September 7, 2025 - Bobby Dagnel - The Eternal Value Meal

September 7, 2025 - Bobby Dagnel - The Eternal Value Meal

00:00 Introduction and Greetings
00:05 Observations on Aging and Technology
00:45 Introduction to the Sermon: Communion and Eternal Value Meal
01:22 The Significance of Communion
02:26 Jesus' Teachings on Eternal Life
02:58 The Bread of Life Discourse
05:08 The True Meaning of Salvation
07:57 Transcending the Physical
13:32 Salvation Emanates from God
21:46 Satiating the Heart's Longings
26:58 The Divisive Nature of True Salvation
33:31 Conclusion and Prayer

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Greetings
• 0:05 Observations on Aging and Technology
• 0:45 Introduction to the Sermon: Communion and Eternal Value Meal
• 1:22 The Significance of Communion
• 2:26 Jesus' Teachings on Eternal Life
• 2:58 The Bread of Life Discourse
• 5:08 The True Meaning of Salvation
• 7:57 Transcending the Physical
• 13:32 Salvation Emanates from God
• 21:46 Satiating the Heart's Longings
• 26:58 The Divisive Nature of True Salvation
• 33:31 Conclusion and Prayer

Transcript

[00:00:00] Introduction and Greetings

All right. Good seeing everyone. Y'all hear me okay? Alright. Mike seems to be working. 

[00:00:05] Observations on Aging and Technology

I've noticed as I've, uh, one of my observations in getting older. As you know, when you, all these kind of fancy mics that we started using decades ago, uh, you know, you used to not have glasses and, uh, they were easy to get on.

Then you start wearing glasses, they're a little bit more difficult to get on, and then you add hearing aids to the mix. Then you got glasses, hearing aids, and a microphone going on. So you start stacking up all these things on your ear here. But, uh, good seeing, uh. So I see some of you that I've seen before.

This is my third visit to, uh, the PK Chapel. Always good to be here and, uh, we look forward to being with you again in October and November, and I think a couple of dates in, uh, December as well. 

[00:00:45] Introduction to the Sermon: Communion and Eternal Value Meal

I'm especially glad to be able to have opportunity to share with you communion, uh, this morning. And, uh, the message this morning kind of lends itself, well, not kind of, it does, it lends itself, uh, to that, to the significance of this communion event.

Uh, the salvation that God is accomplishing, uh, what this, uh, communion, uh, uh, what it means, what it symbolizes for us. And, uh, I I wanna bring a thought to you from John's Gospel, chapter six this morning. If you have your Bible phone, smart device, whatever you might use to follow along, we're gonna jump around a bit in that, uh, text.

[00:01:22] The Significance of Communion

But I want to talk to you, uh, in light of communion about an eternal value meal. That's what communion really is. It's an eternal value meal. I suppose that some of you after the service today, if you don't go eat lunch with us at, uh, lush, is that it, um, that you, you may end up, uh, especially if you have kids.

You, you may stop by a fast food restaurant and, uh, statistically, according to industry reports, 58% of you, if you stop at a fast food place, you will order a value meal. Uh, now a value mill. You all know what a value mill is. That's where you have a, a, a group of individual items that if you purchase them together, you get a better price than you would if you purchased them individually.

Right? Now the good news is, is that it really is of value economically. The bad news is, is that it is of no value nutritionally. 

[00:02:26] Jesus' Teachings on Eternal Life

And in light of that, I want you to hear what Jesus says here. Notice in John's Gospel, chapter six in particular, verse 63, Jesus says something very similar to what I've just articulated.

When he says, it is the Spirit who gives life the flesh, that is the things of this temporal life. The flesh provides no benefit. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 

[00:02:58] The Bread of Life Discourse

Now, if you're familiar with John six, uh, you read back, uh, context is everything and sound, biblical interpretation.

And if you look back, you know that Jesus had just, uh, performed the miracle. The feeding of the 5,000 and the 5,000, the crowd, the masses are coming after and following after him again, they're looking. For Jesus, wondering where he has gone. And, uh, Jesus recognizes that the only reason the crowds are coming after him is because he, uh, he made their bellies full once and now they're wanting their bellies to be filled again.

