Christ said in John 10:10 “I came that they might have life, and might have it more abundantly.”
I think we can easily find Christians who don’t seem to be different from the rest of the world. I bet it would be difficult to pick them out as Christians at a party or a ball game. This is part of the reason that the world views Christianity with such skepticism. They ask, “What difference does being a Christian make?” We have the churchy words for them, but do we demonstrate the difference? My guess is that those who don’t appear to be different from the rest of the crowd are not living an abundant life. The life that Christ came to give all of us.
The easy way to approach this lesson is to describe what makes up the abundant life. If someone is living an abundant life, what does it look like, and how does it look different than other people? I can’t answer these questions unless I have a clear understanding of what the word abundant really means.
So, how do we understand this word abundant? In John 10:10, Christ uses the Greek word “perissos” pronounced per-is-sos’. In this context, it means ‘superior in quantity or quality’ ‘exceedingly’ ‘very high’ ‘advantage’ ‘beyond measure’. This is the exact same word that Paul uses in Ephesians 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” A clue to our understanding of this word is to think about whom Paul is speaking--God.
Being saved is great. It’s vital. But it’s not the end—-it’s the beginning. There’s so much more that will fulfill us, complete us, satisfy us, and make us joyful. So, if Christ promised abundancy, why do we go through life as Christians and appear not much different than our non-Christian friends?
Allow me to outline 5 things that illustrate the abundant life so we can live a fulfilled life in Christ.
The first of the five keys is to understand that an abundant life is a yielded life. To what are we yielded? We can find the answer in Romans 6:10-14.
The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Now there’s a lot of complicated stuff in those five verses. But, what we must see in there is that as Christians, we have a choice about how we live. If we look carefully at the passage, we see that we have a choice to make. The choice is whether to yield to God or to the world. If we yield to God, we will enjoy an abundant life. If we yield to sin, we will have to endure a defeated life.
But what does yielding our lives mean? It means we must give our whole selves to God, all of our heart, mind, soul, body and will. The following quote, I don’t know where I ran across it, is helpful when considering yielding ourselves totally to God: "God would have you know the power of a yielded life; it will lift you above circumstances that circumvent abundant living. The abundant life begins when you yield to Him as Master, allowing Him to live His life through you by faith."
This may all sound more difficult than we can achieve. And, in fact, it is. We cannot live a life like this alone. We need Christ and His people in our lives in order to live this way.
We need Christ because of His strength and His ability to live through us. Christ is our great example and model for a yielded life. First, He yielded to the Father’s plan to leave His throne in heaven and take human form to endure the life of man. He subjected Himself to the tyranny of man and was even obedient to the point of crucifixion on the cross. He allowed Himself to be separated from the Father in order to provide an eternal relationship with the Father for all of us. He led a completely yielded life.
We need God’s people for fellowship and accountability. For a healthy Christian existence, we cannot neglect the gathering of ourselves together for worship, for fellowship, for friendship and to hold each other accountable to be obedient to God’s will and word. This is yielded living among our brethren.
The second key is that the abundant life is a life of service with Christ as our model and example. I can’t say that we will ever be called to be martyred for our faith in Christ, but there are many more ways to serve in an abundant life.
What are some of the ways we live a life of service? Even a cursory look at Romans 12:1-2 can help us understand this. Read the familiar verses in the context of a life of service.
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
The verse asks that we “present” which is a choosing on our part to surrender to God and to His perfect will even though we may not always understand or see God’s will, we submit to it anyway because we cannot live an abundant life outside of God’s will.
Continuing on, we read “present your bodies” We must allow God to control all of us, the whole of us. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 teaches that our whole self is to be dedicated to a life of service to God. It says, “May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord and Jesus Christ.”
Completing the thought, “present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice”. The abundant life is one that is given completely to God at the expense of our own desires.
Let me side track just for a moment. I’m continually frustrated by Christians who say they are church hunting and bee-hop from place to place. They say a church they visited didn’t “meet their needs.” Brothers and sisters, the local church is not there to meet our needs. It’s one of the greatest mistaken assumptions by the body today. The local assembly exists as a place for us to serve, not be served.
Think about it this way. A sponge is a useful tool. It’s primary function is to absorb. But, how do we get anything out of the sponge in order for it to be used again? We must squeeze the sponge. Dear ones, if we attend the local church in order to absorb only in order to have our needs met, we are in dangerous territory. For God, who sees all, knows that when He wants something from you that He’ll have to squeeze you to get it. Do you want to be squeezed by God? Don’t be a sponge in your local assembly. Be a servant and then God will meet your needs.
