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Oh, to know the presence of the
Lord, that's a heart cry, and that presence is the more that
we need. And what a precious truth. It's interesting, I have not
mentioned the music recordings that are back at the table yet.
But there is a recording back there called The Presence of
the Lord. It was the first thing on my
stack here. And the first song on it is called Knowing Christ. That very song. And it is that
heart cry to know the presence of the Lord. This is a recording
that is a recording of prayers for revival. All 15 songs are
prayers. They're heart cries for revival. Like, Oh, for a closer walk with
thee. Ever had that yearning, that
longing for that closer walk with God? There's a song here
called, Lord, I Hear of Showers of Blessing. And that was not
as well known. It came from 1860. A lady in London had just heard
of the great 1859 revival in Northern Ireland. And she said,
Lord, I hear of showers of blessing. And she goes on in the song and
says, let thy blessing fall on me. What a prayer. And so that's
on here. Pass me not, O gentle Savior.
Tremendous words. I think that was played earlier
this week. Create in me a clean heart. Search Me, O God. Of course, the words from the
scripture, the one who put that together in English metrical
form is J. Edwin Orr, the foremost revival
historian from the 20th century. What a revival song that is.
Breathe on me, breath of God, and so on. Spirit of God, descend
upon my heart. Here's one called, O Breath of
Life, in 1906. There was the last national move
of revival in the United States of America. And during that year
when all that was happening, a dear lady was stirred and she
wrote those words. Oh, breath of life comes sweeping
through us. Revive thy church with life and
power. And so on. And then a couple
of songs that my wife and I have written, Wind of the Spirit and
Rend the Heavens. But these are all prayers for
revival. Now, the burden behind that recording,
where it originated, was God placing the burden to have a
musical way to stir God's people to pray for revival. And I remember a lady came to
me. She said, I've been listening to that recording. She said, you know what? It's
stirring me to pray for revival. Well, hallelujah. That is the
burden behind that recording. So that's vocal solo. This is
Marilyn singing, and it's with a meditative type instrumentation
that would fit with the prayers. It would be piano and cello,
piano and violin, piano and clarinet. By the way, Jose, that was a
great blessing tonight, and so on. Then we have a recording
called What a Savior, What a Friend. These are piano stylings arranged
by Mary Lynn of well-known hymns and gospel songs. Since it's
just the piano line, the instrumental line, well-known songs, hopefully
you can be thinking of the words and be blessed by the message
as you hear the musical rendition of those good old songs that
have passed the test of time. We have the biography called
Mountain Rain, James O. Frazier, one of the Lisu people
in western China. And there are two major things
that come out in this story. One is the concept of the prayer
of faith. What is that? And he walks you through a journey
where God taught him the prayer of faith. It's outstanding. There's
actually a little booklet on the table also called the prayer
of faith and his excerpts from his journal on the same subject.
This is his life story that puts it all together and gives you
the background. And then the other major concept that comes
through is spiritual warfare. He was seeking to win demon worshipers
to Jesus Christ. It was a war. Last night, we talked about the
authority truth. We looked at it defensively in
the aspect of fiery darts and those kinds of, you know, there's
an offense level to that truth as well. And he walks you through
that very, very helpful. We have a book called The Life
Changing Power of the Holy Spirit. What this is, is the author has
taken well-known men from the past, like Jonathan Goldforth,
A.J. Gordon, F.B. Meyer, D.L. Moody,
G. Campbell Morgan, and on and on
that list could go, and she She sets the chapters up where it's
as if she's interviewing this person on a given subject, some
aspect of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Spirit, the
Spirit for life and so forth, and it's as if she's interviewing
where she asks a question and then she pulls the answer right
out of their writings. It's masterfully done and very
helpful because of that unique arrangement. We have the book
called Working With God Through Prayer, D. Edmund Hebert. He's
written a number of commentaries. But this book on prayer is just
outstanding. It's not written on the technical
level like he writes the commentaries. It's written on the devotional
level. And it is just, it's faith. building, and some tremendous
illustrations in there as well. The one last thing I want to
mention tonight before we get into the message, we do have a magazine called
Revival. I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but the first
Christian magazine on American soil before we became a nation
was a Revival magazine. It was actually called Christian
History. Thomas Prince, a pastor in Boston, was the editor. The
First Great Awakening had begun, and he was burdened that people
find out about what God was doing. And so he wrote to pastors where
he knew God was pouring out of spirit, and he said, would you
give us an account? And he began to compile these and began to
send them out as a magazine to stir the people of God. Now,
you can imagine what it would be like to pick up a magazine
and start reading that God is pouring out His Spirit in this
town, in this town, in this town, and it's not too far from, say,
Wildwood and the suburbs or whatever that you live in. You know, would
it not stir you to cry out, Lord, don't pass us by? And that was
Thomas Prince's burden in printing the magazine. Really, it's that
similar burden for this magazine. It's for those with a heart for
revival. We have accounts of revival, both past and present,
that we print in the magazine. You say, well, are there any
present accounts? Absolutely. How many of you have ever heard
of the Chin Hills Revival? All right, Pastor Hess. It is one
of the greatest revivals in our generation. It took place in
2005 and 2006. On the other side of the planet, among Baptists in the chin hills
of Burma, today called Myanmar. And 30 percent of the capital
city of the Chin state was converted to Jesus Christ. God began to
move in such a way they had 400 consecutive nights of meetings.
And the story of intercession that leads up to it, to me, is
the most thrilling part of it. And it's glorious. I've had the
privilege of meeting two people who preached in the Chin Hills
Revival, and so on. But that was printed in one of
the past magazines. So it's that, as well as articles
about Revival, preaching for Revival, articles that deal with
various aspects of Revival, and so on. It's a gift-supported
magazine. That is, individuals, and primarily churches, support
the magazine, as well as some advertisers who pay for their
advertisements. It allows us to send the magazine out free
of charge. If you would like to be on the list, You can sign
up at the back table there. It comes out as often as the
Lord provides. And right now that is about,
I would say, two times a year. If you have any questions, you
can ask me afterwards about that. All right, tonight, John, chapter
six. John, chapter six, in the word
of God tonight. Now, friends, we have been dealing
with the concept of revival, unfolding it as it relates to
that personal revival, when it happens to many at once. Obviously,
there's those other levels of extent. There's the whole dynamic
of the outpouring of the Spirit, which we touched on Sunday morning.
