Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.gracespringfield.com/sermons/43179/the-difficult-sayings-of-jesus-19/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Thank you, Gary, and continuing right on in that vein, while you are still there in that passage, we are talking about the difficult sayings of Jesus, and this is our 19th in a series.

[0:11] And what he just read to you sounds gross, doesn't it? Sounds almost cannibalistic. What in the world is he talking about? Eat my flesh and drink my blood?

[0:27] What kind of a person is this? And then suggesting that unless you do so, you do not have eternal life.

[0:39] And how do you think this came across to those who were in that initial audience? Well, verse 60 says, many therefore of his disciples.

[0:51] Now, these were not his antagonists. These were his disciples. These were people who were already, to some degree, on board. And they said, this is a difficult statement.

[1:10] Who can listen to it? Who can hear it? And it was based upon this verse that I entitled this series that we began several months ago, The difficult sayings of Jesus.

[1:21] They are found sprinkled all throughout the Gospels. They are expressions from our Lord, which on the surface just seem to make either no sense at all, or they're very mysterious or very enigmatic.

[1:33] And yet, each and every one of them is filled with all kinds of spiritual significance and great truths.

[1:44] We just have to ferret it out. And the way you do that is by comparing Scripture with Scripture. If you just look at the text that's involved and try to make sense of that, good luck.

[1:57] But when you have other passages to pull in to your rescue that shed light upon it, that's what Bible study is all about. It is comparing Scripture with Scripture.

[2:08] It is, as I have often said, no mere mortal, including this one, especially this one, is competent or capable to really interpret the Scriptures.

[2:20] I do not claim that gift. We must allow the Scriptures to interpret themselves. And you do that by pulling into the mix all relevant passages that have anything to do with the passage at hand.

[2:40] That means the Bible sheds light upon itself. It is its own best interpreter when we allow it to do so. It's a thrilling, thrilling thing to do.

[2:51] I cannot tell you anything that I have enjoyed more in my 50 years of ministry than the study of the Scriptures and the comparison of Scripture with Scripture. And this passage is just like that.

[3:04] Jesus, verse 61, conscious that his disciples grumbled at this, said to them, Does this cause you to stumble? You're not getting it?

[3:16] And does this cause you to perhaps lose heart and maybe peel off and follow me no longer? And you know, for some of them it did, because the text goes on to say something like, From that time on, many of his disciples went back and followed him no more.

[3:34] In other words, they said, Well, I just, I can't handle this. This, this is too, but this, this, eating my flesh and drinking my blood, I don't, I don't want anything to do with, I don't understand this, but I don't want anything to do with it.

[3:49] So long, I'll see you. And they left. They just peeled off. And then Jesus said to some of the others remaining there, to the apostles, Well, what do you guys think?

[4:04] Are you going to leave too? And they said, Where shall we go? Thou hast the words of life. No one else does.

[4:16] And they recognized that. But you know, I see, I sense here in this passage, what shall I call it on the part of our Savior? Maybe a little bit of spiritual mischievousness.

[4:31] And let me tell you what I mean. As you come back to chapter 6, and look at verse 51. Jesus said, I am the living bread that came down out of heaven.

[4:44] If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread also, which I shall give for the life of the world, is my flesh.

[4:56] Now, that's pretty heavy in and of itself. And then we read in the next verse, verse 52, The Jews, therefore, as a result of him saying that, began to argue with one another, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

[5:13] And then, just as if to rub a little salt in the wound, Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.

[5:26] He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. I can just see these bearded old Jews vibrating at this.

[5:42] They are just coming unglued. They can't begin to handle this. And Jesus is just kind of pouring it on. You think that's something? And then he elaborates on it. It makes it even worse. And the result is, we have one more very enigmatic, difficult saying to put a handle on.

[6:00] Now, I want to point out a couple of things to you before we start examining the text. And the first is this. What have I told you in biblical interpretation is always the key.

[6:13] Context. Context is king. And the context for this follows immediately after the feeding of the 5,000.

