I AM Week 1

Welcome to the North Iron Church Podcast.

Our mission is to take the gospel from the upper peninsula to the ends of the earth.

We pray this message will inspire and encourage you in your faith journey.

Enjoy week one of our I Am series, where we look at Jesus' character in the Gospel of John.

Good morning, my family.

Glad you're here with us.

Would you welcome everyone who's watching online?

We're one church in multiple locations throughout the UP.

We have people all over the world, all over the United States who are part of North Iron.

I am just uh so impressed, not with us, but with how God uses what we have in our hands when we use it to further the kingdom of God.

And you're a part of that uh around the world, as Pastor Matt just said.

We're also going to Uzbekistan, uh, I believe in November.

There might even be a spot or two still open for that.

I would highly encourage you to go to Uzbekistan.

Beautiful country, beautiful people, working with some wonderful, wonderful missionaries, working with underprivileged children.

They have a farm there and rehabilitation for these young young children.

And so uh we love the Edson's.

I'd encourage you to sign up for that trip if if if the Lord is leading you.

It is, as Pastor Matt said, it is life-changing.

We actually consider it at North Iron accelerated discipleship.

Accelerated discipleship.

When you have 10 days and you're intensely serving the Lord in that, I'm just telling you, not only are you changing people's lives around you, but your life changes for the better.

And so I want to encourage you to sign up.

Some of our trips uh that that you even see in the brochure are already full.

And so um I just encourage you to do that.

We're starting a brand new series called I Am.

We're gonna be in John chapter six.

I want you to grab your Bible if you have a physical Bible or on our laptop on Church Center app.

You'll find my notes there in the scriptures that I'm using.

But I would encourage you to have a physical Bible in the digital world.

I don't want you to get into the lazy idea that uh the the the Bible's always with you.

It's it's incredible, incredible privilege to have God's word in the aisleway of IgA.

That is a miracle.

I can't even imagine that as a young man, but it doesn't take away from the fact that you need a physical Bible.

You need a physical Bible.

If you need one, raise your hand.

We'll we'll hand you a great version.

We're gonna be in John chapter six, most of that that chapter, all that chapter, and then about halfway through, we're gonna move over to Matthew chapter 14 and 15 in just a moment.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

Have any of you, you don't have to raise your hand, there's a new phenomenon that I'm I'm I'm wrestling with because it's just so contrary to uh the culture that I grew up in.

Uh when I was hungry, my mom taught me how to cook early on because she didn't want to feed me, especially as a teenager.

Some of you moms are like, uh, this is an endless hole that's never gonna be filled.

And so I would just I learned how to cook probably uh at a very, very early age.

I'm I'm I I can take care of myself.

Jennifer doesn't always cook for me.

If I'm hungry at two o'clock, I'm gonna cook up some eggs and bacon.

Can anyone say amen?

Uh, but today, when you're hungry and you don't want to cook, there's a new cultural thing called DoorDash.

Have you have you heard of this?

Where you get on your phone, you don't even leave the couch or the lazy boy, you just get on this app on your phone called Grubhub or DoorDash.

I've never done it, but I hear about it and I see if I go to a restaurant, I see these dudes with red bags, and then they're picking up food, and you're gonna order food on this app, sit in your lazy boy, and a few moments later someone will come and ring the bell.

You go outside, and it's like the Easter bunnies there.

And you can get that Big Mac, baby.

I didn't know this.

I I'd never thought through this, but sometimes those delivery people they get a mistake and they'll show up at your house with food that you never ordered.

And you walk outside, and then there's some chicken tenders and cheese fries, and you're like, the Lord loves me.

Because they can't, you can't call and say, hey, come get your Big Mac, you're at the wrong address.

That that's like free food for you.

I've never had that happen, but I've I'll be excited when it does, and you all will hear about it.

I I read an article uh this week, heard a story actually, that that about a uh a father named Stephen or sorry, Kevin Stonehouse.

And Kevin was home one day, it was a Saturday, and the doorbell rang.

And again, he opens up the doorbell and he looks on the porch, and there is chicken tenders for him.

And just like I said, he was all excited.

I didn't order this, but this is like a blessing from God.

And so he grabbed it and started chowing down on that.

And uh about five minutes later, the doorbell rings again, and he goes out there and there's another package.

And then five minutes later, he goes out there again, and there's another package and another package and another package, and he's like, What is going on?

Someone's making a mistake, someone's ordering food, uh, having it delivered to my house.

