If you have your Bibles this morning, John chapter 10. Hopefully you have a Bible. If not, try to share with somebody John chapter 10. I'm going to read a couple of verses in the passage before and the end of John chapter 9, and then we'll get to John chapter 10, and we're going to read responsibly. If you don't know what that is, I'm going to read verse 1, you'll read verse 2, or we'll read it together. I'll read verse 3, we'll read verse 4 together. We're going to go all the way down to verse 10 in John 10, okay? All right, so let's stand together. If you can't stand, I understand, but if you can stand, let's stand together. And I'm going to read verse 40 and 41 of chapter 9. I'm going to start it in verse 1 of chapter 10, and then Follow my lead because you guys will join me in verse 2. All right So in John chapter 9 it says and some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said unto him Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If you are blind, you should have no sin. But now you say, We see, therefore your sin remaineth. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. Together. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. Together again. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved, shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to steal and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and they might have it more abundantly. This morning I want to speak with God's help on are you living the abundant life? Are you living the abundant life? Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you for these folks that have traveled. on this beautiful sunny Sunday here in March to hear God's word. I'm sure there's other things that could have been done, but Lord, we thank you that they have honored the Lord's day by coming to your house and assembling together. I pray that your spirit would be evident I pray that the precious word of God as it goes forth would have power and you would do that which I cannot do, that is speak to hearts. We ask and claim your power in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. So here in this text, You see and we're gonna look at verse 10. That is our our text verse notice in verse 10 It says the thief cometh not but for to steal to kill and to destroy I am come that they might have life and then notice what he says and that they might have it more abundantly, you know oftentimes We we look at This world when we look at this life and they say, you know what? I want a happy life or I want a satisfied life. Well, the Bible in this text does not say, I have come to make you happy. That's not what the text says. Now, I think there is joy and I think there's peace that comes in a life, but sometimes we use that word happy and we say, well, God will make you happy. Well, if you look up, I like studying words, so the study of words is called etymology. And so if you study the word happy, what's interesting, most believe it came into English from the 14th century, so that's about 700 years ago. And so happy has behind it, listen to what it means, it has behind it the idea of lucky. or favored, or like fortune. So we have some variations of that word. Have you ever heard of the word happenstance? That is a little bit of a variation of the word happy. So what does it mean, I stumbled onto it? Well, Christ is not telling us that you're going to stumble into an abundant life. No, it happens on purpose. Because you see, when we trust Christ as our Savior, it's not saying that everything is going to be smooth and that you're not going to have any trials, because that goes against Scripture. We're not talking about the prosperity gospel. We're not talking about, basically, you get saved and automatically, somehow from heaven, your bank account is rerouted and a million bucks is dropped. I mean, there would be a whole bunch of us. I'd get saved every week. I'd be like, I'm getting saved again. All right, why? I want that money coming in. All right, that's not what it's about. But it's not necessarily about the money flow. It's not necessarily about everything being so smooth. But what it is, when I am saved, not only does God take care of my future, and that is eternity. And we're going to talk about that at the beginning. But He also helps me in this life. You see, because in this life, remember Job says this, that basically man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. Yea, all that shall live godly, or that will live godly, shall suffer persecution. You know, there are hard times. James chapter one tells us that we shouldn't be basically thinking it odd with the trials in our faith because those trials help us to develop. They bring patience so that we're entire, wanting nothing. It means that those trials, God brings those trials because he wants to build our faith. But during that time, guess what I know? That God's with me. So this morning, I'd like us to consider the abundant life. There's a story from the 1800s about Frederick Douglass. You can look up, he wrote a, I think it was an autobiography that he wrote, and it was called The Narratives of the Life of Frederick Douglass. But he was basically born into slavery, and he experienced slavery's every brutality. He was taken from his mother when he was an infant. For years as a child, all he had to eat was runny cornmeal dumped into a trowel that kids fought to scoop out with oyster shells. He worked in hot fields from dawn until after sundown. He was whipped many times with cowhide whips until blood ran down his back. He was kicked and beaten