Notice in verse 26, Jesus answered them and said, truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs. That is not because you saw confirmation. In what I did, you didn't see confirmation in who I am. You didn't see as a confirmation in this act of who I am, who my identity is as the Christ, not uh, so you've come to me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate some of the loaves and were filled.

Do not work. For the food that perishes. Now when he's talking about work, don't let your mind jump to the idea of working for salvation. He, he simply me means whenever he is talking about work, do not work for the food that perishes. He's talking about our time, our energy, and our resources. We all should be doing self-assessments.

What am I doing? With the time that God has given to me and my time, my energy and my resources, what kind of steward am I of what God has entrusted to me? So am I using my time and my energy and resources on things that matter, on things that are eternal or these am I chasing after things, wasting time and energy, and my resources on things, and time and eternity that won't matter at all.

So do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you for on him, the Father God has set his seal. 

[00:05:08] The True Meaning of Salvation

So what Jesus is desiring for those that would be his people, for those that would be the followers of, of Christ What, what Jesus' desire, desires for us is something of eternal value.

His longing for us is to understand that which matters, that which is of eternal significance. And so as we think about communion, as we think about participating in this, in breaking bread and drinking the fruit of of the vine, let's ask it in light of the question, what is it that God would desire for us?

What is it that God desires for us? And what would he have us to know about this great salvation that he is accomplishing? 'cause that's really what these elements point to. It, it's a reminder of the salvation that God is accomplishing. And I know for you and what you're being taught here, you're being taught well, biblically, I hope that we all have this understanding of salvation.

That this salvation that God is accomplishing, that God desires for us, this salvation that God is offering to us, it is so much larger than just, uh, the, the narrow evangelical, the historic evangelical view that. The salvation God is accomplishing is summarized in you, missing hell and making it to heaven.

That's a very narrow myopic view of salvation. When when we see scripture speaking about salvation, this great salvation that God is accomplishing, he's talking about the redemption and the deliverance of all creation. It's about the salvation of the entire created order. In fact, Paul would say in the book of Romans that all of creation.

Groans for that day of redemption. Yes, it's uh, it's about our personal relationship with Christ. We're a part of that, but we need to see it in a much more grandiose scale. I want us to really understand the magnitude of the scale of this salvation that God is accomplishing. Well, what is that? What is it that God would have us to understand about this salvation?

What is it that he would have us to understand about these elements that point to something that is of eternal value? Well, if I could just borrow from the text and just begin walking through some of this, the first thing that I would say regarding this salvation that God is accomplishing, that he is offering to us, that he desires for us, the first thing I would say is that it transcends.

[00:07:57] Transcending the Physical

The physical, it transcends the physical. That's the very thing he's saying back here. Look at verse 26 and 27 again, where Jesus had answered them and said, truly. I say, say to you, you seek me. Not because you saw signs, but because you ate some of the loaves and were filled. They're thinking at at at a ground level, a temporal level.

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you for on him, the Father God has set his seal. Now let's notice how he expounds upon this a bit further. Look over at verse 35. Jesus said to them, I'm the bread of life. The one who comes to me will not be hungry and the one who believes in me.

Will never be thirsty. In other words, what, what Jesus is saying to his would be followers is that the things that you are after, what, what you want, the temporal offerings that, that you desire, all of these will result in a, in a, in a continuing thirst, in a continuing hunger. What you want right now, the temporal offers, that is the temporary offerings of this world.

It's offering you something that will satisfy your appetite for the moment, but it's only going to make you hungrier in the future. You drink what this world offers. You pursue what this world offers. You thirst and you hunger for what this world offers. He says, you will be hungry again. One of the things I used to tell our student athletes when we talk about when in character development sessions, when we talk about having goals, when we have aspirations, setting your mind on higher things.

Having a sense of higher calling and existence in your life, don't base your pursuit. Don't base your effort upon the things that you want. Base it upon the kind of person you want to be. Because if you base life, if it's rooted in the things that you want, what you discover is that you're never satisfied.