I can't even eat all this.

By that time, it'd been like a half an hour, and five different meals had showed up on his front porch, and then he remembered, Oh, I gave my phone to my six-year-old.

And so he frantically started running around in the house looking for his six-year-old.

And the whole time he's he's like, I know he's he's on that app somewhere.

And so he gets into his room and he's calling out his son's name, Mason.

Where are you?

Where are you, Mason?

And Mason says, Dad, I'm in here under the bed.

He said, Mason, get out here.

And he came out and said, Mason, do you know what you're doing?

You're ordering all this food.

And as he's explaining to his son that that that he shouldn't be doing that, he said, he said, Dad, I'm I'm hungry though.

And just then the doorbell rang and Mason looked up and said, Dad, he said, Dad, I think my pizza is here.

Mason had ordered$439 worth of pizzas.

By by by the end, Mason had ordered$1,500 worth of food that day.

We do a lot of things because we're hungry, don't we?

Would you agree to that?

A lot of things, even bad decisions, can be made because we're we're hungry.

I don't know if you ever have been around someone who's hangry.

Maybe it was a a spouse, but hunger is the it's it's gotta be the worst feeling.

It's something that gnaws at you.

It's something that you're if you're if you're if if you're hungry, you just can't get food out of out of your mind.

It gnaws at you.

And then eventually it it actually can uh you don't actually think well.

When I come home and I'm hangry, I I tell Jennifer, and there's a there's a large decision to be made.

I said, can you just just give me a few minutes?

Let me let me eat something, and then I'll make a decision.

Eventually, your body breaks all the way down, it stops functioning because of hunger.

And I I told you all that because there's a deep spiritual understanding that uh a lot of our issues or a lot of our core spiritual problems can come out of spiritual hunger.

That gnawing in our lives.

May it be the hunger of an addiction or insecurity or the hunger of fear in our lives, those things begin to not only affect us spiritually, but they affect us socially and mentally.

This the spiritual hunger that is really, if you if you boiled it all down, if you whittled it all down, most of our issues today come out of this idea that we're spiritually unsatisfied.

And so we try to fill that empty stomach, if you will, with different things to satisfy ourselves.

It's this deep, unsatisfied spiritual hunger.

I I I've I've used this quote before because I think it's so brilliant, but from William Chesterfield, who says that the man who knocks on a brothel door is ultimately not knowing it, but he's seeking God.

And so we find in in John chapter six that Jesus himself uses seven statements, the we call them the seven I am statements, speaking to the very issue of the spiritual hunger that we all wrestle with.

May it come out as physical or social or mental, but really deep down inside it's a spiritual insecurity that sin creates in our lives, where the only thing that will satisfy us is Jesus.

And so we find in John chapter six, verse 35, Jesus starts with one of these first statements and some incredible miracles kind of surrounding this statement in chapter six, verse 35.

Jesus says, I am the bread of life.

That statement, I am, is a powerful statement that it's not so much that Jesus created that statement.

That's something that was created in Exodus by God when God had called Moses at the burning bush, and he says, Moses, I want you to go to Egypt.

My people are being enslaved, and I want you to go there and deliver my people.

I want you to deliver a message to Pharaoh that he should, that he should honor me and allow my people to no longer be in slavery.

And after hearing this, Moses says, But who am I?

Who should I who should I tell that I'm coming for or coming from?

God, how do I really know that you're gonna take care of us care of us in this process of gaining freedom?

I'm just a I'm just a shepherd.

What kind of authority am I gonna walk in?

I want to know what your name is, God.

And God responds and says, I am who I am.

I am who I am.

It's interesting that he uses the word I am because it really doesn't describe anything.

In Hebrew or English, it's kind of the same thing.

And I'm sure scripture doesn't say it, but I'm sure Moses kind of said, What?

I am because typically we'll say, I am powerful, I am David Broberg's son, I am the pastor of North Iron, I am the king of the youpers, we'll add something to that, right?

Who am I?

And and names were important.

Maybe you see this throughout scripture, but I am in Hebrew is Yahweh, and in Latin it's Jehovah.

And so, in this process of the people of Israel finding their freedom and following Moses as the prophet and deliverer, moving into the wilderness wherever there was a need in their life, God would provoke the I am name.

So when the people were scared and they were hungry, he would, God would show up as the I am and say, I am Jehovah Jirah, I am your provider.

When the Israelites were sick, he said, I am your healer.

And when they were afraid, God would come in and say, I am the God ever present with you.