by his master until he almost died. But even so, Frederick Douglass, in his book called The Life of Frederick Douglass, he considered When he considered trying to escape, he said he struggled with the decision. Did you hear all those things that happened to him? Now think about all those bad things that happened to him, and then when it came to the thought of escaping, fear took hold of him. And he's like, I'm not going to do that. This is what he says in a book called The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. He said two fears plagued him. He said leaving behind his friends. Now think about that. Now all his other friends were experiencing the same horror. But he said, I had several warm-hearted friends in Baltimore, friends that I loved almost as I did my life, and the thought of being separated from them forever was painful beyond expression. Then he said the second fear was failure. He said, if I fell, my fate as a slave will be sealed forever. You know what's interesting as I read that? I thought of people that talk about salvation. Have you ever talked to somebody, and you're trying to share with them the joy that comes when they are freed from the bondage of sin? And they say, well, my friends, or my family. And you're like, oh, no, no. I mean, this is unbelievable what God can do. And they're like, yeah, but I don't know. I really don't know about this. And then there's almost this idea, because the devil brings this idea. We talked about this in the Sunday school lesson, how the devil is a master at twisting things and twisting the truth. And so he brings to mind that salvation is reliant upon them. And so there's a thought that, well, I can't keep this. How am I going to do this? Well, it's not on them. And trying to get them to trust the Word of God. It's sad because as I read about this story of Frederick Douglass, I think of sometimes Christians too. Christians who live far short of what God says can be possible. Did you notice in the text there in John chapter 10 and verse 10, the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. What does he say? I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. I like us to think just this morning quickly on three or four points we'll see if we get four or we may just get three. But I'd like us to think, so Jesus is talking here. So in the context, the reason I read in chapter nine, did you notice who Jesus was talking to? He wasn't necessarily talking to his disciples. Who is he talking to? He's talking to Pharisees. So Pharisees are a religious crowd. They're people that are relying upon themselves to get to heaven. They're relying upon rituals. And Pharisees, the religious crowd, like most of us, remember the rich young ruler when he came to Christ? They're actually really good people. They're some pretty good people. They do a lot of good things, but they're relying upon themselves, and so Jesus is trying to indicate to them there's more. There's more. Now, some of you sitting here this morning, you may be saved, and some of you, you may not be saved. And what we're going to find is in this text, what Jesus indicates to the religious crowd is there's a way to jump into or to begin the abundant life. He reveals some clues right in the text. Do you know in the book of John, one of the things that's unique about the book of John is all of the I am statements are done. Do you know any of the I am statements? All right, for instance, John 14. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So that's three I am statements right in one verse. All right? Then I think it's in John chapter 8. In John chapter 8, Jesus reveals another I am statement. He says, I am the light of the world. Okay? Well, in this passage, he reveals two. He says, and we read one of them in verse nine, I believe, I am the door. And in verse 11, he reveals another one. I am the good shepherd. So Jesus is talking about himself and he's trying to reveal to them, to the religious crowd, that, hey, I have come. And when he says I am, All right, for the Jewish people, they were looking for the I am. Remember when that term kind of was coined for the people of Israel? Remember when that was? Remember Moses? Moses was out there in the wilderness, and he'd be out there for 40 years on the backside of the desert, and then God had prepared him and said, all right, it's time for you to go and present yourself to Israel, and then I'm going to have you go to Pharaoh, and I'm going to rescue my people. And Moses said, well, who do I say is sending me? And he said that term, I am. I am. It's the I am. All right? And so when Jesus is using the I Am statements, in some ways it's a little bit rubbing the religious crowd. All right? They didn't like it that much. How do we know that they didn't like it? Because after a couple of times using it, what did they try to do to Jesus? Stoned Him. They said, He's claiming to be the I Am. They knew who He was claiming to be. And so here Jesus is showing them that it is through me, Jesus, that the I Am, through the I Am, you can live an abundant life. And so it could be that this morning you don't know the I Am personally. You don't know that Jesus is the door. You don't, you haven't experienced that. You haven't gone through Jesus. You've gone through some other way. Remember what it says in the text. It uses the idea of a sheepfold and a shepherd. Right now, I'm not a shepherd, just so you know. I'm not a sheep guy. I've seen them. I've kind of seen pictures. I haven't really been on a sheep farm that much. Right now, I've read a