a future. Not just in heaven, He came to give us a future right here in this life. We need to learn to enjoy life. It is okay to enjoy it. How do we get to the point that we can enjoy life? We must realize that
WE HAVE A GOOD SHEPHERD
“But, Pastor Campbell, you don’t really understand my situation or my circumstances. I have some serious problems. I came from a poor family. I don’t have the opportunities most other people have. My circumstances are real bad.”
It may be true, but according to Jesus, all those things are irrelevant. He said anyone who receives Him, as the Door of salvation becomes a free person. They can come and go and find pasture (or provision) for their spirit, soul and body. They can have abundant life. Notice, Jesus did not say that just certain people, like preachers and highly educated people, or people of a certain colour and a certain social standing could have abundant life, He said anybody that came through that door could have abundant life.
If you are anybody, you qualify. You are free to come and go as the Lord leads you. You are not trapped inside your natural circumstances; you are not locked out of God’s blessings. You have become a free person, and wherever you go, you are going to find pasture. You do not have to depend on someone else to give it to you, you don’t have to look to your employer, you don’t have to look to the government or anybody else. Jesus is your Shepherd and He will lead you and guide you. Correct me if I am wrong, but that is what shepherds do, right? He will provide for you. What you have depends only upon what you are willing to receive from Him.
It is sad to say, but many well-meaning Christians seem more willing to receive what the devil wants to give them than what Jesus has for them. They are constantly embracing devilish gifts like sickness, oppression, and depression because they have been religiously brainwashed to believe that God sent those things to teach us something. God help us, please. God did not give you cancer to teach you something. God did not put you in a car accident in order to teach you something. That is not something a Good Shepherd would do to his sheep.
Somewhere along the way, we have gotten it backwards. We have believed that God takes things away from us and God puts sickness upon us to help us see the way. That is false teaching and I hope to help you understand that it is not God that makes you sick. It is not God that lets bad things happen to good people. The devil, not Jesus, is the one stealing your health. The devil is stealing your children. The devil is stealing your finances. He is the one trying to kill and destroy you. Remember John 10:11 says; “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd risks and lays down His own life for the sheep.”
Does a Good Shepherd pick up a little lamb and break its legs just so he can demonstrate his ability to fix them? Does a good shepherd starve them and leave them without water? Certainly not! When you are under the care of the Good Shepherd, you can say what David said in Psalm 23:1-3; “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”
In order to enjoy life, we must realize that we serve a Good Shepherd, we must also learn to:
CHASE AWAY THE SHADOWS
It makes it sound good when we stop reading that Psalm right there, but if we really stop there then we are not giving the whole story. If we continue reading it says; Psalm 23:4; “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.”
That doesn’t sound quite as good as the first part of that Scripture to some people. But, did you know that we could enjoy life in that valley if you will stay with your Shepherd. That is one thing that I have learned over the past few years. I have found that it doesn’t matter where I go, if Jesus is with me, things will be good. I don’t worry about the valley of the shadow of death. My Good Shepherd will turn my valley of the shadow of death into a banquet hall for me, if I keep my heart and mind right through the valley. He will lead me in green pastures. He will make me lie down beside the still waters. He will make sure that I have everything I need to have and enjoy abundant life even in that valley.
So, if Jesus says we need to go through the valley of the shadow of death, I don’t mind going there. When the valley comes, I say, “Praise God, let’s go! I will fear no evil for the Lord is with me.”
Some may ask, doesn’t the shadow of death scare you? Why should it? Jesus is the biggest person in the valley and He is right there with me. Why should I be scared in the midst of my valleys if I have Jesus with me? Come to think of it, there is never any shadow on the face of the earth that ever hurt anyone. All a shadow can do is scare you. If you get scared at a shadow, then you might do something to yourself that will hurt you, but a shadow itself has never hurt anyone. The shadow of a dog might look big enough to bite your head off. But when you turn the light on, you find out that the dog was less then half the size that it appeared and it ended up being an old chiwawa with no teeth.