But we've been unfolding the dynamic of what happens when
somebody steps into the revived life and knows it based on the
sure words of God. And we saw that the clean heart
is the way in. Brokenness is always the way
into blessing. According to Isaiah 57, verse
15, God dwells with those that are of a humble and contrite
heart to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the
heart of the contrite once. So if we are arrogant and proud,
we don't know anything about revival. Brokenness. Honesty, humility about sin and
about self. Got to be dealt with. We focus
primarily on how to deal with the sin part of that on Sunday
night in the message called The Clean Heart. Well, that opens
the way then for the filled life, which is the Spirit filling you
with the life of Jesus, that exchange life where we exchange
our life for His, where the life of Jesus, the eternal life that
moved in when we were born again may be accessed as the abundant
life. And we saw the way for that exchange
to take place is regularly, day by day, we surrender to what
God wants and depend on His power to carry that out. Now, here's
the deal when it comes to the spirit for life, this empowered
life, this endowment from on high. The power is not for what
you want. It's for what God wants. And
so there's that surrender faith, access to this Spirit-filled
life. Last night we went further, focusing
on grabbing a hold of this truth right in the midst of our rubber-meets-the-road
life, and we're hit with temptation in how to take the provision
of Christ in you, how to take the provision of you in Christ,
and deal with the world, the flesh, and the devil. And so
we have focused much on that glorious provision. Now we want
to build on that even further as we begin to recognize that
all of this is accessed by faith. And so we're going to look tonight
at a picture of faith that helps us understand the importance
of the object of our faith, which is the Lord Jesus Christ based
on the Word of God. You see, there is no spiritual
life apart from the Word. Why? Because it's accessed by
faith, and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
So, the fact is, you do not have a spiritual life if you are not
saturated in the words of the living God. Now, there are some
people who fill their brain with the Bible intellectually, but
that's it. They don't depend on it. That's
not the same. But I want us to allow the Spirit
of God to take this passage and open this up to our hearts tonight.
And I trust it will begin to fill in a few more details to
that which we've been dealing with this week. Let's go to the
end of the chapter, John chapter 6. And the Lord Jesus is here
speaking. And let's begin by looking at
verse 56. He says some rather shocking and jolting words. He
that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in What is he talking about? Eating
his flesh and drinking his blood as the means to dwelling in him
and he in turn dwelling in us. Well, let's go to the beginning
of the discourse. If you look at the last four words of verse
32, we find out what he's talking about when he says, true bread
from heaven. Ah yes, I want to speak tonight
on the subject of feeding on true bread from heaven. Let's
pray. Will you join me in asking the
Spirit of God to be our teacher tonight and take truth and use
it to confront us where we need it and to encourage us where
we need it. Lord, we do thank you for what you've been doing
in our hearts. And I pray, Holy Spirit, tonight, you would open
our understanding to this glorious passage tonight, to the grand
realities of truth that connect to the words and this whole concept
of feeding on true bread from heaven. Now, Lord, would you
show us tonight the futility of feeding on anything else? Lord, would you use truth to
set free, to awaken, to confront, to encourage, to edify? Lord,
I plead the blood of Jesus once again. Would you protect us from
the enemy even right now? Lord Jesus, I claim our position
in you at the throne and hold up your blood and in your name
exercise your authority over the powers of darkness that would
seek to hinder anyone here tonight. We thank you for it. Will you
meet with us now, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. About 20 years
ago or so, when I was still an assistant pastor to my father
in the Chicago area, one day I overheard my wife on the phone
talking to her mom, and she said something about feeding the starter. Well, I didn't know we had a
pet to feed, and I thought, what is she talking about, feeding the
starter? Well, you ladies, of course, know that it's not a
pet. Well, I don't know what it is, but it has something to
do with baking fresh bread. That much I figured out. And
so what I did learn along the way is that when my wife applied
this process and took this starter out and did what you do, and
she would make, in this case, fresh, homemade sourdough bread,
she'd have that in the oven and a beautiful aroma would begin
to waft its way through our little apartment. And when that happened,
I took that as my cue to just kind of mosey on down to the
kitchen. You ever done that? And just
happened to be there when that oven door comes open and those
loaves, plural, of that fresh bread come out. And she puts
it right on the kitchen table and then she takes out the butter.
She would take it out and put it on the top and it would just
begin to melt and drizzle down the sides. Are you hungry? And she'd take that bread knife,
begin to slice that bread, and pull out some fresh strawberry
jam or something, you know. And sometimes we need a half
a loaf. Sometimes devour a whole loaf all at once. You know, it's
been interesting to me. I've had the privilege now of
preaching in 20 different countries. And every country has their form
of bread. Bread is common to man. And the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Master Teacher, uses something as common as bread to open our
eyes and our understanding to rich, vital, life-changing spiritual
truth. Now, let's set the table, shall
we, by quickly looking at six introductory principles so that
we can then focus in on our main meal tonight. But by way of introduction,
number one, the bread of God is life-giving. Notice, please,
with me, verse 33. Jesus says, For the bread of
God is he which cometh down from heaven, now notice, and giveth
life unto the world. So this bread gives life. Number two, Jesus is the bread
of life. Verse 35, Jesus said to them,
I am the bread of life. So he's the one who comes down
from heaven. He's the one who gives life. Now, friends, that's the life
we need, not just to go to heaven, but to have heaven on earth.
That is the life we need and Jesus is the bread of life. Number three, we eat this bread
by believing on Jesus Christ. Again, verse 35, I am the bread
of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. That implies that the one who
comes eats. And he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. Now, do you notice the picture,
the imagery, is somebody coming and eating and drinking Christ,
but it is explained in the phrase, he that believeth on me. And it thus teaches us that the
way we eat Christ, this true bread, is simply by believing
on Jesus. that is vital for understanding.
In fact, there is another parallel right here in the passage that
drives this home even further. Look at verse 47, and I want
to ask you as a congregation a question, and I hope you'll
answer it here in just a moment. Verse 47, barely, barely I say
unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Now I want to ask you a question.