decent amount because in Scripture, it's used a lot. It's used a lot. In fact, this morning I was starting to review as far as memorizing Scripture, and one of the passages I was reviewing was Psalm 23. And guess what it says? The Lord is my shepherd. I love that Psalm. I just love thinking about it because the Lord's my shepherd. And what that verse promises me is Jesus being my shepherd. What does it tell me? I'm not going to want. He leads and He guides me. He guides me by green pastures. He lets me lie down by the still waters. All right, all those. I love thinking about that. So that is a lot in Scripture. So Jesus is using a shepherd idea. He's using the sheep idea to help these guys to understand, you know what? I am the great shepherd and you need to come through me to experience the abundant life. So let's look at a couple of things. First of all, notice in our text here in verse 2. Look at verse 2. So we're going to kind of bounce through the text, and we're going to come up with some things that Jesus says are necessary or that happen when we go through Jesus, and these are the byproduct of the abundant life. Notice what it says in verse 2. He says, but he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Let's go down to verse 7. Then said Jesus unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. Look at, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, notice what he said, he may you can kind of hope there's a possibility. Is that what it says? Come on now, help me now. He what? Shall. All right, so how adamant is that? Is that like questionable? No. You see, this is what Jesus is pointing out. Every other way, every other way that people say to get to heaven is a maybe way. It's a possibility. So, one of the things that the abundant life brings is assurance, or I would say conviction. Doesn't it? Somebody can come to you and say, you know what, you're just a human being. How do you know? Have you ever had anybody question, how do you really know? How do you really know? Well, the only thing, I can remember being in Bible college. Okay, so I was in Bible college. I was called to ministry. I'd been saved when I was eight years old. So I'm in Bible college training for ministry. And man, in my sophomore year, I'm studying the Bible. I've studied the Bible now for years. I love the Bible. And all of a sudden, guess what? The devil is a master. at tricking you. And all of a sudden, he was plaguing me with doubts about my salvation. I was just, I mean, I would spend days praying about it. I would spend, I would get alone with God, and I'm like, God, you gotta give me a verse, you gotta do this. Now, if you came to me and said, hey, so, are you saying, I can't, man, I think I did it, I think I did this. And they're like, so are you called to preach? Yeah. You think how dumb that is. I'm called to preach, but I'm not sure about myself. But the devil's good at that. You know what God gave me one time? I was sitting there and I'm praying, and he said, it's not on you. See, I was thinking it was on me. I'm like, did I do enough? Did I do enough? And finally, God's like, did you do what I said? I'm like, well, yeah. Then trust me. See, that's the simplicity, but sometimes that's hard. Sometimes it's hard because I'm like, well, there's got to be something else. I mean, there's got to be, I mean, maybe if I give enough or maybe if I do enough, but it's not on me. So what do we call it when Jesus was on the cross? And what was one of the seven words that he said? You know, there's seven sayings of the cross. What was one of them? It is. So what's interesting, remember I said I love studying words and I love studying the history of words? So that word, it is finished. That word finished. One of the meanings, if you go back in the history of studying words, Um, it had a banking idea behind it. There's other ideas out there. There's all kinds of different, but one of them was banking. And the idea was that, uh, let's say that you are a debtor and you came into the bank and you, you paid it off. Well, the banker would stamp it and it would basically say it is finished, paid in full. It's complete. You know what happened when I trusted Jesus Christ? What was stamped on my heart? Paid in full. So what else do I have to do? Nothing. You see, you can stand, when you step through the door, when you step through the great shepherd and he leads you into salvation, guess what? He's the owner, all right? He owns the sheepfold. He's the owner of the sheep, so I can trust Him. So that's conviction. Conviction helps me to stand on what I believe. I'm not standing on my own, I'm standing on what God said He did. that's the abundant life. So the first thing we see, abundant living comes to those who live a life of conviction. So I get conviction when the abundant life brings conviction. Does that make sense? It brings conviction. Did you notice that word in verse 9? It says, I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he what? shall be saved. So we see abundant living brings conviction. But then let's go back up early. Remember in verse 2 we were introduced to the idea of the door. