Introduction:
What Kind of Bread Are You Looking For? (John 6:22-35)
- I want Here and Now bread. (John 6:25-27)
- I want to Make my own bread. (John 6:28-29)
- I want bread from a better Baker . (John 6:30-33)
- I want "Just Bread" bread. (John 6:34)
- I Want the Bread of Life . (John 6:35)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:10-02:15
All right open up your Bibles with me please to John chapter 6 as we continue our series knowing Jesus. Today's message is knowing the true bread. Just to get us all caught up to speed here, because chapter 6 is really one long account. We saw that Jesus fed 5,000 men, plus women and children, with a boy's lunch. And we learned some things about his provision. And when they tried to make him king, he withdrew and sent his disciples off on a boat. And then we I've learned some things about His care as Jesus walked on the stormy sea to rescue the disciples.
02:16-02:19
I've said before that there are some things that you just don't buy generic.
02:20-02:23
Right? Ketchup, Oreo, Pop-Tarts.
02:24-02:26
But there are some things that you just don't buy, period.
02:27-02:31
And at the top of the list is gluten-free bread.
02:32-02:33
Have you ever tried this stuff?
02:34-02:42
I mean, it looks like bread, but then you take a bite and it just crumbles into sawdust.
02:43-02:48
And the only difference is it doesn't taste as good as sawdust.
02:48-02:55
And don't give me, "Well, you know, I actually prefer gluten-free bread." No you don't.
02:57-03:01
Don't give me, "Well, you know, it's great toasted." No it's not.
03:02-03:16
"Forgive me, have you ever tried this brand of gluten-free bread?" "Yes, I have, and it's bad." You see, there's a right kind of bread, and there's a wrong kind of bread.
03:17-03:29
And in this passage, the crowds that Jesus had fed were coming to Jesus for more bread, but Jesus said they were looking for the wrong kind of bread.
03:29-03:44
And you're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, what do you mean, 'wrong kind of bread'?" I mean, if you think the feeding of the 5,000 men, if you think that miracle was about biscuits and crackers, you missed the point.
03:45-03:48
And this whole crowd missed the point.
03:49-03:59
And people go to church every single week, and they still miss the point because they are looking for something from Jesus that He isn't offering.
04:01-04:01
I'm going to say that again.
04:02-04:08
People are looking for something from Jesus that He isn't offering.
04:09-04:11
And that is wrong bread.
04:11-04:20
So on your outline today, one question that we're going to ask and that we're going to answer, what kind of bread are you looking for?
04:20-04:39
Number one, "I want here and now bread." Look at verse 22. It says, "And the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had only been one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but that His disciples had gone away alone.
04:40-04:48
Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.
04:48-04:59
So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum seeking Jesus.
05:00-05:04
Okay, so the crowd stayed behind because they thought Jesus was still there.
05:04-05:05
They didn't know that He left.
05:05-05:10
They didn't know that He had walked on the sea through the storm.
05:10-05:17
Well, word got out about this whole miracle of the bread, and the crowd grew.
05:18-05:21
And when they couldn't find Him, they remembered where to look.
05:22-05:24
Jesus liked to hang out in Capernaum.
05:25-05:45
Verse 25, "When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, 'Rabbi, when did You come here?' Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking Me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
05:45-05:53
"Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.
05:53-05:59
For on Him God the Father has set His seal." So they asked Jesus when He showed up.
05:59-06:06
Really, they meant, "How did you get here?" Jesus, I'm sure you saw, He totally ignored their question.
06:07-06:11
And He instead asked them why they were seeking.
06:11-06:28
Jesus was saying, "You were seeking Me not because you recognized that I'm from God and I am the Messiah, you were seeking Me because you ate the loaves." It's not because of the sign, it's because you ate the loaves.
06:28-06:29
And some people say, "Well, hang on, hang on.
06:30-06:33
Isn't that the same thing? Seeing the sign and eating the loaves?
06:33-06:38
I mean, that was kind of all the same thing, wasn't it?" No. Jesus is saying, "You missed the point of the sign.
06:39-06:43
You're not coming after me because you recognize that I'm the Messiah.
06:44-06:46
You just want a free meal.
06:46-06:51
And you don't have to be in ministry very long before you encounter this.
