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!
Second, Variety! It should be so obvious, but
everybody’s different! Even twins, every leaf on
the same tree is different, and snowflakes and then
we come to church and we have to be the SAME!
And, it’s all good! God didn’t "take back" his
asessment of creation, when he said it was Good,
he meant it, then, and now!
All creation is good. Eastern religions do strange
things. Eastern religions, Budhism, Hinduism
Confuscionism are all CONFUSEDISMS. They’re
ideal life is to separate mind and body. Get in a
lotus position, stationary, blend in with the eternal
consciousness, SAMENESS! Put body, mind and
spirit in a blender with the eternal consciousness
and THERE, that’s HEAVEN?????
I want to say, "Hey, Mr. Buddha, Mr Consfuscious
(and, by the way, you guys could stand to lose a
few pounds, if your way is so great, how come it
doesn’t affect your APPETITE?), why don’t you
go outside and look around??!!" You might notice
the incredible variety, Vishnu, Krishna, all you
guys LOOK AROUND!" Is "heaven" really a
contradiction of everything we see?
Of course not, but we bring THAT IDEA into
church and our Christian faith.
3) The Power of When! "When" is one of the
greatest and most difficult words in our language.
"When" is "when" things happen!
"When" is the difference between winners and
losers. "Losers," is a harsh word, but it has to do
with people who lose, or miss the Abundant Life
of Jesus because they’re always talking about:
SOMEDAY, while winners are always starting,
NOW!
Ps. 126:1-2, "When, WHEN, the Lord turned again
the captivity of Zion we were like them that dream
and our tongues were filled with joyful laughter!"
Let’s procrastinate PROCRASTINATING!
When? It’s what almost everyone says, "When
we’re good and ready."
I’ll diet, get fit, pray more, quit smoking, etc.
WHEN I’M GOOD AND READY!
How can we get "Good and ready," sooner than
other times. My Mom smoked for years, then she
developed heart disease, needed open heart surgery
and, she got "good and ready" fast. She quit
smoking, changed her diet, and really pursued
health. And, although she did eventually die, she
lived a good 20 years longer by changing her
habits.
How can we get "good and ready" sooner?
Accelerate the process! Check out Part IV, Next week.
Let me close with this. You all probably heard about the 2
mountain men laying out on the hillside, one is big,
6 feet, 10 inches, the other barely 5 feet. The little guy
said, "You know what I’d do, if I was as big as you?
"What?" "I’d go over to them mountains, find me a bear
and wrestle him to the ground."
"You know what," said the big guy to the little guy.
"What?" asked the little guy.
"There’s lots of LITTLE bears in them woods."
