Eat Jesus

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I’m going invite you to John chapter six. John six is we’re going to be today. We’re in the middle of John six. John six is a rather long chapter. It’s one of the longer chapters of John. We’re going to deal with the section that makes it so long. What you’re going to see in John chapter six, I’m not going to go through every detail of this section, I’m going to do the fly over and get to the conclusion here at the end. But the reason this section is so long is there’s this dialogue that’s happening between the people that are following Jesus and Jesus. It’s the crowds and Jesus and they asked Jesus six questions and Jesus ends with this passage by asking a couple of questions of his own.

In verse 62 and 67, he asked a couple of questions. So there is this longer dialogue of the crowd asking Jesus questions and Jesus responding to the crowd and Jesus says, I’ll just being honest in this. If I had to deal with the passage this week, I would not necessarily have chosen this passage for this week because this week has had a lot in it for me, but this is a difficult passage of scripture. It’s probably why the dialogue lasted so long. I mean, you look in John chapter six, the kind of things Jesus, that we titled this Eat Jesus, but we’ll look at these next verses that Jesus says in John chapter six,

You can click for me there. John six, Let me read it here. Verse 56, listen to this. “The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” This is the conclusion Jesus is driving to in this passage to say this kind of statement, verse 56, eat my flesh, drink my blood, like who says that? Who’s okay with someone saying that? Are they thinking about Hannibal Lecter, maybe, or Jeffrey Dahmer or people that are weird and Twilight, like vampires, I don’t know. Who says this kind of thing? That’s what we got to deal with today in this passage and then it goes on a little bit further than that in verse 66, “As a result of this, many of his disciples left and would no longer walk with him.” So I guess in this passage, if we’re not talking about eating and drinking blood, right? Eating flesh, drinking blood, and half of us don’t get mad and quit. Am I really doing justice to this passage? That’s what this passage is about today. So how do you deal with this section of scripture in a way that everyone’s going to walk away and be like, “Yeah, let’s follow Jesus,” right?

It’s the strange thing. In chapter six, when the crowd was interacting with Jesus over this, they felt the same way. So if you’re reading this thinking, “What does this mean?” That’s why this crowd asked six questions of Jesus, right? Then Jesus gives a couple of questions himself. But here’s where Jesus starts this discussion. I’m going to pick up in verse 24. The crowd is embracing Jesus. Typically you think, “That’s great. They’re embracing Jesus.” But usually when you read the gospels and you read the word crowd, anything that follows after that, it’s typically stupid. That’s kind of what happens when the big group got around Jesus, dumb things tended to happen. Here’s the crowd around Jesus, the crowd is embracing Jesus. But what you find out is they’re embracing Jesus for temporary pleasure.

They want a temporary provisions of Jesus. It’s not the same as wanting Jesus. They want what Jesus has giving them temporarily. They don’t necessarily want him. They’re following Jesus because it’s convenient. I mean, remember this story, that’s how the chapter six starts, Jesus feeds 5,000 people or 5,000 men could have been more than that. If it’s not including women and children in the number, it may have been 15, 20,000 people that Jesus fed. Pretty impressive thing, kind of convenient to follow Jesus, got all your meals taken care of and in a culture where there’s no for refrigeration, that’s an important thing. You wake up and let’s just follow Jesus. Jesus will feed us. Now Jesus is telling us to eat him. This is weird. Verse 24, “So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples.” So you remember this story, he feeds the 5,000. Jesus sends his disciples in a boat. Jesus leaves the crowd, goes up on a mountain to pray by himself and they never see Jesus do anything other than go up on this mountain to pray by himself. Now all of a sudden they can’t find Jesus.

So verse 24, ” So the crowd saw the Jesus is not there nor his disciples. They themselves got into the small boats to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, rabbi, when did you get here?” Question one. Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly I say to you, you seek me. Not because you saw signs, but because you ate some of the loaves and were filled.” This is what Jesus is saying, you know why you’re following me? You’re following me because you’re shallow. That’s what Jesus said. You’re not following me because of me. You don’t really care about me. You’re following me because of what you get from me. So Jesus has questioning their faith.

