SPEAKER_00: CCW.
SPEAKER_00: And we are going to take the next seven weeks and be looking at the I am statements from Jesus in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: You can take your Bible to John chapter six this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And as you're doing that, we need to wish a very happy birthday to the United States of America.
SPEAKER_00: Through wars and victories and revivals and defeats and mountains and valleys, God's hand of grace and mercy has been on this country.
SPEAKER_00: And I am thankful today, and I know with you for the freedoms that being a citizen of the United States has given us, that we could come together and worship today, that we could speak freely the name of Jesus, that the word of God can be read today.
SPEAKER_00: And for those things and many more, I'm so thankful to be an American and praise God for the United States of America.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for the people who have fought and fought hard for our freedoms.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for the stars and stripes.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to say, as we praise God, please, God, continue to go before us and behind us, because it is only the hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture said, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: What if I told you this morning, every decision you made this week was driven by hunger?
SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily food hunger, but hunger to matter, hunger to belong, hunger to be secure, hunger to be loved, hunger to be enough.
SPEAKER_00: And here is the truth of the matter.
SPEAKER_00: We are all eating this up.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus stands in John chapter 6 and he says something that is profound.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: Pray with me.
SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you today to be here gathered together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you again, God.
SPEAKER_00: We praise God for what you have meant and the founding of this nation.
SPEAKER_00: And as you have continued, Lord, we just pray and ask for your blessing.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't take for granted to grow up hearing and knowing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray for those who have not.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray that you continue to go before the leaders of this country.
SPEAKER_00: And God, that your will would be done.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, allow us a part in that.
SPEAKER_00: And God, today, as we look at your word, Lord, I know that every person here is hungry.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, it seems that many, many people can live an entire life and not be satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: And God, I pray today that you would show us what it means.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, that our hunger would feed on the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: Bless your word.
SPEAKER_00: Bless each person here today in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: John 6.35, if you would turn there, the first thing this morning is this the bread that satisfies.
SPEAKER_00: We'll go to this main phrase of the I am statements, and then we'll go back through the passage to see how Jesus gets to that point.
SPEAKER_00: But John 6.35 and Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at your points this morning on the outline, I have flipped these two points, so don't hold that against me.
SPEAKER_00: That happens from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: But letter A is going to be the craving that is filled.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Whoever comes to me, Spurgeon said that coming means the performance of desire.
SPEAKER_00: Coming to Jesus is bringing your desire by desire, by prayer, by assent, by consent, by trust and obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Coming to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ, the bread of life, is continually throughout his life and throughout the ages inviting men to come to him.
SPEAKER_00: Now the hunger part is a word pineo, and it means to crave ardently.
SPEAKER_00: To crave.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, it says, whoever comes, it's not singular, whoever came, it says, whoever comes, that's we're coming to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation satisfies a need, but because you are saved does not mean you're a fool.
SPEAKER_00: So it says, but whoever comes, you have to continually find yourself at the table of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The three biggest needs of humanity, if you did any study in psychology, Maslow's, hierarchy, safety, belongingness, and mattering.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to go to Matthew chapter 6 just for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: We all have that sort of innately, safety, belongingness, mattering.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said in Matthew 6, 31 through 33, therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat?
SPEAKER_00: What shall we drink?
SPEAKER_00: What shall we wear?
SPEAKER_00: For all these things the Gentiles seek.
SPEAKER_00: Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus hits the crux of the matter that seeking first the kingdom of God will bring you to all of the hierarchy.
SPEAKER_00: That's easy to say.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard for us in culture to do.
SPEAKER_00: See, the root of anxiety and pride is prioritizing world systems over God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And it's hard for us not to prioritize the world system we live in, but doing that creates the need of self-reliance.
SPEAKER_00: If I put this system first, then I've got to rely on self.
SPEAKER_00: And self-reliance creates incredible pressure.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm self-reliant, I've got to keep up.
SPEAKER_00: I have the fear of scarcity.
SPEAKER_00: I have the need to compete with other people when I'm self-reliant.
