28 March, 2024

Life in All Its Fullness

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by | 25 August, 2010 | 0 comments

By Michael Mack

This is a sidebar to “A Heart for God“

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Life to the full, the abundant life, more and better life than you”ve ever dreamed of. You cannot lead a person, small group, or church to experience the fullness of God”s love and grace unless you are living it yourself.

In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus presents three ways to respond to his offer of abundant life:

1. Come to me . . . and I will give you rest.

Life to the full comes only through Jesus. Your response to him is to seek God and stay connected to him.

When you come to Jesus, as his first disciples did, you give your life to him, commit to following him, and let him mold you into what he wants you to be. When you come to him, he gives you rest, especially from legalism””following all the rules to be right with God. The abundant life is far more than living a holy and blameless life. The Pharisees worked hard at living like that, but their lives were empty. They were living religious, rule-keeping lives, but not full lives. When your life is empty””when you have not invited Jesus to take up residence in your life””you are in danger of all kinds of other things””evil things””coming in and taking up residence. Being religious will not fill you up. It will leave you only empty and vulnerable. Only Jesus has the power to really fill you””to give you life to the full.

2. Take my yoke upon you.

This next step as you become more mature is the place of surrender to God. Not only do you accept Jesus as your Savior so you gain peace and eternal life, but you also know him as leader of your life, surrendering to his ways and his will. This is the place of service, using the gifts God has given you to administer his grace. Remember that the “yoke” Jesus gives you always fits perfectly!

The apostle Paul described how to live life to the full in Philippians 4:11, 12, when he talked about learning the secret of being content, regardless of the circumstances. The abundant life is a life of joy””a joy that can be possessed regardless of the circumstances. It is a life of rest from burdens””a rest that only Jesus can give you. It is a life of freedom””freedom from the burdensome, ill-fitting yoke of rule-keeping.

As a spiritual leader, you are a model of the type of life God wants everyone to live. In Paul”s day, the Judaizers taught that believers needed to become Jews first (by being circumcised) in order to become Christians. These spiritual leaders were not only living as prisoners themselves, they were trying to lead other Christians back into bondage. Be careful, then, not to be like these “agitators,” as Paul calls them (Galatians 5:12). Rather, live your life in freedom in Christ!

Jesus reminds us often in the gospels about the costs involved in coming to him. These involve the possibility of losing your family members, finances, job, position in life, maybe even life itself. How can these “yokes” be easy and not burdensome? Only by putting your total trust in Jesus and learning from him how to live.

3. Learn from me.

Part of the ongoing process of experiencing the abundant life more is to learn from Jesus how to live. He teaches you by his example, his Holy Spirit, and his Word. As you yield to his will, you learn how to live life his way.

The best leader ever lived life to the full himself. So he is a perfect model for us. In John 4:34, Jesus said, “My food is . . . to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” Part of living the abundant life is living your life for God, not yourself, doing his will, and living according to the purpose he has given you.

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Michael Mack is minister of small groups at Northeast Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky and the founder of SmallGroups.com. This article is adapted from his Small Group Help Guide titled I”m a Leader . . . Now What?

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