Let's Eat - Kingdom Pursuit

So Matthew 631 to 33, it says this, do not worry then saying

what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear for

clothing? For the Gentiles eagerly seek

all these things. The Luke translation says all

the nations seek these things, OK?

For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things,

but seek first His Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these

things will be added to you. Let's pray.

Father, we love you and we honor you.

We thank you for the Holy Spirit.

We thank you that He is here with us.

We thank you that first we house the Holy Spirit, us that are

born of God. We are the temple of the Holy

Ghost. He bears witness with our

spirit. We are children of God, but He's

not in there just to bear witness with our spirit that

we're children of God and that when we pass from this life to

the next, we'll be present with the Lord.

We'll be called up and be in heaven with him.

But he actually came on an assignment that when Jesus first

introduced him, said that when he comes, that is the spirit of

truth. He's going to cause things to

come to our remembrance. He's going to teach us all

things. He's going to guide us into all

truth and he'll disclose things to come and so be before he

introduced him as one bearing witness.

We are children of God is that he had an assignment to renew

our mind to change our thinking so that we could discover who we

are and how God originally intended man to be.

And so with that we accept and receive the ministry of the Holy

Spirit this morning to renew our minds so that we can walk out

this Kingdom in the earth while we remain in the earth and that

his Kingdom would come his will would be done on earth as it is

in heaven through our lives in Jesus name and all God's people

said Amen. So this passage of Scripture

comes from what the Bible has or theologians have pinned as the

Sermon on the Mount. And this is Jesus's famous

message that is recorded within the Gospels.

And he has he is ministering to people and we're right in the

middle of it here in Matthew 6, 3331 to 33.

It's it includes chapters 5-6 and seven.

And so again, when Jesus ministered this, he did not

minister it from the book of Matthew.

Matthew was writing this, OK, He was just ministering this to the

people. And this is right in the midst.

Now this whole sermon has so much that we could preach till

Jesus returns just out of these three chapters alone and never

touch another book. It's amazing all you we can't

even mine out all the truths that our king spoke in these

three chapters alone. But right here in the middle of

it he says listen, don't worry. Do not put your pursuit on what

the world puts on that puts their pursuit on you need

Matthew 633. Seek first the Kingdom of God

and his righteousness. Now I know we hear the Scripture

often, but let's look at it in the amplified classic.

We want to break this down a little bit.

It says, but seek, aim at, strive after first of all, his

Kingdom and his righteousness, His way of doing and being

right, and then all these things taken together will be given.

Besides, in essence, if we'll seek first the Kingdom and his

righteousness, then what everyone's trying to do without

the Kingdom, the Kingdom will just bring it to us.

Just bring it to us. Now it's January, it's our first

Sunday service here at Anchor Faith Church and as I was

ministering to the Lord and and and praying saying, Lord, what

do you want to say? Because there was a few things

that I was, you know, mulling over in my spirit, rolling over

in my spirit. And then the Lord brought this

along this Sikh. Now I'm going to define Jesus's

words because in the, in our, in cultures across the globe, but

specifically in the Western world, you know, we've said this

through many through for many years now, because God is the

word in the beginning was the word and the word was with God

and the word was God. That's John 11.

He has the right to define the word.

And you understand as we are further away from the event of

the cross and the resurrection, moving and hastening ourselves

towards His return, humanity and how the world function is vying

for our attention and wants us to define terms based upon how

we feel or what, as we mentioned in Morning Prayer, seems good to

us. But when you literally take time

to just let the scripture interpret itself, well, then

your expectation should be what God has said.

You know, a lot of times ministries can be wrongly

portrayed as desiring something or expecting something.

But the reality is, if we're just preaching the word, we're

just having an expectation of what God is saying.

Amen. Now for those who have red

letter Bibles, is this red letter conversation.

For those who do not have red letter Bibles, that just means

that Jesus is the one talking. If you, you know, if you have

the printed page with some translations still do this as

well, even in your electronics is that they'll show it in red

and that means Jesus is talking. Well, if Jesus is talking for

sure we should be listening right now.

We should listen to all scripture because it's inspired

by the Holy Ghost and Jesus is speaking by the Spirit.

Jesus is not speaking on his own accord.

Jesus is not giving his own interpretation.

He is led by the Spirit in the earth and he speaks the things

that he's hearing from his Father.