According to verse 47, what is the condition for having everlasting
life? The answer is believing on Jesus. All right, we've got 100% going
so far. Let's jump to verse 54. I'll ask you one more quiz question
here in a moment. Here Jesus says, whoso eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. All right,
according to verse 54, what is the condition for having eternal
life? The answer is eating his flesh and drinking
his blood, it's a little bit long, and it's something we almost
recoil at saying, which was obvious. Now, do you see the parallel?
between verse 47 and verse 54. In verse 47, the condition for
having everlasting life is believing on Jesus. In verse 54, the condition
for having eternal life is eating His flesh and drinking His blood. That lets us know that that's
an illustration, it's an imagery, it's an analogy, it's a picture
of the actuality of believing on Jesus. So again, it is emphasizing
to us that the way we eat Christ, the true bread, is simply by
believing on Jesus Christ. Now friends, that concept, that
the way we feed on Jesus, the way we eat this true bread, is
simply by believing, exercising faith, believing on Jesus, that
is vital to a proper understanding of John chapter 6. Let's go a
step further. Number four, we believe on Christ. By depending on his words, verse
63, Jesus said, is the spirit that quickness that gives life,
the flesh profit is nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. And John, chapter one,
Jesus is called the word. But the word, the logos, the
whole is made up of the word. The parts. And it's another Greek
word that is used for that. The rhemas. Okay, that's the
word that he uses here. Now obviously, there then is
a mystery of oneness between the incarnate Word, Jesus, and
the inscribed Word, the Scriptures. So the way we depend on Jesus
is by depending on the Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word. But the way you depend on the Word is by depending
on the Words. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the rhema, the words, the specific word of God. Much more could be said, but
that's a marvelous truth. So we believe on Christ by depending
on His words. Number five, this begins with
salvation. Look at verse 47. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. And when a person understands
that sin is the problem, that hell is the consequence, and
that Christ alone is the answer, and they pass their dependence
on Jesus to apply that saving work to them, once and for all,
at that moment, their sins are forgiven. The righteousness of
Jesus is legally credited to their account. And they receive
His very own eternal life. Ah, taste and see that the Lord
is good. Friend, have you eaten that first
meal? That's where it starts. And number six, this continues
with the spirit for life. Verse 56, where we started, he
that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I
in him. And the key word here is the
word translated dwelleth. It is a word that in John 15
is translated abide. And the word abide is a word
that is not dealing with the moment of salvation. It's dealing
with a responsibility beyond salvation. And that lets us know
that at this point in the passage, Jesus is moving beyond the glorious
truth of receiving His eternal life to another glorious truth
of accessing His abundant life. Now, having set the table, and
I know we moved very quickly through that, let's focus in
on our main meal tonight. It is in verse 56, and we've
read it twice. I want to read it a third time,
but this time I want to note that all of the verbs are in
the present tense, and you may know that that means that it
is continuous action. So let me read it this way. He
who is eating my flesh. In other words, it's repeated. And is drinking my blood, is
dwelling, abiding in me, and I, by implication, am abiding,
in Him. Now here's what I want us to
see. Spiritual growth. I know we use
that phrase. Spiritual growth. Growing spiritually.
Okay. Spiritual growth occurs only
through abiding. I could say it this way. Spiritual
growth occurs only through feeding on Christ and thus being nourished
by Christ. You see, to grow in the Spirit,
to have spiritual growth, the only way it happens is when you
abide in Christ, and He in turn abides in you. Now, I've said
the same thing different ways several times here tonight. But
truth is, a lot of people don't understand this. And they're
frustrated as years and decades roll by, and there isn't much
growth. Or they're deceived as to what
they think growth is. Spiritual growth occurs only
through feeding on the true bread. Now, how do we know that? How do we
know that the only way you grow is by feeding on true bread or
by abiding? And what does it mean to abide
in Christ? I've heard that phrase for years. I wondered for years
what it meant. What does it mean to abide in
Christ? What does it mean for Christ to abide in you? What is that
talking about? Well, John 6.56, by way of analogy
here, reveals two simple factors that comprise this twofold nature
of abiding and show us that this is the only way you can actually
grow spiritually. The first factor, bread is necessary. In other words, the Lord Jesus
is using the word bread here in the sense of food. Food is
necessary. Bread is necessary. In other words, we have to eat. How many of you ate today? Alright. You know, we eat. It's not just that we enjoy it.
Most of the time we do. It's not just that we like it.
Most of the time we do like it. But the fact is, we have to eat. Aren't you glad? You know, that's just the way
it is. We have to eat. Okay? If we did not eat, we would
starve. We'd die. You know, it's necessary. This is a chief commodity. We have to eat. We could say
it this way. We depend on the food. So bread is necessary. It's a chief staple. Without
it, we would die. We are utterly dependent on it. Simple truth. In the physical
realm, we'll make the analogy here in a moment, but bread is
necessary, we depend on it. That brings us to the second
factor tonight. Why is bread so necessary? Why are we dependent
on it? What does that bread or that
food do for us? Help me out here. Nourishes us. Beautiful. Right in line with
the outline. Number one, bread is necessary. We depend on it. Number two, bread is nourishing. It enables us. Now look, in the
physical realm, this is so simple. We get it. Okay, we have to eat.
Bread is necessary. Food is necessary. Without it,
we would die. We are utterly dependent on it.
Why? Because that food nourishes us. It imparts life to us. It enables us. It strengthens
us. It sustains us. You see, bread
is necessary. We depend on it. Why? Because
bread is nourishing. It enables us. So what's the
point? It's the analogy that Jesus is after. Let's make the
analogy. Number one, Jesus Christ, the
true bread, is necessary. We depend on Him. Why? Because Jesus Christ is
nourishing. He enables us. And friends, just as simply as
we have to eat, we are dependent on that food. Without it, we
would die. In the same way, we have to eat the true bread. We
are dependent on Him. Without that, we're starving. We're anemic. Why? Because that bread, that true
bread, Christ in you, is nourishing. He imparts His life. Remember,
we've been talking about it. He moved in to impart to us His
life. And when you eat, when you depend
on Him, He imparts to you that life. He nourishes you. He enables
you. So bread is necessary, we depend
on it. Why? Because bread is nourishing, it enables us. Thus
the analogy, Christ the true bread is necessary, we depend
on Him. Why? Because Christ the true bread
is nourishing, He enables us. Now friends, I remember I had
an assistant pastor in California say to me, he said, you know,
he said, Brother John, is it possible that I am stumbling
over the simplicity of the spiritual life, just like a lost man stumbles
over the simplicity of getting saved. I said, absolutely. You see, the lost man thinks
that he has to do something and he has to come to the realization,
no, Jesus did it all. It just depends on him. And the
saved man has to come to that realization for sanctification
just like he did for justification. That we still have to depend
on him. It's continuous dependence upon
Him. Now, before we move along here,
I want us to note that these two concepts, bread is necessary,
we depend on it, because bread is nourishing, it enables us,
thus Christ is necessary, we depend on Him, the true bread.