It’s like this year, I don’t know if you follow sports. I think sometimes it can be fun watching men get overpaid to bounce a ball and throw it in a hoop. I’m watching basketball this year. This might be the year that the jazz win the championship. But I’m going to tell you, I’m going to tell you, after this year, they’re going to sell a lot of shirts and a lot of hats. This is the year they’re going to win the championship. If you say that you’re a jazz fan after this year, no one’s counting that you fair weather fan. That is not genuine Utah jazz fan ship, right? That is not a fanatic that’s just following it because it’s convenient and you happen to live in the town. That’s the same thing here with Jesus, they’re in the area, it’s convenient, they’re saying they’re followers of Jesus, but they’re not really because they’re not willing to follow Jesus when it’s difficult. They’re just following Jesus when it’s convenient and Jesus is identifying for this, “Look, you need to question your faith for just a moment, because it might seem just a little shallow.”

Verse 27, “Do not work for the food that perishes Jesus says, 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.” Jesus is saying, “Look, I’ve got the approval of the father in this,” but he’s saying, “Look, you guys work so hard to come across the sea just to get to me simply because I was convenient for you in that moment.”

Verse 28. ‘”And therefore they said to him, what are we to do so that we may work the works of God?” So Jesus is saying, “Look, you’re working really hard for this temporary stuff, but what about this eternal stuff? What about working for the that?” So they asked the question, “What must we do to work the works of God?” Now here’s a trick question. I’m going to let you know it’s a trick question. So you can think about this for a minute. Will works save you? Some of you may already… I thought you know the answer so I called it a trick question. Typically in Christianity, we will say no, but here’s the rest of this that I’m not telling you fully. Truth is works will save you, but not yours. Your works won’t save you. His works on your behalf save you. What he did for you as your great rescuer, that’s what saves you.

So Jesus said this, look in verse 29. This is an important verse. “Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God. You want to know what you do must do to work the works of God. You want to know how you earn your salvation. You want to know how you get to heaven? That you believe in him who sent you. It’s not about what you do. It’s about what he’s done for you.” Jesus says that it’s because of his work for you. It’s about your belief in his finished work for you. That’s so Ephesians 2:8-9, I had someone tell me once, “Well, Faith is a work, right? Well Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace, are you saved through faith. God’s grace, saved through faith. Believing not of yourselves, it’s a gift, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Faith is an opposition to work and Ephesians 2:8-9, “Not of works lest anyone should vote by grace. Are you saved through faith? Not of works, lest anyone should boast.” So faith is not a work, but what we put our faith in is the finished work of Christ. It’s his work that saves us.

Verse 30. So they said to him, “What then are you doing as a sign so that we may see and believe.” So, if you’re counting this, this third question. What are we going to do? The works of God. Then he says, “What are you going to do as a sign Lord so that we may see and believe you, what work are you performing? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness as is written. He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.” Well when you read that, my mind just becomes a little critical here. I read this and they asked Jesus, what work you want to do? I just look at this and think of what a joke. Have you not read the first six chapters of John?

I mean, these are the people just ate the bread that Jesus filled with just a few loaves, over 5,000 people. Now they’re asking him, “What miracle are you going to do?” I mean, he went to the wedding at Canaan and he healed. He display this love for the woman at the well, he healed the official son who was dying. He went to the Portico and he healed the lame man. He fed the crowd, 5,000 people, and now they’re asking the question, what miracle are you going to do so that we believe in you, Jesus? The reality is Jesus had already done enough. The question really for them, but it’s just simply, what do you want to do with him? This is what they’re asking is, “Jesus entertain us. Moses was pretty good. So why don’t you try to be better than Moses? If you’re better than Moses will believe in you. Moses gave us manna.

In verse 32, then Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, it is not Moses was given you the bread out of heaven, but it is my father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.” Jesus corrects him he says, “Look, Moses wasn’t the one that really gave you the manna. Maybe Moses talked to the Lord and God sent the manna, but it wasn’t Moses who gave you the manna. It was God who gave you the manna and the true manna comes straight from heaven.”

In verse 34, then they said to him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” If it was God who really sent it and you’re telling us that it will come from heaven, then give us this bread. Then in verse 35, Jesus gives this very strong, bold statement. So the crowds embracing Jesus for temporary pleasure, but Jesus here teaches us that we should simply embrace him because of who he is and he makes this declaration now, verse 35. “And Jesus said, I am 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.” Here’s what Jesus is saying. Jesus is about to put a big fork in the road in following him, not a Fairweather convenient following him anymore. It’s about understanding who he is and making the decision to follow him. If I were asking you the question this morning, why do you follow Jesus? Why are you even here? What’s so important about him to you?