OK, but these are the words of the King, the one whom all of us

who say we're born again. We are born again because we've

said we follow him. OK, Again, Jesus will define

what following is. So you need to get your

definition of following Jesus from the Scripture, not from

your personal definition. But let's focus on what Jesus

says here. He said, but seek first.

Now before we go to 1st, let's go to seek because seek by

definition is a really powerful word.

This is the attitude that you are to have.

This is God's expectation of those who are His disciples.

This is what he is saying to his disciples.

He says you need all this effort that is going on in the world

about what to eat, what to drink, what to wear, the cares

of life. I'm telling you, don't even

worry about it or seek it, pursue it, put effort towards

it. What I'm saying is seek first

the Kingdom. All right?

This word seek means this. It means to seek in order to

find. So you understand you're not

seeking with this attitude. Well, I'm looking, but man, I

don't know if I'll ever find it. That's not your attitude.

Your attitude is I'm seeking and I will find.

I said I'm seeking and I will find.

What did Jesus say? Seek and you'll find knock and

the door will be open. Ask and it will be given to you.

So this attitude that we have is that there's an expectation when

I seek, I'm going to find in essence the Lord saying to us is

that listen, when you're seeking, have the expectation

that I'm answering and as the prophetic word by unction of the

Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is in the church today

and he has gifts that he has, he distributes.

There's 9 gifts in First Corinthians chapter 12 where

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

he'll move upon Saints to be able to communicate things to

the church body of which he did that through the gift of

prophecy this morning, which is a word to encourage and edify us

and build us up. And that prophetic word was when

God has given you a promise, his word says it is yours that you

do not disconnect, you do not abandon, even though you don't

currently see it coming to pass because God's promises are yes

and Amen, and they shall come to pass.

Now in order for you to in that passage that the Lord used this

morning in first king is noticed is that the prophet kept sending

the servant to seek to see the manifestation.

You just go. Now he sent him not wondering

would he ever see it's when will he see?

It's not will he ever see? It's when he will see.

So he says go back. He come back.

I didn't see anything. First time he says go back

again. OK, nothing.

Go back again. All right, nothing.

You know, the Bible even says let everything be confirmed out

of two or three witnesses. Surely we're not getting this

thing. Go again.

Fourth time comes back, not there.

Get it again. Fifth time, go seek it.

Another time. Sixth time still novel.

Go back to the hill and check and he says, you know what?

I see a cloud about this. Now it's the size of a man's

hand because he could cover it. But do you know what size that

must be at a distance? And then it built and it blew,

and it came on in By the breath of God.

Hallelujah, the Lord is still moving by a spirit.

The breath of God is still flowing.

His Word is still in manifestation.

But again, you have to have this tenacity to seek.

It says to seek an order to find.

It means to aim at. Here's one definition.

It means strive after. It means pursue.

It means endeavor to obtain. Again, it means to seek an order

to find, to aim at, strive after, pursue, endeavor to seek.

This is an attitude. This is not a sit back casual

like you know, well, you know, if the Lord wants and I'm going

to have it. If he doesn't, I don't.

That's not seeking. Well, if he wants me to know

it'd come up. No, you got to go after it.

You've got to strive. You've got to move.

You've got to be doing. You got to keep pursuing.

And again, it's an effort not of your own self, but it's by the

grace of God that He's opening access to the Kingdom for you so

that you can pursue him, so that you can go after him.

Listen, God is not rewarding the lazy.

It's not doing it. In fact, he is averse to the

lazy. In essence, he's saying, ma'am,

when you get a hold of the Kingdom, now when you're in the

earth, you're going to have to do something.

You're going to have to seek it. You got to make an effort.

You're going to have to endeavor to obtain.

How many of us can disconnect and just be satisfied with this

thought? Well, at least I'm going to

heaven now. I find it interesting because

God never asked us to seek for heaven.

He didn't say beseek first a place in heaven.

He didn't do that because heaven was not the ultimate prize.

I said heaven is not the ultimate prize.

I'm going to say it again, Heaven is not the ultimate

prize. It's amazing.

It's going to be incredible. But there will be a new heaven

and a new earth because it's not about a place, it's about a

position. It's about sonship.

It's about dominion, Hallelujah. It's about the Kingdom.

He says seek first the Kingdom. My Kingdom is not limited to my

realm. My kingdom's not limited to my

location. My Kingdom was here first.

My Kingdom will return here. My Kingdom will function and

operate in here. And I need you to seek it

because it's not readily available to see, but it is an

operation if you'll go after it. Now, these are terms that seem

like there's always this push. What did Paul say?