Why? Because Christ, that true bread,
is nourishing, He enables us. Do you realize that those two
concepts actually helped define for us what it means to abide
in Christ and for Christ to abide in us. I don't know about you,
but that abide word was an enigma to me for years. I remember when
I was in college. I was in John 15 and I'm looking
at that and I'm thinking, look at this, look at this. Jesus
said, abide in me and I in you. And he goes on to say, he that
abides in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. I thought, look at that. If you
abide in Christ, He'll abide in you, and when He abides in
you, you bring forth much fruit. And I thought, wow, there it
is. That's how you bring forth much fruit. That's how you bring forth
much fruit. And then I wondered, you know,
I wonder what it means to abide. Because whatever it means, if
you abide, He abides, and when He abides, you bear much fruit. That's what it says. What does it mean to abide? And
I'll be honest with you, I wondered for years what it meant to abide. Now, the word is defined in 1
John 3, it's defined in John 15, but I think the clearest
definition is right here in John 6, right in our text. Now look at verse 56 again. Remember
it opens up with that phrase, He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood. Now we've already noted that
that phrase is used in verse 54 and that it was parallel to another
phrase in verse 47, so that eating his flesh and drinking his blood
is not speaking of cannibalism, it means what? It means... Alright,
you remember verse 54, remember that? That you eat his flesh,
drink his blood, you have eternal life, and then we saw in verse
47, there's another condition given, and you have everlasting
life. Okay, letting us know that eating his flesh and drinking
his blood means what? I'm sorry, I'm making you work on a Wednesday
night. This is really me. In the middle of the week, you've
been working your head off, and I'm making you think tonight. But
it's the believing. You got it there. Okay, that's
the key. Now, he's saying, he who is believing
He who is eating my flesh and drinking my blood. He who is
depending, therefore, on the food, the true bread. He who
is, therefore, believing on Jesus. Okay? And then he says, dwelleth,
is dwelling, is abiding. So here it is. Pretty simple.
He who is believing on me is abiding in me. He just defined
it. Do you see it? He who is believing
on me by feeding on me, thus depending on me as the nourishment
that they've got to have. He who is believing on me, is
dwelling, is abiding in me. Friends, do you realize when
you're depending on Jesus, you are abiding. And then, just like food, Once
you've eaten it, now it's not automatic that you eat it. We
have to make that choice. But what is automatic is that
once you eat it, it starts nourishing. Okay? So the whole context here
is food. And so, the deal is, when we
feed on Jesus, when we depend on Jesus, when we believe on
Jesus, we're abiding in Him. And that's not automatic. We
have to make that choice. But when we do, He, the food,
starts nourishing. He enables us. He imparts life
to us. So the way we abide is by believing. The way he abides is through
enabling. The way we abide is through God
dependence. The way he abides is through
spirit enablement. The way we abide is faith. The
way he abides is grace. That's how it works. When we
are making faith choices, when we are depending on Christ, by
depending on His words, we're abiding. And when we do that,
He enables us according to the words that we are depending on. So there it is. Bread is necessary. We depend on it. Because bread
is nourishing, it enables us. Thus, Christ the true bread is
necessary. We depend on Him. And when we do, we're abiding
in Him. And Christ, the true bread is never seen, He enables
us, and when He does, He is abiding in us. When He's enabling us,
it's the reality of the exchange life. Christ who is our life. Life. Sustenance. I live, yet
not I, but Christ lives in me. That's how He abides in us. Our part is faith. Isn't that
neat? Our part is to say we can't do anything, So God, we're going
to depend on you. The one thing we can do is faith.
It's the only thing we can do is to say, God, I can't do it.
And so, God, I'm going to depend on you. And that faith is not
a work. It's dependence upon the worker. And friend, when
you depend on him, you're abiding. And when you're abiding, he's
abiding. And when he's abiding, the life of Jesus begins to burst
forth. And that's when you bear much fruit. Now, Let's open the
windows to allow a little bit more light to shine in on this
table of true bread from heaven. Let's use a little bit more of
the analogy that Christ sets up here in this passage to fill
out what we're talking about here. The first analogy is that
physically eating is necessary for physical growth and productivity. We know that in the physical
realm. Eating is absolutely necessary to grow physically and to be
productive. Obviously, if a child is born into this world and that
child does not eat, the child will die. Do you know what that
means? It means the growing is not automatic. When that child is born, that
child must eat, and if it does not eat, it will die. And even as we're growing up
in our youth, even when we stop growing this way and start, well,
we won't get into that. But the fact is, even as adults, we have
to keep eating. Eating is necessary for physical
growth and productivity. So let's make the analogy. Eating
Christ the true bread, by believing on Christ, is necessary, absolutely
necessary, for spiritual growth and productivity. Now think,
if a baby can be born in this world, but if the baby doesn't
eat, it'll die, it's got to have that food in order to grow. Look,
you can be born again, but the growing's not automatic. Never
has been. You see, you've got to eat in
order to grow. My friends, this is crucial.
It is crucial. You must eat. That's why you've
got to know this book. That's why it's so crucial to
be a Word-filled Christian so that you can be a Spirit-filled
Christian. Every Spirit-filled Christian must of necessity be
Word-filled. Why? There's no access to the
Spirit apart from the Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word. So there it is. You've got to know the Words.
Not just intellectually. You've got to eat them. You've
got to depend on them. That's the God-dependence. That's
the abiding in Christ. And friends, it's absolutely
necessary to grow spiritually. It is absolutely necessary. Now, I realize a person has to
be born before they can grow. The truth is, the growing is
not automatic. Not physically and not spiritually. You know what? I think there's
a lot of people that think that spiritual growth is by osmosis. That if
they come to church, that somehow, as they're sitting there, spirituality
comes raining down from the rafters and oozes into them. You know,
there's no more true than sitting at the supper table with all
that food right there before you, with your hands behind your
back, waiting for that food to somehow ooze into you. That's
not how it works. And you've got to eat it. You
see, coming to church is really, in a certain sense, it's much
like coming to the table. But someone else has prepared
the food. But friends, it's not automatic.