06:52-07:09
I can't tell you the number of times over the past 20-some years that I've been in ministry that people have come to church, not because they want to know Jesus Christ, not because they want to know what God's Word says, Not because they want to know what the truth is about eternal life.
07:09-07:12
People come simply because they want a handout.
07:13-07:15
That's what Jesus is pointing out here.
07:15-07:17
He's saying that this is all you're looking for.
07:18-07:20
You want here and now bread.
07:20-07:21
You want a full belly.
07:22-07:23
You want what's good for the moment.
07:23-07:32
And notice He points out in verse 27, He says, "Don't let that be the way that you live." Don't be living for the here and now.
07:33-07:36
Stop spending your life only for what perishes.
07:37-07:38
It's here and then it's gone.
07:39-07:42
You know, not much has changed since Jesus originally said these words.
07:43-07:47
People today just focus on the here and now.
07:48-07:49
We live for what's right in front of us.
07:49-07:51
What's going to make me happy today?
07:51-07:52
What's going to satisfy me today?
07:52-07:55
What's going to make me feel a little better today?
07:56-08:02
We're willing to swipe a credit card and go into debt because we want it here and now.
08:02-08:08
It doesn't matter that I'm going to be paying so much more for this thing in the long run.
08:08-08:17
It doesn't matter that this thing is going to wear out, or get broken, or get stolen, and I'm still paying on it.
08:18-08:19
It's here and now.
08:19-08:21
We today, that's what we're after.
08:21-08:23
Here and now bread. What's going to make me happy?
08:24-08:31
You know, Jesus, He could have kept the crowds coming by giving bread.
08:31-08:33
Do you think Jesus could have kept doing this miracle? I do.
08:34-08:45
And he could have kept the crowds coming. In fact, Jesus could have had bigger crowds by just giving out the bread. But we already saw in verse 15 that was never Jesus' intention.
08:45-08:49
Remember, they tried to make him king by force and he withdrew.
08:51-08:56
It was never Jesus' intention to use this just to draw a crowd.
08:56-08:59
And somebody would say, "Well, wait, wait, wait, hang on, hold on a minute.
09:00-09:02
I thought Jesus wanted people to come to Him.
09:03-09:08
Okay, so if Jesus is using this, and crowds are coming to Him, what's wrong with that?
09:09-09:14
Why wouldn't He just keep giving up bread and get bigger crowds, get the whole world to come?
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Why wouldn't Jesus do that?
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I'm going to tell you why.
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It's because Jesus understood a principle that the church needs to understand.
09:26-09:29
And that is this. You're going to want to write this down.
09:29-09:33
What you win people with is what you win them to.
09:34-09:38
Again, what you win people with is what you win them to.
09:40-09:48
In other words, if you're trying to draw a crowd, the thing that you're using to bring people in, that's the thing that they want.
09:48-09:52
You won them with this thing, that's the thing that they want.
09:52-09:57
For example, at Harvest Bible Chapel, we could gather a huge crowd.
09:58-10:10
We could overflow our auditorium every single week if we got the word out that if you come to Harvest Bible Chapel, you're going to get a $10 coupon for Chick-fil-A.
10:11-10:12
Now, obviously, you're not going to be able to use it on Sunday.
10:13-10:15
But imagine if that was the offer that we put on the table.
10:16-10:20
We're going to give everybody that comes to Harvest a $10 coupon for Chick-fil-A.
10:20-10:28
And then our mindset is, "Well, we'll get the crowds with the Chick-fil-A coupons, and then we can offer them Jesus.
10:29-10:38
Well, if we did that, don't get excited, we're not going to, but hypothetically, if we did that, guess what people are going to be coming for?
10:39-10:42
They're going to be coming for Chick-fil-A coupons.
10:43-10:47
But then guess what happens when we run out of coupons?
10:48-10:50
There goes the crowd, right?
10:51-10:53
What you win people with is what you win them to.
10:53-10:55
We could have the biggest youth group in the area.
10:57-10:59
If we did this, get the word out.
10:59-11:08
Every teenager that comes to our youth group is going to get a free iPhone, the newest iPhone, and you're going to get your cell phone bill paid.
11:09-11:10
We could do that.
11:11-11:15
I'm not sure our treasurer would like that, but we could do that, offer that to everybody.