Paul said I forget while I was behind and I press now these are

terms that God uses, that the believers who God does not use

terms of sit back, relax, I rest, pursuing and I pursue.

And I'm driven like this not because I'm an apostle, but

because I'm a seeker. I'm a seeker because God did not

ask me to seek heaven. However, I do have an

expectation that when I'm absent from the body, I will be called

up into heaven. But I don't seek heaven.

I seek His Kingdom. And in essence, we expect

heaven, but we do not seek it. I said we do not seek it.

So there's something that we need to do with the Kingdom and

that is we need to seek, we need to aim, we need to strive.

Now this word is just before the next word, which is seek first.

Now you would think that that word in it of itself is self

identifying. It defines itself.

But it's amazing how we have redefined first, and I don't

know if it's the era of participation trophies that, you

know, we're all getting a prize. Whether you win or lose, whether

you're first or last doesn't matter.

You all get a trophy. And we brought that into our

concept of Christianity that, you know, I don't have to put

forth the effort. I'm still going to get a trophy.

I'm going to get a pat on the back even if we lose every game,

right? Pastor Joshua and I and a few

others that were on the team that I was on in flag football,

we lost every game. And you didn't see us cheesing

it with the top three, the 2 seeds, right?

The top two teams, the champion, you know, the champion got in

the medal and we who were last place.

No, everybody just talks about how they beat us, right?

I, I, I know trophy for that, all right, No trophy for that.

You understand that God expects that when you have the life of

God in you, there is a pursuit. Now you control the pursuit.

God doesn't. And if he tells me to seek, then

I have to ask how am I supposed to seek?

Then the next thing when? Because for most believers, if

we don't watch out, seeking becomes a later time frame

option. I get sick, I first seek Google

about my symptoms, about what's going on and what kind of

treatments, both natural or prescription that I can do to

overcome. Same in anyway now I don't have

a problem with you going to Google.

I don't have a problem with you going natural or prescription.

The problem is is when you go. It's when you go because we are

supposed to go to God first. First by definition in the

original Greek means first in time or place, chief foremost in

time, place, order or importance.

First of all, Well, when you wake up first thing in the

morning, when you are conscious that you are awake, what do you

do first? But first is not just when you

wake. First can be when a trial hits

you, an issue, who is the first one?

You're asking how to deal with it.

What's your first response? We call people first responders,

that when the trouble hits, boom, the first responder.

Unfortunately, a lot of times, you know, in Christianity, you

know, asking God is later down the line when we've done

everything we've done ourselves then and you've heard the joke.

Has it resorted to prayer? Has it got that bad?

We've resorted to prayer. But yeah, a lot of people get

way down the list before they're even asking God, how do I deal

with this situation? I'm going to give you this.

You are given an opportunity to be promoted and a raise.

Now, what do you seek first? Do you seek God's will that you

should take the position or do you automatically seek your

financial people and this new place they want you to move?

What's the housing? I mean people will look at job

markets, they'll look at opportunities, they'll look at

all this stuff, but they won't look is there a church in the

community? Is God even asked me to

disconnect from the 1 he assigned me to?

Is the devil giving me an alternative that will cause me

to abort on the plan and purpose of God 1st is first.

I said first is first, first is 1st and Jesus is saying if we'll

seek with effort we're striving we're we're passionate we're

it's the first thing we do first is seek him his will, his

Kingdom, not only his Kingdom, but his righteousness.

God's way of doing things because again, salvation is not

a continual pursuit. This is why the Lord didn't say

seek first salvation. He didn't say that.

He says seek first the Kingdom. Now, if you were like Nicodemus

and you started to strive after the things of God, you're going

to find yourself talking to Jesus at 2:00 in the morning,

say, man, we know you from from God, you know.

And Jesus said unless you're born again, you cannot even see

the Kingdom of God or enter it. So the first step is salvation.

However, it's not the end pursuit.

Salvation is not the end of seeking.

Well, if I just make the Lord him the Lord of my life first,

which many of you didn't do it first.

You did it 30s forties, some in your 50s, right?

Some later in life. It wasn't first.

So it can't be salvation. No, this is for the believer to

strive. Never let someone make you feel

bad because you are putting God at the forefront of all you do.

Oh man, you know this God thing, you're just talking.

He's first, He's first, He's first.

He told me to put him first. He didn't say put him last,

didn't put him when it's convenient, didn't put it when,

you know, I'm in trouble and now I need help.