[6:23] So, the subject matter that is at hand has to do with physical bread, physical food. In fact, immediately preceding this passage that we're looking at in chapter 6, there is the incident of the people looking for Jesus.

[6:41] This is right after the 5,000 were fed. They were looking for Jesus, and he was crossing to the other side, and they, some of them, went around the lake on foot, and they were searching for him.

[6:51] And when they found him, they made much of the fact that they'd finally located him. And Jesus said, I know why you sought me. I know why you were anticipating my arrival.

[7:06] I know why you were looking for me. It is because you ate of the loaves and were filled. You were thinking primarily of your stomach.

[7:19] And nothing has changed. People are thinking primarily of their stomach today. You know, a perfect example of this is not only at the food pantry that we administer, but food pantries all over the nation where they are offered by Christian organizations who are trying to reach out to people not only with physical food, but more importantly with spiritual food and trying to give some spiritual input so that if happily, some of them might even come to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through that.

[8:03] But you know, the vast majority of these people make it quite clear not interested. Don't give me any of this scripture stuff. Don't give me the Bible and the verses and all.

[8:14] I don't want to. Just give me the food. Just give me the food and I'll be on my way. Save the preaching. I'm not interested. So what's changed? Nothing really.

[8:26] And yet, the truth of the matter is the spiritual need of the human heart is much more important and is in fact eternal in its consequence than anything you put in your mouth.

[8:46] But we have great difficulty convincing people of that. You would be surprised how many people are not even aware that they have a spiritual component to their being.

[8:59] All they think about is opening your mouth and shovel it in. That's the only thing they're concerned about. Their next meal. people. When Jesus said man shall not live by bread alone, he was referring to that.

[9:14] And he says, listen, you are more than your body. You need something besides just physical bread. But most people, not interested, just give me the physical bread. And this crowd that Jesus is ministering to 2,000 years ago is no different.

[9:33] You sought me because you ate of the loaves and were filled. That was the beginning and the end of your interest. So, he gives them this thing about spiritual food and it too is against a backdrop of the physical.

[9:49] There is a near event to which he is referring and that has to do with the feeding of the 5,000 that took place just shortly before this conversation. And he also refers to and brings into play a very ancient event with which all of the Jews of Jesus' generation were very familiar and that was that which happened 1,400 years earlier when through the leadership of Moses God brought down manna from heaven.

[10:20] And this was physical food and it fed their physical bodies. And then Jesus said something like I am the true bread which came down from heaven.

[10:34] What does that mean? Well, all he meant was as the physical manna came down from heaven and God used Moses to provide it miraculously I am spiritual food for the spiritual component of man and I came down from heaven and I am to your human spirit what that manna was to your physical body.

[11:04] All through scripture we have this comparison of the physical and the spiritual. And if you miss that you miss the whole burden of the scriptures.

[11:15] It is that we are constituted of a body and a spirit and those together comprise the human soul. That's the totality of our personhood.

[11:28] Now, in this particular passage and close to it you will find references to spiritual light and physical light.

[11:39] When they went into the temple for the feast of lights and they lit this huge gorgeous candelabra that just lit up that whole part of the temple area and everyone was celebrating and enjoying the physical light that came from that huge menorah then Jesus stood up and said I am the light of the world.

[12:08] What an incredible statement for a human being to make. And then on another occasion at another feast time when they were anticipating the onrush of water the purifying water then Jesus said I am the water of life.

[12:30] And there again he is contrasting and comparing the physical with the spiritual. And as was the case then so today many people just don't see that. They don't pick up.

[12:41] In a sense we are all kind of held captive to our five senses and they are so much with us. We know what we see.

[12:53] We know what we taste. We know what we smell. We know what we hear. And we know what we feel. But there is that essence of being inside of you that is not connected to any of those five senses.

[13:15] All five of those senses work through some kind of a physical mechanism in your body. But your spirit doesn't. And that makes it difficult.

[13:29] Makes it difficult to comprehend. In fact for some it's so difficult they just dismiss it. And they take the position hey when you die you die like a dog. That's it. It's over.

