Life to the Full

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church

Henley, and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast,

you can have an encounter with Jesus that'll

change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. Thank you so

much, Tex. Yeah, I wanted to open by saying There's

a great cloud of witnesses that is for you encounter

Henley and I have the great privilege of being

part of that. So there's people praying for you

regularly. There's people inside your church

praying for you regularly and I am far outside

your church because I live up in Woodside and

I'm praying for you regularly because I love

this church and I love Ash and Tim and Tex. And

Encounter is a special church for us as a family.

So I am the Minister of Woodside Uniting and

also I get the great joy of working with Tim

in the mission resourcing team of our Synod.

Encounter is a beautiful church and my whole

family love it. I'm married to Danika and I've

got two kids, Gideon who is six and Ardent who

is four. And Gideon, my son, came with me to

your first service. almost two years ago, and

on the screen there's going to be a picture of

Gideon, it's the next slide, and we came to your

service and it was such an honour to be here,

and Gideon just loved the church and loved the

service and loved the glow stick that he got.

So this is him, like this is in the car after

the service, after your first service, which

if it's almost two years you'd be creeping up

to what, a hundred and something. And the next

day Gideon wakes up and he goes to Ardent, still

holding this glow stick and he's like, Ardent,

and he's like holding it right here. I went to

party church last night and it was amazing. And

so in our family, we refer to you as party church.

So yeah. So I've got a new logo for you. No,

just joking. I don't. But I love that. I love

that my son sees the vibrancy of your church

and goes. That's a party church. That's a church

that celebrates. That's a church that is joyful

and filled with the Spirit. And I've got the

great privilege this afternoon of launching you

into a new series called Life to the Full, because

you're almost two years in. And there's an energy

and a burst of life that comes when you launch

something, or when you give birth to something,

or when you start something. But you get two

years into something and it gets a bit two years,

doesn't it? I mean, lots of people came to visit

me when my son was born. No one's like, oh, you've

got a two -year -old, I've got to come over right

now. No one. We see this in relationships. You

get to that two -year mark and you're like, oh,

man, that person will tell the same joke every

time a prompt is given to them. Oh, man. And

like, you know it. You can just see the train

coming and someone says, have you been to here?

And they're like, oh, no, they're going to tell

that story again. We do this with jobs. You're

two years, and you're like, oh, really, this

is it. Okay, yeah, I'm not going to go to that

spot in the morning tea time because it's going

to be a nightmare. And Jesus calls us to have

life to the full, not just when we birth something,

not when we just launch something, not when we

start something, but all the time. So let's pray.

Oh Lord God, I thank you for encounter. For the

spirit of this church, the humility, the kindness,

the grace. And so I pray, Lord, that whatever

I bring right now, that if it's of You, let it

land, let it stick, and anything that's of me

would just fade away. We want to encounter You,

we want to see You, we want to behold You. And

so may Your Word speak to us, we pray. In the

powerful Name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. If I was

to ask you how full is your life, how would you

answer that question? Now, you don't have to

yell out, I don't need to hear how your week's

been, I would love to after the service, but

how full is your life? Because I dare say I would

answer the question maybe a similar way to you.

I think back on my week, and I might even pull

my phone out and look at my diary and go, oh,

it was pretty busy, or actually, it was pretty

light. And I would kind of answer that question,

how full is your life based on how many blocks

in my calendar were full and how many blocks

were next to each other, which meant I had a

back -to -back day. And if you're anything like

me, how many nights out I am, because I like

being home. And if there was a lot of nights

out, I would say, oh, it's been a pretty big

week. And if there were no nights out, I would

say, oh, it's been a great week. It's been amazing.

It's been so good. But the question of how full

is your life, if I changed it and said how full

of your life with life, how full is your life

with living, with life, with joy, with peace,

with compassion, not just how busy you are, not

how much is in your calendar, but how much life

is present in your life? How would you answer

that question? Because you might answer that

radically different. You might go from going,

oh, this week's been great to, oh. I've actually

been pretty angry most of this week. Or you might

go, oh, I went into the prayer room this week

and it set the course for my whole week. You'd

reflect and think, oh, there's moments where

I've not acted in the way I want to and there's

moments where I have or there's been moments

where the God has spoken to me and there's been

moments where I walked out of it and I was like,

oh, I missed the mark. How full is your life

with life? Because the promise of Jesus is a

life and life to the full, a life of abundance.