No, he said seek him first. And this was an everyday

occurrence. And you know what?

All the stuff that you're putting all that time and effort

in because you understand this. Anytime someone says you're

doing too much, they're doing something somewhere.

So at least your effort is in the priority that God says that

honestly will free you up from things that you are currently

putting a lot of time in because if you'll put that time in the

Kingdom got to just bring the rest to you.

He redeems the time again, there's a there's leaders all

over the world saying, you know what?

There's only one thing you can't buy back and that's time.

That's a lie. Jesus redeems the time in the

world. You may lose time, but not in

the Kingdom. In the Kingdom, He'll redeem the

time. Amen.

If you'll pursue Him, He can elevate you.

He can. He can promote you.

He can bring favor. He can do all things in your

life that your own effort and time can never accomplish.

And if you do accomplish, will it burn up in the end?

In essence. And it's difficult because we're

in a world we're not of that. When we get here to January, you

understand, it's the calendar. We live by God's and eternity

times in Him. So he's not looking at Tom,

we're looking at time. And I don't have a problem with

a reset. I don't have a problem with

goals. I don't have a problem with all

that. As long as your goals came out

of your prayer life. You're seeking first.

What do you want me to do this year?

God, how do you want to use me? What do you need to change in

me? What do I, how do I?

I'm seeking you before I put anything down of goals.

What's your goal for my life this year?

I mean, if we're asking those should be your spiritual growth

and development should be your first goals, not your family,

but God. Hallelujah.

See, the Kingdom is contrary to the things of the world, and the

world says a lot of stuff that sounds good, but it violates the

seat first principle. It violates it.

OK, Look what it says in First Chronicles 1611.

It says it this way. Seek the Lord and his strength.

Seek his face continually. How often continually.

So first for us is anything we're ever doing.

We're like, Lord, what do you want me to do?

How do you want? I remember when I was seeking

another house because the Lord said, you're done in this house,

it's time for you to move. And I had only bought that

house. It was the first house I ever

bought. And so I said, OK, Lord, what do

you want? Because in one side, it seemed

right to me that now that I, my wife and I are empty nesters,

that, man, we could downsize. And, you know, basically what I

paid here, I could maybe spend a little bit more and we could get

a condo on the beach and wake up to a cup of coffee in the

morning looking at the ocean. Roll in, right?

A nice little condo with somebody else cuts the grass.

You know, I'm going to, I'm going to, Lord, You want me to

redeem the time, right? We're going to, I don't have to

cut grass. We don't have to do lawn

maintenance. You know, we're just going to

have to fix up the house. And you know, we'll do that and

then, you know, five years later, do it again because we'll

get bored with it. But it's outside.

You know, we pay for that to be taken care of.

It's just part of the package. We'll downsize because, Lord, I

don't care, you know, when this tiny livings, you know, was, you

know, kind of a rage for a little while.

And I had no problem with that, you know.

But yeah, you want to ask, but I'll never forget the Lord says

no, son, you're going to buy something larger because I'm

going to have other ministers come and stay with you.

Well, now the minute he said that, I was done looking at the

other alternative because now I sought him.

Where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do?

Then at that point I said, well, I didn't even ask the bank what

my budget was. I just said, Lord, you leave me

'cause it doesn't matter how much it costs.

If it's the house for me, you'll make a way.

And you know what? I didn't have a cap.

And I'm thankful for godly people that were in the church

that did not look at my wallet to determine the showings that I

went to, did not make sure that the bank would qualify me.

I didn't even have qualification.

I just went and it didn't matter the price.

Don't care because my dad owns the planet anyway.

See, I'm seeking him. Where is the location?

What is the place? What is the house?

Because again, it's just a vessel.

It's just something to be used of God.

And because of that, I purchased where I am today, of which I

have an upstairs suite of which I've had multiple ministers now

stay in our home and God, and I'm doing exactly what God has

said to do. But yet people can come by and

say, wow, look at your home. And while you have this, well, I

only have it because God, I didn't seek the house for me.

I saw him and he said, this is the house.

Now that's different than seeking house for yourself,

seeking cars, planes, all these things.

Because again, that's what the Gentiles do.

I saw God and he added a location to me, Glory to God,

and he added it to me before the, you know, economy went

crazy after COVID. I got in before all that and

then my house basically doubled in equity.

Hallelujah. Glory to God.

If I can only pull the equity out to pay off my house and it

would be free be paid for. We're working on it.