SPEAKER_00: I have to arrive first, I have to perform best, I have to keep up with the Joneses.
SPEAKER_00: And once I have kept up with the Joneses, which is never ending, then I have to go further and set the trend and become the trendsetter and setting the trend.
SPEAKER_00: If I back up off of that, then I've lost my status.
SPEAKER_00: And it's never ending.
SPEAKER_00: A cycle of more and it's temporary gains.
SPEAKER_00: And why do temporary gains for you and me always feel so mediocre and you lose the buzz after a day of a new shirt or the buzz off of a bonus from work after a week?
SPEAKER_00: Because you were created for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a temporal being.
SPEAKER_00: Solomon is the greatest example in the Bible, I think, of trying to be filled, never able to be filled with everything.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you and I may not have access to everything and try.
SPEAKER_00: We try with what we have, but there's a couple of scriptures, just look at what Solomon said.
SPEAKER_00: Ecclesiastes 1, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: He said, All things are full of labor, man cannot express it.
SPEAKER_00: But the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
SPEAKER_00: You could flip over just to a few chapters.
SPEAKER_00: Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: He says, This he who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance with increase.
SPEAKER_00: It's not satisfying.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't fill the holes in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Ecclesiastes 6 7, a chapter labor.
SPEAKER_00: All of the labor of a man is for his mouth, and yet his soul is not ever satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: I talked this morning to our serve team about going on a cruise and eating the cruise food.
SPEAKER_00: And I think I had six meals a day.
SPEAKER_00: And it's amazing, after six meals or more a day, I woke up the next day and I was sick looking at the food, but I decided to have some anyway, just to give it a whirl, just to see.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not satisfied with eating.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna keep on.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: We're never able in this temporary sense.
SPEAKER_00: You can't have enough clothes, you can't have enough cars, you can't have enough love, you cannot have enough.
SPEAKER_00: There is no enough.
SPEAKER_00: And Solomon tried.
SPEAKER_00: You need to look him up.
SPEAKER_00: See all that he tried.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about the sun.
SPEAKER_00: 93 million miles away, and the sun sends out its rays, and when it does, it lands on earth and it causes some things to happen.
SPEAKER_00: It causes plants to grow, which those of you that have a garden, that is happiness.
SPEAKER_00: It causes warmth to you with many.
SPEAKER_00: You love the warmth.
SPEAKER_00: It produces vitamin D, which is a health need.
SPEAKER_00: My wife loves sunshine in that way.
SPEAKER_00: Most people say that and they'll say, I love what I see from the sun.
SPEAKER_00: I love my skin.
SPEAKER_00: I love the plants that grow.
SPEAKER_00: Not many people have I ever heard let their eyes run up the beam to the sun, and rarely have I ever heard somebody, you know, I just love the sun.
SPEAKER_00: I'm fascinated with the sun.
SPEAKER_00: We often love what it produces.
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 26 and 27 of John 6, Jesus is upset.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered them and said, Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
SPEAKER_00: Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him.
SPEAKER_00: He's angry because people are seeking him for worldly gain.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You think I'm useful because I gave you bread.
SPEAKER_00: I gave you bread, but you did not let your eyes run up the beam and see the S-O-N and say, He is my treasure.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: I am satisfactions.
SPEAKER_00: Couples today, you can look at each other and say this.
SPEAKER_00: You can look at each other off and say, You are useful.
SPEAKER_00: But every now and then you need to climb up, look up that beam, and remember why you are in love.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd loved free bread, but they hated the cost of loving the sun.
SPEAKER_00: It was costly.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says to them, You need to look more than just this miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Look into the maker of the miracle, the bread of life, and he fills the cravings of our life.
SPEAKER_00: Look at letter B, the conviction that was found, or is to be found.
SPEAKER_00: Again, in verse 35, first it says, I'm the bread of life, he who comes to me shall never hunger and thirst.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, and he who believes in me.
SPEAKER_00: That's where the conviction is found, in the belief.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever believes the word believe is arose, A-R-O-S, and it means like air to lift away, to sail away.