And if you're like me and you're doing a Bible

reading plan at the moment, you've just hit Leviticus

or Numbers in the Old Testament. And the Bible

is full of comparisons. And one of the biggest

comparisons is the difference between life and

death. And if you're slogging through Leviticus

or Numbers like me and you're like, Farah, why

do I have to tear down my whole house if there's

a bit of mold that won't go away? Because in

that day, in that culture, what brings life?

What brings death? And they didn't have domestos.

And so if mould wasn't going to go away, you

tear the whole thing down because it's going

to bring death. But if something's going to bring

life, like loving your neighbour or showing compassion

or forgiving, do it. And so that's critical to

this passage. And the context to this passage,

and we're actually going to go a bit more through

it than our text brought, was literally just

before this moment. There's a man who's born

blind and he's brought before Jesus and people,

just before this, you don't have to worry about

it just yet, people say like, who sinned? Did

he sin or did his parents sin? Like why is he

situation like this? And Jesus goes, no, like

I'm not even going to answer that. I'm just going

to heal this guy. And the guy is healed and the

Pharisees are religiously, they get really upset

with this fact because a, Jesus healed someone

on the Sabbath, and B, it's not them. And so

they kind of get the guy's parents, they get

the guy, and they're like, what happened and

who did this? And it's great, because eventually

it just gets to the point where the guy's like,

well, I don't know what to tell you, but I was

blind, and now I see, and that guy did it, so

your problem. And he just walks off the scene.

And literally then Jesus says these words. Very

truly, I tell it to you, Pharisees. So he's speaking

to the Pharisees, to the religious elite, those

that are so upset. How dare Jesus heal on a Sabbath?

That's the day off. Doesn't he know that God

should take a rest? This guy can be blind for

another day, been blind his whole life. He should

wait another day. Get to Monday, get off the

weekend, Jesus. We are upset. We are angry. We

will make this guy be embarrassed. We'll get

his parents involved. Is this guy your son? Yes.

Maybe. Why? Yes. No. What? Okay. And he says,

I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheep

pen by the gate but climbs in by some other way

is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by

the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper

opens the gate for him. The sheep listen to his

voice. He calls his own sheep by name. He leads

them out. When he's brought them out all on his

own or all his own. He goes on ahead of them

and his sheep follow him because they know, they

know his voice. They don't just hear his voice,

they know his voice, but they will never follow

a stranger. In fact, they will run away from

him because they do not recognise a stranger's

voice. Jesus used this figure of speech, but

the Pharisees did not understand what he was

telling them. It's great these moments where,

like I look at them, like it seems pretty obvious.

Pharisees, you're not helping. you're actually

stealing when people should be free. And Jesus

comes and he says, I, like he literally says,

I'm the good shepherd. I'm the one. And they're

like, this is very confusing. I am the good shepherd.

Hmm, okay. And let's just look at some of the

things that the good shepherd does. It's on the

next slide. The good shepherd, the sheep listen

to his voice. The sheep are called by name, they're

led out. He goes before them. He doesn't follow

from the end going, all right sheep, get going.

He leads them out. and they know his voice. In

the Pat Sellers household, that's my family,

I'm a Pat Sellers. We got chickens for Christmas,

two chickens for our two kids. And we got the

chickens and the kids were very excited and were

like, okay, you have to name them. And my son's

like, Jenny. I'm like, good, that's a good, solid

name. Love that. You named your... Lion, last

Christmas Jenny, and now we've got a chicken

called Jenny. I can't wait for you to name something

else Jenny next year. And I look at my daughter,

I'm like, what's your chicken? Cocky Cock. That's

also a strong name. My in -laws come over, oh,

they've got the chickens, what are their names?

My son, Jenny. Oh, great. My daughter, Cocky

Cock. Are we keeping that Nick? We will give

it one day. One day the next day we get up have

the chickens done in the eggs cocky cock. Okay

Arden sweetie Great name. No bad idea and brainstorming

Can we pick another one? And she's like hmm How

about blossom That's wonderful. I think you said

Blossom, which is your favorite Pokemon. I don't

mind. It's not cocky cock. That's wonderful.

