Jesus made it clear that he wants us to live a life of blessing, and we usually refer to this as the abundant life, based on the fact that he said, I came that you may have life and life more abundantly. Unfortunately, very few believers experience this kind of living, and often what is blocking them is what they believe. Today I'd like to look at three doctrines that are often taught and believed, but unfortunately they prevent believers from living that abundant life.

The first one goes something like this, you have to maintain your commitment and your victory of overcoming sin after you are born again, if you want to make it to heaven. I'm sure you've heard this many times, you may even believe it, it's preached all over, you'll see it all over the Internet. People are saying, I had a vision of heaven, and I saw people that I expected to be there, and they were not there, because they failed through sin.

The common expression is, somebody died, I hope they made it to heaven. And what we're really saying, and this is what the doctrine teaches, that once you have accepted Jesus and are born again, you have to turn totally away from all sin. If you continue to sin after you're born again, you're not going to make it to heaven.

And if you do have sin in your life, God will not bless you. You know that doctrine? I'll come back shortly and tell you what the Bible really teaches. But that's the doctrine as it stands.

That doctrine will prevent you from living an abundant life, as I will show you. The second doctrine goes something like this, God allows bad things to happen to teach us and discipline us. And the logic goes like this, when a child is disobedient, the parent disciplines them.

Well, these days, with psychology, we're not allowed to discipline the way we used to. But most people, they believe in the old fashioned, you spare the rod, you spoil the child. So discipline means whop, smack, pain.

Right? Child was naughty, we've got to give him a hiding. Okay, so it means then we have to accept the good with the bad. And no matter what happens, we have to believe that God is always in control.

Okay, so God's in control, the bad things and the good things in our life, we accept them as all as from the Lord. And sometimes, when we start straying, and sin comes into our life, God has to deal with us. He has to bring us to a place where we repent of our sin and turn back to him again.

God's got to give us a smack. And so God will allow things like financial difficulty, sickness and disease, bad relationships, losing all the good things in life. God's allowing that to teach you something.

You heard that doctrine? Have you believed that doctrine? I hope by the time I'm finished tonight, you will not be believing it anymore. And the third and final doctrine that prevents us from living an abundant life. And this one is very subtle.

And when I share it, you may, you may say, but that's right. Because that's what most people believe. And it goes like this.

God chose the path that you will take in life. He chose your destiny before you were born, and you had nothing to do with it. So your goal in life is to find what God planned, to find out what his will is, and what he wants you to do.

And if you don't go according to his will, when you move out of his will, things are going to go wrong, and God's going to deal with you. And you're going to miss the blessing. That God planned for you.

Very clear? You know, those three doctrines? Well, I'd like to state categorically that they're all wrong. Now, I don't have time to go through all the scriptures and to prove this to you in this message. I've got plenty of other teaching in many places, where you can go and learn some more of this.

But I'm just going to correct it very quickly by telling you what the Bible teaches, and what the correct doctrine is. Okay? The scripture teaches us that when we came to Jesus, to receive him as our Savior, and we were born again, we entered into a relationship with him that is permanent. And we are saved once from the penalty of all our sins.

That's the sins you committed in the past, the sins you committed today, and the sins you're going to commit tomorrow. You have already been saved from the penalty of every sin that you will commit in this life. So what does that mean? Does that mean I can just go on sinning, and it doesn't really matter? Or why did I become a Christian in the first place, if I can just go on sinning? No, no, that's another very false doctrine.

We're not advocating that at all. But you see, we give sin degrees. We make one sin bigger than another.

So after I've accepted the Lord, I can stumble every now and then. I can tell a white lie. I can make mistakes.

I can lose my temper and say things I shouldn't. I can do a lot of things that they, you know, those are little sins. But if I went out and committed adultery, if I killed somebody, those are bad sins.

Well, if you believe that, then you are an advocate of the Roman Catholic teaching, which says that there are mortal sins, and there are venial sins. And some sins will take you to hell, but others won't. If you believe that, then the question I must ask you is, how bad do you need to sin to lose the standing that you have with the Lord? How bad? What is God's pass mark? Well, you know, James kind of lays it out very clear for us.