You have to eat it. You can sit there for years and
think, oh, I'm a great spiritual Christian. I'm, you know, spiritually
mature. I've been in church for 40 years.
Friends, if you haven't eaten, you're not matured. You're an
anemic tragedy. I mean, a baby that never grows,
there seems to be something wrong there. Now friends, the fact
is you have to eat. And some people come and they
think it's by osmosis. That is not how it works. It's
only when you make choices of faith and you access grace and
God is bursting forth through your life. That's spiritual growth.
It's life in the Spirit. My father used to say, people
are going to be shocked at the judgment seat of Christ when
they're going to think that they lived for God for 40 years and
in God's record book it's six months. Because that's all that
was in faith and the rest of it wasn't. Friends, you have
to eat. We have to depend on what God
says. God says be not conformed to
this world. Man says everything else. Who are we going to believe? You see how it works? It's real
practical. Are we going to choose to depend on the reality of the
works and thus feed? Or are we going to say, well,
I think? And so on. You know, every parent knows
what it's like to have a child come to the table and is stubborn and he
doesn't want to eat. But as a parent, you know, they've
got to have the nourishment. Now, a good parent has various
ways and means to help this child change their mind. It's called
repentance. Change your mind. Okay. Now,
do you know that there are God's children who come to the table,
but they're stubborn? I'm not going to eat. I don't
care what the preacher says. The issue is not the preacher.
The issue is the food. The issue is Jesus. The issue
is what God says. But oh, there's the stubbornness.
I don't care what anybody else says. This is what I'm going
to do. In other words, I'm not going to eat. You know, our Heavenly
Father is a good parent and He has various ways and means to
awaken you to change your mind. Friends, we have to eat. We have
to eat. It is not by osmosis. You have
to make choices to depend on the reality of the words or you're
not growing. Now, you might say, Preacher,
don't worry about me. Hey, look, not only do I come to church
every time the doors are open, in other words, not only am I
at the table every time there's a meal, I read my Bible every
day. If you do, that is commendatory.
I rejoice in that. You are reading the menu. You know, you can read a menu
and not eat. Now, the Bible's more than the
media, I understand that, but you see the analogies here. There
are some people who intellectually stimulate their mind, but they're
not growing spiritually because they don't make choices to depend
on the reality of what God says. I was at a meeting one time.
There was a marriage about to break up. The pastor came by.
He said, can you go with me to this visit? He said, this couple
in our church is having a big fight right now. Somebody's called
me. He said, I don't want to go by myself. Will you come? So we get there and I'm telling
you, man, oh man, it was not a good scene. I mean, you talk
about venom, hatred. I mean, just telling each other
off and all this kind of stuff. Well, when it finally got calmed
down, we began to talk. I began to hone in on that husband.
Obviously, he's the leader. Now, obviously, both have responsibilities,
but he has even more responsibility as the leader of the marriage.
Each one's responsible as an individual before God, but he
has that extra responsibility of the marriage, and so forth
and so on. And I began to hone in on what the Bible says about
husbands love your wife and wives, and that it's agape love, which
means to do right regardless. It means more than that, but
that is a part of what it means. It's unconditional. I mean, you
do right even when you're wronged. He said, it doesn't mean that.
I said, it does too. Before it was over, he began
to choose to depend on what God said. When he did, she started
making right choices. It was an amazing thing. He was on some prescription drugs.
I don't know if he should have been, but the doctor told him,
and I'm not a doctor, but she was taking them too. I said,
I'm going to tell you something. You've got to get rid of that.
I said, well, are you willing to give it up right now? Will
you go upstairs and get it? She said, okay. She went upstairs. She brought
it down. I said, is this all? She said, yes. She said, you know,
when I come off of this drug, she says it's a week and it's
a pain and this happens and this happens. I said, would you mind,
if you get down, we're going to lay our hands on you. We're
going to pray that God will get you over this without any of
that. She said, OK. And we prayed. And I'm going
to tell you something. She had no ramifications. God immediately
delivered her. And she and that husband came
to church the next couple of nights in that meeting. And I
haven't checked with the pastor since then. But at that point,
they were going on. Hallelujah. You see, they ate
for a change. Some people read the Bible, but
that's just it. They don't depend on what it
says. You've got to eat. Well, somebody says,
Preacher, don't worry about me. Not only do I come to the table
every time there's a meal, not only do I read the menu, hey,
I memorize Scripture. And I hope you do. That's glorious. You know what you're doing? You're
putting food in the cupboards. That's very helpful, because
then you can pull it out when you need it. But you know, if you never pull
it out, you don't grow. And it's possible to put verses in your
brain But if you don't depend on the reality of what God says,
friend, you are not growing. And some people shit piously
because they go to church, or they read their Bible, or they
memorize, and I'm glad for all of that. You've got to be around
the food, that's obvious. But the fact is, you've got to
eat it! And friend, if you're not eating it, you are not growing.
Why is it? Why is it? You can have two people
in the same church, for the same number of years, under the same
pastor, hearing the same sermons, they're at the same table, they
have access to the very same food, and one grows and is strengthened
and strong in the Lord, full of the life of God, and the other
is anemic and still like a babe in Christ. It's because one ate through
choices of surrender, and faith, and others did not eat through
choices of unsurrender and unbelief. Gotta eat. Gotta eat. Friends, we have to eat. You
know how many times we heard, read your Bible prayer every
day, I'm gonna tell you something, friends, we gotta have the food. And that's why
the corporate gathering, the table is so important. God knows
your needs. A lot of times we don't understand.
We don't know our needs. And God will guide your chef
to the nourishing foods you need when you need them. If you're
not there, you miss out on it. But the point is, you've got
to eat it. It's not just being around it. And I know I'm being
redundant, but it's important. We have to eat. Spiritual growth
only occurs through Abiding, do you see it? Through eating,
through feeding, thus depending on Christ, abiding in Christ,
so that He enables you and nourishes you and sustains you. That's
how it works. Here's a second analogy. We eat
bread one meal at a time. That is, we eat food one meal
at a time. In other words, we're not always
at the table eating. You say, well, I know a guy like that.
