–Proverbs 28:6 (NKJV)
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                    “More and more abundantly,
                    More and more abundantly,
                    ‘That they might have life
                    And more abundantly…'”
                           –Thoro Harris

          “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.  I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
                           –John 10:10(NKJV)

Abundance or an Abundant Life–which is better?  People cry and clamor for the good life, which in their minds means to live “happy and free,” to “tip-toe through the tulips” singing “la, la, la all the day long.”  This abundance is self-serving.  When we study the words of the Bible, especially those of Jesus, we find very quickly that the “good life” is not necessarily one of material abundance, and, in fact, may be one of suffering.  People have for decades gotten off on the “prosperity kick” wanting only their stuff and to be happy.  However, the abundant life that Jesus speaks of in John comes from following God’s ways, pursuing holiness, and seeking to be more like Him.
       Barclay says that the Greek phrase for “having it more abundantly” means to have a “superabundance of a thing.”  He further states, “To be a follower of Jesus, to know who He is and what He means, is to have a superabundance of life…  When we try to live our own lives, life is a dull, dispirited thing.  When we walk with Jesus, there comes a new vitality, a superabundance of life.  It is only when we live with Christ that life becomes really worth living and we begin to live in the real sense of the word.”
       When we begin to see inner turmoil in our lives and our minds it is usually because that the self is seeking its own way and will and not wanting to give all for Jesus.  People misunderstand what true happiness is.  It is not having “things.”  “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26, NKJV)   Life, here and now, with all its pleasures, vanities, and hopes of happiness and fulfillment–or–life eternal.  God’s life, His abundant life, speaks not only of “endlessness, but of quality of life.  With Christ, life on earth can reach much higher quality, and then in heaven it will be complete and perfect.” (NKJV Study Bible)
       “He who walks with integrity walks securely…” (Proverbs 10:9, NKJV).  “The integrity of the upright will guide them…”  (Proverbs 11:3, NKJV)  The good life in the eyes of God is one of integrity.  To live with integrity brings peace to the soul as well as the mind.  Look around you, think of the past several years and see those who thought they had everything the world had to offer, but failed in their personal life for lack of integrity.  God has entrusted us with this life, therefore, it must have purpose.  Purpose is not gathering in all the pleasures and the material goods one can, but it is the giving of oneself.  It is following Christ and His commands fully to the best of one’s ability.  F.M. Fosdick wrote, “For selfishness is sickness, and overflowing usefulness is spiritual health and abounding life.”  The selfish man is absorbed in his own needs and wants.  He becomes disconted when he cannot obtain all that he wants, therefore, he is a “sick man.”

                    “Come to Him believing, Hearken to His call;
                    All from Him receiving, Yield to Him your all;
                   Jesus will accept you When to Him you flee;
                   He will grant His blessings more abundantly.”
                                –Thoro Harris

                    –Zane Grey  (The Mysterious Rider)

       “The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders; the LORD is over many waters.”

                    –Psalm 29:3 (NKJV)
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Jesus, after feeding and preaching to the five thousand had His disciples depart in a boat and He would meet them later on the other side.  He would go away and pray for a while.  There must have been some haste for Matthew records, “Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side while He sent the multitudes away.” (14:22, NKJV)  He would send the crowd away, but he wanted them to leave immediately.
       There is so much to this story.  It was out in the sea, a dark night, and the winds arose.  It was the fourth watch meaning that it was between 3:00-6:00 in the morning.  Jesus was somewhere out on a mountainside praying when the winds arose.  I like the concern that William Barclay gives the story.  “Jesus looked from the mountainside out across the lake.  The lake was only four miles across at that point, and in the light of the moon it lay stretched out before Him.  The wind was up and He saw the boat, with His men in it, having a hard struggle to reach the other side…  Immediately Jesus saw His friends in trouble and His own problems were set aside; the moment for prayer was past; the time for action had come; He forgot Himself and went to the help of His friends.  That is of the very essence of Jesus.  The cry of human need to Him surpassed all other claims.  His friends needed Him; He must go.” (capitalization of deity is mine)
       Before He reached them the disciples saw a figure approaching the boat.  They cried out in fear; they said it was a ghost.  Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer!  It is I; do not be afraid.” (14:27, NKJV)  Literally this could be interpreted as, “It is I am; do not be afraid.”  The I AM, the great God of creation was walking in the midst of the sea.  Then comes the cry of Peter.