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. So we see that conviction. Because Jesus is the door, I go through the door. But look at verse 4 and 5. Okay. And when he put it forth, And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, look at what it says, for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. So notice what abundant living brings. It first brings conviction. You know what the second thing it brings? Recognition. Right? Recognition. Now you'd say, so what do you mean by that? Do you notice when I go through the door and I build a relationship with the Good Shepherd, we have a communication system, don't we? I know His voice. Have you ever sung that song? It's based off a song of Solomon, I am His and He is mine. It's because, you see, there's a relationship that is built, and we talked about this a little bit in our Sunday School lesson, I love certain Baptist principles. And one of them, most of them, they've made an acronym for the word Baptist, and the letter P stands for the priesthood of the believer. And so what is the priesthood of the believer? It's based on Scripture. The Scripture says in Peter, the book of Peter, that we are a chosen generation. We are a royal priesthood. You're like, wait a minute, am I supposed to have some gear? You know what I mean? I mean, when I get saved, do I get like the, you know, that big chest plate or whatever like in the Old Testament? No, it's not talking about that. What it's saying and it's referencing is when Christ came, All right, remember in Ephesians it talks about a wall of partition that was split? All right, and even when you go to the Gospels, it says when Jesus died on the cross that the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom. So what does that mean that the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom? That anybody could go into the presence of God now. You see, when I go through the door and I have a relationship with the Good Shepherd, you know what the abundant life brings me? It not only brings me conviction. I know I'm saved. It brings me recognition. I know His voice. So one of the keys to that is understanding what happens when I'm saved. You know, I love the passage that you're memorizing. It's one of my favorite, and I know this has been years, because I think a couple years ago you were in Romans 6, then you're in Romans 7, now you're in Romans 8. It all goes together. Romans 8, guess what Romans 8 is almost all talking about? The Spirit of God. You know what happens when I'm saved? The Spirit of God comes and dwells in me. You know, sometimes my heart, we talked about that in the morning Sunday school lesson, you know, I can't trust man. Why? Because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. So sometimes my heart is doubting or it's sinful, it's carnal. But guess who lives inside me? What? 1 Corinthians 6. No, you're not. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. He dwells within us. So sometimes the Spirit of God dwelling within me says, hey, wait a minute. You know what? You need to do this. Or, hey, you're saying this. This is bad. Hey, you said this yesterday or this past week. Have you ever been praying and you're just trying to get through your devotional time and you're reading your Bible and you're praying and all of a sudden God pauses it? He's like, I just want to deal with something. You ever had that happen? I've had that happen. And God's like, hey, we're not going to keep going. You're like, nah, I'd like to keep going. And he won't let you keep going. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is saying, you need to deal with that. You see, that's what it's recognizing, the abundant life is learning to recognize the shepherd's voice. And that is an awesome relationship. You see, that's what happens when Jesus is telling these people that have religion, you know what religion is? It's empty. Some of you, you might've been saved from that. Man, you go there and it's, let's say it's Catholicism or it's some type of religion and you go and you do that and you walk away and you're like, it just didn't seem like I did enough. You know what? You never can. You never can. Now, is it saying I shouldn't do good things? No, I should be doing good things, but I'm doing them now out of a different heart. It's because God, when I am saved, when I learn to have a relationship, I go through the door, and now I'm following the good shepherd. I not only have conviction, but I have recognition, and that recognition is like supplication. It's prayer. It's a relationship. I can talk to God now. He can talk to me through the Spirit, through the Word of God. He can talk to me. I can have a relationship. Man, that's an abundant life. So let's think of the third thing here. Look in our text again. You'll notice that in their text. So we read verses 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 now, and then we went downwards 7 and 8 and 9. So look at verse 10, the thief cometh not, that's our text verse, and at the end of it it says, I am come that they may have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Look at verse 11. I am the good shepherd. Notice what he says. The good shepherd, what does he do? He giveth his life for the sheep. You know what abundant living is about? When I come to understand and I come through the door, I get conviction, don't I? Then I get recognition because through the door I'm following the Good Shepherd and now I have a relationship and the Good Shepherd, if I'm following that abundant life, guess what he leads me in? Compassion. Because as I'm following Christ and the Good Shepherd, guess what the Good Shepherd does? He gives his life for the sheep. So if I'm gonna be like Christ, it's very opposite of the world, isn't it? Guess what you do in the world? Those of you that are in the corporate world, all right, I don't know how many of you work in the corporate world. Man, it's nasty, isn't it? Or in politics, guess what