You're always wanting. You know, our guys now have a great deal of money at their, at their disposal with the, with the new NIL deals, you know, and we went from, we b we went from beat up pickup trucks to rented b to to lease BMWs and Cadillacs, you know, all kinds of vehicles, Cadillac SUVs. And, and, and one of the things I've tried to explain to these guys, you know, when you're in high school, man, if I could just get me a pickup truck, I'd be happy.

Okay, well you get the pickup truck, then you want, you want a little nicer vehicle, and you get that momentary thrill of having that new Vic vehicle. Then you want something a little nicer, and the things that you're hungering for is just an insatiable appetite. Jesus says, want more? What I'm offering to you is something that transcends the offerings of this world.

This is one of the most compelling arguments. That CS Lewis had for the, for the existence of God. Lewis called it, uh, the argument by desire, and this would be the actual, the reason that that CS Lewis would ultimately come to faith. He tried everything that, that the world had to offer. He pursued every avenue, every offering of this world.

And he said on each of those, in each of those experiences, I, I would come away thinking that's it. Oh, perhaps it's great music. He has what he thinks is a transcendent experience, listening to this, this beautiful music. But then after a while he says, no, that that's not it. How can I, how can I recapture that, that experience that I had?

It's exquisite food. And he says, oh, that's it. That that's what brings pleasure to life. This, this, this exquisitely prepared meal. Then, you know, with time he realized, no, that that wasn't it, but I want to recapture that feeling. And so it went from music to, to literature to uh, to sexual experiences, to, uh, to alcohol.

What, whatever it was. Whatever it might be. Each of these things left him longing and and wanting. And Lewis being very intelligent, he knew he had a philosophical issue that could not be resolved, and he came to the real realization that if I have a longing for what this natural world cannot feel. Then there must be a supernatural that exists over me.

And he realized that the offerings of this world simply could not satisfy the deepest longings of his soul. And it set him upon a quest and a journey where he would discover Christ. There's a second thing I would have us to know and understand about this great salvation that God is accomplishing. 

[00:13:32] Salvation Emanates from God

Not only that it transcends the physical, but that secondly, it emanates from God, this salvation that he is accomplishing.

It emanates from God. Notice in verse 41. So then the Jews were complaining about him. Because he said, I'm the bread that came down out of heaven, and they were saying, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, who's father and mother we know? How does he now say I've come down out of heaven? Jesus answered and said to them com to stop complaining among yourselves.

No one can come to me unless the father who sent me. Draws him, summons him, calls him. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.

There's a lot of moving parts in these verses, but I want you to see how God is, is actively working. How God is actively engaged in this salvation that he's offering, that he's accomplishing. He says, I'm the bread of life that came down out of heaven. God is doing something. God is doing something.

Incarnation. That is God is trying to, to offer a flesh and blood demonstration of, of who he is. You know that, that's what revelation is. Revelation is God revealing himself and making himself known God. Uh, God initially revealed himself in the act of creation. Well, that, that wasn't sufficient. Then God, uh, chose to, to reveal himself in a, in a chosen people.

And instead of being a light to the world, they became exclusive. So, so that revelation of God was insufficient. But throughout salvation history, we have this, this God that is actively engaged, that is actively pursuing after us trying to reveal and to make himself known to us. And listen, it, it's never in the loud.

It's never in the big. Do you see what becomes problematic? Why the Jews were complaining? They, they were limiting God to the grandiose, oh, God's revealing himself in the simple things. I mean, how could it be Jesus? I mean, we know. We know Mary and Joseph, his parents, they were just, they were just common people.

Is God actually going to reveal himself through? I mean, why would God not use the religious means that we have in place? Why would God not, why would God not use the po Uh, you know, the, the, the why would God not use the, the pomp and circumstance of the temple,

part of this for all of us. Our egos get involved and we can't see God working. We cannot imagine God working in the world and maybe not working in our lives, seeking to work in our lives in just the little simple things. You know, in 40 years, 41 years of ministry. I can't tell you the number of times individuals have come to me and said, Bobby, I, I want you to pray for me.

I, I'm just chasing after God. And, and I know God's got something big in store for me. And I, I want you to pray for me because I, I want to have eyes to see and ears to hear. I, I don't wanna miss it. I wanna see it when it's coming down down the pike. I just wanna be sensitive to the spirit.

