Abundant Life

Welcome to this weekend's In Dutch Podcast with Charles Stanley. Christ intends to do much more for His followers than offer to take them to heaven when they die. Celebrate Jesus' birth by embracing His abundant life now. Would you turn to John chapter 10, and this is the third and the last in our series of messages on why Jesus came. And we have mentioned the first is that He came in order to fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant that God promised Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Him. And so His son Isaac, Jacob, Jacob had 12 sons, one of whom was Judah, through whom Jesus Christ was born, and surely all the nations of the earth had been blessed as a result of His coming. The second message was that Jesus Christ came in order to redeem mankind. He says He was born of woman, born under the law in order to redeem us that we might be freed and liberated in Him. And then in John chapter 10, Jesus very clearly says there is a third reason that He came. And to miss this reason is only to experience a part of what God has for His children.

So what does He mean when He says He came that you and I may have life and have it more abundantly? Let me ask you this. You know that Jesus Christ is living within you today. You know that you're saved. There came a time in your life when you accepted Him.

But let me ask you this. Since that time, has your life been characterized by struggle, wanting to do right, but somehow can't seem to do right? Wanting to be better, desiring to be better, promising to do better, but somehow falling back down to the lower level.

Full of worry, heartaches, disappointments, things about yourself you don't like. Maybe at times trying to live up to God's level and standard and somehow recognizing that you can't do it and so wanting to give up. The truth is, my friend, that is where most of God's children are. Saved, but they know nothing of an abundant life.

Let me tell you something. God the Father has never given His children anything with a tight fist. Whatever He gives, He gives in abundance.

He gives flowing toward them. He says, out of your body shall flow rivers of living water. What is this abundant life Jesus came to give?

What is the abundant life? Born in Bethlehem as a babe, the Lamb of God, but He says, what? That little baby was the light of the world. That little baby is the water of life. That little baby is the bread of life. That little baby is the shepherd of life. That little baby became the way, the truth, and the life. And He said, apart from Him, no man comes to the Father. He said, I've come that you might have life abundantly.

What is it? Well, I'd like to give you seven words that best describe the life that God has intended for every single one of us. He has made provision for it. It is yours for the acceptance, yours for the believing of it.

And I'm going to tell you, my friend, with all of my heart, listen to me carefully. God in heaven has past tense once and for all, and is presently likewise doing, has done, will do everything possible to make the abundant life a living reality within you on Monday morning, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He wants you to have the best.

The abundant life is life at its best. And He has provided that for every single one of us. He doesn't want you to go through life. And one of these days end up on the sick bed or suddenly an accident or whatever it might be, all of a sudden your life is snuffed up only having, possessing, and practically living out in your life, only a portion of what He's provided. You who are parents, don't you want the best for your children? Haven't you done your best to provide the best for them? Do you want them to resist you and to rebel against you and to refuse your gifts, to refuse your instruction, to refuse your wisdom, to refuse your knowledge, to refuse your understanding, and end up at 40, 50, or 60 years of age and here you are still living, and then coming back to you saying, I've wasted my life.

And that is exactly where most of God's people are. Listen, He says, I've come to give you your life that is abundant. Then what is that life? Here's what it is. Seven words. The abundant life is an exchange life.

Here's what He's offered us. When Jesus Christ came into our life, that is Lord, I give you my life. And by faith I receive your life as my life. And from this moment on by faith, I have all that Christ is living within me and therefore able to live through me. Listen, if the only thing you know about Jesus is that He died for your sins, that's only part of it. Listen, that's the part that will take care of you when you die.

What about while you're living? He said, I came to give you an abundant life that begins the moment you're saved, the moment you begin to understand what this means your whole life is going to take on new meaning. It isn't going to church and reading the Bible and giving money and witnessing. That's not the abundant life.