Amen. The Lord is good, but look at

Matthew chapter 5 because if we're seeking, you got to

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

understand Jesus is making a statement right in the middle of

his sermon that is in context of something else he's already said

in his sermon in the beginning. Now what's interesting about

this is that in Matthew chapter 5, verse one that Jesus said and

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

let me read that. I don't have that verse there,

but let me just go over to it real quick and read that

particular verse to you. And by the time I get to it,

they'll probably have it as well.

Matthew chapter 5, verse one, it says when Jesus saw the crowd,

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

He went up on the mountain. So there's a crowd in the

valley, but before he's going to preach, he goes up the mountain.

I wonder how many people didn't go up the mountain with him

because in order to go up a mountain it takes effort.

You have to exert something. They had to demonstrate they

wanted to hear. He didn't come and preach on

their level, he said. I have something to say, but I'm

going to go up here. He saw the crowd.

This is the crowd. This is where we can preach

right here. I'm going up now you can say,

well, he went up to get a a, a different vantage point so that

it's says as he they would echo, but the disciples came to him.

So he's preaching to those who are up with him, those who put

forth the effort, who are like, I got to follow this guy

wherever he goes and I'm willing to climb this mountain to hear

what he has to say. So there's no indication that

the all the crowd went up, but whoever went up are starting to

be identified as disciples. And then he begins to say this

huge word that blew their mind. And he said blessed.

And he begins to expound on this word blessed for a time, But

then we get to verse six. It says this blessed are those

who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be

satisfied. Now let's define the word hunger

and thirst because again, the Bible is identifying to us.

Are we what God expects of us? When God says seek first, the

word identifies and you can say am IA seeker, is he first?

It doesn't take long for you. And this is not condemnation.

No one's trying to put a guilt trip on you.

I'm just saying this is what the Bible tells us we ought to do

and are to do. And you can determine am I doing

that? Now?

If you're not, guess what? God's giving you the ability

correct it. You know, I'm not doing that.

I need to do that. And it's that simple.

I said it's that simple. If you're like, man, that's hard

to put him first. Well, it's not hard to put TV or

social media is the first thing you do when you wake up.

Look at your Instagram. Is it the I don't know.

I'm just saying, you know what your first is and I'm saying

consistently now what is your first?

What is your first? When a situation arise, you know

how you're responding. What's your first?

Are you calling someone? Are you telling them about the

problem? I mean, what is your first?

You identify that, but the Lord said make me your first, OK.

But then he also says this, that if you want blessed, well then

there's an attitude and he says the those that are that hunger

and thirst, these are those who are blessed.

Now that's not the only criteria, but in keeping with

seek and 1st there's a thought process here.

Hunger means this, to crave ardently, to seek with eager

desire. I mean, is your Bible reading

with eager desire or to check a box?

I mean, you know the attitude of your hunger.

Hallelujah. Now we can identify this

naturally because if you're not hungry, then you can go buy

bread and be like, whatever, I'm not hungry right now.

But now if you're hungry and you haven't eaten for six hours

because This Is Us, you know, we're starving, then we'll eat.

And if we've actually gone all day and not and and we're eating

our first meal, sometimes we can take a bite and go, wow, this is

the best bread I've ever had in my life.

But you know, that's not true per SE, but you are feeling

pretty satisfied to take a bite of some food.

So, you know, in the natural what hunger's like, Come on, How

many people in this room said I'm starving, I got to get some

food, right? And we know nothing about

starvation. We know this.

We use this term. We do not really know what

starvation is, But have we been hungry?

Have we been hangry? Right.

Go ahead and look at your neighbor and say, Yep, I saw

that, right. Come on, spot wives, how many of

you said my husband functions in hangry on more than one

occasion? I get you.

I mean, I know this, my wife is saying you're hangry right now.

I said, well, let's make some food.

I get out of this quick. If it's just one, if just a few

bites, we can get rid of this pretty fast.

Hunger means to crave ardently, to seek with eager desire,

desire earnestly to long for, to hunger after.

Well, what does that person look like that's hungry.

What do they look like? How do they talk?

How do they act? What are they doing?

And again, for righteousness, right, for God's way of doing

things. So again, man, I can't wait to

get to church. Why?

Because I love to seek him. I love to seek his Kingdom.

I can't. I mean, it was the first

thought, man, we get to go to church today.

