Aug. 08, 2021

Abundant Life

 Primary Text: John 10:10                                         August 7 & 8, 2021

Last Teaching:   Broken for You

1)  Despised and Rejected

Isaiah 53:2-7:  He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.  Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.  We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth….

DQ 1) Why do humans fear rejection from other people?

DQ 2) Why did God choose the route of the cross to justify 

            sinners?  What does it tell us about His identification 

            with our brokenness?

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2)  Broken for You

1 Corinthians 11:23-25 (NKJV):  For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood.  This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”   

DQ 3) What does the celebration of communion (the Lord’s

            Supper, Eucharist) tell us about the importance and 

            blessings of brokenness in our own lives?

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This Week’s Teaching

1)  Full Life

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

John 10:10 (NIV):  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 

DQ 1) Define “abundant life.”

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2)  Reasons to Boast

Philippians 3:4-6:  If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. 

DQ 2) What type of abundant life did Saul the Pharisee have

            before he came to know Christ and became known as 

            the Apostle Paul?

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3)  Rubbish

Philippians 3:7-8:  But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ….

DQ 3) How is brokenness connected to abundance in the life of 

           a Christian?

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4)  Gaining Christ

Philippians 3:8-15:   I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.   I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. 

DQ 4) What is abundant life in Christ?

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5)  The Crown of Righteousness

2 Timothy 4:6-8:  For I [the Apostle Paul] am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. 

DQ 5) What is the eternal abundance of Paul’s life?

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