Here's the challenge tonight.
Here's the challenge.
Will you allow Jesus to be the bread
of life in you, that can feed others?
Jesus can feed others.
We remember the story of Jesus feeding the
multitude.
He took the bread and the fish and
multiplied it.
Well, did you know that Jesus wants to
be that bread and fish today?
Jesus himself wants to become that bread and
fish to feed the multitudes.
And if we as the disciples would present
what we are to God as the disciples
took the bread and the fish and gave
it to Jesus, if we would give ourselves
to Jesus, then Jesus would multiply himself in
us.
He would become bread in us, and he
would feed the hungry multitude.
Recently while praying, the Holy Spirit greatly challenged
me, greatly challenged me.
Will you allow me to make you perfectly
dead to yourself, so that I can have
a vessel where I can become the bread
of life, feeding, healing other people?
Will you present yourself to me?
And oh, what God can do with one
life that's fully yielded to him.
He can take the seemingly small portion of
bread and small amount of fish and multiply
it and feed a multitude of people.
God asked Moses, What's in your hand, Moses?
That's all you need.
What's in your hand?
What God was saying, Moses, stop trying to
find something beyond your reach as a
means to qualify you for my service.
What do you have?
God said, Moses, give me what you have.
And in my hands, I'll minister, I'll deliver,
I'll heal, I'll set the multitudes free.
What's in your hand today, beloved?
Give it to God.
May I suggest tonight that Jesus longs to
be bread in you, feeding others.
Friends, if you can understand Christ in you,
the hope of glory, if you are a
Christian, if you have accepted Jesus Christ into
your life, if you are born again and
you know that you are a child of
God, then Christ is in you.
If you can understand that the bread of
heaven abides in you, if you can get
a revelation of the reality of who abides
in you, you would lose sight of yourself,
coming to the conclusion that you are nothing.
And you would become overly infatuated and preoccupied
with He who is life.
And the more you become preoccupied with Him,
the more you lose sight of yourself, and
the less yourself gets in the way.
And the less self gets in the way,
the more Jesus becomes bread in me, reaching
out to others.
Oh, how Jesus longs to be the bread
to feed the multitude.
Would we dare to ask God to so
get our attention, and so get a hold
of the reins of our hearts, as to
become in us that bread of life that
the world so desperately needs, and that we,
at any time, would be willing.
Remember, it's not drawing from the resources within
our own heart, but rather it is becoming
yielded vessels where the bread of life can
flow out of us.
And it would become Jesus feeding the multitude.
What does it require?
This is what Jesus meant when he said,
If any man wants to follow me, take
up his cross.
That's what it means.
It's not an ascetic lifestyle of legalism.
It's not trying to follow rules and codes
and regulations.
No.
It's identifying yourself with the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
And through the operation of faith, experiencing it
on a daily basis.
Oh, to be acquainted with the bread of
life.
To become a vessel where he can flow
through.
How he longs for this.
It's not a Bible school education you need,
or a certain kind of salary or lifestyle.
No, that's not what's going to do it.
It's simply a quieted heart in his presence.
Learning of him.
That's it.
Just to learn of him.
To study him.
Become acquainted with him.
Falling in love with his word.
Doesn't the thought of being a vessel where
Jesus feeds the multitudes thrill your heart?
Doesn't the thought of the bread of life
feeding people thrill your heart?
Oh my.
What more do we want?
What more could we ask for?
It's a familiar portion of scripture.
John.
Now, if anyone else has something from the
Lord to share, we want to give you
an opportunity in a few moments.
John chapter 6, verse number 32.
Jesus said to them, I tell you the
truth, it is not Moses who has given
you the bread from heaven, but it is
my Father who gives you the true bread
from heaven.
For the bread of God is he who
comes down from heaven and gives life to
the world.
Then Jesus, no, verse 34.
Sir, they said, from now on give us
this bread.
Oh my Lord.
They don't realize what they said.
They don't realize what they were saying.
For now on, sir, give us this bread.
Not realizing that they were talking to the
bread himself.
The bread of life.
What to God we would begin to say
to God.
For now on, Lord, give us this bread.
For now on, Lord, feed us with yourself.
So infatuate us.
So thrill us.
So draw us.
So call us.
That we long for you and you alone.
Now how can we improve on that?