               “And Peter answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’  So He said, ‘Come.’  And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.  But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’  And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’  And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.”
                            –Matthew 14:28-32 (NKJV)

       I have heard many sermons on this topic, and I cannot recall one where Peter is not criticized.  When he began to sink beneath the waves, the critics raise their voice at his little faith.  Yet not one has repeated his feat.  Where was Andrew?  Why didn’t Simon or Nathaniel walk out on the water?  Or even more where were the “Sons of Thunder” with their faith?  Should they not have walked beside Peter?
       When the winds assailed Jesus commanded Peter to “Come.”  Peter obeyed.  The key, which Peter learned, was that in the midst of life–all that it may bring–we must keep our eyes on Jesus.  He is the “author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2, NKJV)  Obedience, we must remember and learn, is doing what Jesus says and then faith is taking the step.  Obedience and faith, they go together.  

                 “Trust and obey,
                 For there’s no other way
                 To be happy in Jesus,
                 But to trust and obey.”
                            –J.H. Sammis

       Mark Driscoll wrote, “Fear will sink you.  When Peter had faith, he walked on water.  When he had fear, he sank in the water.  The same is true for you.  Fear will sink you.”  In all situations and issues of life we need to have faith.  Fear is detrimental, but faith brings the victory.  And notice that Jesus didn’t say that Peter didn’t have faith, but he had little faith.  There are dangers all around–pestilence, war, inflation, famine in some areas, terror, the unknown, and myriad others–don’t sink in the midst of them.  Don’t let their waves overcome you.  Keep your eyes upon Jesus–learn the lesson that faith requires focus.
       Oh, and by the way, I don’t think that Jesus drug Peter to the water back to the boat.  They walked back together, arms around each other’s shoulders.  And then, only when Jesus and Peter stepped back into the boat did the winds cease.  Augustine wrote, “He came treading the waves; and so he puts all the swelling tumults of life under his feet.  Christians–why afraid?”  To focus and walk with Christ will cause us not to notice the winds and waves and we will find peace in the midst of the storms of life.

                    –Emerson Hough  (54-40 or Fight)

       “For our God is a consuming fire.”

                    –Hebrews 12:29(NKJV)
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I have had the fortune of teaching several classes regarding the Holy Spirit.  One unit that is included are the “Symbols of the Holy Spirit” which include oil, wind, water, and fire along with some others.  There is a story I would like to share with you from the writing of F.E. Marsh and is taken from his wonderful book, “Emblems of the Holy Spirit.”  
       Fire is a wonderful symbol of the Spirit.  Fire inflames, fire warms, fire consumes, fire hardens and also softens, fire purifies, fire cheers, fire fuses, fire illuminates, and what I want to share today is the fact that fire moves.  Luke tells us that John the Baptist preached, that Jesus would “baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Luke 3:16)  