He says, if you have kept the whole law and offense just in one point, you're guilty of all. So your little white lie is just as bad as you going out and committing adultery. And if you think that committing adultery is going to take you to hell, don't think you can get away with your little white lie, because that's going to take you to hell too.

See, now I want you to get this very loud and clear. The Apostle John tells us, and I didn't bring the Scripture, but you can look it up. He says, I'm writing you these things so that you do not sin.

He says, but if you do sin, you have an advocate with the Father. What does that mean? When Jesus died and rose again and ascended into heaven, He took His place at the right hand of the Father. And His main task right now in heaven is to act as your lawyer and to plead your case every time you break God's laws.

In other words, every time you sin. So you commit a sin and bam, God's holy righteousness says, sin must be judged. And the penalty is death.

So the judge is about to make his pronouncement and somebody steps forward who has no prints in his hands and a scar in his side and scars in his scalp where they push the thorns. And he says, Father, that sin's paid for. Look, I paid the price.

And the judge says, not guilty. Case dismissed. Every time you sin, that's taking place in heaven.

No matter what sin you commit, He is your advocate because He paid the price for your sin. Therefore, you will never have to pay the price for your sin. Now, let that sink into you.

The next time you've done something really bad and you're feeling really guilty and horrible about it and feeling God must really be mad at me. I don't even know I can come into His presence. Do you know before you even became aware of your sin, Jesus already won the case for you.

You will never be penalized for your sins. If we were, none of us would make it to heaven because we all still sin every day. Okay.

Now, there are consequences for sin. But God doesn't judge us when we sin. You see, the consequences are often built into the violation.

If I tell my little child, that stove is hot, don't touch it, you will get burned. And he says, let's see if daddy's telling the truth. And he puts his hand on the hot stove.

Ow, ow. Now, did I punish him? No, but he got punished. Sin will always have consequences.

But these come naturally. When we yield ourselves to Satan, and he brings destruction into our life, and things start to go wrong. These are the natural consequences of our sin.

But never ever are they God judging us, and God causing problems to come into our lives. Now, I know some of you are going to struggle with this. But I want to ask you this question.

Do you know somebody that once served the Lord, and then they turned their back on Him? And perhaps even now they're living in sin. They're not interested in the Lord. They don't go to church anymore.

They don't read the Bible. They don't pray. You know, we like to use this term backslider, which isn't in the New Testament.

It comes from the Old Testament. And it applied to Israel. It does not apply to born again believers.

But I want you to consider that person. And if you're honest, you have to admit, God hasn't judged them yet. You know, we speak, God's gonna deal with you.

You better come right. You better stop it. And they just carry on sinning.

Lord, Lord, didn't you notice? Lord, didn't you notice what they're doing? But it seems like He doesn't. See, because the judgment was already poured out on Calvary. Now, He woos in love and says, Come back, my child.

And eventually, and the consequences of your sin bring you to the place where you end up like the prodigal son and say, You know, I'm an idiot. I'm struggling here. My father's servants are better off than me.

I think I'm gonna go back. I'm gonna go back and say, Dad, just just make me one of your servants. Because that'd be a promotion for me right now.

The father's always welcoming, waiting, welcoming with open arms. That's the way the Lord is. That's His grace and His love.

He's ready to bless. He's ready to let it all go. And He can restore you just like that.

See, now, I want to look at the second doctrine. And that's the fact that God has decided what's going to happen for us in life. God has made a plan for your life.

He has a will and purpose for you. And it's up to you to find out what He decided. Because He probably decided before you were even born, He decided how you were going to grow up, where you were going to live, what kind of job and career you were going to do, whether you become a preacher or not, who you're going to marry, how many kids you're going to have.

You know, we honestly believe this. You need to realize that our Heavenly Father, in His grace, gives us the liberty to choose for ourselves the path that we will take. When we come to Him and we say, Oh, Lord, I would really love this to be in my life.