You know what that is? That's ego. That's ego. We spend all of our time, our ego looks way down there to the horizon. Something that is big enough for my ego at the expense of just the little things that are at my feet each and every day. The little circumstances, the little events, the little people that God would put at my feet and before me in the intersections of daily life, and I miss these because of my ego.

The scripture says, the wisdom writer would say, well, there is no vision. The people perish. We perish and we lose our influence and we lose our power when we lose our vision for what God would have us to be in the present tense. See we've, we've allowed, we've allowed corporate America to hijack that word vision.

You know, I can, even in ministry, I can remember, you know, there's always this pressure, oh, we gotta have a vision statement. Well, I always thought the great, I always thought the Great Commission was good enough for the church, but I'd have, you know, I'd have businessmen in the church, oh, we gotta get a committee together, we've gotta have a mission statement, we've gotta have a vision statement.

And I knew they were hijacking the language of the corporate world, trying to force it upon the church. And we have this idea that people, we, we, we ascribe to people the title of being. A visionary. A visionary, and we think of visionaries in terms of those who see things that we can't see. That's not biblical.

You know what a visionary is in scripture? It's someone who sees the obvious. That everyone else overlooks.

That's how the church, the body of Christ has its power and its influence in the world. It's in the little things. It's not the grandiose religious things Jesus said as you, you've done it unto the least of these. You've done it unto me. What was he talking about? Feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting the imprisoned, ministering to the sick.

Something that is the little things that we can all do we're no training is necessary.

That's the kind of salvation that God. He's accomplishing in his church. It's a people who have the vision to see the little moments, the little opportunities, and to stack these up day by day by day, moment by moment, so that the church can truly be the church in the world. Oh, good theology. Listen, good theology.

Always has room for God in the ordinary. Good theology. A good imaginative theology allows God to do the extraordinary and just the ordinary of life. Now, there's a third thing I would share with you this morning. 

[00:21:46] Satiating the Heart's Longings

Regarding this salvation that our communion mill points to, not only does it transcend the physical and emanate from God, but we also see that it, that it satiates the heart.

This is what satisfies the heart and the longings of the soul, and Jesus said in verses 53 through 57, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourself. The one who eats my flesh and drinks, my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

For my flesh is, is true food. That is everything else is just a bad, in a bad imitation. What what I'm giving you is, is true food that will last, that will satisfy.

The one who eats my flesh and drinks, my blood remains in me and I in him, just as the living father sent me. I live because of the father, the one who eats me. He also will live because of me. Listen, I'd I'd say to you. Don't be fooled by, by that little cracker. Don't be fooled by that, by that juice. Don't be, don't miss out on, its on its potency.

I don't want you to look at this as we protect this morning and say, well, that's, that's just a bunch of empty calories right there. Nothing, nothing could be further from the truth. This is an an eternal value mill. It's pointing to something that God is accomplishing. It points to something that God is offering to all who, as he says, redundantly to all.

Who would who? Who would believe? But here, here's the key for each and every one of us.

For this to be the reality of our existence, for this to be the reality of who we are, being a part of this great salvation, that God is accomplishing what Jesus was saying to the crowds. Then what he's saying to us today is you have to want more. Listen, you have to want more than what you want right now.

You have to want more than what you want right now because if we were each one confessional, when we think about our wants. Our desires, perhaps a great deal of them are driven by the temporal offerings of this world. Now, eventually, of course, life will beat you up enough and, and we eventually get to an age.

We find ourselves as believers where we're, where we're letting go more and more of the things of, of this world. We, we find ourselves as we, as we grow older, we find ourselves as we, as we live more of life and as more of life comes against us. And we recognize the frailty of, of this life, and we recognize the, the broken promises of this world.

Isn't it true? Those of us who are older, we find ourselves letting go more and more, don't we, of the things of this world,

but it comes, it comes to a critical juncture in the life of faith. Where I have to want more of what God is offering and what he promises. I have to want that more than what I want right now in this world.

A final thing will share about this gospel, about this salvation that God. Is accomplishing. It is so otherworldly.

It is so antithetical to the model of life that this world offers. 