Jesus says in verse 35, “I am the bread of life.” You’ll recognize this. This statement is very powerful statement because what Jesus is saying is echo, I, me, I am. Jesus is taking on the name of God in the old Testament in Exodus, chapter three. It’s the name that God delivered to Moses. When Moses said, “When I go before Pharaoh, and I tell Pharaoh to let Israel go, they’re slaves in this land and that you call them to be free and you, and I’m saying this before Pharaoh and the people ask me who in the world told you to come before favor and say this? Who do you think you are? What am I going to tell the people God?” And he says, “Tell them I am has sent you, the great one, God almighty.”

When Jesus is talking about this bread, this bread of eternal life, the reason why he knows that this bread can sustain him, not just this physical convenient bread that he delivered, but this actual bread of life forever, the reason he knows that he can provide this Is because he’s the one for which the provision comes. He is God. So this is what they’re saying about Moses. “Moses gave us bread. Moses was awesome. Be better than Moses Jesus.” And Jesus says to them, “Look it wasn’t Moses that gave you bread. It was God that gave you bread.” “Well, give us this bread then Jesus. Give us this bread. If it’s God that gave us bread. And you think that you can get this bread, give us this bread.” And Jesus is saying, “I can give you this bread. The reason I can give you this bread is because I am. I am. I am the one who’s coming from heaven to give that life to you.”

Look what the Jews do in verse 41. So then the Jews were complaining about him because he said, I am the bread that came down out of heaven. They Were doing and what good church people do. They grumble when things don’t go the way they want, I’m just kidding. You guys all do that at all. Just kidding. But they start complaining and grumbling about the thought that Jesus has about himself. This was blasphemous to them to think that something could come from him, that God would come from him, that he has God come from heaven. The fact the Jews had never seen God. In fact, I will tell you anyone that tells you they’ve ever seen God, the father, the scripture says that that’s not even possible. John 6:46 in this passage says it. First book of John chapter one verse 18 says it, First Timothy chapter six verse 16 says it, Exodus chapter 33 verse 20 says it. But now God has become flesh and dwelt among them.

Verse 51, rather than back off of this statement. Jesus digs in deeper. “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats from this bread, he will live forever. And the bread which I will give for the life of the world also is my flesh.” As Jesus is saying, “All right, not only am I saying, I am the bread of life. I’m telling you, drink my blood, eat my flesh.” And then it says in the next verse 52, “Then the Jews began to argue with one another saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?” And Jesus, rather than back off, He triples down. Verse 53, so Jesus said to them, “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 yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks, my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.” As a result of this, many of his disciples left, in verse 60, and would no longer walk with him.

That’s a very challenging statement, especially a challenging statement for the Jews without proper understanding. I mean this will be offensive. You think he’s talking about people that have strict dietary laws, they don’t eat pork, let alone people, and Jesus is coming to them and making this kind of a statement. When you understand the Israel’s history is in regards to what Jesus is saying, this would have been the kind of statement that would have shocked them to consider the very words that Jesus is speaking here. Because the Jews, according to old Testament command, they weren’t supposed to drink blood. In fact, Genesis chapter nine, first six verses of Genesis chapter nine. God gives the command not to drink of blood and Exodus chapter 17 verses 11 to 14, don’t drink blood. There was a common practice in pagan societies where they would drink blood.

In fact, Exodus chapter 17 highlights, really one of the reasons why, it tells you there is life in blood, there’s life in the blood, not that they didn’t understand the science to the degree that we have come to understand it today. Especially medically, all the details about blood that we know today, but they knew enough to know that if you don’t have blood, you die, right? You lose blood, you die and there was this belief, because they recognize when blood drained enough from a body, the body would die, that in pagan societies, when they would worship pagan gods, they would drink blood because they believed that they would take from that the live source of whatever that blood was drained from the individual or the living being. They would drain his blood, drink the blood and this belief that they would gain life from it. It would be all about themselves and serving themselves and partaking of this pagan ritual. But God wanted to create this difference between his people and other people. Because other people, when you make your life about self, what you find is that you use other people as tools to their destruction in your game.

