Sermon Series:  Come, Meet the Lord of Life
Sermon Date:  April 16, 2000
Title: The Lord of Full Life
Text: John 10: 10
Introduction: Illus.: GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS
Author:  Pastor Tim Krupski

Theme: A common expression today is, "Get a life!" However, often we are at a loss of how to start or are trapped in a living death. That is why today, we are invite to come and meet the Lord of life, Jesus Christ, who wants to give us a full life with no strings attached.

When you start thinking to yourself, "I've got to get a life!," it is time to do something about it.

• How would most people define a "full life"
  • Living a reasonable number of "happy" years (he or she lived a full life)
  • Having a good job, good marriage, good health, good family life----constantly sliding scale of "good"
  • ILLUS.: LIFE DEFINED BY WHAT WE DO
• Someone/something has slipped in and stolen our very life from us
  • "The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy!"
  • We have begun to start ENDURING life instead of LIVING life
    • ILLUS.: ENDURING LIFE
    • Our scheduled lives and financially planned futures are literally killing us
  • We are afraid to GET OFF or to SPEAK UP
    • ILLUS.: TOO SCARED TO SAY SOMETHING
    • We live in denial of our life starving activities and enable each other to keep on doing it
• The quick fixes of life we try often do nothing but make us more thirsty for "real living"
  • We look to the health club, the next relationship, to the slash and burn move in/move out cycle of running away
  • ILLUS.: FUTILITY
  • When we have hit the wall hard enough and long enough we wake up and realize "this is not really living!"

Accept the life that only Jesus can give

• Jesus' definition of a "full life"
  • A fulfilling life versus a cotton candy existence
    • ILL.: Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the
      dessert cart. Erma Bombeck
  • Understanding that "abundant life" is all about deliverance
    • "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved." (John 10: 9)
  • Turning your life's every need over to Jesus to handle
    • "Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't God,
      who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?" Romans 8: 32
• For the first time getting "something for nothing"
  • ILL.: "THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH"
  • Jesus says, " All who came before Me are thieves and robbers. . .The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly."
  • Whatever your past experience with the Christian religion, experience with us the Christian faith Jesus brings:
    
    God's
    Riches
    At
    Christ's
    Expense
• Getting enough power for the long haul of living
  • ILLUS.: MARGIN OF POWER
  • Power to live a credible and full life, now
    • "For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin...So consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus. Do not let sin control the way you live...Sin is no longer your master, for you are no longer subject to the law, which enslaves you to sin. Instead, you are free by God's grace." Rom. 6: 7-14
  • Power to live a full life right up until the end and beyond
    • "Jesus said to her, `I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die!'" John 11: 25-26
      

Good News/Bad News

A distraught patient phoned her doctor's office. "Is it true", the woman wanted to know, "that the medication you prescribed has to be taken for the rest of my life?" "Yes, I'm afraid so." The doctor told her. There was a moment of silence before the woman continued, "I'm wondering, then, just how serious my condition is. This prescription is marked 'NO REFILLS.'"

Life Defined by What We Do

In an average lifetime, the average American spends 3 years in business meetings, 13 years watching TV, spends $89,281 on food and consumes 109,354 pounds of it, makes 1811 trips to McDonalds, spends $6,881 in vending machines, eats 35,138 cookies and 1483 pounds of candy, catches 304 colds, Is involved in 6 motor vehicle accidents, is hospitalized 8 times (men) or 12 times (women), Spends 24 years sleeping. Source: In an Average Lifetime, Tom Heymann

Enduring Life

A man observed a woman in the grocery store with a three year old girl in her basket. As they passed the cookie section, the little girl asked for cookies and her mother told her, "No."  The little girl immediately began to whine and fuss, and the mother said quietly, "Now Monica, we just have half of the aisles left to go through - don't be upset. It won't be long now."

Soon, they came to the candy aisle and the little girl began to shout for candy. When told she couldn't have any, she began to cry. The mother said, "There, there, Monica, don't cry - only two more aisles to go and then we'll be checking out."

When they got to the checkout stand, the little girl immediately began to clamor for gum and burst into a terrible tantrum upon discovering there'd be no gum purchased. The mother said serenely, "Monica, we'll be through this check out stand in 5 minutes and then you can go home and have a nice nap."

The man followed them out to the parking lot and stopped the woman to compliment her. "I couldn't help noticing how patient you were with little Monica," he began.

The mother replied, "I'm Monica - my little girl's name is Tammy."

Too Scared to Say Something

$10 for 3 minutes," replied the pilot."That's too much," said the farmer. The pilot thought for a second and then said, "I'll make you a deal. If you and your wife ride for 3 minutes without uttering a sound, the ride will be free. But if you make a sound, you'll have to pay $10."The farmer and his wife agreed and went for a wild ride. After they landed, the pilot said to the farmer, "I want to congratulate you for not making a sound. You are a brave man.""Maybe so," said the farmer, "But I gotta tell ya, I almost screamed when my wife fell out."

Futility

One night a thief broke into the single-room apartment of French novelist Honore de Balzac.  Trying to avoid waking Balzac, the intruder quietly picked the lock on the writer's desk. Suddenly the silence was broken by a sardonic laugh from the bed, where Balzac lay watching the thief. "Why do you laugh?" asked the thief. "I am laughing to think what risks you take to try to find money in a desk by night where the legal owner can never find any by day."

Margin of Power

The first time we visited the Rockies Mountains was back in 1995. We had a 4 cylinder Plymouth Voyager van--5 kids and 2 adults packed inside--towing a trailer loaded down with camping gear and all the necessities for a two week vacation out to Colorado and
back. The steep grade called for everything that little four banger could muster. The brakes smoked. The transmission whine. We were so focused on getting that little van up and down the mountains that we had very little opportunity to enjoy the scenery on the way. Two years later we went back out to the Rockies, but this time we had replaced our mini-van with the full size, V8 van that we have now. What a difference it made. The engine took the mountain climbs with ease. Braking with down shifting kept the brakes happy. And we hardly even noticed that we were pulling our trailer. We enjoyed the scenery and the trip and had a more fulfilling vacation--all because we had an abundance of power at our disposal.