[13:40] Back to the dust and the ashes. There is no more no nothing no heaven no hell no anything. You just die and that's it and that's the end of it. You'd be surprised how many people believe that.

[13:51] And of course all atheists do. But there are many who are not atheists who still believe that. And the scriptures of course give the light of that all the way through.

[14:01] What Jesus is saying simply is there is bread and then there is bread. And when he talked to that dear woman at the well in John chapter four. By the way you remember many of you may remember we've been through all of this before several years ago.

[14:18] The last five years I spent at Grace before my first retirement. We spent five years in John's gospel. And as I go back through it now I'm embarrassed by how much I missed.

[14:32] After five years we still didn't scratch the surface. But many times we had these things surface time and again where there is spiritual water and physical water and spiritual light and physical light and spiritual bread and physical bread.

[14:48] And that's what's behind this whole passage. If you will allow those other references to which we have referred to shed light upon this you'll see Jesus is not talking about cannibalism.

[15:02] Give me a break. He's not talking about literally eating his flesh and literally drinking his blood. That's complete nonsense. But those things are very very real.

[15:14] And the point is so is the spiritual. It's just as real. Just as real. Just as valid. But it is eternal.

[15:25] And so often that is lost sight of. Matter of fact, to me, this and other difficult sayings of Jesus is one of the great validations for the authority of scripture.

[15:47] That this book was engineered and composed and put together by the spirit of God and not mere men. However brilliant.

[15:58] I'll tell you one thing. If I were writing a Bible and I were writing a story about Jesus, I would include this stuff. I wouldn't put this in. Eat my flesh, drink my blood.

[16:11] I would say scratch that. Nobody's going to believe that. Leave that out. That would be unappealing. And a whole host of other things. things. But the spirit of God includes it.

[16:27] If this were a mere conspiracy among men, they would do a whale of an editing job and take out all of those hard sayings.

[16:39] Because that just makes it seemingly more difficult to believe. But do you know what it also does? It screams.

[16:49] It separates those who will believe from those who won't. And those who don't want to can use something like this as perfect justification.

[17:03] Like some of his disciples walked back and went no more with him. I can't get into that. Count me out. Rather than pursue it and understand it and be able to appreciate it and embrace it.

[17:17] this is so rich. Now, in an effort, I think, to be true to scripture and probably with very good intentions.

[17:34] And I do not criticize their intentions at all. but historically, our Roman Catholic friends have had a real problem with this passage.

[17:52] The text makes it very clear and Jesus says it, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.

[18:03] well, now, if you take that spiritually, as I believe it is intended to be taken, like spiritual water and spiritual bread and spiritual light, and when Jesus said, I am the door, he meant he is a spiritual door.

[18:20] He didn't mean he's a door with hinges and a knob, but he meant that he is to the human spirit the way of access to God.

[18:32] He is the door spiritually. And if you take this passage seriously and literally, how are you going to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood?

[18:50] Seems out of the question, doesn't it? And yet, I am persuaded that it was sheer creativity, probably mingled with honest desire and good intentions to somehow make this possible.

[19:14] And they arrive at transubstantiation, where the wafer at the communion table becomes the literal body blood of Christ.

[19:35] You smell it, it smells like wine, it tastes like wine. But the loyal Roman Catholic has to say, no, no, no. It may look like wine, it may taste like wine, but it is the blood of Christ.

[19:52] This is transubstantiation. This is, of course, assuming that the priest, who is the only one qualified in Roman Catholic theology, he is the only one who can pray over the elements, and God miraculously changes them into the literal body and blood of Christ.

[20:17] So, when you take communion and you eat the wafer, you are eating his flesh, that is Christ in you, and you drink the wine, you are drinking his blood.

[20:36] It's taking it quite literally. Now, I can understand an earnest desire on their part to try and be loyal and true and faithful to the scriptures and make this capable of happening through this system of transubstantiation where the faithful are asked to believe that this really does become the literal body, really does become the literal blood of Christ, and you ingest Christ, you receive Christ through your mouth.