SPEAKER_00: I came across this story again.
SPEAKER_00: It's a funny old one to me.
SPEAKER_00: There's a man named Larry Walters in 1982, July of 82, he purchased 42 helium balloons at a uh Army Navy store, um Army grade balloons, and he had this idea that he was going to tie them to his lawn chair.
SPEAKER_00: And he thought that when he did this, that he would blissfully lift off into the air 15 to 30 feet.
SPEAKER_00: And so he set everything in, and there was Larry Waters, packed with a sandwich, a pellet gun, and a six-pack of beer to take flight, and he lifted off.
SPEAKER_00: Except the problem was Larry Walters went 16,000 feet into the sky.
SPEAKER_00: Air Traffic Command caught sight of this man, and this is what they heard over their radios.
SPEAKER_00: I believe there is a man who is waving a gun, sitting in a lawnchair.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, Larry Walters began slowly shooting the pellets at a few of his balloons, and luckily he arrived safely back down on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: And when asked by a reporter what got into his mind about this idea, this is what Larry Walters said.
SPEAKER_00: He said, When you believe something, you can't just sit there.
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't.
SPEAKER_00: When you believe something, church, belief is active.
SPEAKER_00: Is your belief active?
SPEAKER_00: I believe this.
SPEAKER_00: John doesn't say whoever agrees with me will be satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: He says, whoever believes, and that word believes, arrows is active tense, it's a verb.
SPEAKER_00: You can stand beside bread today and starve.
SPEAKER_00: Some people here, you may have stood beside bread your whole life.
SPEAKER_00: Church, vacation, Bible schools, baptism services, you have Christian parents, all of that, and you still have not partaken of bread.
SPEAKER_00: You can be all around it and starve.
SPEAKER_00: Belief is turning over your life.
SPEAKER_00: Belief, like Larry said, just can't sit there.
SPEAKER_00: People are starving spiritually, but are stuffed materially.
SPEAKER_00: They're materially gluttonous, overflowing for more of the thing that keeps on emptying.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus said, I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit will reveal himself to people through the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And this is when conviction happens.
SPEAKER_00: When conviction happens to a person, they say, I am empty without him.
SPEAKER_00: I am guilty without him.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot carry myself.
SPEAKER_00: That is conviction.
SPEAKER_00: And conviction is this God making you hungry enough to come home and eat.
SPEAKER_00: Some people today need some fresh conviction.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to pray for it right now.
SPEAKER_00: God, convict me.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you sit here and you say, Spiritually, I'm just stale.
SPEAKER_00: Ask the Holy Spirit, would you give me conviction today?
SPEAKER_00: It's like the story of the prodigal son.
SPEAKER_00: The prodigal son went off, he went into riotous living, he spent all of the inheritance, he did everything, right?
SPEAKER_00: Everything that he could do.
SPEAKER_00: And then one day it says he came to his senses.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully we could call that word conviction.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I need to get back to my father's house.
SPEAKER_00: Because if I get back there, even the lowliest of people there get fed.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe today would be a day that conviction can be found and you can find yourself feeding.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, this morning is the bread that signifies.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the front part of the chapter in John 6.
SPEAKER_00: So we go back and explain this.
SPEAKER_00: This I am statement doesn't come out of anywhere, doesn't come out of no place.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, after these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.
SPEAKER_00: Then a great multitude followed him because they saw his signs, which he performed on those who were diseased.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus went up to the mountain, and there he sat with the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a key component, the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: A feast of the Jews was near.
SPEAKER_00: I would highlight that.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and seeing a great multitude coming toward him, he said to Philip, Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?
SPEAKER_00: But this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
SPEAKER_00: Philip answered him, Two hundred deneri worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.
SPEAKER_00: One of his disciples, Andrew Simon, Peter's brother, said to him, There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish.
SPEAKER_00: What are they among so many?
SPEAKER_00: Letter A is the miracle of deity.
SPEAKER_00: This bread signifies something, and this miracle is Jesus is showing himself by this miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Passover was near.