He looks at you. And He says, I'll make a plan for you to help you get that thing that you desire. He then looks ahead in His foreknowledge to see the path that lays before us, to see other people in our lives and how they are going to affect our lives.

And He makes a plan to steer us between the rocks, to maybe change direction, to bring us to the place where it's easiest for us to get the things we desire. He lays it all out for you, gives you a special personal map. Here we go.

Turn left here, turn right there, go five miles down the road there, take a break there. You see, He set the plan for you based on what you desire. He never imposes His will on us in any way.

See, so God satisfies your desire, while at the same time using you to extend His kingdom in the earth. And He will never impose His will on you in any way. Our very salvation came about because He offered us a free gift to heaven because of what Jesus did in Calvary.

All we needed to do was to receive it. He never imposes anything on us. But you know, we're not like that.

We look at somebody and think, Oh, if I could get my hands on him, man, I would sort him out. Man, I would just, I would just shake him up. You know, if I were God, I'd shake him until his teeth rattles.

Thank God that you're not God. You know, sometimes we even bring curses on people by doing that, but that's another subject. Okay, so I want you to realize God's plan for your life was not predetermined arbitrarily by Him.

And He decided, well, I think I'm going to slot you here, and I'm going to slot you there. And He's made us a bunch of little robots, all sitting in, you know, each going on the road that He put us on, each traveling the vehicle that He put us in. And we have this idea that fate awaits us.

See, now that's what Satan presents. That's what he lies. That's what the fortune tellers do.

God doesn't work that way. When God gives you His plan for the future, He's not predicting what has to happen. He's saying, here's an opportunity I'm offering you.

Now, what happens if you don't like it? See, He never forces you to go against your will. He sets up the circumstances, and He says, here's a plan, a very quick way to reach the destination you're looking for. And you know, you're not obligated to accept it.

You can choose and say, well, you know, Lord, I had some other ideas in mind. Lord, please give me my life partner. I want somebody like this.

The Lord says, okay, I've got just the perfect person for you. I'm going to send you on a specific journey until you meet, and we'll come together. And you say, but I don't like going that route.

You know, I had something else in mind, Lord. Could we do this a better way? You're not obligated to take His plan. He made the plan for you, especially for you.

But you know what you do? Sometimes we're so busy. It's like you're speeding down the freeway. And there's the sign, the turnoff that says, to your destination.

You're so busy, you're talking to somebody in the car, and not thinking about what you're doing, but you're right, right past the turnoff. And then you want to complain and say, but you know what, we've been traveling now 20 Ks, and I still don't see our destination. You missed the turnoff.

Say, my brother, you missed the will of God. That's why it all, no, you didn't miss the will of God. You missed what God set up for you, based on your own desires.

Don't ever get caught in this idea that I don't really want to go that way, but I gotta obey God, so I'll have to do it. Lord, it's not fair. You know, you've given this other person a perfect journey.

They don't have any problems in their life. And I'm always in the mud. Lord says, what you're looking for is not down that road, it's the other side of the mud.

Now, if you want to reach what you really want, I'm afraid you're gonna have to go through the mud. He didn't set the mud there. You've got to trust him when he leads you, when he suddenly changes your direction and takes you in a direction you didn't expect.

Lord, this doesn't make sense. Lord, you've been leading me in that direction. And Lord, you actually confirmed, yes, I got that prophetic word, yeah, that the Prophet said, you are going in the right direction.

Keep doing what you're doing, because it's of the Lord. So Lord, you told me to go that way. And now suddenly he says, change direction.

He may even say, turn around. You know what, I wish he'd make up his mind. I wish he'd make up his mind.

He's God. He knows the end from the beginning. And he knows what awaits you if you keep going the way you go.

He knows that Satan has thrown a trap right across your path. They can almost destroy your chances of getting the thing that you desire, of living the kind of life that will please him and please you. So can you see that these doctrines, they may sound like they make sense, they may sound spiritual, and even biblical, you see, but you do not need to maintain a false level of spirituality, to be in the blessing of God, and to make it into his presence one day.