you do? Spit on people, all right, step on them, grind them down, all right. You lie about them. You do whatever is necessary to get ahead. Guess what the abundant life does? You care. Do you know, even in America, I've researched this now for a number of years, I have yet to find in America an atheist hospital. You know what you normally find? And I don't agree with all of them, but we were, I just got back from Colorado and we were driving through some of the cities and I'm pretty sure we drove by, this new hospital was being built and we looked up, we're like, oh, look it, it's such and such Methodist hospital. I have yet to find such and such atheist hospital. We hate God. Normally when you hate God, you hate people. All right, you know why? Because guess what happens when you follow. The Good Shepherd. Something changes in you. You care about people. Now, I understand there's probably somebody in here and you're like, yeah, you don't know about so-and-so. All right. Yeah. And I understand probably your wife or your husband, you're like, call my word. They don't care. But they do. All right. We care about each other. There's something about a church. When a church has the spirit of the Good Shepherd, you know what they care? They care about the community. They care about people in the community. Why? Because the good shepherd life is giving. You know what a good church is? It's a giving church. A giving church. So they give to missionaries. They give to their pastor. They just give to each other. They're always trying to help because, you see, that is the abundant life. It's compassion. You read, I don't know if you know Aesop's Fables. Have you ever heard of Aesop's Fables? I remember as a young little boy, and then as a teenager, and then as I would preach and teach to young children and to teenagers, I would share the Aesop's Fables once in a while. And there was a story about, I believe it was the fox and the wolf. And the story of the fox, so the fox was just trotting through and if you've ever seen a fox, you know, they kind of prance and they're pretty yuppie, you know what I mean? They just look yuppie, they got sophistication. And a wolf, you know, he's just a wolf. So the fox was kind of trotting through and he fell into a ditch. And he's down at the bottom of a ditch, and it's kind of a well, so there's a little bit of water down there. And all of a sudden, a wolf comes by, and the fox is trying to get out, so he's howling a little bit. And the wolf comes leaning over, and he's like, hey, what you doing? And just so you know, I don't know if you know this, but foxes and wolves, they talk a little bit. All right, I don't know if you know that. All right, so the wolf is trying to ask the fox, hey, what's going on? All right, and the fox is down there now. All right, we always say this, sly as a fox. Wolf didn't know that. He didn't read up. He wasn't a very educated wolf. And so he's sly as a fox. And so the fox is down there, and he wants out. And he's like, oh, I'm down here fishing. And the wolf's like, whoa, there's food down there. He's like, well, how do I get down there? Well, there was a rope that went down. It was basically an empty well. And the fox is like, well, get in that bucket and lower yourself. Lower yourself and you can come down here and we can enjoy this together. Now, dumb wolf, guess what the wolf is? He's heavier than the fox. So as the wolf gets into the bucket, the fox grabs onto the rope and the wolf comes down and the fox goes up. And the fox is at the top now and the wolf is at the bottom. He's like, hey. He's looking up. He's like, where are the fish? He's like, I don't think there's any down there. He's like, well, how am I supposed to get out of here? And he says, I don't know. I'm leaving. And he starts trotting away. And he's like, you can't do that. And he says, it's the way of the world, my son. When one goes up, another goes down. Now, that's the world, isn't it? The world is all about yourself. But guess what? When we find Christ and he opens up that abundant living, that abundant living brings me conviction, it brings me recognition, but guess what it also brings? It brings compassion. You start caring about other people. That's why I go back and say, haven't seen too many atheist hospitals. I haven't seen too many atheists that are so caring. You know what they care about themselves? They care about themselves. So think about this. You know all the billion billion billionaires? Have you ever seen some of those studies that are out and they have all these billionaires that have just loads of money and they track their charitable giving? It's minuscule. I know it's still a lot but it's minuscule compared to just the average Christian. You know what happens when you find Christ and you truly understand more about the Good Shepherd? You understand His heart and His compassion. So let's look at the last thing in our text. And this one, I would say, is probably one of the hardest ones. So we're there and we've moved through the text here and we looked at verse 11. Let's go down a little further in the text. Look at verse 25. So there's a division here. among the among the Jews and they start saying that Jesus had a devil but look at verse 25 Jesus saith unto them I told you and you believe not the works that I do in my father's name they bear witness of me but ye believe not because you're not of my sheep as I said unto you look at verse 27 my sheep hear my voice and I know them Look at the next phrase, and they follow me. Now, so we're talking about the