Steps To Living Life At Its Fullest Series

Sermon Outline and Notes

Bridgewater United Methodist Church

October 15, 2006

John 10:9-11 …. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness. "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

DOES GOD DESIRE THAT I HAVE AN ABUNDANT LIFE, THAT I LIVE LIFE AT ITS FULLEST?

Recent Time magazine cover story: “Does God want you to be rich?”

A—TEACHINGS ON “PROSPERITY” BY TODAY’S WELL-KNOWN, POPULAR PREACHERS

Joel Osteen: “I think God wants us to be prosperous. I think he wants us to be happy. I think he wants us to enjoy our lives. I don’t think I’d say God wants us to be rich.”

Joyce Meyer: “Who would want something where you’re miserable, broke and ugly and you have to muddle through until you get to heaven.”

Kirbyjon Caldwell: “God wants you to own land. Land represents that God is with you, and God has blessed you.”

T.D. Jakes: “Are you going to spend your life quoting great men, or are you going to become great and let someone else quote YOU?”

Rick Warren: “This idea that God wants everybody to be wealthy? Baloney. It’s creating a false idol. You don’t measure your self-worth by your net worth.”

B--WHAT DOES THE BIBLE HAVE TO SAY ON THIS MATTER OF PROSPERITY AND ABUNDANCE?

Matthew 6:19- 21 (NLT) Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.

1 Timothy 6:10 (NIV) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Luke 12:33 (Msg) Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bankrobbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on.

John 10:10 (RSV) (Jesus said,) “I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.”

Luke 6:38 (CEV) If you give to others, you will be given a full amount in return. It will be packed down, shaken together, and spilling over into your lap. The way you treat others is the way you will be treated.

Malachi 3:10 (NLT) “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts. “If I will not open for you of the windows of heaven, and pour out for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”

C--STEPS TO LIVING LIFE AT ITS FULLEST:

John Wesley’s 3 Simple Rules from the Sermon: “The Use of Money”

Rule Number One: ___________________________________________

"Earn all you can by honest industry. Work hard at your job. Don’t waste time….It is the love of money, not money itself, which is the root of all evil . . . The fault lies not in the money but in the people who use it…It can be used in the right way…money is a gift from God for us to use as a medium of exchange. It provides the needy with food and drink, clothing and shelter. Christians use money to help widows and orphans, the sick and the oppressed, the blind and the lame. Money can bring people back from death’s door to health and strength again... Don’t do things by halves. Don’t skimp your work, finish the job”

Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.

Rule Number Two: ______________________________________________

[Do not throw money away on] “impulse spending. Don’t waste it on worthless luxuries or an extravagant life style…Daily experience shows that our expectations are always rising”

Rule Number Three: ___________________________________________

John Rockefeller: give 10% to the church; pay myself 10% (savings): remaining 80% to meet the necessities of life and to do more good.

[Your duty is to provide for your household] "food to eat and clothes to wear, enough to keep you healthy." …do good to those who belong to our family in faith…If there is any left after this as often as we have the chance, we should do good to everyone…. No more laziness!...no more wasteful spending of money, no more covetousness… There is no other way for us to be good managers of our Lord’s goods…So why delay?...Christians who fully commit themselves in this way will ‘store up for themselves a treasure which will have a solid foundation for the future. And then they will be able to win the life which is true life.’ (1 Timothy 6.19)”