Blossom it is. Blossom whatever it is. That's

great. And that first week was just so funny

with these chickens because my daughter's like,

I want to hold them. It's like, okay, sweetie,

we've just gotten them. They don't trust any

of us. And so they would just run away with my

daughter chasing them for an hour. Like they

don't let me pick them up. It's like because

they don't know you. They don't trust you. You're

gonna have to give it some time, but I want to

hold them. Yeah, but they don't want to be held

they don't Then a week later or a week or two

later the chickens would go outside and Jenny

blossom Thank You Jesus And they come running

to me and my daughter's like why are they running

to you? I'm like, sweetie. I feed them If you

want them to run to you you get out there first

and you feed them The chickens know their name

and they know who's gonna feed them And so they

will come to us. And it's interesting because

there's a moment where the disciples, there's

this big crowd and Jesus says something slightly

offensive. So the crowd start to disperse and

Jesus says to his most closest followers, are

you going to leave me too? You can. I'm going

to keep offending people. And they say, where

else would we go? You have the words of life.

Where else could we go? You're the one that feeds

us. You're the one who knows us by name. You're

the one that leads us. We know your voice. We

can't actually go, even if you're offensive,

even if you're going to get us in trouble. And

to be known by the shepherd isn't just to be

acquainted. It's not like a quasi -stalker relationship.

Yeah, I know Jesus. I know when He was born,

Christmas Day. I know when He died, Easter. You

know, I know some of these words. It's actually

you're known. There's a living breathing depth

of relationship with the one who calls you by

name And then Jesus carries on he says therefore

Jesus said again very truly I Tell you I'm the

gate for the sheep all who have come before me

are thieves and robbers But the sheep have not

listened to them I Am the gate whoever enters

through me will be saved. They will come in and

go out and find pasture And then we get to the

text. The thief comes only to steal and kill

and destroy. I have come that you may have life

and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd

and the good shepherd lays down his life for

the sheep. There's life. There's death. There's

an option. Who is your shepherd? Who is the voice

you're following? And as I think of this passage,

there's one that comes to steal, kill and destroy

and who Jesus is talking to is the Pharisees.

to the leadership, he's saying, you're not adding,

you're not, you're distracting, not only like

you are stealing and you are destroying. It's

no wonder they crucified him, like he was saying

it as it was. And when I think about what steals

from us, there's gonna be a few things on the

screen. There's so many things that steal from,

and it's, like you notice if someone's trying

to steal your car, don't you? Like if someone

like, Yeah, like, obviously, Nick, but like,

often we think this first, like, oh, it's going

to steal the big stuff. No, it's, it's often

it's the small stuff. It's the things you don't

notice. It's all the little distractions. And

I'm going to explain all these things, but it's

the small things that are stolen from us, where

we're distracted into spiritual oblivion, as

Ronald Rollheiser talks about. We're a distracted

age. Even right now, it's like, oh, when's this

guy going to finish? Because like, There's always

stuff we could be doing right now. Your phone

might be buzzing. There was a sermon last year

where, as I was preaching, I heard one of my

kids call out. It was like clear as a day. I

was like, as soon as dad is finished, we're going

home. And I was like, that's the one that wants

to be home like me? That's great. That's awesome.

There's these moments where our attention drifts,

where there's little things that distract us.

And I know because I listened to the Vision Sunday

sermon from a few weeks ago from from Reverend

Mike and how he spoke about our phones. Like,

I love that intro. I was listening to it on the

podcast and I was like, I need to watch the video

because obviously he's staring at his phone.

But I knew I could hear he was distracted. And

these phones, they are discipling us. You're

being shaped and formed by your phones. And it's

amazing how the echo chamber occurs within our

phones. I know that you guys teach on this, you're

aware of it. But it was made really clear to

me this week. Did anyone watch the Super Bowl

halftime show? A few of us, yeah, yeah. So Bad

Bunny performed as I watched that on Monday night

with my wife. And then throughout that week I

was listening to a bit of his music and I started

watching some of his Saturday Night Live skits.

His carpool karaoke is quite funny if you want

to be distracted later, not now in the sermon.

And when it all came home for me was that I'd

been listening to his music throughout the week.

I don't know Spanish, but I love it. And then

I went on Friday night to go find a pizza shop.

And as I'm typing pizza in Google Maps, you know

how it does the auto suggestion? It's like, you

know, pizza, P -I -Z. It's like, Puerto Rico.