[21:13] And again, we're back to that physical thing that we are so locked into, and I suggest they were also. But this spiritual is a whole different dimension, and yet I have great difficulty convincing some people that it is just as real, because you can't see spirit.

[21:33] You can't handle and feel spirit. Spirit has no body, it has no physical manifestation or evidence at all. And when they saw Jesus shortly after the resurrection, the text says they were afraid, and they thought that they had seen a spirit.

[21:59] And Jesus said, handle me and see. A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see me have. And by the way, spirits do not attire themselves in white sheets either.

[22:16] do you ever wonder where would a spirit get a white sheet? The latest white sale or something like that. Casper the friendly ghost and his little white sheets, spooks and so on.

[22:31] That's all nonsense. Spirit and the spirit world is very, very real. But it doesn't seem real. because we can't locate it, we can't fix on it with our physical senses.

[22:46] And the reason you can't is because you are trying to appreciate something that is spiritual with the physical. Forget it. It's a waste of time. You can't do that. So what do you do?

[22:57] What do you use? You use your mind. Well, that's physical. No, it isn't. Your mind is spiritual. Your brain is physical.

[23:08] physical. Your mind is not. Now, please don't ask me how the mind and the brain work together because that's a real mystery. There is a connecting link, but we don't know what it is.

[23:22] We can't find it. There is a very real spiritual part of our being, and there is an obvious physical part of our being, but we don't know how they get together.

[23:33] We just know they do. The mind uses the brain. The brain uses the mind. They work intricately. They work together. Think of it this way.

[23:44] Think of your brain as being a computer, and your mind as a software. It does the programming. And when the scriptures use the phrase like, Jesus said, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

[24:04] heart, so is he. And we have explained to you in time past that the biblical meaning of the word heart has nothing to do with the blood pump in the middle of the chest. It has to do with the core of your being, as in the heart of the batter.

[24:23] And in your heart, where you do your thinking that makes you who and what you are, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

[24:34] That is synonymous with the human mind. And you have to approach that which is spiritual, not with your body, but with your mind.

[24:48] And this is wonderful because it means you do not need physical accoutrements in order to approach God or to worship God. You don't have to be in a church. You don't have to be in an altar.

[24:59] You don't have to be in a physical setting. All you have to be is in your right mind. And you can connect with God because God is spirit.

[25:12] And those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. How do you worship God with your spirit? You use your mind.

[25:25] Have I not been telling you for 40 years that Christianity is a thinking faith? We are called upon to think and God has given us wonderful apparatus with which to do it.

[25:41] Part of it is physical, that's our brain, and part of it is non-physical, but it's just as real as the brain and that's our mind. And we find this concept sprinkled all throughout scripture.

[25:52] chapter, the mind and the spirit, I don't want to get too far afield here, but I've got to tell you this. The mind, the human spirit is that which receives programming from the programmer.

[26:13] every biological life form has a spirit. A human spirit is different.

[26:26] A frog has a spirit. And God programs the frog with information. How do you think a frog knows how a frog is supposed to act?

[26:40] What's it like to be a frog? Well, you and I will never know. But a frog knows because God programmed the frog to be a frog, to act like a frog, to hop like a frog, to reproduce like a frog.

[26:55] A frog is born with programming in it. And we are born with programming in us. I've always been amazed when a little baby is born, comes out of the womb, first thing it does is cry and bawl and yell and exercises its lungs and then he looks around for something to eat.

[27:15] And mother puts that breast to his face and he takes off. How does he know to suck? How does he know that?

[27:30] He's programmed. We call it instinct. I call it programming. God is programmed. God has programmed a polar bear so that a polar bear knows how to act and how to take care of its young and all the rest of it.

[27:45] And it's programming. The monarch butterfly that flies every year down to Honduras or someplace, he has never been there in his life.

[27:58] He isn't returning for the second or third time. I mean, some may, but they go there for the first time. How do they know where that is? They're programmed. The programmer programs them.

[28:10] What does the programming look like? Ha ha ha ha. You've never seen it. Neither have I. The programming is spiritual.

