Dharius Daniels - Settling Season is Over

John 10:10 says, «The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.» Here’s the topic for today’s lesson: settling season is over. Somebody needs to put a praise on that! Prophetically, I’m going to say it again: settling season is over. If you receive that already, give God the best praise you can! This settling season is over; it’s over.

In John 10:10, we get to eavesdrop on a conversation that Jesus is having with His mentees, His apprentices; we call them disciples. It is a conversation that I hope will create some expectation in you and me, because in this conversation, there is communication about the quintessential contribution that He wants to make to the lives of all those who follow His leadership. As a good shepherd, He communicates the contribution He wants to make to our lives by contrasting Himself with someone else He calls the thief—our enemy, the evil one. He says the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

Now, I want you to see Jesus’s intentionality in using three different words to describe the activity that the adversary wants to engage in. Sometimes he doesn’t just want to destroy; sometimes he wants to steal. Did you hear what I just said? Sometimes he’s not just trying to steal; sometimes he’s trying to kill—not physically necessarily, but emotionally, relationally, spiritually, mentally, and professionally. Is there anybody here that will honestly audit your life and admit, «I see some areas where the enemy has been attempting to steal some things, to kill some things, and to destroy some things»? But is there anybody also in this room or watching on our online campus that’s got a righteous resilience and spiritual stubbornness, and will tell the devil, «Every time you take something, I’m going to take it back»?

Let me go to this side. Did you hear what I just said? Does anybody have an internal resurrecting resilience inside you that says to the enemy, «Anytime you put something to death in my life, give me three days! I let you take my joy for a season, but it’s getting back up again. I let you kill my peace for a season, but it’s getting back up again.» And there are some things in your life that the enemy may have destroyed, but is there anybody here who’s got a Humpty Dumpty anointing? Come on, come on! Yes, you had a great fall, and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again. But Jesus took the broken pieces of your life and put them back together again!

He says that’s what the thief comes to do. So He is describing His contribution by contrasting what the thief wants to do, so that you never confuse Him with the thief. Did you hear what I just said? So, if something’s being stolen, that’s the thief, not God. If something’s being killed, that’s the thief, not God. If something’s being destroyed, that’s the thief. Some of us are blaming God for the activity assigned to the thief. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but listen to what Jesus says: «I came.» See, I love the ESV here because it makes it clear—Jesus is speaking in the past tense: «I came,» not «I’m coming,» not «I’m on the way.» I came—He says, «I came that you may have life.»

We can’t miss this! He clearly communicates, «This is the quintessential contribution I want to make to your life. I want to give you life.» I’m going to say that one more time: He’s saying, «Out of all the things that I give you, the various ways I add value to your life, above everything else, what is preeminent and primary is I came to give you life. I came to give you what you can’t get anywhere else.» I’m getting ahead of myself here. He says, «If you have not embraced, received, or are walking in the life that I’ve given you, you may be better, but you’re not at your best.»

Well, Pastor Darius, I’ve got morals. Good, but I came to give you more than that. Come on here! He says, «I came to give you life.» Not only that—He says, «I want you to have it abundantly.» Not barely, not sort of, not kind of, not a little bit. He said, «This life I want to give you, I want to give it to you in abundance. I want to give you more than you can handle. I want to fill your cup until your cup is running over. I want you oozing with this life; I want you breathing this life; I want you expressing this life.»

This is interesting, though: Jesus makes this statement about life to people who are already alive. So in their minds, they must be thinking, «What do you mean you came to give me life? I’m alive already!» See, what Jesus is offering to them is a kind of life that is different in quality from the life they currently possess. Are you hearing what I’m saying? He is offering them a quality of life that did not exist prior to Him showing up. What they have now is bios, while what Jesus wants to give them here is zoe. It’s as if He’s saying, «You have bios, but I want to give you zoe.» Zoe is the God kind of life; it is a life that is superior in quality to the life you have without God. It is a life characterized by a spiritual satisfaction that quenches your inner thirst, so you are no longer ruled and governed by unsatisfied urges.