I'm like, I'm in Mount Barker. Thanks, Google,

for the suggestion. I'm not going to Puerto Rico,

which is where Bad Bunny's from. So it's also

made me go, how much of this music did I listen

to this week? Our phones, they're not always

as obvious as that. Sometimes it's just an ad,

and you're like, oh yeah, that's interesting.

It's all these little distractions that steal

from us, that steal life, and they don't feel

like death, but they're not life. All those little

gaps where you look at your phone and you're

like, oh, and now an hour's gone. Where did that

go? There's all those moments when there's a

strong commitment in the beginning of the year,

I'm going to do a Bible reading plan, I'm going

to get in the prayer room, and then, I don't

know about you, but whenever I open my Bible,

that's when people want to message me with things

that are urgent. You're like, oh okay, it's the

little things that steal from us. I've wrote

escape up there because having chickens, I've

never realized how many holes were in my fence

until I got chickens and would come home from

church and be like, where are the chickens? You're

like, oh next door. You're like, what? And then

you just find out there's big gaping holes in

our fence. Things that steal from us, we are

sometimes distracted. Also, we choose things

that aren't life. We have these conversations

in church. You'll go up to a pastor after the

service, like, so I can't do this, but can I

do this? And we hear the thing we don't want

to hear. We're like, okay, well, I'm just going

to do it anyway. We'll find the hole in the fence

and we will jump through it. The sheep will do

it. Oh, I don't like this. I don't like this

food. I'm going to get out of here. And I was

taken a few weeks ago where I was in Halls Gap

camping with my family. and the amount of kids

that are on tablets while camping, which is weird

in itself, but the amount of kids on social media

on their tablets while we're camping. And I didn't

know what to do because I thought there was a

social media ban. Is there? Ish. I didn't know

where to look. I thought, like, am I going to

get, like, the SWAT team? Like, you know, the

police are going to arrest me. I didn't know.

I felt like I was watching something I shouldn't

be. Like, how are these kids all on phone? And

you're like, there's a hole in the fence. If

there's a hole, you'll find it. and you'll do

it. The last one is fear. We're in a world that's

designed to make us afraid, and if we're afraid,

we just automatically will respond to things,

and it steals from us. I said before that I'm

in two roles. One is working at Woodside Uniting,

the other one is working with Tim in mission

resourcing, and in our role, Tim and I, the IT

department often send us phishing emails. Do

you know what a phishing email is? It's one of

those ones where someone's trying to get your

credit card details or trying to scam you or

trick you. And so we get that from our own IT

department. And they're really smart. It'll be

like your line manager. We're like the day before

a meeting with them, we're like, you know, Jenny,

what? So my boss's name is Jenny. That's she's

not a chicken. Yeah. Love it. You know, Jenny's

meeting with you tomorrow. Click this to find

out your work appraisal. You're like, OK, I better

click that. And he's like, oh. you got scammed

you're like come on guys can you stop trying

to trick me I've fallen for this four times in

one week like and you're just like oh because

it evokes a fear response Disney Plus you're

about to lose your Disney Plus I don't even know

we had Disney Plus click the link oh got tricked

again And we live in this world that will, in

big and small ways, just try to make us afraid,

because if we're afraid, we'll respond, oh, I've

got to do this. And it steals. It's not life.

And in this section of Scripture, there's this

beautiful relationship of the one that wants

to bring life and the aspects that want to steal

and kill and destroy in a strong language, because

it does. All those little things, they take away,

they take away, they take away. And this fear

that comes into us, this passage so powerfully

pushes back on it. And I think of a story I heard

this week by Rich Verlotis, he's a pastor in

New York. And he tells a story of, you can just

go to the blank slide, you don't have to worry

about that. He tells a story of when he was in

an apartment building. And he saw this older

woman who was maybe in her 80s, but she was really

frail, but really quick. That's the way he describes

her. And often she'd be on people that would

come into the foyer of the apartment. She'd be

like, have you seen that light? It's broken.

Can you fix it? Or this door is broken. Can you

get on it? And what she would do is she would

often sit in the foyer. And whenever she would

see a neighbor, she would go up to them in the

foyer and she'd say, excuse me. Do you live here?

And the person would go, yes. Oh, which apartment?

How many bedrooms do you like it and she would

go through her questions and after the person

And rich saw time and and they would leave her

And he saw this happen time and time again then

one day it was his turn he walks in It was late

at night and she's in the lobby with her bag

and a big coat and she sees him. She says hello

Do you live here? Which apartment? How many bedrooms?

