Lifestyle

Experiencing Abundance, Part One
John 10:10

About 41⁄2 years ago I received one of those phone calls that doesn’t come very often, always comes completely out of the blue, bearing news so wonderful that you have a hard time even believing it. Here’s what happened.

I was driving across town on my way to an appointment when my cell phone rang. It turned out to be my good friend Preston. He said, “Tom, I’ve got an offer to throw in your direction and I’m really hoping you can take me up on it. We’re going on a private charter cruise of Greece and Italy in a couple of months. We’ve booked the whole ship and we’ve ended up with an extra room. We’d love for you and Stirling to join us. It’s already paid for so it won’t cost you anything. So, what do you think?”

Obviously, I said, “Well, thanks, Preston, but the thought of unlimited gourmet food on a private yacht cruising the Greek Islands just doesn’t sound very appealing to me.” Oh, wait, now that I think about it, that’s not exactly what I said. As I recall, what I said was, “Are you kidding me? We’d love to join you. This is the offer of a lifetime. I’ll have to talk to Stirling before I can give you a firm answer but I’m fairly confident that she’s going to be as excited as I am.”

And when I hung up, I found myself in this delightful position—I was now in possession of some incredibly good news that was going to absolutely thrill my wife to no end. I knew that when I called her to share this wonderful news that she would be ecstatic. She loves traveling through Europe. She loves these dear friends. This was wonderful news and I got to be the one who would share it with her. How great is that? Even before I could call her, the anticipation of making the call had already filled my heart with joy.

And throughout this past week, I found myself living with that same kind of constantly building joy as I anticipated our time together this morning, because, folks, I have good news to share. I am so excited that it’s finally Sunday and I get to be here with my family to tell you that God wants to pour His blessings into your life. He doesn’t want you to settle for a trickle of His grace and think that that’s the best that He has to offer you. It’s not. He wants to lead you to and then secure you in that place where you can experience…personally and consistently experience…the free flowing abundance of His grace and His blessing. And you have His word on it. In John 10:10 Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Or, as some translations read, “life in all its fullness.”

Folks, God didn’t get us saved so that we can struggle and limp along on the perimeter of the abundant life. He saved us with the intent of pulling us right into the heart of His abundance. He wants to pour His life and power into us.

He’s not interested in putting new clothes over our old selves. He wants to make us brand new. He wants to literally transform us, through the power of His Spirit…

…so that the image of Christ becomes more and more prominent in us;

…so that the influence of the person we were before He saved us becomes less and less;

…so that our day to day life becomes characterized by joy and fruitfulness;

…and since its all happening by the power of His Spirit in us, He gets all the glory.

Over the next several weeks, we’re going to be talking about some of the things that we can do to experience God’s abundance in our lives; some of the things that we can do to live in the free flowing abundance of His grace and His blessing. Folks, that’s the abundant life that Jesus came to secure for us.

How many of you believe that? I believe it, but I’m wondering how many of you believe it. Because, it seems to me that if we really believe that…and we’re being honest with one another…then I think we have to ask ourselves a really tough question; one of those questions that tends to make us squirm in our seats just a bit.

Here’s the question:

If that’s what God desires for us and that’s what God is working to accomplish in us why is it that so many of God’s children can offer so little evidence of any kind of real transformation and power? Why is that?

--How is it possible that the children of an all-powerful God who desires to pour His abundance into their lives can remain largely unchanged by their relationship with Him, year after year after year? How is that possible?

--How is it possible that, in many significant ways, the lives of God’s children are largely indistinguishable from the lives of those who don’t know Him? How is that possible?

The divorce rate among Christians and non-Christians is virtually identical. How can that be?

The divisiveness and factions that oftentimes dominate the secular workplace are oftentimes prominent in the church as well? How can that be?

God’s desire is that all of His children would live in the free flowing abundance of His grace and blessings, yet many Christians say that God seems far away and distant to them and in many churches the most dominant spirit is apathy. How is that possible? Why is there so little evidence of any kind of real transformation and power in so many of God’s children and so many of God’s churches?

Well, there are a number of reasons to that question but this morning I want to take on the most significant reason of all. And it can be captured in just a single word. The word is, “sin.” Folks, the tough truth is that far too many of God’s people have gotten far too comfortable with the ongoing presence of sin in their lives and it has taken a devastating toll on their spiritual health. Folks, when we welcome sin into our lives and then become cavalier about its lingering presence it robs us of the abundant life that Jesus came to secure for us because it cuts us off from the source of that abundance. Sin always separates us from God. Always.