[28:25] It's not material. Not material. It's not physical. Nobody's ever seen it. But it's very real. our human spirit is programmed.

[28:37] And we even spent a couple of Wednesday evenings trying to determine where do we get our human spirit? How do we derive this human spirit?

[28:48] And we know where we get the physical contribution of the male and the female results in this new being. And each parent contributes something to the makeup of that new life that is created and formed.

[29:07] And it is absolutely breathtakingly stunning. The physical aspects of that. But where do we get our spirit?

[29:18] What's the origin of it? And I'll never forget we were struggling with this one Wednesday evening and Gene Steigers came up with the solution. And I thought, well, golly, I think there is something there.

[29:34] We just had a wonderful time those Wednesday nights putting this stuff together. None of us knew what we were talking about, but it was enjoyable. Anyway, we enjoyed our collective ignorance. And we know, we know that physically we are the result of what our parents contribute.

[29:56] And the egg and the sperm. And she said something to the effect, well, why couldn't parents contribute in the same way from each of them the human spirit?

[30:12] Yeah, why not? Why not?

[30:22] How else could we get it? There's only a couple of other theories. And one of them is that God has a huge stockpile of billions of human spirits, all warehoused in heaven.

[30:40] And each time a new human being is about to be born, an angel or somebody calls out, spirit number 8,323,000, take off.

[30:53] And this spirit takes off and goes and inhabits that new body that's being made. Well, there's absolutely nothing to recommend that other than just that's what some of the ancients believed, that God had this warehouse of human spirits waiting on people to be born, and then they would be assigned to it accordingly.

[31:11] But you know, as well as I do, that not only are there physical traits, resemblances, from our physical parents that are often carried over, such as skin color, and hair color, and eye color, and physical structure, and skeletal structure, much of that is inherited from our mother, or our father, or both.

[31:37] even so, there are idiosyncrasies and characteristics of mother and father that can be passed on to son or daughter in their mannerisms, in the way they express themselves, so that they are not only a result of the physical programming, but they may very well be a combination of each parent's spirit born into this new being.

[32:12] Now, I don't have any idea if what I just told you, or what Gene suggested, is the way it is or not, but it probably makes as much or more sense than anything else.

[32:24] You got this human spirit from someone, from somehow, and I rather think that that is the most logical way for this to be communicated, so that in both spirit and in body, we are a consequence, a result of our mother and our father.

[32:46] And by the way, this has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is deity, that's an entirely different issue, but it is the Holy Spirit who bears witness with our human spirit, that we are children of God, that is spirit upon spirit.

[33:09] And in your mind, which we have great difficulty really dissecting or understanding, because nobody's ever seen the human mind.

[33:20] We've seen the human brain, they can dissect it, and there are different sides of the brain, and the frontal lobe, and all the rest. They are able to determine which part of your brain is responsible for your eyes, and which part is responsible for your emotions, and which part is responsible for your memory, and all the rest of it.

[33:37] But we've never been able to do that with the mind, because the mind is not subject to physical verification, and yet it is working and operating even as I speak.

[33:53] All of us have a mind that is active. Just an amazing thing. All I'm saying is this, don't sell yourself short. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, and the mind corresponds to the spirit in the same way that the brain corresponds to the body.

[34:15] The latter is physical, the former is spiritual, and yet it remains a great mystery. However, this is where business takes place. It is in the human spirit.

[34:26] as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Someone has said, you are not what you think you are, but what you think you are.

[34:41] are. It's kind of like the difference between reputation and character.

[34:54] Reputation is what people think you are outwardly, externally, as they see you act and react in their presence.

[35:05] That's your reputation, reputation, and it's a public thing. But your character is what you really are.

[35:16] It's not what people think you are. Well, if your character is what it ought to be, then what people think you are is what you really are. What you see is what you get.

[35:27] You call that a person of integrity. It is connected to the word integrer.

[35:38] and it's connected to the word integrate. And it means oneness. If you are a person of oneness, that means you really are what you seem to be.