Even in these pagan societies, these rituals, they would take life in order of what they believed, get life for themselves. It was about self promotion. God wanted to make this distinguished between them and him. Don’t drink blood Israel. Don’t drink blood because life is not about you. So God made laws against drinking blood to distinguish from these pagan groups. But Jesus, in this passage, he did something a little more here. I think he went further than just this idea of drinking blood and eating his flesh literally. God didn’t literally mean eat and drink Jesus and he made it obvious when he drew this correlation. If you remember in the beginning of John chapter six, John chapter six is all about the feeding of the 5,000. The reason the crowd is following Jesus is because he fed the 5,000 and it’s here then that Jesus in that illustration starts to make the bigger illustration of not just the physical of eating of the bread, but the spiritual contemplation that should come along with that.

You can see it in verse 27, listen to this. I’ll just read these words again, “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.” Jesus is saying, “Look just as you took this physical food, I don’t want you to get just fixated on the temporal of following me, because it’s about me. I am. I am. It’s not just about this physical world. It’s about what I come to give spiritually.” Which is why in verse 35, Jesus takes this perspective from the physical to the spiritual. He says verse 35, “The one who believes in me will never be thirsty.” He’s correlating the idea of physical thirst to the idea of spiritual thirst and he talks about believing as the source through which we no longer thirst spiritually.

Verse 40, “Everyone who sees the son and believes in him will have eternal life.” The one who, verse 47, believes has eternal life. Verse 63, it’s the spirit that gives life, not the physical. So Jesus is certainly taking this illustration, he is not saying, “Look, literally eat my blood and drink my flesh.” You’re different than the pagan societies. It’s not about yourself, but himself. It’s about trusting in him sufficiently. However, the Jews didn’t want to follow the commitment Jesus was asking in this passage. So when they came to this point and Jesus started declaring himself the way that he did in this scripture, they started to realize the kind of commitment Jesus was asking people them. It’s not about promoting yourself, in fact, it’s about dying to self to embrace him. It’s not selfishness, it’s selflessness. They begin to realize that following Jesus was no longer convenient with the kind of sacrifice that Jesus was asking.

So it tells us in this passage, what do the crowds do? The crowds began to move away. I mean, people could at this point begin to see the writing on the walls. The leaders in Israel didn’t like Jesus, but the crowd’s Fairweather fans were okay just following him because in the temporary it was convenient to follow Jesus. But now as they listen to Jesus, they understand the kind of commitment that Jesus is asking of them as he gives his life with him, that they would give their life in return. They didn’t want to go there. They didn’t want to walk that kind of road. So rather than pursue this walk with Jesus, they hit the fork in the road and they went the other direction. In fact, I would say the hang up in this passage, isn’t actually for the Jews, it isn’t drink my blood and eat my flesh. I think the Jews had a concept of this, that a Messiah would come. They had made sacrifices of a lamb who would ultimately be the Messiah.

The hangup for them came, it says in verse 62, when Jesus finally asked his first question. Jesus, his first question to them deals with the idea that he says he came from heaven. Did he really come from heaven for us? Too much of a sacrifice to lay our lives down for this and the crowd walked away, but not everyone, some stayed. In fact, when you study this passage historically, what’s interesting about this passage of scripture is historically this section of scripture became a section of biblical literature that was used to persecute Christians. In fact, there’s a document historically called the Octavius of Marcus and Minucius Felix, right? So I think in case you want to know how to say that again, we have a slide that tells you this, you guys want to give me a click to the next slide for just a minute? There you go.

Octavius of Marcus and Minucius Felix, there you go. It written at the end of the second century by this man named Felix, who writes about a guy named Octavius, who was a Christian and his interaction with a pagan guy and all of the maligning that’s brought against Christianity. The church was persecuted for the first 300 plus years of its existence and they were accused of all sorts of things, being grossly immoral, being poor and lower class people, being atheist believe it or not because they only worship one God and not the plethora of gods that people in Rome did, that they were self-righteous, that they were foolish, that they lacked patriotism and they were the cause of God’s anger. I mean, if you read this document, it’s a very short document, but at the very beginning the pagans tells the Christian that he’s worthless and all the reasons he thinks is worthless and the document ends with the man saying, we can’t wait to find a reason to get angry at you so we could feed you to the lions.

Out of all of the charges that this pagan brings against this Christian, that Felix writes about. By the way, no one knows if this story is true, or just the story that Felix may have heard and wrote down. But one of the charges against Christians and his day, Felix, is definitely writing against charges, brought against Christians. Historically speaking, one of the accusations is cannibalism. He attacks this Christian because of this passage, Jesus said, “Eat, eat my flesh and drink my blood. You guys are, are cannibals.” Listen to what he says, you, Christians are the worst breed ever to affect the world. You deserve every punishment you can get. Nobody likes you. It would be better if you and your Jesus had never been born. We hear that you are all cannibals. You eat the flesh of your children and your sacred meetings.