SPEAKER_00: That I said highlight is key because the people there, the crowd there, would have been thinking, they would have been considering already the exodus from Egypt, the manna that fell on the land.
SPEAKER_00: They would have been thinking of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And the crowd had been expecting another Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And so they were looking, another Moses, another deliverer, but God sends a greater Moses.
SPEAKER_00: You talk about preaching and good illustrations.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus says, Here is some bread.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to look down at verse 42 through 49, this illustration.
SPEAKER_00: He says in 41, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
SPEAKER_00: How is it then?
SPEAKER_00: He says, I've come down from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus therefore answered and said to them, Do not murmur among yourselves, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
SPEAKER_00: It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught by God.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.
SPEAKER_00: Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God.
SPEAKER_00: He has seen the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead.
SPEAKER_00: This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat it and not die.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus compares himself to the manna that came down in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: A beautiful example.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I am.
SPEAKER_00: That's deity language.
SPEAKER_00: I am.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what was asked, Moses said, Who will I say has sent me?
SPEAKER_00: He says, I am.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is the language of who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, What is manna?
SPEAKER_00: Manna physically fell from the sky.
SPEAKER_00: You know what Jesus said?
SPEAKER_00: I came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Manna had to be collected daily.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're told, give us this day our daily bread.
SPEAKER_00: There is no day that you and I can go without the daily bread of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We will not breathe, we will not live, we will not exist without Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No one could do what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: That's the deity of the miracle.
SPEAKER_00: It revealed himself to the masses.
SPEAKER_00: There's no natural or technological advancement that can tell us how to multiply five loaves and two fishes to feed 5,000 or greater, 5,000 and their people 20,000.
SPEAKER_00: Science would call this the ex nielo creation.
SPEAKER_00: That is, ready for this science term?
SPEAKER_00: The rapid generation of biological matter with minimal starting material.
SPEAKER_00: In Christianity, we call that a God thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happened here.
SPEAKER_00: This was a God thing.
SPEAKER_00: This was deity showing itself.
SPEAKER_00: Bread for 20,000 signifies one thing: the presence of deity.
SPEAKER_00: None of you are going to go down to Pizza Hut and get pizza for 20,000 people in the next two minutes.
SPEAKER_00: You would say that would be an amazing thing.
SPEAKER_00: He shows the presence of who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was God at creation.
SPEAKER_00: He's always been making something from nothing.
SPEAKER_00: From nothing, Jesus, God spoke, and abundance appears.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe in the source of that miracle, it's not the disciples or the lad or someone's command.
SPEAKER_00: It was Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The miracle was showing that the bread of life was there, the sustainer of living.
SPEAKER_00: And without the bread of life, there is no deity.
SPEAKER_00: Without God, there is no living.
SPEAKER_00: So my question for you without God, there's no living.
SPEAKER_00: So what are you living for?
SPEAKER_00: If somebody asked you to give us your purpose statement, what would that look like?
SPEAKER_00: The miracle of deity, let her be the meal distributed.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to go over to Mark.
SPEAKER_00: Now John describes it, but I think Mark does a little bit more insightful job of explaining this miracle.
SPEAKER_00: So go to Mark chapter.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to look at verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: I know this is a lot of scripture, but it's a lot to share this morning, so I want to go through it.
SPEAKER_00: So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves, Mark 6, 32.
SPEAKER_00: But the multitude saw them departing, many knew him and ran therefore on foot from all cities.
SPEAKER_00: They arrived before them and came together.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, when he caught out, saw a great multitude, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: So began to teach him many things.
SPEAKER_00: When the day was now far spent, his disciples came to him and said, This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late.
SPEAKER_00: Send them away that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat.
SPEAKER_00: But he answered and said to them, You give them something to eat.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, Shall we go and buy two hundred dinar worth of bread and give them something to eat?
SPEAKER_00: But he said to them, How many loaves do you have?
SPEAKER_00: Go and see.