          A man had a factory!
          He walked round the outside and then walked round the inside.  There were the shafts, all properly set, the cogs, all sharp and clean, the great engine all complete.  The machinery was all there, but it didn’t move a spoke.
          He was looking disgustedly at the factory when a man came up and said, “Your factory?”  “Yes,” he replied.
          “What do you make?”    “That’s the trouble:  I don’t make anything.”
          “Doesn’t it run?”   “No.”
          “What’s the matter with it?”    “I don’t know.”
          “Ah,” said the man, “I’ll tell you; you want to get some hook-nosed oil-cans, and some imported oil,” and he employed me to go round and oil the machinery and all the bearings.
          Then he came down again, walked round inside and outside.  Nothing moved.  A man came up to him and said, “Your factory?”    “Yes,” he replied.
          “What do you make?”      “Don’t make anything.”
          “Don’t it run?”     “No.”
          “What’s the matter?”       “I don’t know.”
          “I’ll tell you; you want to fresco it–side walls and ceiling–and I would recommend you to put a couple of barefooted angels with trumpets eternally ready to blow–and do it properly.”
          So he put workmen in and frescoed the factory, putting a couple of angels on the ceiling, with trumpets at their lips ready to blow.
          Then he came down and looked it over again, but still it did not move, and while he was looking a man came up and said, “Your factory?”      “Yes.”
          “What do you make?”     “Nothing.”
          “Why?  Don’t it run?”      “No.”
          “What’s the matter?”      “I don’t know.”
          “Ah,” said he, “I’ll tell you.  It has no steeple.  You want to put up a nice steeple on one of the corners, and I’d advise you to put in a fine pipe-organ, and get a quartette choir at the same time.”
          So he set men to work, got the steeple up, with a chime of bells that was marvelous, put in a pipe-organ with lots of pipes, got a quartette choir that would beat anything you ever heard, specially on the “Amen.”
          Then the man came down, saw the steeple and the organ, and heard the choir and the chimes.  But not a thing moved.
          “This your factory?” said a man who came up.      “Yes.”
          “What do you make?”     “Nothing.”
          “Don’t it run?”      “No.”
          “Ah,” he said, “you want a picture of the thing taken.  Get a photographer to take a picture, have a lot of big copies made and framed and hung up all round–in the railway stations, in the hotels, in the barbers’ shops, and so on, telling all about the time the thing is expected to move.  Say it will move at 11 o’clock in the morning and 7 o’clock at night, and the people will come to see it move.”
          So he got a great big picture taken, and had copies hung up at all the places the man told him about.
          Then he came down, walked around inside and out; but couldn’t see a hair moving.  He was perfectly disgusted.  Not a cog trembled!
          Just then a working man came up, a hard-handed man.  He took off his hat–he was very polite–and said, “Beg pardon, sir, is this your factory?”
          “Who told you to ask me that?” grunted the owner of the factory.
          “Beg pard, but is that your factory?” repeated the man.      “Yes.”
          “What do you make?”       “Don’t make anything.”
          “Don’t it run?”      “Run!  No, it don’t run at all–except into debt!”
          “What’s the matter, sir?”       “I don’t know.  A man told me to get some hook-nosed oil-cans–and there they are.  Another man told me to fresco it, and put in a couple of angels.  I frescoed it, and if you will come in and have a look you will see two bare-footed angels on the ceiling ready to blow their trumpets.  Another man told me to put on a steeple, to get a pipe-organ, to engage a quartette choir, and I did.  Do you hear those chimes?  See that organ?  Listen to that choir chasing that ‘Amen’ up and down!  Another man told me to get a photograph taken and hung up.  I have hung it up!  But the machinery don’t move a spoke, and I am disgusted with the whole business.”
          “Well,” said the working man, “pardon me, sir.  I have never been to school, and I don’t know anything about those angels; but I would like to ask you one question:  Did you every put any fire under the boiler?”
          “Why, I never thought of that.”
          “Well,” said the working man, “if you will take the chances–it will scare the choir, likely–I will put some fire under the boiler.”
          “Oh,” said the man, “go ahead.  Move it somehow.  Make something of it, if it’s only ashes!”
          So the working man went inside, took off his coat, opened the door of the furnace, put in the wood, threw on the petroleum, put in the coal, lighted a match, got the fire going, set on the draughts, shovelled in some more coal, and pulled back the throttle valves.  The steam rushed into the cylinder, hit the end of the piston rod, the great wheel began to tremble, it revolved, and the machinery all over the factory began to move.  A little more coal–and more–and more–and more, while faster–and faster–and faster went the machinery.  The quartette choir got scared, and went out of the back door.  The whole machinery was moving.  Something had happened.  Praise the Lord!

There is often too much of man involved in God’s work and not enough of the fire of the Holy Spirit to get it moving.  Plans are all right if under the direction and moving of the Holy Spirit.  Programs are as well, but we must not ever leave out the working of the Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit that moves, energizes, controls, and directs the Church.