So as Jesus says, I am the bread of life, you need to understand that a relationship with Jesus or a relationship with God through Jesus is to our souls what bread is to our bodies.

So I want to walk through John chapter 6 with you because it's very, very powerful.

John 6 · chapter mention

And oftentimes, even growing up as I was a as a young boy in church, I was really drawn to obviously a lot of the miracles of Jesus, but not understanding what is going on behind the kind of frontal miracles that Jesus was doing.

And you need to understand in chapter six the depth of the message that Jesus is not only giving to the people of Israel, but to the Gentiles.

You'll see that in a moment, and ultimately to you sitting right here with me.

And I want to kind of have some points here this morning so I don't get off topic, but I'm gonna talk about a sign, a sandwich, a satisfaction, and a supper, all in John chapter six and Matthew chapter 14 and 15.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

So let's talk about the sign.

And we'll go to the first part of John.

I believe it's chapter four.

Uh I'm sorry, chapter six, verse four.

Jesus is about to perform one of the most famous uh miracles of feeding the five thousand.

Now, of course, the men are the only ones that are being counted here.

So uh scholars will say that's just not five thousand, it's it's 10,000 if you start uh counting women and children.

And it says in verse 4, it says, now the Passover, and you need to underline that because that's important.

We'll come back to that, but it's the time of the Passover.

So now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand, and Jesus lifting his eyes then and seeing there was a large crowd of thousands and thousands of people who were gonna sit at his feet and listen to his his preaching and his teaching.

A large crowd was coming towards him, and Jesus said to Philip, one of his disciples, Where are we to buy bread so these people may eat?

He said.

He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.

You need to understand that Jesus is setting himself up to explain something to the people of Israel of why he evoked the name I am, and let there be no misrepresentation.

Jesus, by using that term, is saying, I am God.

And so as he sees all these people, he tests his disciple.

Philip responds and says, Man, it would take two to three hundred denarii to even feed all these people.

That's like a year's salary, eight months' salary.

It would take us a year to raise that kind of money to flip this bill.

There's no way all these people would starve before we could even raise that kind of money.

And we're failing.

There's just no way for us to do that.

A second disciple says to Jesus, Well, I found a young Hebrew boy and he has five loaves and two fish, uh, which is like a Hebrew happy meal.

And and and yet he's saying, This is pitily.

We can't do it.

We don't have the power, we don't have the capability to feed all these people.

And so Jesus then takes the five loaves and the two fish, and it says that he prays over them, and then he hands them to the disciples, and he says, I want you to disperse this to the people.

And of course, I'm sure they were rolling their eyes.

I would be like, What?

And as they took the step of faith and began to hand out those five loaves and those two fish, it began to multiply, multiply, and multiply as they passed it around.

They were able to feed everyone there.

It was an incredible miracle.

And after everyone had had their feel, they still had 12 baskets left over.

Something's going on here that the Hebrew people understood that a lot of times we get wrong because we're so focused on this incredible miracle of feeding the 5,000.

And this is you'll see this in the next response here in verse 14.

It says, When the people saw the sign, what sign?

What did they see that we don't we don't see?

And we people saw the sign, they perceived something that was going on, something deep, something historical that he had done.

They said, This is indeed the prophet who has come into the world.

And what you need to understand that the the the the people of Israel understood the same story that they had heard for generations and generations, was that 2,000 years ago there was a prophet named Moses, and he was involved in delivering the people of Egypt.

And as they went across the wilderness, things got difficult, and so God they couldn't, they didn't have enough food, and so God created another miracle that involved bread in a way.

Every morning when they would get up to be able to feed themselves, God created this incredible miracle in the morning.

There would bread or what they would call manna would fall.

I would I would say that manna is most like maybe Ritz Kraskers with honey on it.

It was delicious.

And so they would consume this matter of fact, manna as the children probably went out and and gathered this bread-like substance off the ground.

Actually, in in Hebrew, the word for manna is what is this stuff?

And some of you are probably thinking, well, this is kind of boring.

I'd get tired of that day after day after day after day.

I'm sure they got creative, right?

Mana pudding, manna bread, manna cotty.

Um you're like, man, that's manna, that's a lot of puns.

I'll move on.

You're obviously a graduate from college.

Um but this is what's going on in John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

That Jesus, in the same way that God did with the people of Israel, is evoking the name to the needs of people.

The brokenness, the insecurities, the fears that we all feel on some level, that we constantly looking for that satisfaction, that that new car smell that fails us again and again and again.