I am earnestly desiring to be about the Father's business and

and hear things concerning. I'm hungry to hear God speak to

me today. Now you know your appetite in

the Spirit and again, do not let anyone diminish or cheapen your

hunger. I mean, it's amazing how

sometimes believers, and again, sometimes I think it's just

through ignorance, others is through their own personal

conviction is that when someone is striving and hungry and can't

wait and full of joy and excited woo, can't wait to hear it, man.

I'm so you're like, bro, you're simmered down.

You'll get it. I mean, this will wear off.

It's never supposed to wear off. It's not supposed to wear off.

It's supposed to be there to get satisfied.

Are you hearing me? So he goes on.

Then thirst means this, to thirst after in spirit, to

desire for, to, to desire or long for, ardently, eagerly long

for those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported and

strengthened. Don't feel bad that you're like,

man, I can't wait to get to church today.

That's an exciting thing because what are you doing?

I'm thirsty, I'm hungry, and I want to hear the Word.

It's righteousness. It wants to train me, It wants

to change me. I can't wait.

I can't wait to be in front of those children today and serve

so that I can give them there's food to me.

Because again, when you serve, there's food.

Because what did Jesus say? You don't know what food I have

because while you are buying bread, I was delivering bread

and I got satisfied in my serving.

Glory to God. Why?

Because he was first the Kingdom.

He wasn't first. Like, get your water.

I'm starving. I'm hung.

Can you give me? I mean, I don't want to talk.

Just give me some food. My guys have left.

Can you give me some of your water now?

He was like, you know if you knew who I was, right?

Yeah, right. If you knew who I was.

And he begins to tell her, now he's flowing.

Why? Because he's about the Father.

That's just too much Jesus. That's just too much church.

That's just too much living for God.

How's it too much? There is no too much.

We serve a too much God, a too good God, an abundant God.

Now, if you're doing it out of your own effort, that's one

thing. But when you're doing it as God

designed, because you know what the God who loves you can say,

hey, you did good, you served well, I got another man up, up.

You just take a seat on this one.

You know what, there's no problem.

Why? Because they'll never be a gap.

They'll never be a hole. They'll never be an issue with

this church. But again, if you're monitoring

your firsts with another first and you got to ask yourself that

question, this is January, let's make 2026 the year that every

month we can say he was always first.

He was first, He was first, He was first.

I said he was first. Glory to God.

I said glory to God in John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

Jump over there real quick. I'm going to have to go really

quick now in John chapter 6 verse 26, starting in 26, Jesus

John 6:26

says this. Jesus answered them and said

truly, truly. I say to you, you seek me not

because of because you saw signs, but because you ate of

the loaves and were filled. He said, Do not work for the

food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal

life, which is the Son of man. That which the Son of man will

give to you. For on Him the Father has set

his seal. Verse 28.

Therefore they said to him, What shall we do so that we may work

the works of God? Jesus answered, said to them,

This is the work of God, that you believe in him who He has

sent. Now that is not a one time

belief. We are to believe in Him, in

everything pertaining to life and godliness, everything.

Because Jesus is saying more than be born again.

In fact, be born again was the least thing he said.

It's the least thing he said. It's necessary.

You must be born again, but it's the least thing he said.

Verse 30 So they said to him, What then do you do for a son,

so that we may see and believe you?

What work do you perform? Verse 31 Our fathers ate the

manna in the wilderness, as it is written.

He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.

Jesus then said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not

Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is

my Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.

For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven

and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord,

always give us this bread. Jesus said to him, I am the

bread of life. I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in

me will never thirst. Now this seems like

contradictory. He just said blessed are those

who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Now he says if you'll come to him, you'll never be hungry and

you'll never thirst. Now that doesn't mean you won't.

It's wise. It's because you're always

hungry. And when you're always hungry,

he'll always feed you. When you're always thirsty.

It's an attitude. Lord, thank you for that

revelation. What else?

I'm still seeking you. I'm still striving after you.

I didn't get satisfied with that meal.

And now I'm going to relax for a while.

And then all of a sudden I'll come and and hook up with you

later. No, it's this constant.

Lord, that was so good. Wow, that was so tasty.

What else is on the table? Because here's the thing, you

cannot over. Eat God.

You cannot get obese with God. In fact, the more I eat of the

bread of lie, the more it creates this like hunger in me.

Because all that I know, I realize what I still don't know.

So there's this insatiable desire that He does satisfy, but

it immediately turns you into what else is there to know?

Don't let anyone ever put out your zeal to want to know Him.