abundant life. Isn't that what Jesus said in verse 10? Remember, this is the religious crowd. The religious crowd has been following Jesus. Jesus has been saying these I am statements and what he's doing is he's combating this religious organization. This religious organization that says do this and do this and do this, do this, and you may get into heaven. And Jesus comes, and remember in John chapter 3, one of our favorite verses, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. but have everlasting life. Jesus is basically rocking the religious world. He's breaking it down, and He's saying, I am the door. I am the good shepherd, and I have an abundant life. Your life is empty. And if you come through the door and you follow the Good Shepherd, you'll gain that life of conviction. You'll gain recognition. Recognition, I'll know you and you'll know me. You'll gain compassion. But then, notice the last thing here. What is verse 27? You follow Him. You know what that says? Submission. That's a little bit different than the world again. You know what the world is all about? Me. And pride, it's the selfie world, isn't it? It's the likes, it's the thumbs up. How many likes or thumbs up? How many followers you got? Like, I don't know. You know what I am now? I am a professional influencer. What is that? I mean, do you have a job? Like, no. I just make videos and people watch me. Like, that's weird, okay? You know, that's this world we live in. It's all about me. You know what? The abundant life, it's all about Him. It's all about Christ. It's following Him. It's submitting to Him. You see, Jesus said in verse 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they, what is an evidence that I am living the abundant life? I'm following Christ. I follow Christ. So what does that idea of abundance again come back to? You know what abundance, what's interesting is that abundance has the idea that it's a fulfillment, that you're experiencing everything that God has to offer us. So I ask you, first of all, this morning, If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, maybe you're relying upon yourself. You've come through another way, a thief or a robber. Remember in the text? That's the religious crowd. They've come up with some other way of getting into the sheepfold. You're not in the sheepfold then, because you haven't come through the door. Jesus did say, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. So I ask you this morning, if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you haven't come through the door, would you do that this morning? Because that is the start of learning the abundant life. Abundant living first comes that I know I'm saved, and it is through Jesus. But let's say you're saved this morning. So is your life abundant? So how do you know? Abundant living means that there's recognition, isn't there? I know his voice and he knows my voice. That means probably there's communication between you and God. So are you forgetting that? You're not going to have an abundant life if there's no communication. What about compassion? So are you active in sharing Christ with others? Do you have compassion for those around? It amazes me sometimes as Christians how rude and hateful they can be. You know what that is evidence? You're not following the Good Shepherd. But then, abundant living. And this means when Christ says, I came to give them life and more abundantly, the abundant life means it is the fullest life you can ever imagine. So the fullest life comes in full surrender and submission to Christ and His way. Has God been dealing with you in some area and saying, hey, you need to do this, or you need to do this, you need to do this in the church, or you need to do this in your personal life, and you're saying, no, no, no, no. Listen, that's the devil, that's the flesh. The flesh profiteth nothing. The devil's always a liar. Christ always has our best interest in mind. So let's try to follow him. I read of this many years ago. I think this was a scholar in the 1800s, and he was studying well-known people in history. And this is what he found. He said, there is an ultimate futility and ambition that is opposed to a life that is dedicated to God. And so then he cited four examples. He said, Alexander the Great was not satisfied even when he had completely subdued all nations. If you read the life of Alexander the Great, he had conquered the whole world. He wept because there was no more worlds to conquer. And he died early in a state of evil. Hannibal. Hannibal was a great warrior, and you read about his life. It said that he filled three bushels with the gold rings taken from the knights he had slaughtered. Now, that's an animal. But guess what? He committed suicide by swallowing poison. Few noted his passing, and he left this earth completely alone. Julius Caesar. Remember Julius Caesar, the great warrior, conqueror? Staining his garments in the blood, they say, of one million of his foes. Conquered 800 cities, only to be what? Stabbed by his best friend. After being the scourge of Europe, Napoleon, the feared conqueror, spent his last years how? In banishment. You know what that shows me? This world. Rise to the top. Take it all. Jesus said it. It's empty. That's not the abundant life. The abundant life comes through the door and it comes through following the Good Shepherd. Will you follow your shepherd into abundant life? He wants to lead you by still waters. He may even call you to go through the valley of the shadow of death, but guess what he says, my rod and my staff.