SPEAKER_00: When they found out, they found five and two fish.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to keep that little background because there's some insight there.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you?
SPEAKER_00: You ever grow up in church and you had the uh anniversary on the grounds?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody had a service like this?
SPEAKER_00: You went to church in the morning, they had service, they had a meal afterward, and then they had service again.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever had that?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I had this happen several times as a child, and I thought it would kill me.
SPEAKER_00: I thought anniversary on the grounds is going to kill me.
SPEAKER_00: Cause of death overchurched.
SPEAKER_00: I was churched to death.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: They would go out, we would have all this church, we would eat lunch, and then we're, you know what happens after you eat lunch?
SPEAKER_00: You need a Sunday nap.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, let's be honest.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, No, we're going right back to more church.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have more church.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is giving the people church.
SPEAKER_00: It's late.
SPEAKER_00: And the disciples are getting antsy about this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, the unthinkable to the disciples, not close down the search.
SPEAKER_00: He says, give them some food.
SPEAKER_00: They're hungry.
SPEAKER_00: You give them food.
SPEAKER_00: Now, listen, we're Southern Baptist Church here.
SPEAKER_00: We have a robust legacy of being food sensitive.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We got two spiritual gifts, casseroles and opinions.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples are hangry and they want the service to come to a close.
SPEAKER_00: He says, These people are hungry.
SPEAKER_00: Can you send them away?
SPEAKER_00: It's been great, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But it's time, it's late.
SPEAKER_00: Send them away.
SPEAKER_00: And the red letters say, give them something to eat.
SPEAKER_00: So they start looking.
SPEAKER_00: What are we going to do?
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine they're talking?
SPEAKER_00: What is he saying?
SPEAKER_00: Give all these people something to eat.
SPEAKER_00: Who brought 5,000 people food?
SPEAKER_00: And here's this little lad.
SPEAKER_00: And it seems ridiculous, right?
SPEAKER_00: He comes and says, I've got something.
SPEAKER_00: Five biscuits and two sardines.
SPEAKER_00: I wish some of y'all, when school starts back up, would send your kid with five biscuits and two sardines, just to see.
SPEAKER_00: Tell your kid to say, Hey, I got lunch for everybody.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says it.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing that you need to get from him.
SPEAKER_00: Regardless of what you had to give, the lad gave all he had.
SPEAKER_00: It was never the size of the gift, but the heart of the giver.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the point for us today: do what you can do.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't need 5,000 biscuits, he needed one sweet-hearted little lad.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus organized them on the green pasture, it says.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 23.
SPEAKER_00: It says, lie down in green pastures.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus specializes in making abundance out of lack.
SPEAKER_00: So he looks up to heaven in the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does.
SPEAKER_00: It says, to receive sight from heaven, and he blessed it.
SPEAKER_00: He's blessing his father.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to cover that.
SPEAKER_00: He blesses it, he breaks it, and then he passes out.
SPEAKER_00: But when he blesses it, the word for blessing, important.
SPEAKER_00: So when you're looking for God's hand in something, notice what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_00: He calls out a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: The word is eulogio, and you means thanks, logos to God.
SPEAKER_00: He gives the blessing to God.
SPEAKER_00: He says, thank you to God.
SPEAKER_00: And the feeding of 5,000 process begins.
SPEAKER_00: Eyes to heaven, mouth to praise, in the hands of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want you not to miss this process.
SPEAKER_00: The eulogio that Jesus gives for this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Eyes to heaven, thanks to God, in the hands of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you're going through today, but eyes to heaven, mouth to praise, and put it in the hands of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You need a work to happen in your life today.
SPEAKER_00: Eyes to heaven, mouth to praise, and put it in the hands of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he says he put them down in green pastures.
SPEAKER_00: What are you trusting for for provision today, church?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus showed us.
SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 6, verse 40.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have an everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
SPEAKER_00: Letter A, we see the requirement of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to go down to verse 53.
SPEAKER_00: We'll read three verses.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day, for my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
SPEAKER_00: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.
SPEAKER_00: Now this sounds strange if you've never been in church.