Well, generally speaking, that's not how it works. No, we eat. We get up from the table, we
go forward in the strength of that food, and when that strength
runs out, what do we do? We go back for more. Isn't that
how it works? I mean, just because you ate
yesterday doesn't mean you didn't need to eat today. Just because you ate last
week doesn't mean you don't need to eat this week. I mean, that's
obvious. No, you eat, you go forward in the strength of that
food, and when that strength runs out, we go back for more. Now look,
have you ever been in one of those situations, maybe at a
buffet or something, and you're trying to get your money's worth,
and you overdo it. You know what I'm saying? And,
you know, there are times when I stagger up from the table and
think, what did I just do to myself? I mean, the next few
hours are going to be miserable. And, you know, you just kind
of stagger up and you think, good night. I am so full. I am not going to eat for a week. Then about four hours later,
hey man, what's cooking? What happens was we eat, we're nourished,
we're strengthened, we go forward in that strength. When that strength
runs out, we go back for more. OK, let's make the analogy. We
depend on Christ. Eat the true bread. One conscious
choice of faith at a time. One meal at a time. That's how
it works. It's one meal, one feeding, one
conscious choice of faith at a time. So again, this is not
a once-for-all second blessing. It is a repeated access of your
first blessing. And just because you trusted
Christ for some issue last week, doesn't mean you don't need to
trust Him this week. Just because you had to trust Him yesterday,
did not mean you did not need to trust Him today. Daily manna. Daily sustenance. Why? Because we have daily need. But we have daily sufficiency.
If we'll depend on the true bread, he'll enable us for today, he'll
enable us for tomorrow, if we depend on him tomorrow, and so
on and so forth. Now, you might say, well, Preacher,
give me a down-to-earth example of how this works. A couple of
years ago, my wife and I were in a meeting in New York City.
In fact, the pastor had grown up in Queens, so he was a true
New York City New Yorker with the thick accent and all. It
was kind of neat. And he had started a church that's now two
blocks outside of Queens. And he was very typical of New
York City ways. Now, you folks will have some
understanding because you're in a larger city. I grew up in
Chicago. You know, People in big cities
are different than people who are living out in the country.
And I find that people who live out in the country often don't
like people that live in the cities. In other words, not that
they don't like the people, but they don't like the waste. I've
been downstate Illinois, and people say, ah, Chicago, man,
I would never go there. Well, have you ever? Well, no,
but I never would. And so forth and so on. And that's
just how it is. And what it is is they think
that big city people are brisk. Now, that was the nice way of
saying it. Well, this pastor was very typical of New York
City brisk ways, which, by the way, even makes a Chicago pale.
It really does. Well, we're out making of some
visits and he says now this next visit this lady's name is Arlene
She's from the country of Haiti and he said a better time or
two But as far as I know, she doesn't know the Lord. He said
who knows maybe today she'll get saved So we knock on the
door Arlene was home there with her son And so it was the pastor
and I and a young man that was with us and she invited us into
her home So we came into her home. So if you can imagine it's
coming through the door this way. All right. Here is her living
room She has an L-shaped sofa. So here's the short part of the
L. Here's the long part of the L. And she comes around and says,
you know, have a seat. She sits down at the very end
of the long part of the L. And there was lots of room next
to her, but for whatever reason, nobody sat there. Just past the
joint is where the pastor sat down on the short part of the
L. And then next to him was the teenager. Now, I really needed
to get over to that obvious spot over on the long part, but there
was a large coffee table, and I would have had to, you know,
Climb over the legs of the teenager in the pastor to get there So
I sat down on the short part of the L and we kind of look
like three peas in a pod, but there we were Now let her forget
this we got in there, you know and Started talking and no sooner
had we begun in this pastor in his very typical, New York City
brisk way Sam All right, Arlene. This is evangelist John van gutter
and he's gonna tell you how to get saved All right, brother
John. Go ahead You know, that's the quickest
version of phase one in soul winning that I've ever seen. And she did not get excited.
Now, I was there to talk, but this was awkward. I mean, it
just it was awkward. I, you know, just it was just
abrupt. And so I thought, well, Here
I am. I guess I'm going to do this.
And I thought, well, in the very least, I ought to get a little
closer. And it was all awkward and kind of just a little difficult
moment there. But I thought, well, let me just
move a little closer. I said, do you mind if I move a little closer? And
I grabbed my Bible. And as I'm climbing over the
legs of the teenager and the pastor, I had just enough time
to eat. Are you with me? I had just enough
time for a transaction of faith. Let me digress just for a second.
We'll come right back to the story. You know, in the physical realm,
isn't it true that there are certain foods that you like so much you eat
them repeatedly? Sure, absolutely. In fact, there are certain restaurants
you go there, you order the same thing every time you go. And I often
do the same thing. Why? Well, you like it, even
though there's many more things. Well, in this menu, which is
far more inexhaustible than we realize, it still is true that
there are certain meals. that are just so blessed, certain
words, certain facts, certain promises that are just so rich
and so relevant over and over again that we go back to those
words over and over again. One such promise for me is Psalm
55, 22, ever since my college days, cast thy burden on the
Lord and he shall sustain thee. Boy, what a promise. And so,
back to the story here, I didn't have a whole lot of time to think
about the menu. I needed God's help now. I had like a second,
maybe two or three, and I'm going to be talking to this lady who's
not excited about what's happening, at least doesn't appear to be,
and so forth. You say, well, how did you do
it? Did you excuse yourself and go pray? I wish I could have,
but it was not the opportunity of the moment. Now, I did pray,
but I prayed with my eyes open because I didn't want to trip
as I was crossing over the legs of the teenager and the pastor. You say, well, how did it work?
It worked like this. Not out loud, but in my heart
I'm thinking, oh, Lord, help! That's how it worked. And you know, once I cast my
burden upon the Lord, I couldn't keep thinking, focusing on my
exercising faith. Now at that point, I had to go
forward in the confidence that the food was going to nourish.
That the Spirit of Jesus would enable according to the words
of Jesus. And I sat down with an open Bible,
and I began to declare the gospel to this dear lady. She was expressionless
much of the time, but God was working. That was just her personality. And before it was over, that
dear lady got saved. And she came to the service that
night. She brought her son, this teenager.