Remember, the next time that you are in a valley and the devil tries to cast a shadow of doubt or fear over you. Instead of letting that shadow scare you, just turn the light on and get rid of the silly thing. You are fully equipped to do that because the Bible says that you are born of light. Back in the Old Testament, this shadow of death was quite an extreme valley. But as New Testament believers, we don’t have to put up with the shadow of death like the Old Testament saints did. We have been delivered from the power of darkness and now we are in the kingdom of the Son of Light. Light defeats darkness, as New Testament believers we are to walk in the light.
Ephesians 5:8; “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:”
Paul is saying here, you may have been in darkness before, but NOW are you light in the Lord. How can we be tormented by darkness when we are children of light and as long as we are in the Lord, we are light? Light defeats darkness.
I John 1:7; “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Colossians 1:12-13; “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:”
Don’t let the devil darken even one of your days. When he tries to darken your days and discourage you, throw him into confusion with the brightness of your light. We defeat the devil with light, because we are light, he is darkness.
In order to enjoy life we must realize that we have a Good Shepherd, also learn to chase away the shadows; the way we chase the shadows away is to:
KEEP THE LIGHT ON
This message is almost so simple that maybe I shouldn’t even be preaching it. Some of us have been stumbling around in darkness for so long that when we go and turn the spiritual light on, we can hardly see anything. Have you ever walked out of a dark room into bright sunshine? You can’t see anything for a moment or two. That is what happened to Saul on the road to Damascus. He has been living in such darkness, persecuting Christians, and when the glory of God shined on him, he couldn’t see for three days. Actually someone had to go pray for him to be filled with the Holy Ghost before he could get back his sight.
According to John 1:5 that is the effect light always has on darkness. John 1:5; “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
The word translated, “comprehendeth” can also be translated “find.”
So, you can say this Scripture this way: “When the light shines in the darkness, the darkness cannot find it.” Wouldn’t you like to live a life so completely for the Lord and live so fully in the light that the devil couldn’t find you? I know what you are thinking; you are thinking that is impossible. According to the Bible, we can live that kind of life. It tells us that we can live in such a way that the wicked one touches us not.
I John 5:18 ΒΆ “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.”
You may be thinking, well, you can’t take everything literal in the Bible. Well, I beg to differ on this portion of Scripture. You can understand this Scripture just by reading it. According to this Scripture I can live such a life that the wicked one cannot touch me. How many want to enjoy life in that way?
I am going to give you the secret to enjoying that lifestyle. I John 2:10; “He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.” In other words, the key to living in the light is keeping the New Testament command of love.
Tell me, wouldn’t it be foolish to walk through the door, turn out the light, and stumble over everything in the room? Yet, that is way that most Christians live. They turn the light out by neglecting to keep the only commandment in all of the New Testament and that is the commandment of love. They yield to unforgiveness, strife, envy and all kinds of other unloving attitudes and behaviours. Then when we can’t find our way in life, we start crying out to God, “Oh God, lead me. God, direct me! God, help me! But all along that is all we really have to do is turn the light back on. In order to turn the light back on we need to repent and start walking in love.
You cannot expect the blessings of the Lord to flow through your life and have unforgiveness and bitterness inside. It is impossible! It is against God’s Word, He cannot bless you, if you cannot keep just one commandment that He gave us. Love Him and love others, it really is that simple.
We can get to a point in our lives that we can be free from the attacks of the enemy and remain victorious. The wicked one cannot touch us if we walk in love. Jesus proved this while He was upon the earth. No matter how hard the devil tried to corner Him, He could find the way out of any difficulty because He always walked in the light of love. It is time that we start enjoying life. We can have the abundant life that was mentioned simply by realizing that we serve a Good Shepherd, not an evil one, a good One. We also must learn to chase away the shadows and in order to keep them away; we must keep the light on.