And in these last days the world is constantly attacking the

source by which you can eat and drink and be satisfied.

Always, always doing it, always doing it.

So he goes on then and says this.

Then Jesus said I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in

me will never thirst. Now jump down to verse 48.

He said I'm the bread of life. Your Father's ate the manna in

the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes

down out of heaven, so that the one may eat of it and not die.

I am the living bread that came down out of heaven.

If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

And the bread also, which I give for the life of the world is my

flesh. Now is Jesus obviously just

talking about bread? No, we know in Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 8:3

chapter 8 verse 3, because He references Moses and they

referenced the manna in Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

three, it says He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed

you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your Father's

know. Why?

Why did he do this? That he might make you

understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man

lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of

God. That's how man is to live, not

by bread alone. Why is bread necessary?

It's sustained. You're going to need natural

things. In fact, that's why Matthew, he

said, invert chapter 6. He said the Father knows that

you have needed these things. He's not saying you don't need

them and we should never like, well, I don't need to, I don't

need anything. I just have the Lord.

That's not scriptural. God knows you need things on the

planet and He has no problem giving them to you.

In fact, your Father has chosen gladly to give you the Kingdom

and a supply with it. Glory to God, He's amazing.

In fact, he says if you seek me first, everything that everybody

else is going after, I'll give you.

Now you're going to get a good portion of it in this life, but

you'll also get it in the one to come.

I said in the one to come because we are coming back to

the planet for 1000 year, millennial reign and we are

going to be in houses we did not build.

We're going to be over cities. There's a reward on the other

side of things to do with him as well.

And this is for those who seek, who strive, who are, as we said

in morning prayer about the Father's business, He, Jesus was

consumed. And if the head of the church is

consumed, then the body should be consumed.

And everything you do is an outflow of that consumption.

My job is effective because of what I do in the church, how I

function, grow, seek hunger, thirst, grow, develop and

equipped. My whole life becomes different

and then things get added to me that all my coworkers who know

that we're all in about the same dollar figure we all basically

have. But yet I'm living a life so

blessed. I do not have sickness and

disease like they do. I mean, God's opening doors and

they're like, what are you doing?

Well, I'm just seeking the Lord. She's putting him first, Jesus

himself said in Luke 44. Jesus answers said it is written

man shall not live on bread alone.

So that statement was the reason why you're getting the bread is

to teach you quit just trying to do what you can do and

determining how much you want to do what you can do depend on my

word. Seek me with everything you

have. Look to me, run after me.

Treat me like you're hungry. Come after me like you're

thirsty. Man, I'll never forget, man,

when I played Little League football in Archer, Florida, we

were the Archer Hornets. And so I remember that it was, I

just left my neighborhood and went to the practice field.

I mean, I almost could see it from my house.

And so I was over there and have my jersey on and we were doing

tackling drills. You know, they line us up and we

hit each other, you know, And man, I would tackle people.

I mean, I was crazy as a person who could tackle.

I was small, but I would tackle you.

You know, I'd grab you somewhere.

You're going down. I don't care how big you were.

I remember one time I, I tackled one guy, ripped every one of his

shoelaces out. You know, we hit and struggled.

I got down at his feet, he started pulled, I grabbed his

handful of shoelaces and I ripped in.

The whole shoelace just ripped out.

I mean, I was so tenacious at tackling that I ripped people's

jerseys all the time. That one day, you know, the team

decided we're going to RIP Earls jersey off and they ripped.

I got a little hole and they ripped my jersey off because I

would RIP their jerseys. I mean, I'm holding on for dear

life, you understand, but you're going down, right?

But I'll never forget one day of practice.

It was hot. You know, we're in Florida and

I'm in the center part of the state, North Central part, you

know, So it's really hot. No breeze, no ocean breeze

there, no breeze. And these kids are running

around playing. They're not practicing.

They're just hanging out. And I'm looking at them and I

see that water hose over there and I'm over there listening to

coach. I'm like, my gosh, what is wrong

with those kids? Why are they not over there

drinking that water? Oh of you, if I could just go

over there and get a little bit of water right now.

I'm so thirsty and I loved it when the coach blew the whistle.

Boom, man, I was out of you're sucking that green hose water.

It's like a whole nother class of water right there.

Water that comes out of a green hose is next level.

That's next lever taste right there.

Zephyrhills has nothing on green water, hose water.

You know what I'm talking about. But I'm just like, huh.