SPEAKER_00: And if you just read this, you're like, We gotta eat Jesus today.
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone, he says there in verse 40, everyone, the Greek word for everyone, anyone know is everyone who sees and believes would have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: It is the will of God, it says.
SPEAKER_00: John 3, 16 and 17 says God sent his son into the world, that everyone would have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17, he came not to condemn to the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
SPEAKER_00: God sent the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes to this, and salvation, hear me, is not a product, but a person.
SPEAKER_00: And John 6 is full of all these receiving words.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Come, believe, receive, eat, and drink.
SPEAKER_00: None of those are achieve salvation.
SPEAKER_00: So, what is this process of salvation?
SPEAKER_00: Now, Matthew 4, 4 is important.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
SPEAKER_00: Faith, the Bible says, comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Why is it so important that you're here?
SPEAKER_00: You're hearing the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: It is the Word of God that convicts a heart.
SPEAKER_00: The Word of God is active.
SPEAKER_00: This is a living thing that does a work.
SPEAKER_00: So you may be reading today, you may be reading a book by Charles Dickens, and that book is dead, and he is dead, and his words are dead.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're reading a book by another author, that book is dead, and their words are dead, and they are dead.
SPEAKER_00: But the word of God is alive.
SPEAKER_00: And it's powerful.
SPEAKER_00: It discerns the intents and thoughts of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: So when you feed on the word of God, it will prompt through the Holy Spirit and convict a sinner of lostness.
SPEAKER_00: The word there in John for lost is the word in ruins.
SPEAKER_00: That person is destroyed, which leads to a looking and yearning.
SPEAKER_00: So I repent of my sin.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the process of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Repent of my sin.
SPEAKER_00: I'm turning from building my kingdom and then a public confession of my faith.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing about bread, about the part that Jesus explains.
SPEAKER_00: You don't admire bread, right?
SPEAKER_00: You don't look at bread and go, that's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Let me take that back.
SPEAKER_00: Some people do.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Heather makes some sourdough.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to talk about it in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: It is pretty.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: But you don't leave it at that.
SPEAKER_00: You don't go, there's bread.
SPEAKER_00: Come in, look at my bread.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't leave it there.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you like the way it looks so much?
SPEAKER_00: Because you want to ingest it.
SPEAKER_00: You want to go, oh, that bread looks so good.
SPEAKER_00: Let's put it on the wall.
SPEAKER_00: No, you look at it and you want to ingest that bread.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And when you ingest that bread, guess what happens?
SPEAKER_00: It's now a part of you.
SPEAKER_00: It's no longer just sitting there.
SPEAKER_00: You have ingested it, you have taken it in, and it becomes a part of who you are.
SPEAKER_00: It's nutrients, all of it, is a part of you now.
SPEAKER_00: So when he says to eat of Jesus, this partaking of him, this is not eating on his body, it's partaking of the spirit, ingesting it.
SPEAKER_00: And now, if that really happened, your life changed.
SPEAKER_00: I've had some good sourdough.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to say it's been life-changing, it's pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: But the bread of Jesus, when you really partake, you can't stay the same.
SPEAKER_00: That bread, that's why he says you're never hungry, you're never thinking, because that bread, when you take it and it becomes a part of you.
SPEAKER_00: If it hadn't become a part of you, you might not have ingested it.
SPEAKER_00: You might have just looked at it and said, that's really pretty.
SPEAKER_00: That's really pretty for them.
SPEAKER_00: I like the way that bread has changed their life.
SPEAKER_00: If your life has not changed, I don't know if you've ingested the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: It becomes a part of you.
SPEAKER_00: See, the crowd wanted another miracle.
SPEAKER_00: They fed us with all this bread.
SPEAKER_00: Do it again, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Say, abracadabra, do the lunch thing again.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus' answer was no, just eat.
SPEAKER_00: Just eat.
SPEAKER_00: Church today.
SPEAKER_00: It's here.
SPEAKER_00: Would you eat?
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, we see the resurrection of the saved.