Do you like it? Can you take me to my apartment?

And Rich, who's a pastor, thinks to himself,

am I going to get killed by an 80 -year -old

woman? And he panics and he says, no. And he

gets into the lift, the door shut, the woman's

sitting there. And he's like, oh, Jesus. That

was not the right choice. He's like, God, give

me another chance, please. I shouldn't have said

no. And the next day, he gets in the foyer and

she's there. And she's completely forgotten the

conversation. She says, hello, what's your name?

He's like, Rich, do you live here? Yes. Which

apartment? How many bedrooms do you like it?

And she says, can you take me to my apartment?

And Rich says, sure, I would love to. And they

get in the elevator and there's that background

music and they press the buttons and. Eventually,

Rich says, hey, what's your name? And she says,

Renee. He says, oh, Renee, how long have you

lived here for? And she says, 50 years. Which

apartment? She tells him, which apartment? Do

you like it? And she says, oh, that's all right.

And he looks and he says, Renee, why do you ask

people to take you to your apartment? And she

says, I'm afraid of being in the lift alone.

I'm afraid of being in the lift alone. Ding,

door's open. They come out and Rich is walking

with her and they get a few steps in and she's

like, you can go now. He's like, whoa, oh, okay.

Sorry sister, like, okay. You may not be afraid

of stepping in an elevator alone. But there might

be a fear for you of, I don't want to be there

alone. I don't want to be in this stage of life

like this. I don't want to be alone. I don't

want to go to that doctor. I don't want to go

to that place. I don't want to go to that church

because I don't want to be alone. And this whole

scripture is Jesus saying, Pharisees, when people

are isolated, that's where I am. When you want

to say they need to be alone and blind, I want

them to see and I want them to be welcomed. I

have come to seek and save the lost. So no matter

where people are afraid, no matter where people

go, I can't go there by myself, they don't have

to go there by themselves. Because he's with

them. And there's this beautiful quote which

will be on the screen by Flemming Rotlich. I

love this. It says, imagine a person totally

committed to your best interests, devoted to

seeing you flourish. fighting for you against

all your enemies, determined to eliminate everything

destructive from your life, attentive to every

detail of who you are, never thinking of himself

at all, but only of you. That is Jesus in relation

to us all. Sacrificial in his life, sacrificial

in his death, this is Jesus in his posture towards

you. totally committed to your best interests,

wanting you to have life and life to the full,

not to have things steal or kill or destroy.

He's come and he's taken death and he's been

emptied so that we can be full. And just look

at this quote. Imagine a person totally committed

to your best interests, because we know we have

those people that aren't, don't we? Devoted to

seeing you flourish, fighting for you against

all enemies. Determined to eliminate everything

destructive from your life, attentive to every

detail of who you are, never thinking of themself

but only of you. That is Jesus. That's Jesus

for you. And this passage, it pushes back on

all the things that the tribe would take from

us and Jesus says, I am the shepherd, I am the

door. I want to lead you to life and life in

all its fullness. But you've got to follow. You've

got to hear. You've got to be with me. Let's

pray. Lord God. You are the one that knows us,

who sees us. You're not just some abstract thought

or concept, but you're a person. A person we

can know, and a person that we can love, and

a person who knows us, and a person who loves

us. And so in this space, Lord, we want to hear

your voice. We want to follow you. We want to

be guided and guarded by you. Lord, I had a sense

this week as we were spending time together that

there might be some here who see that and hear

that and hope that it's true, but don't believe

it's true. that there's been circumstances in

their life that have led them to believe that

you're not for them, that you're indifferent,

that you're unaware, that you're distant. And

Lord God, I pray that as your spirit is here,

that you would bring us closer to your reality,

that this is who you are. That regardless of

the circumstances, regardless of the situation,

you are the God that is for us, not against us.

And when we see your life, Jesus, when we see

you empty yourself so that we can be filled,

that is God. That the eyes of heaven, the heart

of heaven, the voice of heaven is towards this

place and this people. That you are near. as

near as each breath we take right now, that you

are here, that you are our best friend, our holy

God, that you love us. And so as we worship now,

as we sing to you God, we pray that our hearts

would would be lifted to you. We pray this in

your name. Amen. encounteradelaide .com .au.

Thanks again for listening. God bless you.