11:16-11:18
Think of the teenagers that would come.
11:18-11:23
And then when we have this massive gathering of teenagers, we're going to offer them Jesus.
11:24-11:28
But what do you think happens when we can't pay that bill for them anymore?
11:29-11:31
Where do you think those teenagers are going to go?
11:32-11:34
What you win people with is what you win them to.
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And Jesus knows that here and now bread doesn't meet real spiritual needs.
11:41-11:42
Therefore, it doesn't satisfy.
11:43-11:45
Jesus was correcting their view of life.
11:46-11:49
He was saying, "Don't just look for the here and now bread.
11:50-11:51
What kind of bread are you looking for?
11:52-11:56
Secondly, some people would answer that question, what kind of bread am I looking for?
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Some people would answer it by saying this, I wanna make my own bread.
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Look at verse 28.
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It says, "They said to him, 'What must we do to be doing the works of God?'" That was their response.
12:11-12:12
What do we need to be doing?
12:13-12:20
And some people think this is sort of an ask regarding works, salvation.
12:21-12:23
And I don't think that's the case here.
12:23-12:29
Because you see, they already had the whole works salvation system in place in their minds, right?
12:29-12:36
They had the law, they had the temple, they had all the rabbinical commands about keeping the Sabbath.
12:37-12:42
They had this whole works, righteousness, salvation system in place.
12:42-12:44
I don't think that's what they're asking.
12:44-12:59
To sort of rephrase their question, I think what they're saying is this, the works of God that you do, Jesus, the works of God, in order for us to do that, what do we need to be doing?
13:00-13:04
Almost like asking a magician how he does his trick, right?
13:04-13:08
Like, "Hey, that thing that you do, I wanna do that thing.
13:08-13:14
Can you tell me what I need to do to do the thing that you're doing?" That's what they were asking Jesus.
13:15-13:20
They wanted this power, this ability to make bread like Jesus.
13:21-13:22
I want to make my own bread.
13:22-13:24
That's a terrible bread to go after.
13:25-13:26
You need Jesus Christ.
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You need Jesus Christ for forgiveness, for eternal life, for Holy Spirit guidance, for ministry power.
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You need Jesus Christ for everything.
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So He's not going to give you something that makes you unable to see your dependence on Him.
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He's not going to do it.
13:46-13:47
People want the power.
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People want the ability to - I'm going to claim this thing that I want, and I'm going to speak over this, and people think that they in and of themselves have this power, but we don't have the power.
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Jesus Christ has the power.
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The Holy Spirit is the power.
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And Jesus isn't going to give you something that makes you unable to see your dependence on Him.
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That's why He responded the way He did.
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Look at how Jesus responded.
14:18-14:29
Verse 29, "Jesus answered them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.'" Jesus was saying, "Do you want to experience the power of God?
14:29-14:34
Do you want to see God's work happen in your life?" Here's how that happens.
14:34-14:38
"You believe in the One whom He sent." Do you want to know the power of God?
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Do you want to experience what it's like When God is at work, directly in your life, you can have that.
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But it's only through believing in Jesus Christ.
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Total dependence on Him.
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I want to make my own bread.
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That's a wrong kind of bread to be looking for.
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Thirdly, what kind of bread are you looking for?
14:59-15:05
The next response is, "I want bread from a better baker." Look at verse 30.
15:06-15:12
So they said to him, 'Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you?
15:13-15:16
What work do you perform?' Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness.
15:17-15:23
As it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" I mean, can you believe this?
15:24-15:33
They said to Jesus, "Okay, so give us a sign so that we can believe in you." Like, what are you talking about?
15:34-15:48
the 5,000 men plus the women and children estimated 20 to 25,000 people, that whole picnic, that supernatural picnic that they just had, that wasn't enough of a sign, and apparently it wasn't.
15:49-15:52
Like, what are you going to do to prove yourself to us?
15:52-15:57
They incredibly minimized Jesus' miracle.
15:58-16:14
saying, "Yeah, that picnic we had, that was cool, I guess. But you know, Jesus, you really only gave us one meal. I mean, Moses, he gave us bread for like 40 years.
16:15-16:29
I mean, can you top that? I mean, come on, Jesus, if you keep giving us bread the way Moses gave us bread, then we'll believe in you." They mentioned the manna, and just Just a quick reminder, what is manna? What is it? Yeah.