Octavius responds, “That story is probably based on reports that we share together, a meal of the body and the blood of Christ that we do, but it is not human flesh. We eat it’s the bread and the wine. We concentrate to commemorate our Lord’s death. It amazes me you give credibility to these rumors of cannibalism. You know, what we’re like, keep in mind that if you have children and it’s a girl, but you wanted a boy, or if the child has something wrong, or if you simply don’t want it, what has done? You leave the child outside exposed to die and the pagan responds, “You know, that is far more merciful to let the baby die than to bring it up in a home where it’s not wanted.” And Octavius says we do not expose our children. And you’re well aware how so many of the little ones that you have left out to die have been rescued by Christians and given a home. So it’s just the opposite of what you accuse us of.

We don’t consume human life. We rather protect it and defended it. Let me tell you why I saw this guys. In the early church being persecuted over a passage like this, that wasn’t even true. That’s what Octavia says here. It’s not even an accurate representation of us. You’re just maligning us. When the early church was persecuted, they weren’t persecuted simply because they loved Jesus. The society around them align them for far worse things. They would take this character of Christianity and blow it way out of proportion because of the hatred they had for those people. If all they were attacked for simply because they love Jesus. People probably would’ve left them alone. But what they did is they started to inflate what it meant to follow Jesus in ways that weren’t true. And the church found themselves persecuted. That’s what makes this passage so important because what Jesus is driving at in this story is guys, “Guys crowd insta, crowd Israel, You’re following me because it’s convenient? But one day it’s not going to be convenient.

At the end of the day, the reason why you follow me matters because it might be all that you have. Why do you follow Jesus? Why follow Jesus? This is why Jesus gave the statement in verse 35, that he was building too, you need to understand I am the great I am. Don’t follow me simply because of what you get. Follow me because of who I am, why you follow Jesus matters. If you follow Jesus, simply because it’s convenient, the moment something difficult happens, what happens? You stop following Jesus. That’s what the Jews did in this passage.

And that’s why it became so important in the first century to have this true understanding of who Christ was and be confident in that understanding because the world was going to persecute you and God doesn’t call us to persecute the world back, but rather love our enemies, do good, pray for those who persecute us. The only way you can ever stand on such a position is to have incredible confidence in exactly who Jesus is. Because guys this is what I fear. We’re at a place in our history where it’s not convenient to follow Jesus anymore. Who he is matters. In fact, if you look back at the examples from the pagans who worshiped in idolatry, drinking blood to the Jews, can I tell you what motivated both forms of whatever path they took? The reason they went that route, the pagans, it was all about self. It was all about self.

I want to drink that blood in order to get the power from that living being because it’s about hating me. And the Jews, looking at Jesus in this moment and looking whether or not they want to pursue Jesus. The reason they chose not to pursue Jesus is this idea of self-preservation. It’s all about health and in America today, do you know who our number one God is? It’s elf. It’s the worship of self, the idolatry of self, the convenience of self, the pleasure of self. We wake up in the morning and what is our life about? Whatever makes us happy. It’s it’s all about self. The God of America is self. And if you proclaim another God, you run the risk of being maligned. If you say, it’s not about you, it’s not about what your wants. The primary primarily leads the day, but it’s about Jesus. You can be

Maligned. And when people malign you, they’re not going to malign you simply because you love Jesus. I want to go back to the first century of all the things they threw against Christianity and it’s going to come after you.

Who Jesus is matters without God we become self-focused. We become selfish. We become in that selfishness greedy, and we use the things of life for ourselves. When you make life all about yourself, you will abuse and use and destroy other things to get what you want. We’ll do it in every area of life. If we see ourselves as God, possessions, power, beauty.

