Podcast: Play in new window | Download (11.3MB)

Shabbat Shalom. How many of you remember the classic TV Show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous? Made in the late 80’s to mid-90’s, it highlighted the extravagant homes of people who are rich. Another version of this show existed when I was a teenager called MTV Cribs. The appeal of shows like these is to give us ‘ordinary people’ a glimpse into the lives of those who are exceedingly rich. So that we dream of living their seemingly amazing lives. To dream, according to the host Robin Leach, of “champagne wishes and caviar dreams”.

These types of shows are popular because many people want a rich and extravagant life. We might have different visions of the “rich life”; I personally can’t stand caviar, but people want more life, not less. Most marketing is created to exploit this truth; to promise us various things and ways we can have that “good life”. This is why we are endlessly marketed to, buy this, invest in that, follow this “influencer” and their products. Everyone is chasing after a dream of being rich that is ultimately an empty promise.

However, wanting a rich life isn’t inherently wrong. It just depends on what we mean when we say “rich”, what kind of life we are looking for. In John 10:9-11, Messiah Yeshua teaches that there are essentially two kinds of life we must choose from. A real good life and a life that appears to be good but really is not. Let’s read it together:

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

We see that Messiah Yeshua is calling us to stop settling for empty lives and start living the good life He alone offers.

In this passage, we see that Messiah Yeshua is the Good Shepherd and the gate that protects the sheep, human beings like us. Ultimately, we are either following the Good Shepherd or the thief. Each is promising a life for us, but the quality of that life is drastically different. We can see this in the results of their actions.

The thief lies and promises a great life. This is the style of life found on television and social media. A life of opulent luxury and desires satisfied. The Good Life™, but it is anything but good. The thief’s version of life is champagne wishes and caviar dreams, outwardly impressive, but empty on the inside. The thief promises satisfaction but sells anxiety. He promises freedom but delivers bondage. He promises us life, but he brings theft, death, and lives that are wrecked. This life is a lie, a trap that really leads us to be swindled and destroyed. Destroyed emotionally, spiritually, and even eventually physically.

In contrast, Messiah Yeshua promises us life from His death. Life beyond our imagination, a life filled with Shalom, wholeness, and completeness beyond our circumstances. Messiah Yeshua was so full of life that death itself could not contain Him. Acts 2 reminds us that the grave could not hold Him because He was sinless and uncorrupted. And that resurrection life, that unstoppable, overflowing life, is what He offers to us. But what does this abundant life actually look like? Rabbi Paul explains it to us in Ephesians 3:14-19:

That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Messiah that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

The riches of God’s glory cannot be bought on Amazon. The power of the Holy Spirit cannot be found in an Instagram story. The prize of being rooted and grounded in a love that is beyond our ability to comprehend is not available exclusively for the rich and famous. In fact, it is harder for them to receive it!

The abundant life Messiah Yeshua promises us is something that can only be experienced thanks to His death, burial, and resurrection. It is a life filled with the abundance of God’s blessings. What God’s Word calls the fruit of His Spirit. Blessings of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

If being more patient, more joyful, more peaceful, is something you want in your life, it is available. Available to us all, thanks to the price our Messiah paid.

But we must stop settling for empty lives and experience the life that Messiah alone provides. We are either living life with the Good Shepherd, or we are dying with the thief.

If we are part of His kingdom, part of His flock, then let us live that way. We have been called to a life this world cannot offer and can never take away. We need to listen to the voice of our Shepherd and refuse to be deceived by the lies of the thief.

And if you are here today and realize that you have been following the empty promises of the thief, the Good Shepherd is calling you. He is calling you right now. Messiah Yeshua is the door, the way from death to life, from emptiness to abundance, from destruction to salvation. The door is open, and He invites you to walk through it. On the other side is the real Good Life, an abundant life from the source of life, culminating in eternal life with God forever.

I usually like to end my messages with a prayer I write from God’s Word. Today, though, it has to be Rabbi Paul’s prayer at the end of Ephesians 3, verses 20 and 21:

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Messiah Yeshua throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.