SPEAKER_00: We'll get to a line of scriptures because it's all throughout John 6 in just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell you a couple of things.
SPEAKER_00: Long fabled is the myth of the fountain of youth.
SPEAKER_00: Most of you probably, if you're like me, it was in your history books.
SPEAKER_00: Juan Ponce de Leon began explorations for the fountain of youth.
SPEAKER_00: When you really look into that, it's kind of mythical.
SPEAKER_00: But what they actually found, historians actually found, was that Ponce de Leon waded ashore near St.
SPEAKER_00: Augustine in Florida, and he began documenting his discovery.
SPEAKER_00: He tried to colonize it, he was shot with an arrow and lost his life.
SPEAKER_00: But the fountain of youth still sort of weaves its way in and out of our culture.
SPEAKER_00: We still think some on it.
SPEAKER_00: You'll see it in movies.
SPEAKER_00: Americans spend sixty billion dollars annually on products entitled anti-aging.
SPEAKER_00: We're still looking.
SPEAKER_00: Serums, lotions, Botox, lasers.
SPEAKER_00: I have some.
SPEAKER_00: How do I look?
SPEAKER_00: Somehow I keep getting older.
SPEAKER_00: Ecclesiastes says, God, listen to this, has set not temporary, eternity in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: What does that even mean?
SPEAKER_00: We were made to long for something that is much more than this life.
SPEAKER_00: So everything that you're longing for and looking for these things that make us look and feel.
SPEAKER_00: And as we get older, you got to eat less than three meals a day to look the same.
SPEAKER_00: Less than probably two.
SPEAKER_00: And you're saying, I want to look and feel.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing: there's nothing wrong with it because God has put eternity in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to live forever.
SPEAKER_00: He wants that for you.
SPEAKER_00: In this life, we age, we break, we lose people, we fight against time.
SPEAKER_00: Ponce de Leon, I found this out.
SPEAKER_00: Study, said that he was a Christian man.
SPEAKER_00: So whether he was ever in a search for a spring of water is hard to prove.
SPEAKER_00: Church, if he was a Christian, he possessed the ingredients, not from the ground, but from living water to live forever.
SPEAKER_00: The myth says Ponce's generations search for something to preserve life.
SPEAKER_00: But every Christian has a fountain.
SPEAKER_00: One day there's going to be a resurrection of the saved.
SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, it's unto eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: It's the eternal fountain of living.
SPEAKER_00: It's youth forever.
SPEAKER_00: No pain, no ache, no break, none of this.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to show you in John 6, over and over and over, John wants to tell his people there is going to be a resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: So if you look at John 6, 39, and then verse 40, and then verse 44, we'll look at a few of them.
SPEAKER_00: I think I had a slide with several.
SPEAKER_00: This is the will of the Father who sent me, that all he has given me I should lose nothing and should raise it up at the last day.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 40.
SPEAKER_00: This is the will of him who sent me.
SPEAKER_00: That anyone who believes in him will have everlasting life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 44.
SPEAKER_00: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 47.
SPEAKER_00: Are you getting a theme in Jesus speaking?
SPEAKER_00: I say to you, He who believes in me has everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 51.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I am the living bread which came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone eats the bread, he will live forever.
SPEAKER_00: And on it goes.
SPEAKER_00: 54, 58.
SPEAKER_00: Over and over, Jesus is telling them, I will raise you up, I will raise you up, I will raise you up, everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one thing that can do that.
SPEAKER_00: Because Christ is the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to wonder, dad Joe, about bread.
SPEAKER_00: If there is enough, or be concerned.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to put on a performance and try to be number one.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to have FOMO.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to live up to the Joneses because the greatest bread miracle is not feeding 5,000 people.
SPEAKER_00: It's one day me and hopefully you.
SPEAKER_00: And millions are going to be raised.
SPEAKER_00: Millions.
SPEAKER_00: I told you Heather makes some sourdough.
SPEAKER_00: I hope I don't mess this up.
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful bread.