I mean, I'm like longing. I could not wait for him to blow

that whistle and let us get. I mean, I was so consumed and I

did not walk. I, I mean, I was feeling

fatigued, but I ran. I aren't.

I pursued with great eager and vigor because I wanted to beat

everybody else to be the first one to the water.

I mean, is that your every time church experience?

Is that your every morning experience?

And let me just say this, it should be your whole

relationship with God. It should be your day devotion.

It should be a everyday. But you understand there is the

church time and you should want the church time like you have

your own personal time with the Lord because we are a corporate

church. You should run to it.

You should be hungry for it. You should be passionate about

it. You should be eager about it.

You're like, my gosh, I just can't help but I love doing

doing God's work personally and corporately because I'm in a

body. You do not lose your

individuality, but you do lose your independence.

And if he's Lord, then you're like, Lord, where can I serve?

What can I do? How can I because this is what a

hungry, thirsty person looks like.

So how they sound Hallelujah. And those who critique that have

lost their hunger, they're losing their thirst, they're

actually being satisfied somewhere else, which is not

really satisfying. Now let's close with this in

John chapter 6. Let's go on to verse 59 then.

John 6 · chapter mention

Then these things he said in the synagogue as he taught in

Capernaum. Now I skipped a section where

Jesus starts talking about His blood and His body.

And this created great controversy.

OK, so Jesus is saying I'm the bread of life.

You need to be hungry and thirsty for me.

I'm going to satisfy you. This is the pursuit.

You are to pursue me like a meal.

Like when you haven't had something to eat and you haven't

had something to drink, you want it and you'll put everything

else aside to satisfy that hunger.

I want that kind to pursue me. That's what we want.

That's what he wants. And you know what?

That's what his spirit puts in us when he's Lord.

You're like everyday thinking this deal.

But not everybody could accept that.

In fact, they said it's a hard saying.

See, when you seek God like this, you're going to have many

who don't seek like this say man, that's a hard thing, but

it's not hard. Jesus then verse 6, he says,

therefore many say how many, how many, many of his disciples when

they heard this said, this is a difficult statement, who can

listen to it? That's why there are many

congregations that are filled with complacency.

An hour and no more 20 minute sermons, Podcasts at your

leisure. YouTube when you get to it.

We'll binge on Netflix seasons, but we do not binge the word.

I mean, if you're watching the bowl games in the College

playoffs, I mean, this past weekend they had a game rain.

I mean, it is raining cats and dogs.

I mean, it's crazy how wet the field is.

Cincinnati. I was watching Cincinnati and

whoever they were playing like Navy was watching.

I mean, it's pouring. You know, that congregation

didn't leave. I was blown away by, you know,

they showed up even though rain was in the forecast or it was

raining, period. It's game day.

And they're sad. You know, they're sad because

this is the last time they can assemble until the next season.

You understand, the the religion of sports is so big here that

the idolatry of it with the world is that we're no longer

satisfied with just NFL in the fall.

That's why we have a spring league now and we have an arena

league. I mean, we ought to have sports

24/7 so we can keep filling and assembling.

You know what's crazy about the world?

The world lost. Going to hell can be in their

sanctuaries for three hours, letting it rain on them soaking

wet and not lose their praise. And the team that is losing,

those fans still stay. They'll stay until right at the

end. The only thing that moves them

is really not that their team's losing.

They're just like, OK, I'm gonna cut out early so I can get out

of the parking lot before everybody else.

Much what happens here at the end of service as well.

Yeah, I mean, I know of some games they left at the end of

the third quarter, into the 4th, and that team ended up coming

back and they missed the whole thing because they thought, Nah,

they won't make it. They they won't win.

It's over. Let's just go home now.

I'll need to find out. We missed the biggest comeback

ever, But yet the ones that are winning, they stay.

Not only did they stay, they waited on the ceremony, the

reward at the end of the bowl, the trophy that they're not

getting, but they're getting it in their heart because they have

identified with that team. That's their culture, their

team. They paid to go, they paid to

eat, they paid to get rained on. They paid for the poncho to

where and shouted praises without complaint.

It's a little hot in church today.

It's a little too cold. Well, it's cold in Buffalo, cold

in Pittsburgh, yet no one's saying, hey, how come we don't

get space heaters on this? I have season tickets.

I need to get a little booth around my individual seat.

You know, I pay to be here, too. It's a hard saying.

Is it hard? Are you hungry and are you

thirsty?