Bread of Life
“My heart is an open space for you to come and have your way. I am open, I am open. What are you saying? Where are you going? I am open.”
Lyrics from: Open Space by Housefires
God has been encountering us in beautiful ways. From our Sunday gatherings to our weekly prayer meetings and studies, God has been in them all. Last Sunday, we encountered God in such a powerful way. It was just beautiful to see people receive prophetic words that confirmed what God had been speaking to people. Words that gave people direction and clarity. Most of all, as I prayed and anointed many of you, I kept getting rocked by the Lord’s immense love for you all, His bride.
Honestly, it all started two weeks ago, as I began proofreading and organizing the devotionals that would be sent out each day for our fast. (What a blessing those have been, eh?) Man, as I read those devotionals the Lord kept showing me His immense love, call and destiny for each of the writers. I was overcome with emotion as the Lord allowed me to experience an ounce of how much He loved these writers. On Sunday, the same thing happened. As I prayed for so many of you or just glanced and interceded for those in the room, God just kept telling me, I love them. I love them so much. IT WAS WRECKING ME.
And as I prepared this message, the Lord ALL week kept telling me, I want you to preach this word because I need them to know how much I love them. Tell them these things because I love them. Tell them I want to do this for them because I love them.
Years ago, I was house hunting and I kept looking at houses that were FIXER UPPERS and dirt cheap. The day we found the house God had for us, our realtor (mighty woman of God) felt led to send it to us. It was NICE and nothing compared to what I was looking for. God spoke to me in that moment, as I was about to discard the listing, and said “why don’t you believe I want to give you good things? I love you and want to give you good gifts.” In that moment, I felt what was like the big bucket of water that is dumped on you at water parks, crashing over me. This powerful bucket of love began to cleanse me and I was undone and could do nothing, but cry as His love washed over me.
So here is the prelude to my sermon, sit back and get ready to be washed in His love this morning. He wants to offer you what matters the most. He wants to give you access to it all because you are His bride, you are his favorite kid, he wants to equip you with this so that you can access His zōē aka absolute fullness of life.
Sounds good, no? Let’s do this.
Our adventure begins in:
John 6
Jesus is at the beginning of His ministry.
He has gone to the wedding at Cana
He has spoken to Nicodemous
He has met the woman at the well and offered her living water
He has healed the man who was lame at Bethesda
And now when we see Jesus he has just feed the 5,000 (5 loaves and 2 fish) and then slips away to get some secret place time
When He is done, He walks on water to catch up with the disciples.
The next day, the people who witness the feeding of the 5,000 are looking for Jesus. They find him on the other side of the lake. They are confused as to how He got there because they didn't see him leave with the disciples and His other boat was still on the other side of the lake.
Jesus, being Jesus, cuts right to the chase ignoring their question and is like “let’s get down to why you are really looking for me. It’s the next day, breakfast time. You want more food”.
And so Jesus corrects them and tells them “stop thinking about your bellies, I got something better”.
27 Why would you strive for food that is perishable and not be passionate to seek the food of eternal life, which never spoils?[a] I, the Son of Man, am ready to give you what matters most, for God the Father has destined me for this purpose.” (TPT Aramaic)
I want us to focus on two things here:
Jesus is giving them a focus shift
Food that is perishable vs. food of eternal life
He wants to shift their thinking:
Shift from the material to the spiritual
Shift from the temporary to the eternal
And man, don’t we need that today? BCF I believe that Jesus wants to shift our minds congregationally, individually from mostly material focused to mostly spiritual focused. From being mostly temporary focused to mostly eternally focused.
This is essential because of what I said in the beginning. My friends, my family, you are not a group of ordinary people. You my people are a group of extraordinary people. And as your pastors, as we have the privilege of shepherding you, Jesus in his mercy has been revealing to me the greatness that lies within you all.
And the enemy has tried for so long to keep many of you focused on the material and temporary things. Because he knows if he can keep you focused on those things, he can keep you dormant.