He got saved at the end of the service afterwards. And three
years later, when I came back to that church, both of them
greeted me Sunday morning. Hallelujah. You see, it's one
conscious choice of faith at a time. It's these transactions
throughout a given day. Thirdly, physically, the nourishment
is for productivity. We do not eat to lay down and
go to sleep except on Sunday afternoon. But generally speaking,
we eat so that we have strength to be productive. OK. Similarly,
by way of analogy, or spiritually, The enablement that Christ abided
in you, part of it, is for obedience. Isn't this just wonderful? The
Lord Jesus doesn't just tell us, obey. No, He moves in so
that we can depend on Him and He'll enable us to obey that
which He instructs us to do. You know, when you yoke up with
Jesus, He carries the load. You see, the nourishment, the
Christ abiding in you is for obedience. It's that trusting
to obey. And over time, old bad habits
of unbelief can be replaced with new good habits of faith. Old
bad acquired habits of bad character can be replaced, therefore, with
new good habits that are good character. More could be said,
but I want to focus in on our last analogy tonight. You know,
physically speaking, you develop an appetite for what you eat.
It really is true. There are things that you may
not really care for initially, but if you keep eating it, you
know, it's pretty good. And after a while, man, it's
just great. I was talking to a teenager one time, I said,
hey, you like such and such a food? Oh, no, man, that's nasty. You
ever tried it? No. And you know, if you can disguise
it, you know, smother it in cheese. And they're thinking, oh man,
this is great. What is this? Oh, you've got
to be kidding me. There's cauliflower in there? Well, it was, you know,
it was cut up real small and it was smothered in cheese. And,
you know, after a while they can eat it without the cheese.
You know, you develop an appetite for what you eat. It's kind of
neat, even in the United States, you have certain things that
are known in certain areas, and people develop an appetite for
that, and that culture of that region of the country. As I travel
in other countries, it does get rather interesting. I remember
when I was in Africa, and they took me to a place that featured
the game animals of Africa. Well, I'm not a hunter. I'm a
city boy, so I'm not even used to the game of animals of North
America, much less Africa. And I'll never forget this. Next
thing I know, I'm eating giraffe. Now, you talk about red meat. I was just hoping it was dead
meat. And then they, you know, bring
some crocodile. Too bad, a little bit too much cartilage for me,
but hey, you know. You know, I'm trying these things,
you know, trying to, you know, have an adventurous spirit, you
know, and they bring out this horse-sized antelope called a
kudu, and that was a little bit more normal, and so forth. And then they bring out animals
I've never heard of before, like a hartebeest, something like
that, you know, I guess you could call it roast beast, at any rate. You know, we're eating this stuff.
I've been in Asia many times, many times. Now, maybe you're
used to this. I wasn't as a city boy from Chicago.
But when they serve you fish in Asia, you know, they bring
out this plate of fish. You look down and he looks up. And the delicacy on that fish
is the eyeball. Now, that's amazing. And if you're
the guest of honor, Whoever's sitting next to you is who serves
you. Thankfully, one time when I was in Beijing, they brought
out this fish, and I thought, oh, man. And fortunately, this
teenager next to me, he wasn't thinking about the honored guest,
praise the Lord. He got his chopsticks, he popped that eyeball right
out, and he plopped it right in his mouth, and I thought,
well, praise the Lord, it's gone. You know, it's been interesting.
I remember one time I was at this wedding reception in Singapore,
and they got this, you know, multiple course meal, and it's
beautiful, and all the stuff, and they brought this dish out,
and the people were saying, oh, you've got to have this. Oh,
okay, what is it? Well, we'll tell you later. Well,
you know you're in trouble if that's what they're saying. And
it looked like sauerkraut. But I knew I was not in Germany.
I was in Singapore. And so I thought, well, I'm going
to have to do this. So I ate a bite. And OK. And I ate another
bite. And then I ate a third bite. And it was OK. It was kind
of cold. It was kind of mushy. But it was OK. It wasn't great. But it wasn't terrible. It was
OK. Then they told me what it was. It was jellyfish raw. That was different. I remember
one time they said, oh, you know, we need to order some sea cucumber
for Brother Van Gelder. I'm thinking, okay, cucumber,
vegetation, I can handle. Well, a sea cucumber is not vegetation.
It's a sea slug. You know, large enough to be
pickled vertically, but anyway, it's kind of like a gummy worm,
but there you go. And on and on the list could go. If this
was a teenage audience, primarily, I would give extra details that
I am sparing you, believe it or not. I remember one time in
Hong Kong, they got a glint in their eye and said, oh, we've
got to order Brother Van Gelderen some chicken's feet. Now, I've eaten
just about everything I thought there was to eat on a chicken,
but I've never eaten a chicken's butt. And I thought, well, I
hope it's disguised. Well, it wasn't. It's almost
like whack, dip it in a sauce, here you go. And, you know, you
just kind of chew on it and spit out the little bones. Well, that
was different. The other night we were talking
about some food there in the Philippines and there is a delicacy
there called Balut. How many of you know what pollute
is? Several in this audience do. Some audiences don't know
much about it, but they can correct me if I'm wrong here, but it's
something to the effect of a chicken egg or a duck egg, and the little
duckling or the little chicken is growing, and just at that
point when it's about to grow its feathers, that's when they
eat it. Something like that, you know?
And one Filipino lady in Chicago told me, she said, you just close
your eyes. And, you know, because it's,
you know, beak, web feet and all, but nonetheless, you should just
close your eyes and go like this and dump a little bird in your
mouth right out of the egg. Well, I have not yet done that,
but you know, that's the way it goes. Now, for some, it's
a delicacy. You see, you develop an appetite
for what you eat. Now, what's interesting to me
is when people in those parts of the world find out what Americans
eat. And just as we grimaced and laughed
and whatever about certain things, that's what they do about what
we think is great. I remember this Chinese man in
Singapore said to me, he said, you know, you Americans, he said,
you like cheese. He said, we don't like cheese.
And you stop and think about Chinese food. There's no cheese. He said, we don't like cheese.
He said, cheese is mold. Well, there's some accuracy to
that statement, but, you know, we like it. Why? Because you
develop an appetite for what you eat. Now, let's make the analogy.
I know we've had probably a little bit too much fun here, but we
probably need it in the middle of the week. OK. Here's the analogy. Spiritually speaking, you develop
an appetite for what you eat. Now friends, here's what that
means. If you don't have an appetite for Jesus, if you don't have an appetite
for the Word of the living God, if you don't have an appetite
for the things of God and the people of God, what that means
is you're not eating at that table, you're eating somewhere
else! Because you develop an appetite for what you eat. Now,
all of us eat. The question is, what do you
eat? What is it that you depend on? What buoys you up? You say,
well, how do you know what table you're eating at? It's wherever
your appetites are strongest. That's where you eat. Because
you develop an appetite for what you eat. And friend, if you don't
have an appetite for Jesus and the things of God and the Word
of God, it's because you're not eating it. Which means you are
eating at another table. What a tragedy for a child of
God who has access rights to the banquet hall and feasting
of the king to go out and feed on the pay pen of the world.
