Abundant Life (2)

Declaration

Dear Heavenly Father, please give me a revelation of the power of the Gospel today. From this day forward, may Your grace be the foundation of my daily relationship with You.

I declare that I will be free from guilt, condemnation, and a performance mentality. I declare that I abide in faith, abound in hope, I keep myself in the love of God. I will overcome all trials, I will persevere, and develop Christ-like character by His power.

Open my heart to see the hope of my calling, to know the inheritance that I have in the saints, and to understand the depth of Your power at work in my life. Release upon me a Spirit of wisdom, revelation, and enlightenment today.

Lead me into an encounter with You that forever changes me and deepens my love for Jesus. Illuminate the truth of Your Word as You prepare my heart to receive it.

Amen.

The shockingly generous Love

• Falling in love
• Don’t fall away because of God’s unfathomable love.
• Matthew 20:1–16 ¹ “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ² Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴ and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. ⁵ Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. ⁶ And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’ ⁸ “So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ ⁹ And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. ¹⁰ But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. ¹¹ And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, ¹² saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ ¹³ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. ¹⁵ Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ ¹⁶ So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”
• We demand fairness; nothing annoys us more than unfair treatment.
• And here Jesus tells a parable that has at its core a great unfairness.

A landowner pays laborers who’ve worked all day the same wage as those who’ve worked only one hour.

Those who’ve put in a full day’s work complain that this is unfair, and they’re right.

God’s grace is inherently unfair.

• Folks who don’t know the Word of God, gathering so much attention and flock.
• Pastors abusing flock-unfair that they are blessed with so much.
• We hold on to our right standing with God, our integrity, when liars seem to succeed!

Why is God kind and good to them?

In the passage we read from Matthew 20, Jesus is describing the near-indescribable love of God

• it is shockingly generous.
• Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

“Should you be jealous because I am kind and good to others?”

King David had the same problem.

• 1 Samuel 30:24 For who will heed you in this matter? But as his part is who goes down to the battle, so shall his part be who stays by the supplies; they shall share alike.”

But it is the approach to the Kingdom of God in the covenant we have with God.

For those who feel entitled to God’s love, as if it is their right, His grace is a repulsive and infuriating unfairness.

For those who understand we deserve nothing, the grace of God is the greatest kindness we’ve ever experienced.

The Artesian Spring Life

• John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

No matter what your personality type is:

• easygoing, gloomy, cranky, pragmatic, or any combination thereof,

This abundant life in Christ will always have a certain enthusiasm.

• It will be characterized by love, joy, through the Holy Spirit.

The Bible describes it as “living water” that satisfies and brings renewed vitality

• Psalm 63:1 O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.
• Jeremiah 2:13 “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.
• This picture of the living water has powerful meaning both then and now.

The psalmist described God as the “fountain of life” who gives his people “drink from the river of His pleasures”.

• Psalm 36:8–9 ⁸ They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. ⁹ For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.

Jesus offered “living water” to the Samaritan woman, telling her that it becomes “a well of water springing up to eternal life” in everyone who drinks of it.

• John 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
• John 4:13-14 MSG Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst-not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”
• The energy of the Greek expression “springing up” is captured in this translation.
• An artesian spring has ground water that flows upward by natural pressure, without any need for pumping.

The new life is the life that bubbles up.

• it just flows.
• Psalm 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.

Jesus later describes this life bubbling up in the believer’s heart as flowing out as rivers of living water.

• John 7:38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

The Heart of Growth

• The more we experience the abundant nature of this life, the greater our desire for our walk with God.
• 2 Peter 1:3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,

Once we realize that God designed us to grow in our new life, and graciously makes available to us everything that we need to grow, we’re left with practical questions such as on how this growth take place.

The answers to these questions lie in the heart, the most important biblical term in relation to man’s nature and actions.

• The heart is who we are.
• It is the seat of our thoughts, emotions, and actions.
• It is the place where God works to change us and
• the place we also must work if growth is to take place.
• It is the “Real You”.

Hence the Bible counsels:

• Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
• Heart/Liver

Sanctification

The Bible makes it clear that God is the ultimate heart-changer.

• Because God works his renewal in and through our heart, understanding the heart will help us grasp the process of our transformation.

But our growth also requires our activity.

• ¹² Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³ for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

The apostle Paul’s words are central to our spiritual transformation.

This process, as the Bible indicates, involves two elements:

• the part that God plays, and
• the role that the believer plays.

A greater scriptural understanding of both can help us grow in our new life in Christ.

Ultimately, only a growing relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ can transform our heart since he is the One who has power over sin and has broken its hold on us.

Summary

• In Matthew 13, we found out last week that Jesus describes our life’s reality.
• This week, we understood that we should not get offended because God’s love is shockingly generous.
• In John 4:14, we understood that the new life bubbles up and flows in and through us like an Artesian spring of good, clean, fresh water.
• The transformed lifestyle that God produces should be evident in our daily experience
• Unlike Peter Pan, we can indeed, and in fact must, grow up in our walk with God.

And Scripture tells how.

• Ephesians 2:19–22 ¹⁹ Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, ²² in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the

This is exactly what God intended.

God willing, we will study more next week on the importance of the heart, the center of our being.

We will see through scripture what God does and what we can do in the process of transformation.