The Lift, March 7, 2008

Worship Set:

No Reason To Hide - Hillsong, Across The Earth: Tear Down The Walls
Center Of It All - Tim Hughes, Holding Nothing Back
No One Higher/The Stand - Steve Fee, Awake: North Point Live
We Crown You - Fee, Hope Rising
Live Like We're Dying - Kris Allen, Live Like We're Dying

Today's Sermon Overview:

GOD DOESN’T JUST WANT US TO SERVIVE…HE WANTS US TO THRIVE!!

10  “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."   John 10:10

In this verse we get to the heart of a battle that has been waged over our lives since the Garden of Eden.

We have a very real enemy of our souls that wants to STEAL, KILL and DESTROY us!  Yet this verse tells us that Jesus came to RETURN what the enemy has stolen; RESURRECT what the enemy has killed, and RESTORE what the enemy has destroyed.

I love the word used to describe the kind of life Jesus came to give.  The KJV uses the word Abundantly. The NIV uses the word Full.  It’s hard for the English word to capture the essence of the Greek word used. 

The Greek word used here is perissos (per-is-sos’) which means...Super abundant in quantity and superior in quality.  That is the live Jesus came to give!! 

In Jesus there is LIFE.  There is life in His Voice, His Touch and even His Death.

His Voice

• In the story of Lazarus we see the power of the voice of Jesus 
• Read John 11:38-44 
• Every time we sin part of us dies.  We entomb ourselves.  Our sins are like the burial clothes that were wrapped around the deceased and eventually, if we allow sin to run its course, it will turn us into mummies.
• SIN MUMMIFIES US! 
• Sin is about Life and Death.. Romans 3:23   says "For the wages of sin is death..."
• SIN KILLS:  It kills our dreams | our friendships | our marriages
• But Jesus came to RESURRECT us!  He resurrects our hopes, our dreams and relationships. He calls us out of the tomb and unwraps the burial clothes.

His Touch

• In Luke 7 we find Jesus going to a city called Nain.  There He encounters a women who's son has just died.  Verse 14 says that Jesus walked up and touched the coffin and said, "Young man, I say to you, arise!”
  
• First...it was forbidden for a rabbi or priest to touch a dead   body or anything that had touched the dead.  It removed their state of cleanliness.
• No matter what you have done...no matter how durty you feel...Jesus is willing to touch you! 
• Everywhere Jesus goes He reverses Death! 
• Everywhere Jesus went people tried to touch Him!

19 And all the people were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all.  Luke 6:19   

6 Wherever He entered villages, or cities, or countryside, they were laying the sick in the market places, and imploring Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were being cured.  Mark 6:56

• Jesus touched the lepers and they were healed. He touched the blind and they could see. He made the mute talk and the lame walk with a simple touch.

His Death

• Read Matthew 27:50-54 | Pay special attention to verse 52, "The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised."  Even His death on the cross brought life to the dead.  Isn't that amazing?!?

John 5:24 says, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

• Has the enemy stolen, killed, and destroyed parts of you?  Is your sin burying you alive? You feel like you live in a cemetery. The good news is that God is in the resurrection business. The resurrection isn’t something we look forward to in the future. The resurrection is something God wants you to experience right now. His death brings life!
  

To thrive you must ABIDE!

Jesus said... 4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5  “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
John 15:4-5

• Do you want to have LIFE that is super abundant in quantity and superior in quality?  Jesus can give it to you.  That's why He came!  If your tired of just surviving and your ready to THRIVE...Let Jesus give you LIFE.  Abide  (to remain; continue; to stay) in Him!