With all that life throws at us, not to mention our own foibles and quirks, it’s easy to end up with quite a distorted view of what God our Father means when He talks about His blessing in our lives. What Jesus means when He talks about giving us an abundant life.

The Child in the Father’s House

We are chatting together this week on the programme about living out the abundant life that Jesus promised us, a life overflowing with His grace and mercy and love and peace and joy and blessing. By that we don’t always mean abundant finances or complete safety. God has a tendency not to wrap us in cotton-wool but to be with us out there in the middle of life – in the good times and the bad – with His presence, which is what gives us that sense of overflow; that sense of abundance.

It’s funny how most of us, in our heart of hearts, desire a life that’s, well, perfect, blessed in every way: every relationship perfect, finances perfect, home-life perfect, our own sense of self perfect … everything perfect. But life just isn’t like that. In fact, as you and I think back on our lives thus far, chances are that there are very few times, if ever, where we could tick the box in every part of our lives as having been perfect.

And yet somehow, we yearn secretly, even subconsciously, for this time in our lives when everything will be just perfect. And the mere fact that it isn’t can be so disappointing to many. And yet, I come back to the fact that Jesus promised this abundant life, not wrapped away somewhere in cottonwool, but out there in this precarious, sometimes threatening place that we call ‘life’. This is in fact, what He said – beginning at John chapter 10, verse 1:

Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, “Look, truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

As we saw last week, the life of a shepherd and the lives of the sheep back there in the first century, were indeed, precarious. As the shepherd would take his flock out onto the rocky plateau of Israel, in search of pasture, there were many threats – thieves, wild animals – and it wasn’t unusual for the shepherd to have to defend his sheep; sometimes with his own life.

And interestingly, in that beautiful prayer that Jesus prayed just before He was crucified, He actually said this about you and me, to His Father: John chapter 17, beginning at verse 12:

While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them and not one of them was lost, except the one destined to be lost so that the scripture might be fulfilled.

Verse 15:

I am not asking you to take them out of this world but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.

In other words: Dad, let’s not take them out of all these situations and wrap them up in cotton-wool but rather, let’s be with them and protect them from the evil one.

Do you see how different God’s perspective is? His promise is for an abundant life not a perfect one. And I have to tell you, as I have sat and thought about that a lot; it makes an enormous amount of sense. I’m a father; I have children – I love them very dearly. When they were young they lived with my wife Jacqui and me in our house, under our care and protection and with our provision. And that’s right: that’s why God gives us children, that’s why He gives children parents.

But there comes a time, in fact, it starts quite early, where as they grow up, we as good parents give them more and more responsibility for themselves, because one of the main parts of growing up is shifting the responsibility for their care from their parents to the children, as they become capable of accepting that responsibility. It’s not always easy. It’s one of the reasons that those teenage years can be so stressful because often teenagers – I know this was true of me – want to behave like children but still be treated like adults.

In other words, they still want parents to do all the things that the parents ever did for them when they were little children, whilst at the same time, giving them all the freedoms that an adult has. Now there is tension, with a capital "T". They, in effect, want the best of both worlds – the perfect life. Sound familiar?

And it’s the same often, in our relationship with God. We want Him to fix everything; make everything perfect in our lives, whilst at the same time, we do things that don’t honour Him that have consequences. And yet He is the perfect Father. Have a listen again to Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 12:

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father”, it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ — if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

One of the most beautiful passages in the Bible, because it puts everything into perspective to me. Sometimes in the cut and thrust and the hurts of life, we lose our heavenly perspective; we lose sight of the fact that God is indeed our Father. In fact, Jesus called Him, “Abba”, which literally means, “Dad”. If we live our lives for Him; if we choose to be led by the Spirit of God, rather than by the desires of our own flesh, then we are indeed children of God and deep down, if we will let Him, the Spirit of God witnesses to us that we are His children – the children of the living God – and that means something. It means what Jesus prayed for you and me, back there in the Garden of Gethsemane. It means God’s protection from the evil one rather than being wrapped in cotton-wool.

I have to tell you, I for one would hate to be wrapped by God in cotton-wool, because I want to experience life and all that it’s meant to be. That means sometimes we get hurt; that means sometimes it’s hard; that means sometimes we are challenged. But, all along, God is our Father.

Fathers know this – when our children are growing up, we don’t stop being their fathers. We don’t stop being there to help and advise when they need it. We don’t stop caring and one day they will receive their inheritance from us. And it’s the same with Dad, God! We are and always will be His children and His protection is always available to us.

Can I tell you something? Somewhere in that knowledge, deep within, lies the source of abundance in my life – His abundance, not mine – His abundance in my life. He loves me, He wants me to know Him and to honour Him and to be all that He made me to be. To experience every day that He wrote down in His Book for me, before any of them ever existed. That’s where the abundance begins – in our relationship with God; out there in the middle of life.

See that story that Jesus told of the shepherd and his sheep: they were out there in this dangerous place, not wrapped away in cotton-wool, not sitting in a business class seat in a plane but out there in the cut and thrust of life. And it’s out there that the knowledge of the faithfulness of my God, my Father gives me a sense of abundance that nothing else can give me.

Above and Not Below

We are looking today at the promise that Jesus made to give us an abundant life. Here it is in case you missed it earlier in the programme, John chapter 10, verse 10:

The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.

It’s a beautiful promise and it’s one that’s always … it’s always really touched my heart. It’s a promise from Jesus that I take seriously. He came so that you and I could have life and not just have life, but have it abundantly.

Now, "abundance" is an amazing word, isn’t it? It means "plenty"; it means "overflow" – a very large quantity of something. But what if I told you that the original Greek word used here for ‘abundance’ in John chapter 10 verse 10, literally means "super-abundance" – more than abundant; over the top abundance? Because that’s exactly what it means. That’s Jesus promise.

And yet the promise is made here as a point of comparison – the promise is the second part of the verse. The first part of the verse is about someone else – the thief, he’s called here i...