[35:55] If you are a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, you appear to be one thing outwardly, but that's not what you really are.

[36:09] You're something different on the inside. We call a person like that two-faced. They're one thing in one circumstance and another thing. You know, there's a saying that has developed recently, and I hate it, but they don't know how much they tell on themselves, how much they reveal.

[36:30] whatever happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas. You know what that's saying?

[36:41] You know what it's implying? You can come to Las Vegas where you are far away from anybody who knows you, and you can let your hair down, and you can engage in whatever you want to engage in, and it stays right there in Las Vegas.

[37:00] See, your reputation is what you are in the community where you function and what people think you are, but your character is what you are when you're out of town, and nobody knows you, and you can do anything you want, or go anywhere you want, or participate in anything you want.

[37:19] That's your character. And the cry of scripture is that what you really are on the outside and the way you come across to people, that's what you're supposed to be on the inside.

[37:34] This is called being made whole, as opposed to a split kind of person. And all of this is talking about the outward and the inward, the physical and the spiritual.

[37:51] It's all connected with this. It is an amazing thing. And this passage just really gives light to it in such a dramatic way, how that Jesus is making this very, very important and valid distinction, and they're not picking up on it.

[38:07] And earlier, in a passage that we studied, I think it was just last week, with Nicodemus, Jesus chided Nicodemus for not being plugged into this. When he told Nicodemus you must be born again, and he meant you must be born from above, you've been born below, you've been born of water, you've been born of the flesh, that which is of the flesh is flesh, that which is of the spirit is spirit, you have to be born again, you've been born physically, that gets you into this world, but you have to be born from above to get into the next world.

[38:45] And Nicodemus said, how can this be, how can a man enter his mother's womb again and be born? No, no, no, no, no, that's not what he's saying, but that's what he thought.

[38:57] And then Jesus said, Nicodemus, you are a ruler in Israel, and you don't understand the basic difference between the physical and the spiritual.

[39:14] And Nicodemus, oh, well, just like a lot of people would today. the spiritual is kind of out of sight, out of mind.

[39:27] Do you have any idea of what would happen if American Christians started giving equal time to the cultivation of their spirit that they give to the honing and the grooming of their body?

[39:52] We spend billions and billions of dollars just trying to look good, usually to impress people that we don't care anything about.

[40:06] Isn't that amazing? Billions and billions that we've spent on eye shadow and perfume and makeup and lipstick. I'm not opposed to those things.

[40:16] I'm not opposed to them. I think, thank God for makeup. I'm not criticizing it at all, but I'm just saying there are things that demand more time and more effort and more money than we give it.

[40:31] And that is the cultivation of our spirit. And the only thing you can do to cultivate your spirit has to do with your intake.

[40:44] don't our dietician friends tell us, and I suspect they're probably right. Not that I like it, but they're probably right.

[40:57] You are what you eat physically. You are what you eat physically. And spiritually, you are what you eat spiritually.

[41:10] you are fashioned and molded on the basis of what you absorb and take into your human spirit.

[41:22] Jesus said, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.

[41:34] That ought to be enough right there to absorb ourselves in the word of God. Nothing can edify, nothing can build up, nothing can establish, nothing can comfort, nothing can enlighten, like the entrance of thy words which gives light.

[41:59] this whole passage in John 6, a very troubling enigmatic statement, except you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in.

[42:11] I hope you can see that now a little differently and that you're not put off by it because when you understand it, it's beautiful. It's just one more illustration that Jesus is saying you really need to put the emphasis where it needs to be.

[42:30] Oh, I know you sought me because you ate of the loaves and were filled. You got a full tummy, so you're looking for me.

[42:40] And what am I to you? A meal ticket. Just a meal ticket. Oh, this Jesus is wonderful. He can just multiply fishes and loaves and you never get hungry again. And the woman at the well, Lord, evermore, give me this water you're talking about that I never have to come down here to the well and draw water again.

[42:57] And all she was thinking about was this wonderful, magical water that Jesus has and you drink it and you never get thirsty again. Wow. That's not what he was talking about at all.