That's the overflow of it. And you see, you may go to church for 40 years and never experienced the abundant life. It is an exchange. By faith, I will receive your life as my life. And it is the life that Jesus Christ lives through us that is so simple. God knows I wish I knew how to get that into your mind and your heart so that you could not miss it. That's the abundant life.

It is an exchange of your old self and your old will and your rights for His. That's the second word. And that's the word victorious. Paul said to the Corinthian Church, he said, speaking of Jesus Christ, who always causes us to triumph in Him. God didn't save us to burden us. He didn't save us for struggle. He didn't save us not to bring us down to defeat. He saved us in order that you and I may be victorious in our walk victorious in our life, victorious in our temptations, victorious in our trials. He died to take care of my son.

I'm going to repeat this after every point because I want you to get this. He took care of my sin on the cross. But He arose from the dead through the Holy Spirit. He came back to live in your life because you see, Jesus Christ is your victory. Christ living within you is the victory. And he says, I've come to give you an abundant life. And in essence, Jesus Christ in you is the abundant life. There's a third word.

And that word is liberated. He says he is the Good Shepherd. And the Good Shepherd is going to provide for his sheep. And what is it that every single one of us need?

We need liberty this life. Listen, religion is a weight, no doubt about that. But the abundant life is no weight.

It's a buoyancy. It lifts you, my dear friend. And that's exactly what he says. I've come that you may have life having more abundantly. I don't know where we ever get the idea that becoming a Christian means giving up fun. But you see, we are believers in the Son of God. We're the children of God.

And he says he came to liberate us, to free us of all, so that you and I do not have to try to live up to expectation. We don't have to try our best to go through all kinds of ritual to please God and hope one of these days when we die, we may have possibly pleased him. Every other religion in the world, there is no exception except for Christianity, every single other religion in the world, man's acceptance before his God is always the result of man's effort. So how does he know that if he's ever accepted, he never knows? Everybody who lives in the face of this earth except the people of God die not knowing where they stand in their relationship with their God.

But you and I do not find their acceptance and how good we've been. But in the grace of God, which he says in Romans chapter five, his grace is given abundantly, liberated. The next word is abiding. Listen, the abundant life is not a life of struggle and wrestling with ourselves. It is resting and trusting in Jesus Christ to be everything I need him to be just when I need it.

And in Colossians chapter two, verse 10, here's what he says. So when you have Christ, you have everything. You said, does that mean there'll never be any struggle? No, it doesn't mean there'll never be any struggle. But here's what it means that even amidst the struggles of life on the inside, there's an innocence of rest and peace and joy because you know that Christ who lives within you is your ultimate victory.

And you see, we've already read the last chapter. One of these days, he's going to wrap this whole thing up and we're all going to heaven to know him as our savior. But he says here and now, the abundant life is a life of rest. You see, it's the inner quietness because it is Christ living within you and me. Then he says, likewise, he came to give us an overflowing life.

Now watch this. He says, out of our life shall flow rivers of what? Living water. Living water will make a difference wherever it touches.

Whether it's crops, living water ultimately can tunnel its way right through a mountain. Out of your life, he says, shall flow. It isn't what you do, it's what he's doing. It is Christ overflowing within you. Christ's life. Now listen, what is it that's overflowing?

Old self, no. It is Jesus Christ who came to indwell you the moment you received him by faith. It is Christ within you doing what? Overflowing so that when your life like a fountain is overflowing, everybody's life, your life touches, is going to be blessed as a result of it.

You see, the things that I possess, they can be taken away or they'll disintegrate. The things in life that I may achieve to claim the world's acclaim and their approval, it's one day gonna all pass away. There's only one thing that I can do that will never pass away. And that is when Christ in me overflows within you. That'll never pass away. Whenever Jesus Christ is flowing into your life, into somebody else's life, you make an indelible, everlasting impression upon them.

And no one can ever steal that from them. They can level this whole globe and not one blade of grass be standing and can never touch the everlasting, eternal effect that your life made in somebody else's life. But you see, it won't happen until Jesus is overflowing out of your life and my life into somebody else's life.