As well, it was, I can look prettier than them, as long as I can have more stuff than them. As long as they have more power than them, even in our culture, today’s sexuality. We think the form of sexuality was created for and my pleasure, because we think life is all about self. I mean, you try to talk to a young person today about the purpose of their existence and their identity. And the minute you impose anything other than self, like you can get maligned for that. But the point of your existence has nothing to do with yourself, and if you pursue life that way you will end up bankrupt. That’s what Jesus was saying to his people. I am the bread. I am the manna from heaven. I am the way the truth and the life. It’s not about you. It’s about him. In fact, look at, look at this quote on the

Screen. This is just kind of a indicative of where we are today. First we overlook evil, then we permit evil, then we legal has evil. Then we promote evil, then we celebrate evil and then we persecute those who still call it evil. If you think about your country, where would you say you fall right about now? In that projection of the statement. We’re somewhere at the bottom, weren’t we? I mean, the writing’s on the wall, isn’t it? What’s next and which is that place to say that you follow Jesus, it will cost you.

So why followed Jesus? Why followed Jesus? It’s because he’s worthy. It’s because he’s the great I am. So the question it comes for our souls, do we really believe this because you might be in a place where you’re going to have to put your faith down on that kind of a thought because of where things are going. It is Jesus who he says he is or not. Now look at this. I want to just say this for our health as a church when we walk out of here. Any anyone that ever disagrees with you, our goal is not to hate them. Our goal, not to be unloving with him. In fact, we can read a quote like that and we can hit a panic button and you say, oh, you’re right. We Better start screaming from the mountain tops. We better start forcing morality.

When one group pushes one way, we better push the other way or it’s over. I want you to know this morning, what I’m telling you is the objective goal of us as a church, is not to walk out of here and proclaim morality. That’s not what we’re about. Morality is not the solution to the problem of our country. Morality is not what we need. I like if we can get along with people, that’s great. But at the answer is not morality. In fact, if you think about what morality is, you can live morality without God. You can be “Good without God.” There’s no purpose behind the good. There’s no ultimate reason behind the good, but you can be moral without God. In fact, if I give the most extreme example, do you know Adolf Hitler, the reason he rose to power is because the conservatives and yes, the Christians in his country saw him as the most conservative candidate that they could vote for. Look where that got him.

Morality is not the answer. Morality is not the answer. Can I tell you what it is? It’s worship. You want things to change, you want it to be different. It’s not calling people to morality. It’s calling people to worship. The reason I say that is because you’ll never live what Jesus calls you to live until you’re willing to die to self and say, he’s worthy. He’s worthy. He’s worthy. It’s worship. I’m tired of being in control. I don’t want to make life about me. It wasn’t created to make life about me. I want to make it about you. You are the manna, you are the bread of life. I surrender to that. Jesus lead me. So when you read a passage like this, the reason that Jews walked away is because they understood to pursue Jesus. The way Jesus calls them to pursue them was going to have to require their lives, to surrender to him in some way. There was going to have to be a dying to self. Let’s say maybe the question for us is that if there’s areas of our life, we’re looking at, we’re like, I’m still living for me. I mean, it’s where in following Jesus, there should be a challenge net where you have to lay yourself down in order to make him Lord of your life. Where is that place?

I love what Peter says here at the end, “The crowd leaves and do not want to stay and Jesus asked this question, six 67.” So Jesus said of the 12. You do not want to leave also, do you?. Simon Peter answered him,”Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of life.” Following Jesus isn’t necessarily easy but what Peter’s saying, it’s worth it. Now that I see who you are. God, if I just walk away from that, anything else I do will be less than the greatness that it could be in you. How could you know if Jesus is life transforming for all of eternity? How in knowing that could you do anything else other than your soul would never be satisfied? The rest Of your life, you’re just living for some secondary cause that at the end of the day, really doesn’t make a difference.

That’s what Peter saying. “Yeah, Jesus, that is hard.” It could be hard and it may cost. But why would I do anything else? Why do anything else? When you think about you and your position, where you sit today in your relationship with Jesus. Of all the places in this world that you could live, Utah is an incredible place to make a difference for Christ. How important your walk with Jesus matters. Now you may walk out of here and see thousands of people come to know Christ, and you may only ever see one person come to Christ and that’s you. But let me just ask you this.

If no one ever knew your name, if you never received any glory for following after Christ, is he worthy enough to follow? Can the delight of just following him be enough for you to lay your life down? That’s the question Jesus asks us this morning. God, any area in my life that I struggle to surrender, Jesus help me, help me not make it about me. Help me see the goodness of who you are to taste and eat and see that you are the manna from heaven sent to me and Lord, let me have that life and let my life be content there. God may I laid down my sexuality to you. God, may I law down the pleasures of life for you. Lord, may I lay down my power and my fame and my possessions that your great name could be made, known above it all and may you use my life forever?

Faith Through The Storm