16:30-16:45
Literally, the word manna literally means "what is it?" When Moses was leading Israel out of slavery in Egypt to Canaan, to the Promised Land, God fed Israel with manna.
16:46-16:51
It was this stuff that appeared on the ground every morning, except for the Sabbath.
16:52-16:57
It shows up in Exodus chapter 16, it stops in Joshua chapter 5.
16:58-17:06
So this stuff shows up in the ground every day with the Sabbath, and Israel would gather and they would use it to make food.
17:06-17:10
It was the perfect food, it was called manna, and that's what they're referring to.
17:11-17:18
They're like, "Hey, Moses gave us this stuff for 40 years, you just gave us one meal." Look at Jesus' response.
17:19-17:31
Verse 32, "Jesus then said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
17:32-17:40
For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.'" Jesus had to correct them again.
17:42-17:43
The manna wasn't from Moses.
17:44-17:45
It was from God.
17:45-17:51
and that stuff on the ground, that manna, that wasn't the true bread. It was a symbol.
17:52-18:46
The real bread, the true bread is me. So the manna, just like Jesus feeding the 5,000 men and the women and children, the point of the manna wasn't the bread itself. You see, the whole point of God giving them the manna had a much deeper meaning. The deeper meaning with the manna is that God's people are to learn to trust God to provide every single day. And with the feeding of the 5,000 men, they also missed the point. That Jesus is the true bread that has come to provide life. Not just strength for the moment, but eternal life. But you see for these crowds, the feeding of the 5,000 wasn't enough. Because unbelief never has enough proof.
18:47-18:57
Even with everything they saw, even though they ate the food and had full bellies, and saw thousands of other people do the same, it wasn't enough.
18:57-19:00
They come back to Jesus, "Come on, Jesus, you need to prove yourself.
19:00-19:04
You need to give me more. Give me more." It's just never enough.
19:05-19:12
And if you're listening to this message, and you haven't believed in Jesus Christ, I need to tell you this.
19:12-19:18
If Jesus always has to prove Himself to you, you are never going to believe Him.
19:18-19:37
If you are always demanding more proof that the Bible is true, and that Jesus is God, and that heaven is real, "I need more proof, I need more proof, I need more evidence, show me more!" If that's your attitude, you are never going to be satisfied, and you're never going to believe.
19:38-19:44
You see, these people that were speaking to Jesus, They wanted bread from a better baker.
19:45-19:48
Meaning, Jesus, you've got to prove yourself, you've got to prove yourself.
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You will never be satisfied with that attitude.
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Number four, what kind of bread are you looking for?
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Number four, I want just bread.
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Bread.
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Look at verse 34.
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They said to him, incredibly, after everything Jesus just said, Verse 34, "They said to him, 'Sir, give us this bread always.'" So if you're not going to give us the secret to making this bread the way that you did, do you see their next demand?
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They're like, "Then just keep giving us the bread.
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How about that?
20:25-20:35
How about you just keep giving us the bread?" Jesus had just pointed out that there is a universal hunger for bread beyond physical bread.
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There's this universal hunger that we all have, that deep down every single one of us know that there is more to life than just a physical.
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Every single one of us knows that.
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Even the most hardened atheist that you know knows that deep down there is more to life than what we see.
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Jesus was just addressing that.
20:58-21:00
But you see, they caught that.
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Did you see that?
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They caught that he was talking about something beyond regular bread, something greater.
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And their response is, well, then just give us that bread.
21:11-21:14
We know this, we know there's more to life.
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And we want more than what we see.
21:19-21:20
The belly never stays full.
21:21-21:23
We're always hungering for more.
21:23-21:31
And like this crowd, catch this, so often we want what Christ can provide, but we don't want Christ.
21:32-21:37
We want the blessings of joy and provision and heaven.
21:37-21:43
We want those things, but we're not about finding satisfaction in the person of Jesus Christ.
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That's another universal truth.
21:46-21:50
Everybody wants heaven, the bread that they think Jesus is giving.
21:51-21:56
But they don't want the true bread, which is Jesus Christ Himself.
21:56-21:56
Do you see the difference?
21:58-22:02
Just give us the benefit, but not you, Jesus.