That’s the point of Psalm 66:18, which says, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”

That’s the point of Hebrews 12:14, which says, “without holiness no one will see the Lord.”

That’s the point of Isaiah 59:1-2, which says, “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”

Folks, if we are not experiencing the free flowing abundance of God’s grace and blessing into our lives, here’s a biblical truth that should be uppermost in our minds—God has not forgotten how to bless us. God has not exhausted His power to bless us. God has not abandoned His desire to bless us. And God has not forgotten what our voice sounds like when we ask for His help. But He will not listen to us if we are trying to seek His blessing at the same time that we are trying to cover up our sin. You can choose to hold on to your sin or you can choose to experience the abundance of God’s blessing but you cannot choose both.

Why? Because God reserves the abundance of His grace and blessing for those who walk with Him in holiness and righteousness. The people on whom God showers both His blessing and His power…power for real and lasting transformation…are those who bow before Him with a clean and pure heart.

Hosea 10:12 says it like this, “Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of my love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.”

Confronting the reality of the sin in our life is no fun. It’s hard to acknowledge to our Father that we have sinned. It’s painful to acknowledge that our actions have offended Him. Breaking up the hard ground of our hearts is hard work. But it’s absolutely essential that we do so if we want to stop settling for a trickle and move, instead, into the free flowing abundance of God’s grace and blessing. It’s essential that we confront our sin if we want to experience the abundant life that God longs for us to experience.

And, folks, while the prospect of confronting our sins… those secret sins…those pet sins long cherished and excused…those persistent and abiding sins that we’ve allowed to make their home in us… while the prospect of confronting those sins is daunting and the process of dealing with them can be difficult and painful…the truth is that there is no need for us to fear the process because dealing with our sins doesn’t lead us into God’s wrath; it’s leads us into God’s forgiveness. That’s the promise that God gives us to encourage us to deal head on with the reality of our sin.

1 John 1:9 says it like this, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Isaiah 1:18 puts it this way: “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

Folks, we don’t have to be afraid of confronting our sin. God is ready to forgive our sins the moment we acknowledge them, repent of them and ask for His forgiveness. We don’t have to be afraid of confronting our sin.

But we do need God’s help in identifying our sins. Why? Because even when we feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit to deal with our sin, we tend to be less than thorough in identifying our sins. We tend to overlook some sins and downplay the significance of other sins. Consequently, if our desire is to experience the fullness of God’s forgiveness then we’re going to need God’s help in identifying the full scope of our sins.

That’s the reality behind Jeremiah 17:9-10 which says, “The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I know! I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives.” Our hearts will lie to us about our sin. But God is always completely honest with us about our sin. That’s why we need His help.

David’s prayer in Psalm 139:23-24 provides us a wonderful guide for inviting God’s thorough search of the sins hidden in the hard ground of our hearts. He writes there, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

And, folks, it’s important for us to remember that if our desire is to live each day in the free flowing abundance of God’s grace and blessing then this searching process cannot be a one time thing. It can’t even be a once a year thing. It needs to be an everyday thing. We need to take some time everyday to allow God to expose our sin before it can start building that wall of separation between God and us. “O, Father, I want to experience the fullness of life that You’ve intended for me. Search me, Father, and show me if there is anything in me that would in any way block the flow of Your abundance into my life, today.”

Folks, when we begin to pray like that everyday… giving God the time to conduct a thorough search of our hearts…we will experience the abundant life.

I don’t know the sin in your heart that you need to confront. But I do know that if you don’t confront it and you don’t confess it and you don’t ask for God’s forgiveness you will never experience the full and abundant life that God has planned for you.

So, let’s take a little time to invite God to search our hearts even now. Bow your heads and close you eyes and ask God to show you any sin that is your life…and as he shows it to you confess it…repent of it (tell Him of your sincere desire to change your behavior)…ask Him to help you change by the power of the Holy Spirit…and then ask Him to forgive you. Not because you deserve to be forgiven, but because God has already provided for your forgiveness through Jesus. Every sin that God has revealed to you today, has already been paid for by Jesus. Paid in full. Just confess it and receive His forgiveness. Ask God to wash over you with the abundance of His cleansing forgiveness.