Listen to what Jesus said.
They said, sir, from now on give us
this bread.
Sounds like a pretty good idea, doesn't it?
Bread from heaven.
Oh, how we would often imagine what it
would be like if Jesus prepared a meal.
How many would attend a banquet if you
knew that this coming Wednesday Jesus was going
to be the host at it?
Come on.
How many would attend?
What are you doing with the banquet that
he prepares every day?
Let me tell you something.
If you're not feasting at the banquet that
Jesus prepares every day of himself, most likely
you wouldn't go to that banquet.
Or you would go looking for the wrong
thing.
See, because he is preparing a banquet.
He prepares it every day.
We imagine.
Can you imagine if God gave you heavenly
food?
Could you imagine going home tonight and having
a table prepared and having food on the
table and having that food from heaven?
Boy, that would be interesting, wouldn't it?
But yet, Jesus is that food.
Are you feasting on him?
Are you being nourished by him every day?
Have you seen Jesus to be the bread
of life?
I like what they said.
From now on, give us this bread.
Jesus said, I am the bread of life.
He who comes to me will never go
hungry, and he who believes in me will
never be thirsty.
Now, another rendering says this.
I am the bread of life.
He who is coming to me will never
be hungry.
And he who is believing in me.
Now, the difference is this.
To come to God cannot be a past
tense experience.
To believe in God cannot be a past
tense experience.
So, perhaps a more understandable rendering would be,
rather than he who believes, it ought to
rather maybe be, he who is believing in
me.
He who is.
Not he who has, but he who is.
The idea here is the present tense, the
present action.
It is a present, continuous action.
We have so many Christians that are hungering
and thirsting.
Doesn't make sense.
Jesus said, if you come to him, you'll
never hunger or thirst.
Why are they hungering and thirsting?
Because amidst the world and the cares of
this world, and the various different forms of
temptation and trial, we lose sight of the
bread of heaven.
I am the bread of life.
He who is coming to me will never
go hungry.
And he who is believing in me will
never be thirsty.
Now, isn't that precious?
Verse number 53.
Jesus said to them, I tell you the
truth, unless you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, you
have no life in you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life, and I will raise him
up at the last day.
For my flesh is real food, and my
blood is real drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me, and I in him.
Wasn't Paul desiring to be found in him
at that day?
Didn't John, the beloved, encourage the believers to
abide in him, so that when he comes,
we will not be ashamed?
So what is it to abide in Christ?
It is a pleasant, continuous action of believing
and trusting and hungering and thirsting after him.
Jesus said, except you abide in
the vine, you can do nothing.
Same idea.
It is the act of believing, the act
of hungering.
Now, verse number 57.
Just as the living Father sent me, and
I live because of the Father, so the
one who feeds on me will live because
of me.
This is the bread that came down from
heaven.
Your fathers ate manna and died, but he
who feeds on this bread will live forever.
Friends, the greatest joy is not simply feeding
on this bread, but a joy that is
equal to it is when this bread begins
to feed others.
Oh, what a joy to feed
others.
Jesus wants to feed others.
We must first feed of him, and then
pray that he can be bred in us,
feeding others.
The place of abiding in Christ.
What a glorious place.
Anybody have anything they'd like to say?
Yes.
Just perfectly illustrate a song that is in
agreement to the word tonight.
Jesus alone is the bread of life.
He alone can satisfy your soul, and he
alone can be the bread that can help
others.
So the whole sum of the matter is
simply this.
It's Jesus.
Know him, love him, receive from him, and
then let him become the bread in you
that feeds others.
And it all revolves around him, and then
you lose sight of self, and you begin
to rest and walk in him.
Listen to this.
I hear the Savior say, Thy strength indeed
is small.
Child of weakness, watch and pray.
Find in me thine all in all.
Lord, now indeed I find thy power, and
thine alone can change the leper's spots and
melt the heart of stone.
For nothing good have I whereby thy grace
to claim.
I'll wash my garments white in the blood
of Calvary's lamb.
For when before the throne I stand in
him complete, Jesus died, my soul to save,
my lips shall still repeat.
Jesus paid it all, all to him I
owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed
it white as snow.
What a call and invitation tonight to come
to the bread of life and feast.
Amen.
Anybody else have anything they'd like to share?