And when bad things happen, sometimes, sometimes the bad thing can turn for good. It really can. Yeah, we said in that scripture, God caused all things to work together for good to those who love him.

So therefore I will accept the good with the bad. No, no, no, no, let's get this right. God can lead you into a situation where you come against a lot of problems, where things start to go wrong.

We then make the mistake in thinking God's judging me, I missed it somewhere. And that's why no, no, you are still exactly on the path that he planned for you. But the few things you've got to pick up along the way, there's a bit of experience you need to get along the way for you to fully fulfill what you want, and what God's planned for you.

It's not that you missed it. And it's not that God's angry with you. You know, we come to the place sometimes where we can't hear his voice anymore.

Can't hear his voice anymore. The children of Israel faced up and they came to the Red Sea. Cloud had come, led them all the way to water.

Then the cloud disappeared behind them. Well, did God lead them or didn't he? Yeah, he led them there to water. That's not a clear path to the promised land.

But it was the way God was going to take them. And you know what, the reason God led them there is because God was going to do something very special. He was going to get those Egyptians off their back once and for all.

And if they hadn't gone through the Red Sea, that wouldn't have happened. See, so don't question his leading and don't get hung up on whether you're in his will or not. Just day by day, step forward on the journey he set before you.

Sometimes you will walk off the road. Keep in touch with him. He's a breath away.

He's a prayer away. He's ready to not only listen to your requests, but to speak to you and tell you what you should do from here. If you can make it a daily plan to journal and wait on him and get his direction, say, Lord, we kind of hit a stalemate here, Lord.

Lord, you took me along this road and now there's a big, there's a big wall there, Lord. So, did I take the wrong road? Are you telling me not to go this way? See, it could be. Could be you took a wrong turn.

You know, if you come to a fork in the road and you take the left instead of the right, you can keep traveling for miles, you'll never get to your destination because you're on the wrong road. Sometimes, yes. You never walked out of his will.

You walked out of his plan. And you know what? If you listen to him all the time, you think, hey, that looks like a good road to go. I think that's a sensible thing.

Oh, yes. Yes. If I'm going to have finances, I've got to get into the right kind of business environment.

Let me decide what is the best thing for me to do. Did you ask the Lord? If I'm going to meet my future partner in life, I need to go to a place where women and guys like that, I did a lot of them around there. So, the logical thing is for me to go there because my chances are better.

So, now you're living by chance. You could meet that person at the local shop. People have been known to meet just by bumping into each other.

Some bad woman driver reverses into a guy's car. I'm not saying that the Lord has to do that. You know, for some of us, it's going to have to be a bit more definite than that.

But you know what? Trust him and just walk the road. Stop worrying about where the destination is and how far you've got to go. Just walk the road because before you know it, that road's going to take a sudden dip and a turn and whoop, you're going in a different direction.

And it was necessary that you take that road. Otherwise, you wouldn't have got that direction. Can you see that? God works his plans.

The only mistake we make is trying to tell him how to do it. Lord, I really need finances. Please give that rich uncle of mine sleepless nights.

May he toss and turn and you tell him he must give me money. Not going to work that way. Okay.

So, in conclusion, the spiritual life is a rest. There's no effort required because Jesus has done all the work for you on the cross and he said it's finished. It was finished.

The spiritual life is a journey. You just need to walk the road. Jesus walks with you and he shows you the way.

He wants to give you your desires. Psalm 37 verse 4 says, delight yourself also in the Lord Yahweh and he will give you the desires of your heart. He will never ever impose his will on you and he will always make a plan to give you the things that you have desired.

He does not bring bad things into your life and when they do appear, he gives you the power to overcome and sometimes he helps you to have the wisdom to overcome that problem and in the process you grow spiritually, you grow in strength and ability and knowledge and you come out on the other side a better person than what you were. So, if you want to live the abundant life, turn your back on false doctrines such as these. Start living the abundant life that he wants for you.

Amen.

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