But here is the thing. Jesus IS READY TO GIVE TO YOU WHAT MATTERS THE MOST. Jesus is ready to begin to shift your mindset from mostly material to mostly spiritual. From mostly temporary to mostly eternal for God the Father has destined Jesus for this purpose.
SPIRITUALLY AWAKE/ ETERNALLY FOCUSED.
Let’s keep reading:
28 They replied, “So what should we do if we want to do God’s work?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work you can do for God starts with believing in the One he has sent.”
Our “work” is SIMPLE
to believe, He does the rest
30–31 They replied, “Show us a miracle so we can see it, and then we’ll believe in you. Moses took care of our ancestors who were fed by the miracle of manna[q] every day in the desert, just like the Scripture says, ‘He fed them with bread from heaven.’[r] What sign will you perform for us?”
32 “The truth is,”[s] Jesus said, “Moses didn’t give you the bread of heaven. It’s my Father who offers bread that comes as a dramatic sign[t] from heaven. 33 The bread of God is the One who came out of heaven to give his life to feed the world.”
34 “Then please, sir, give us this bread every day,” they replied.
Funny, they still don’t get it. They still don’t see that Jesus is not talking about bread for their bellies.
They think Jesus is talking about ending world hunger with this physical manna-like bread. “Never have to buy or make bread, give us this bread!”
How do I know this? Because their response is the same one the Samaritan woman at the well gave Jesus two chapters ago.
“Please sir, give me this water! Then I will never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water” (John 4:15)
But wait for it HERE COMES THE SHIFT: “I’m not talking physical, I’m talking spiritual : I am the Bread of Life!”
35 “I am the Bread of Life.[u] Come every day to me and you will never be hungry. Believe in me and you will never be thirsty.
Come to me every day and I will give you what you actually need.
Present-Participle
SECRET PLACE
This is why it is one of the pillars of BCF.
When we set time and place to encounter God for ourselves and meet with Him we give God the opportunity to satisfy a hunger that only He can satisfy. We give Him the opportunity to quench our thirst.
HE IS ALWAYS willing to give us the bread of life (zōē ) He is always willing to give us living water. We just need to COME EVERY DAY and He will do it.
What would it look like to see a church who is not spiritually hangery? To see a church that is not spiritually dehydrated?
Church, he is offering you the bread of life (zōē ) everyday!
Life here in aramaic is literally translated to zōē : absolute fullness of life.
WE HAVE THE ANSWER to mental health issues, to demonization, to addiction, to depression, to anxiety and it starts with meeting Jesus.
Something the Lord showed me is that we keep investing in the paper cup, which is temporary and will fade away. And God wants us to invest in the stainless steel travel mug that is eternal. And you know what the beautiful thing is?
As we invest in the stainless steel cup (our spirit-which is eternal) we will by default begin to steward this temporary body. (pour water stored in the paper cup into the stainless steel cup)
We won’t neglect the temporary things, but we will learn to steward them well as we put first things first.
37 But everyone my Father has given to me, they will come. And all who come to me, I will embrace and will never turn them away.
So our job is to come every day.
And Jesus will embrace us and never turn us away. He would leave us empty handed. He will embrace us and we will receive.
As I was preparing this message the Lord began to show me that there are hearts here today who believe they have been disqualified. That because of their great faults, mess ups, failures, disobedience, shortcomings that cannot receive what God has for them. They cannot receive this bread of life. Bread of absolute fullness of life. Because of your mistakes, now you have to receive half of the fullness, a quarter of the fullness.
But today God wants to remind you that His mercies are new every morning and that his love covers a multitude of sins. That His love for you is wide, is deep, is long, it is high.
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19
Filled with the zōē of God: absolute fullness of life.
So church here it is:
God is ready to give you the shift from:
material to spiritual
temporary to eternal
Come to Him every day and He will give you the bread of life (zōē :absolute fullness of life-wholeness, salvation, deliverance, freedom)
When you come expect to be:
Embraced
You are not disqualified
Never turned away
You will not leave empty handed
He loves you church. You are His precious Bride. You are His treasure. You are His reward. Let’s take time to respond, to receive this mind shift, to be embraced and to receive this bread of life.