SPEAKER_00: And we have it in our house constantly.
SPEAKER_00: And um, this is what I've learned a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I know all this, and if I if I mess it up, I'm sorry, but it's proof that sometimes the best things happen when no one is looking.
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't sit up and watch that bread turn into bread.
SPEAKER_00: It goes in the fridge.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that thing is in there, but it's always in there.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Google told me.
SPEAKER_00: So I may be wrong a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Yeast eats sugar, carbon dioxide starts expanding, and before long, dough starts rising.
SPEAKER_00: Scientists called this fermentation.
SPEAKER_00: 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Stay with me.
SPEAKER_00: The bread of life entered the grave in the dark, carrying our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And in the darkness, with nobody seeing, that grave could not hold him.
SPEAKER_00: And what looked like death on Friday took a couple days.
SPEAKER_00: And before long became the rising of the bread of life on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And it says here, it is the Father's will.
SPEAKER_00: It is the promise to every believer.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is already and not yet, is the promise we have, but one day we will have is that eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: We will be raised up.
SPEAKER_00: Four different times in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gives the same exact promise.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'll raise you, I'll raise you.
SPEAKER_00: Everything you're chasing, he says, forget it.
SPEAKER_00: One day, if you will partake of the bread of life, I'll raise you into a life that has everything you're actually looking for.
SPEAKER_00: You're looking for everything here, it all dies.
SPEAKER_00: It will not feed you.
SPEAKER_00: One day I will raise you.
SPEAKER_00: What are you living for?
SPEAKER_00: The bread of this life?
SPEAKER_00: God gave me this this week, and I'm done.
SPEAKER_00: I was just considering this passage and the miracle.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a disclaimer.
SPEAKER_00: It's not in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's not written this way in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: This is something that I thought about.
SPEAKER_00: And if it makes sense to you, great.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: It is not theology, it's just a thought that Jesus gave me this week.
SPEAKER_00: To our beloved brother John, this is a letter.
SPEAKER_00: I've been told you're writing down the things you witnessed while walking with our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Others have told his stories far better than I ever could.
SPEAKER_00: But there's one memory I've carried for many years.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: Not many knew my name.
SPEAKER_00: I was mainly just another face in the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: But I can still see his hands.
SPEAKER_00: Two years after I met him, I watched those same hands get stretched across rough wood.
SPEAKER_00: And soldiers took those hands that day and they drove nails through them.
SPEAKER_00: His blood was all over that rough piece of wood as everyone else saw a condemned man.
SPEAKER_00: I saw familiar hands.
SPEAKER_00: Hands that had once before my eyes been lifted up toward heaven with thanks.
SPEAKER_00: Hands that had once broken something really ordinary.
SPEAKER_00: Standing beneath that cross, it took a moment, but I had understood why I had missed that afternoon long ago on the hillside.
SPEAKER_00: He had come to become bread, broken, so hungry people like me could truly live.
SPEAKER_00: Dear John, if you decide to tell my little part of his story, tell it so that they'll remember when Jesus asks for what little you have, he isn't trying to take something from you.
SPEAKER_00: Signed, a lad with a lunch.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of us today came in carrying something.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are carrying guilt, some are carrying grief, some are carrying a problem, you're having a marital problem, some are carrying regret, some are carrying successes that haven't satisfied your soul.
SPEAKER_00: And you've tried everything that the world has to offer, and by Monday morning you're hungry again.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I am the bread of life, the bread of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Bread for your sin, bread for your shame, bread for your brokenness, bread for your weary soul today, bread for eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you this before we have invitation.
SPEAKER_00: If all you have is five loaves and two fish today, bring them.
SPEAKER_00: If all you have is a broken heart before our Lord, bring it.
SPEAKER_00: If all you have today is faith the size of a mustard seed, would you bring it?
SPEAKER_00: Because the one who fed the multitude that day is still inviting hungry people to come.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Everyone who comes will never hunger again.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand to your feet?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pray this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And when I'm finished praying, this altar is going to be open.
SPEAKER_00: I want to invite you to.