What a tragedy. You see what buoys you up? A
certain style of music? Get you through the trauma of
the day? Pills? What do you depend on? What table are you eating? Stock
market? That'll be a disappointment. On and on it goes. Now, friends,
all of us eat somewhere. What is it for you? You know, it is a tragedy when
a child of God turns his nose up at the real food. and insult
Jesus Christ as he chooses, rather, the table
of Hollywood, or the table of sensuality in so many of its
multiple avenues of access, or the table of materialism Or the
table of recreation. Not wrong in and of itself, but
boy, it can become the thing. How many of God's people blow
off Sunday after Sunday after Sunday to go camping? Show us what table they're eating
at. Little League. The bowling club. All these things that take precedence
over the real food. I was in a revival meeting. A lady said to me, she was a
medical doctor, and she had been coming. We had some good conversations.
She says, oh, by the way, She said, I won't be here tomorrow
night because she says, I play cards with my lady friends on
such and such a night. And she said, I'm going to be
there instead of here. And I don't think it's wrong for me to do
that. Well, she obviously had a guilty conscience or she wouldn't
have felt like she had to tell me. Friends, I'm not trying to
be unkind, but I'm going to tell you something. American Christianity
has to wake up. We have so much false food around
us that many prefer the junk food than the real thing. And
I'm going to tell you something. If you think, well, yeah, but
I like this and I like that. As if this isn't very likable.
As if this is kind of dull. I'm going to tell you something.
When you start accessing what we're talking about, when you
start accessing Christ in you for victory over the world and
the flesh and you in Christ for victory over the enemy. I mean,
when you experience Christ's very life and you experience
his victory in your mind, in your words, I mean, maybe you
used to always you know, blow your stack, and you're irritable,
and you begin to access Christ's life, and His patience is imparted
to you, then there's a change that comes about. And you begin
to access His victory, perhaps in some habit that you had, and
now you're experiencing His victory over that. And you experience
His victory in your marriage. And you experience His victory
in training your kids. And you experience His victory
in the stewardship. And you begin to trust Him for
this. And you trust Him for that. You begin to trust Him to free
you to actually declare the gospel and to see Him work. And you
begin to see God use you. And you see the miracle take
place in front of you. And you're trusting God. And
He's enabling you. And day after day, you are experiencing
the very life of Jesus Christ Himself. I'm going to tell you,
there's nothing boring about it. Brenda, what table do you feed? I was preaching in a meeting
in Florida. One night, a girl who'd been in the Christian school
chapels during the daytime showed up. She hadn't been there until
the middle of the week, but she'd been to school every day and
kind of began to probe, and she could have been there and so
forth. I said, why don't you come to church more? She said,
our church is boring. I said, you want to know why?
Boy, she turned her head aside as if to say, no, I don't. So I told her. I said, you're feeding at another
table. And she was big time in the world. What a tragedy. Demas hath forsaken me. having
loved this present world. And friend, when we are not experiencing
the life of Jesus, and there's that thrill of the reality of
God and His presence and His leadership and His power, and
as my wife sang, tasting and hearing His voice, And all that
goes with that. And I'll tell you something,
friend, it is a tragedy when God's people are missing out
on the provision. I mean, you think of the cleansing
power of the blood and the enabling power of the Spirit and all that
we've been talking about, and people just go on their merry
way as if it's no big deal! What an insult to Jesus Christ! American Christianity better
wake up, because we may be facing what our dear brothers and sisters
have had to face in other countries in this last half of the century,
where they've been under persecution. It may be us. We'll find out
who's who. The issue isn't us. The issue
is Jesus. But if you haven't been accessing Jesus, you're
going to fall apart. I was up in New England preaching
one time on this. And a dear lady came forward,
among others. But her husband told me the next
morning, he said, my wife, I have never seen her walk an aisle.
Ever. He said her walking the aisle last night was like the
house shaking in Acts 4. But it was so interesting because
this dear, refined New England lady was on her face. When the
service came to an end, she stood to her feet and I came off the
platform And she was very serious. She said, you know, when you
said you're feeding at another table, she said, I knew what
table I was feeding at. This is what she told me. She
said, I have been feeding at the table of interior decorating. Now, there's nothing intrinsically
wrong with interior decorating. But here's what she said. She
said, by my bed is a stack of magazines on interior decorating.
She said, before I go to bed at night, that's what I meditate
on. That's what I read. She said,
when I get up in the morning, that's what I turn to. She said,
I don't read my Bible. I don't do any of that. I pick
up my magazines. And throughout the day, that's
what I'm focused on. You know what? She was feeding
at another table. See, it doesn't have to be that
which is obviously wicked. It can be that which is not intrinsically
wrong, but it becomes wrong because we give it the priority. We get
obsessed with it. You know, I remember reading
a statistic about ten years ago. I don't know if it's still true
today, but at the time it was the number one industry in the USA
was recreation. Now, there's a place for rest
and all that, but I'm going to tell you something, we're obsessed
with it. And it is amazing what God's
people place in front of God. I wonder what God thinks. What table are you feeding? I
was preaching, ironically, on this subject in the country of
Hungary. And a dear lady afterwards came to me in reverse interpretation
Somebody was helping her there. She said, you know, up until
now, my life has been like this. And she went like this with her
arm. Tears coming down her cheeks. She said, now I know why. I am
undernourished. She's right. But you know what?
That can all change. We can come clean with God. We
can stop being a stubborn child at the table. We can say, okay,
God, Wow, what provision! The cleansing power of the blood.
The enabling power of the Spirit. Christ in you to free you so
that it's His life flowing through you. That'll change a marriage!
What a dynamic in child training if the kids actually see and
hear the voice of Jesus. And on and on we could go. May we feed on true bread from
heaven. Let's bow our heads.
Feeding on True Bread From Heaven
| Sermon ID | 102710237351 |
| Duration | 1:12:21 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Bible Text | John 6:56 |
| Language | English |
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