[00:26:58] The Divisive Nature of True Salvation

You need to know that to understand this salvation and to be a part of this salvation is to realize that it divides the masses.

It divides the masses what, what Jesus is speaking to here. It doesn't have a popular curb appeal. In fact, we see that there's a great walking away as he talks more about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. As he talks more about suffering and death that is appointed under the son of man to suffer in the diet, the more that Jesus engages in that type of rhetoric.

We find time and time again in the gospel narratives that there's always a winnowing process. There is always a walking away when the language of suffering is utilized. Notice several points here in chapter six. Look at verses 59 through 61. These things Jesus said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum.

So then many of his disciples when they, when they heard this, said, this statement is very unpleasant. Your translation may, may have hard, this statement is very hard. It's very unpleasant. Who, who can listen to it. But Jesus aware that his disciples were complaining about this, said to them, is this offensive to you?

Verse 64. But there are some of you, Jesus is saying, but there are some of you speaking to this gathering of so-called disciples, but there are some of you who do not believe. Now understand that in ancient days, in that ancient culture, there, there were a great many, uh, there were many who were, who were teachers, many that would have the title of Rabbi, and, and those who followed these different varying rabbis, all of them were called disciples.

I think sometimes we've, we've taken that word disciples and claimed it as our own, but the word that is translated as disciples in, in, in Greek language, it would be anyone who followed a certain master. This teacher had his disciples, this teacher had his disciples, Jesus had had had his disciples, and so he had this, he had a very large following.

It was essentially a youth movement, late teens, early twenties. Now he had some benefactors that were older and, and would support his ministry as, as did the Apostle Paul. And they, and what we find in the gospels is that there were these, these large followings of Jesus as long as he as, as long as he was performing, for lack of a better term, as long as he was performing miracles, as long as he was doing the miraculous, as long as he, as long as he was healing the crowd.

As you can imagine, the crowds were flocking to this. And there's a great many churches that have, have built themselves around the idea of, of entertaining the masses. The problem with building a church with dancing bears is you've just gotta have bigger and better dancing bears every week to keep them, or else they're just gonna go down the road to the next dog and pony show.

And Jesus recognized this. And what you find on every occasion when Jesus talks about suffering and death, when he talks about the depth of commitment in following, after him, eating his flesh, drinking his blood, it's about embracing the responsibilities that go with with followership. There's always this, this great falling away.

Some of you do not believe, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were, who did not believe, and who it was, who would betray him. Verse 66. As a result of this, many of his disciples left and would no longer walk with him. So Jesus said to the 12, you do not want to leave. Also, do you?

I would say to you, seeing how Jesus divides the masses, I would say to you that are a part of the Western Church, it's just kind of a warning, kind of a red flag is anything that appears popular in the church, anything that's a best seller. It is always a red flag to me because understanding the basis of the gospel and understanding what has happened to the prophets of old, understanding what happened to Jesus, I know that, that the call of Christ and, and the gospel, it divides, it doesn't have a popular curb appeal.

The masses are not drawn to it. In fact, uh, what would Jesus say over in Matthew's gospel? The Sermon on the Mount, chapter seven, verse 13, entered through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it. Translated also is most, that's the path that most will take for the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life.

And there are few. Who find it. So what, what Jesus is offering to us and what this table, what these elements come to say to us is that there is something of eternal value that is being set before us today. That the offerings of this. Present life are just empty calories. Just empty calories.

So today, eat and be filled. 

[00:33:31] Conclusion and Prayer

Let's pray together that our men will come and pass out our elements. Father, thank you. Thank you for this great salvation that you are accomplishing. And Father, I pray that you would give us eyes to see, and ears to hear, to see your miraculous workings in just the moments of life, the intersections of life, and the little opportunities that present themselves each and every day to be the presence of Christ in our respective worlds.

Father, how humbled we are to be a part of this great salvation that, that you are accomplishing and offering to us. And Father, as we partake of these elements today, father might they go with us as constant reminders of the call of Christ upon our lives that as we symbolically eat of your flesh and drink of your blood.

Might it be a reminder to us, a powerful reminder, a transformational reminder of our oneness with you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.