An abundant life is one “transformed” to godliness and conformed to God’s will. We are truly happy when our personal desires are put away and we desire what God wants for us. For we cannot match the gifts and joy and abundancy that He has planned for us when we serve Him and others in His name.
The next key on our list is to understand that an abundant life is one that is separated. That may sound weird, but let’s just think about it a few moments.
We see in Romans 1:1 that this separation really means to be set apart for a purpose. The purpose is for the gospel of Christ. But, we throw that phrase around a lot. What do we mean when we say the gospel of Christ?
This is more than just the account of Christ’s life. The gospel is the unfolding of the will of God through His son, Jesus Christ. It is that thread through the Pentateuch, the Law and Prophets, and the verse that points to the Messiah and His fulfillment of the law and redemptive death and propitiation for the sins of man, with the culmination of His triumphant return and the establishment of His eternal reign. It is the full truth and understanding that Christ is the second Person of the triune God, who was, who is and will ever be. This is the gospel of Christ.
So the Bible tells us that we’re set apart for the gospel of Christ. Practically speaking, this means, in part, that we must comprehend what the word of God contains, we must understand the ministry of Christ on Earth and the condition of man. With these understandings, we can then live and proliferate the gospel of Christ in the world. For this we have been set apart.
Is there another reason for our being set apart? Yes. An important reason for our sanctification is to set us apart from the world. One writer put it this way, “The abundant life is made possible by the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and made a reality by being separated from sin and the world and sanctified to Him.”
We must actively take ourselves out of the world and immerse ourselves in the world of Christ and His people. We are not to barricade ourselves away from the dying world, but not participate in the sinful and questionable activities that do not glorify God. This is being in the world, but not of it.
Leading a Spirit-filled life is the forth key to an abundant life. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us at the moment of salvation (1 Cor. 6:19). We can have the Holy Spirit living in us, but does the Holy Spirit guide us so that we can have an abundant life? Let’s see what that may look like.
...be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ, (Ephesians 5:18b-21).
The verses give us a list of some things we do that keep us close to God and close to each other. These are the result of someone who is filled and guided by the Holy Spirit. What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit to so dwell and guide us? The simple answer, among others, is so your life is abundant and joyful.
I do not have the ability to describe the joy that comes when a Christian is serving in the manner and place of God’s calling. The closest concept is the old philosophical idea that we are created with a “God-shaped vacuum” in ourselves. The only thing that can fill the vacuum is God. We try to fill it with other things, such as activity, vocation or sin and we remain empty. When God is in us, we are fulfilled. This fulfillment changes our mental and emotional conditions to being satisfied and only needing to continually seek Him for joy overflowing.
The fifth key is knowing that an abundant life is a mature life.
We read in Ephesians 3:17b-19 that we will continue to grow in our Christian lives. Sometimes we call this our Christian walk. We begin as infants in Christ and grow through different stages, much like we grow up as humans. We’re, in fact, created by God to continue to grow in knowledge of Him and to desire to know Him more eventually being filled with to beyond capacity with what God has for us.
...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God, (Ephesians 3:17b-19).
We’re seeing that if we live our lives a certain way, we will have an abundant life. That seems apparent from scripture and from seeing it in other Christians and from those times when we ourselves live this way. But, what does an abundant life look like? What does in mean everyday?
In practice, it means a Christian who fosters their union and communion with God through spiritual disciplines and the exercising of their spiritual gifts in order to glorify God and edify the church. This is a mature Christian, regardless of their age, who has the will to put away the things of this world and take on the ministry and gospel of Christ.
Okay, now we can make the connection. If we want to live a life that has everything we need in it, a life of joy and peace, we need to live according to the five keys we discussed here this morning.
What does an abundant life in Christ look like?
An abundant life is a yielded life
An abundant life is a service life
An abundant life is a separated life
An abundant life is a Spirit-filled life
An abundant life is a mature life
So, for good application, I want you all to think of one good idea, one action you will take to begin to live according to these five keys. It doesn’t have to be something that will address them all. But, just come up with one thing that you will do beginning right now so that you can either begin living an abundant life or you can build on the abundancy you’re already experiencing.
Let’s bow.