[43:08] He was just using that as an analogy and trying to emphasize the importance of the spiritual. And if I would leave you with anything today, it would be this.

[43:22] Don't sell the spiritual short. you can do that even as a Christian. Pay no heed to it. Give no real attention to it.

[43:33] Little effort to it. Little emphasis on it. But if you want to be what God wants you to be, if you want to find a peace, a joy, a satisfaction, a sense of fulfillment that the world cannot compare with, feed your spirit.

[43:55] Exercise your mind. Get into the word of God. Take in good literature. There are jillions of books out there that are saturated with biblical truth that provide all kinds of wonderful insight that would just, that would change your life and that would enrich your life.

[44:16] but so many of us are just too lazy. We just flip on the stupid tube and let those people tell us what to think and what to believe.

[44:31] And we shortchange ourselves enormously. You deserve better as a child of God. Make this word your daily fair.

[44:46] feed on it and you'll never be disappointed. Spiritual versus the physical. Father, we are truly thankful for the spirit that you have given us.

[45:05] However, it has come about, it is subject to and available to programming from yourself, even in an ongoing way. Jesus said, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.

[45:21] And our heart's desire for everyone here is to take that word seriously and to make ourselves available to the truth of the word of God which the world cannot begin to compare.

[45:36] Father, if there is anyone here today who senses a longing, a deep emptiness that they've never been able to fill with anything, may these truths penetrate their heart and may they realize that only through what you have provided spiritually can the yearning of the human heart be satisfied and filled.

[46:10] And in this closing moment, would you pray with me, please, if there is anyone here who might be willing to pray along with me and say, Lord Jesus, I understand a few things now that I didn't understand before.

[46:27] Maybe this explains a sense of emptiness and a lack of fulfillment that I have. I've been looking for something and I don't even know what it is, but I've sensed that there is more to life than I know.

[46:42] And I believe that that answer is in the person of Jesus Christ. And I don't know how he can get into my life, but I want him to.

[46:54] And I want to be in him, and I want to put down my defenses and my barriers and my objections and just make myself open and available to the Lord Jesus entering my life through his spirit.

[47:12] I want him to be at home in my mind and heart. Best as I know how, Lord Jesus, I want to give myself to you and I want you to be my savior.

[47:27] Thank you for going to that terrible, terrible extreme that you went to, to pay for my sin on that cross. I want to respond by trusting you as my savior.

[47:42] Dear friend, if you make that your prayer, I know God will hear you and he will enter your life and you will be born from anew.

[47:57] Thank you, Lord Jesus, whatever you are pleased to do in the lives of anyone here at this hour, in Christ's name. Amen. Is there a question or comment?

[48:10] Anyone? Tom? Hold on one second. Wait just a second.

[48:21] We've got a microphone coming here. Hi. My name is Tom. For those of you who don't know me, I was just saying today is my one year anniversary coming to Grace Bible Church.

[48:31] And I'd like to thank each and every one of you for so openly accepting me and showing your love in the manner you have. It's been a long journey, 12 years since I came to the Lord graciously with two friends of mine, Ron and Joyce Gannon.

[48:49] And I thank each and all of you that has shown me support and love. And I'm so happy to be honored to be part of Grace Church. And I thank each and every one of you. Well, thank you, Tom.

[49:01] And we are delighted to have you on board. Appreciate it. You know, it's situations like this that put some oomph in your spirit and help you to keep on keeping on.

[49:19] And we need a Tom Jefferson every now and then. And it's much appreciated. Thank you, sir. God bless you. Anyone else comment or question? Or if you've got a word of testimony you'd like to share, why that's fine too.

[49:33] Anyone? Don't be bashful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now, after the message I just shared with you, you wouldn't be hesitating to ask a question because you want something to eat, would you?

[49:51] I hope not. Because if you are, my message just went right down the tubes. Okay, well, I'm going to dismiss you and you head for your favorite restaurant.

[50:03] These things are mine. God bless you. And happy Thanksgiving. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[50:13] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[50:34]  Thank you.