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That's where this crowd landed.
22:04-22:05
Just keep giving us the bread.
22:07-22:08
Yeah, we want the benefit.
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We want Jesus to give us stuff.
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We don't want Jesus.
22:12-22:12
Why?
22:13-22:16
Because Jesus also taught things like dying to yourself.
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We don't want that.
22:19-22:21
That's part of coming to Christ, but we don't want that.
22:22-22:24
Then, you know, the Bible talks about suffering for Christ.
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We don't want that.
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The Bible talks about repenting from sin. We don't want that.
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I want the gift, not the gift giver.
22:34-22:39
Look, I'm just here for personal benefit. I'm not really here for radical transformation.
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So Jesus, if you can just set the bread down, I'll pick it up and we'll part ways, and I'll come back when I need more.
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That's how some people view Jesus Christ.
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And when we do, we're just like these people.
22:53-23:13
"Look, just give me the bread bread. Not you, not the bread of life. Just give me what's going to benefit me." So all of these that we've seen in this passage, all of these requests and demands, these are all wrong breads to go after.
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I can't leave you hanging because Jesus didn't leave the crowd hanging.
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Number five, write this down, I want the bread of life.
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This is the right bread to go after.
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Look at verse 35, last verse for today.
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Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life.
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"Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, "and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." So what is the bread that Jesus gives?
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It's himself.
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He is the bread from God that we are to seek.
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And Jesus explains this using two concepts that every single person everywhere at any time understands.
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Those two concepts, hunger and thirst.
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We get how this works, right?
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I don't really need to explain it.
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If you're hungry, you eat.
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And if you keep eating, you're never hungry.
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Thirsty, it works the same way.
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You drink.
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And if you keep drinking, you're never thirsty.
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We're going to see some more of this teaching as we go further in John 6.
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But just a preview, coming to Jesus Christ is partaking of Him.
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It's consuming Him.
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It's a picture of believing in Him.
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It's a picture of fully receiving Jesus Christ, you see.
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And we keep on coming.
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we keep on believing daily, always receiving and living on the bread of life who indwells us, finding that He is the one that satisfies the hunger in our soul.
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As I preach this message, we live in a day of panic.
25:03-25:06
Things are flying off the shelves at the stores.
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And actually last week a friend of mine had sent me a picture that his wife took at Giant Eagle.
25:14-25:18
It was a picture of the bread shelf and it was completely empty.
25:18-25:32
I imagine many of those people, when they ran in there and saw that bread on the shelf, they grabbed it feeling like, "This is going to take care of me. This is what I need!" But I'm going to tell you something about those people.
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They're going to be hungry again.
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But for us, church, in our times of anxiety and worry, the bread of Giant Eagle was not going to comfort our souls.
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Instead, we turn to the true bread, the bread of life, Jesus Christ.
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Will you bow your heads and pray with me, please?
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Our Father in Heaven, it is absolutely baffling to me Jesus can teach such profound truths using such a simple object lesson.
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Bread is something that everyone has some familiarity with.
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Father, so many of us are chasing after the wrong kind of bread.
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We find ourselves in this crowd, face to face with the true bread, but looking for something lesser, something temporary, something that won't satisfy.
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I pray God, especially for this church, as we are living in a day of uncertainty and a lot of anxiety, pray God that we are daily, constantly partaking of the true bread, the bread of life, Jesus Christ.
26:46-27:01
We thank you, Father, for the eternal provision that you've made for our souls, It's not a bread that we're going to eat and be hungry again tomorrow, or next week, or in a million years.
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Father, You've given us the bread of life that satisfies forever.
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So we pray, in the glorious name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, the true bread.
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We want to thank you for taking the time to walk through God's Word with us today.
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Be seeking the true bread.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 6:22-35
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Why do you think the “feeding of the 5 thousand” wasn’t enough of a miracle for this crowd to believe in Jesus (John 6:30)? What does this say about people who are always looking for “more proof” that the Bible is true?
“What you win people WITH is what you win them TO.” Explain this in your own words. How is this principle reflected in Jesus’ words in John 6:27?
Breakout
Pursue the True Bread! And pray that we as a church would come to Jesus for the True Bread, not looking for the “wrong breads”. This seems very strange if you don’t listen to the sermon.