The Abundant Life

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Glad to be here. Short message that I thought to bring this morning. Taken from John 10.10 about the abundant life. I don't know how many of you know what the abundant life is or what that means. [00:00:32] Recently in El Salvador I was asking about that, whether someone knows what that means. Someone thought it means to have a long life. Well, perhaps we smile at that, but that could also be included, as the word would bring out, that we have an abundant life, or we have a long life if we obey our parents. Chapter 10 of John, in verse 10. The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. [00:01:08] I am come that they might have life, that they might have it more abundantly. Jesus wants us to have the abundant life. That was one of his reasons for coming to the earth. When I was a boy, I remember this very clearly. I'm sure I didn't notice it every day, but in my bedroom my mother had put a motto there. It says, only one life will soon be passed, only what is done for Christ will last. I often remember that and think it's very true. [00:01:43] Our life is short on this earth. At least it seems to me that it has been that way for me. I'm probably over the hump, like you say, probably nearing the end of my life. But I praise God that I have been able to live the life which is pleasing to God. That is the abundant life. Jesus said, like the brother was saying this morning, I am the way, the truth, and the life. [00:02:17] No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Notice the last part. He is the life. He is the life. He is our life. He is the author of the abundant life. Only in Jesus can we have the abundant life. What does that mean? to you. It seems to me it means that we have a life with purpose. We have a life with meaning. We're aiming at something. I remember a brother a number of years back said that [00:02:50] many people aim at nothing and hit it. It means that their life has been vain. I'd like to think of three men that talked about life in the Bible. Job, in Job 3.11, he says what he thought would have been better if he wouldn't have lived. When he was sick, he had this, I'm not sure what it's called, [00:03:22] but he had a very bad sickness after having lost everything. And he was also afflicted with a very bad sickness. In Job 3, verse 11, it says, Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? He was wondering, well, it would have been better for him, he thought, to have just died, rather than experience all these things that he was experiencing, especially having lost everything and also being sick like he was. [00:03:58] He thought it would have been better not to have lived. It's better just to have died when he was born. Maybe some of you have thought that way too. Life has really no meaning. Maybe it would be better if I just died when I was born. Have you ever thought that way? Although his life was not in vain. We read in the Bible, in James 5 and James 5.11, it says that he was a patient man. He gave an example to us. [00:04:29] I'd like to read that verse. James 5.11 says, Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. So Job did give us a good example of patience. His life was not in vain, although he thought so. It would have been better if he had died. Another man that I'd like to think about a little bit is Solomon. [00:05:02] Solomon had this saying that all is vanity and vexation of spirit. It's just, we really don't accomplish anything. He was the richest man perhaps in all time. I'm not sure about the people nowadays who are also very rich. but according to the bible he was the richest man in his time at least but he thought that everything is vanity and vexation of spirit [00:05:33] maybe you thought that way too sometimes it's just we don't really get anything accomplished in life just go through life we just live a while and then we die life has no meaning that's the way Solomon thought about it life has no meaning But then we also think about Paul, the Apostle Paul. He didn't think that way about it at all. He said that our labor is not in vain in the Lord. [00:06:04] Paul had the abundant life. I'm sure he did. How did he accomplish that? He was a follower of Jesus Christ. In Spanish it would say that he was an imitator of Jesus Christ. And he followed Christ all his life after he was converted. I think that Paul had the abundant life. Do you, do I have this abundant life? His life was not in vain. [00:06:35] When he died, when he was about to die, he said that he has fought the good, the good battle, the good fight, okay? and his life was not in vain. He knew that he had a crown of glory. That would be my testimony also that we can know that we have a crown of glory awaiting us because our life has been the abundant life. [00:07:06] We have not lived in vain. There would be a lot more to say about this if I have time. But anyhow, I'm just thinking and closing about this. How has been your life? Are you agreed with Job that life would have been better to have died when you were a baby? Would have been better? Recently we had a six-year-old grandson that was drowned in our country, in our family I should say. [00:07:42] We feel, well, it was just beginning life. Why did the Lord take him away? We don't really know. It was, of course, a sad experience for us. Perhaps many of you knew about that. But why? Maybe we think too. That it would have been better if we had died when we were children or when we were just born. Life has been so difficult. But if we experience abundant life, I don't think we think that way. Have a life which has meaning, has purpose. [00:08:16] The other man that we were talking about is Solomon. Maybe you agree with him. The life is just work. Just do this and do that. And it really has no meaning. How has been your life? Or are we like Paul? I think Paul enjoyed life. Do you? Even in jail he wrote about being joyful. How do we feel about life? Has it just been something difficult or do we enjoy our life? [00:08:51] The Apostle Paul had the abundant life like we are saying. We can also have that if we follow the Lord Jesus like Paul did. If we imitate the life of Christ. Paul even said we should imitate him. As he does, imitate Christ. I would encourage you this morning to do that. Imitate the Apostle Paul. Perhaps not imitate Solomon, but imitate the Apostle Paul. [00:09:24] And not think like Job. It would have been better if he had died when he was a baby. There is a purpose in life and we can enjoy our life. We can hear the Lord saying to us, how does it say there? Enter in because you've been faithful to the joy of the Lord. Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, we would thank you and praise you and give you the glory for all good things, especially for the life you have given us in Jesus Christ. [00:09:57] We know that the life without Christ is meaningless, but we thank you for the life we have in Jesus. We thank you that we have heard the gospel, not like many people of this world who have never heard. Help us in heaven, Father, to bring this message of the abundant life to other people so that they can have a life which is not in vain and have the eternal reward awaiting them. Bless now the church here, bless the people who have come this morning to worship with us at this place. [00:10:36] Bless also the message which is coming, the other brethren, thank you for the privilege of listening to your word. Pray your blessing in Jesus' name, Amen.