That's what it's all about. He said, I came that you may have life and have it abundant. Listen, was not Jesus life a life that overflowed? Everybody his life touched.

It made an everlasting impression. And what I want you to see is this. Life is too short to be building sandcastles when you and I ought to be overflowing with life of Jesus Christ so that the lives of the people we touch, they will never be the same again. And in eternity, they'll be glorifying God. An overflowing life.

Two other words quickly. Number one is a yielded life. You see, think about this. Jesus Christ came into our life to live his life through us. The only way he can do that is for me to give up my rights to myself and to say, Lord, not my will but thy will be done. You get up tomorrow morning and you simply tell him this, Lord, I yield my life to you today and I want you to live your life through me. Friend, that is the abundant life.

Because you see, when you tell him to take over, do you think you have to beg him to do what he wants to do? You don't have to ask him but once, Lord, I've exchanged my life for your life and today, today, Lord, I want you to live your life and mean through me. Only as I'm willing to yield my life up to him is he willing to flow his life through me. One last word and that word is fruitful. The abundant life is a fruitful life. There's the overflow of love and people can feel it. There's the overflow of joy. It's a menace and they can sense that. There's the overflow of peace and they can sense that.

There's the overflow of humility and they'll spot that. The overflow of goodness and gentleness and kindness, faithfulness, self-control. The overflow of the character qualities that describe the life of Christ.

And you know what's going to happen? When enough of God's people are overflowing with the life of Jesus Christ, this crazy, mixed up, sad, searching, hungering, thirsting, yearning, violent world of ours is going to say, I want that. I want that. I want what you have. When they see Christ's life overflowing in us, they're going to want it. And you see, Jesus said, I came that you may have life and have it more abundantly. Now let me ask you a question.

Let's be honest. Would you say that your life is described by victory, by liberty, by fruitfulness? Would you say that your life is one that is overflowing? Would you say that your life is the kind of life that you know that the people's lives that your life comes in contact with, it's making a difference? Or would you have to say, I know that I'm saved, but I don't know that I've ever really and truly understood what it meant to have an abundant life.

I want to tell you how you can have it right now. I've lived on the other side of that struggle, fretting, anxious, fearful, you name it, and I had it. I know what the other side is like. And purely by the grace of God, grace, grace, grace, nothing but grace. I know what the other side is like. And let me tell you, this is so simple, you're going to trip all over it.

If you don't listen carefully. Let me ask you a question. What did you do the day you were saved? Did you not say in response to our Lord, I'm asking you to forgive me of my sins. And I'm accepting you as my Savior by faith, and I'm trusting you to save me today. And from that moment, you stepped out into a life of everlasting salvation given to you by God.

What did you do? You didn't work, you didn't plead, you didn't have to beg. You just exercised faith in what He said in the Word of God and you took that for your own possession. Now listen to me carefully. It is my deepest heart's yearning desire that you hear what I'm telling you. A life that is liberated and freed and overflowing and joyous and peaceful and prosperous and fruitful all that I've said can be yours before you get up out of your seat.

And this is the way it comes. You've got to believe that when Jesus said, I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly, that He's adequately provided and that He meant what He said. You must be willing to tell Him that at this given point in your life, this very moment, by an act of your will, Lord, I give you the rest of my life.

I want you to have it. I'm accepting this life of fruitfulness. I'm accepting this life that you promised in your Word, the abundant life as my life. Christ within you released to live through you all that I have shared with you today. Now you ought to have everlasting life. You ought to have Jesus living in you. And what I'm really saying is this, when you do that, that releases the abundant life that is already pent up within you.

It is released to overflow through you for the first time in your life. And all you did was to believe Him. And that's all you can do. And all I'm asking you to do is if you want that life, will you tell Him today by faith you're accepting it from Him. Thank you for listening to Abundant Life. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.