And Jesus is saying to the people that like the Passover was a feast.

Remember the Passover at the same time.

The Passover was a feast that the Jews celebrated to mark the date that they were freed from Egypt.

And sold very excitedly.

They said, We got a new prophet.

New deliverer, a new Messiah to free us and fill our stomachs with new manna and instituting a new Passover meal.

And again, so when the people saw this incredible miracle, it had a deeper understanding.

They saw the sign, they understood what Jesus was saying as he says, I am the bread of life.

And they said, This is indeed the prophet who would come into the world, not just a prophet, the prophet that eventually would deliver them from the oppression, much like the Egyptians, but deliver them from the oppression of the Romans.

They got it and they didn't get it.

So perceiving this as scripture goes on, this understanding, perceiving this, then they were about to come and take him by force to make him king.

Isn't that interesting?

And so Jesus seeing that, my people are getting it wrong.

We find that Jesus withdrew again to the mountains by himself.

And again, this is true for the people of Israel, this is true for us.

You've got a deeper problem than Roman occupation in your life.

A deeper pro problem than an empty stomach.

The problem is that your soul is starving.

Now don't don't don't misinterpret this.

Jesus cares about your stomach, and with his this miracle, he fills it.

But there's a a deeper satisfaction that you need in your life, and Jesus is saying, I am that guy.

I am.

And maybe you're here today with that kind of feeling where you're walking in and you need something from Jesus because your life is broken in one way or another.

And I'm not, I in no way am I trying to take that aspect away from what's going on here.

Your greatest need is spiritual, not physical, but the the physical can oftentimes become such a barrier to us that we need Jesus, the maker of miracles, to come in and change our situation.

Maybe you're here and you need a new job.

You need a new life.

You need a new wife.

You need new kids.

Tried my best.

Lord, take me home or take them home.

New health.

I know some of your stories.

And again, the only thing that's going to rectify that is Jesus, the maker of miracles.

So this is the sign that's going on.

Jesus is saying, I'm bringing in a new system that's going to satisfy your soul and nakedness.

That's what sin does to us, it makes us naked.

And I'm going to bring this an eternal satisfaction to you.

The second thing I want to talk about is what I call, or scholars call, the sandwich.

Now, what's interesting is Jesus doesn't stick around and tell the Israelites these things.

He doesn't explain this miracle.

He doesn't sit down for an hour and say, hey, I know you're all fed now.

Let me tell you what this means.

If you look at your Bible, I think it's it's verse 16.

He doesn't go into this long uh expository kind of teaching or hermeneutics, which is the explaining.

What happens is that Jesus walks right into another miracle, and you'll see it there.

It says, Jesus walks on water.

And it it's it's an interesting shift in some ways, but there's an importance that you need to understand here that Jesus sends his disciples on a boat across the Sea of Galilee, Galilee to a place called uh Kapuram.

He says, I'm I'm gonna meet you over there.

While they're in the boat, this incredible storm, two things happen during this miracle.

This the storm shows up in their lives, it's powerful, and Jesus comes in and in the middle of the night and he walks, they're scared, they think their lives are gonna end, and Jesus comes walking out on the water.

The first thing he does is he calms, he brings peace to the storm.

But the second thing, the second incredible miracle that happens there is as soon as Jesus walks into the boat or steps into the boat off the water after everything is calm, it's like shazam, they end up at the docks and across the water.

Like that's that's incredible, everyone.

And it's showing the disciples that with what they can't, Jesus can, and yet we find when Jesus arrives in Capuram, that something else happens.

Now, John doesn't record this, but Matthew chapter 14, turn there with me, Matthew chapter 14, to be a couple books in in front of John, Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention Matthew 14 · chapter mention Matthew 14 · chapter mention

Matthew tells us what goes on when they're in Capuram or Caperna Capernaum, however you want to say it.

And we find that when Jesus gets off the boat, as they instantly arrive at the docks there, which is let's transport what whatever.

I mean, you can you can play with that idea, but Jesus has this incredible power, and in an instant they arrive from the middle of the lake to the docks at Capernaum, and they get off, and Jesus again has another miracle.

Now, you need to understand that Capernaum is uh uh where where Palestine is today.

It is historically not really quite a Jewish thing, and don't get all political with me, but but you need to understand that this this area historically has been a gentile area.

And so there was a lot of Gentiles in Capernaum, and so as Jesus was going along the way, we find that a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus and she says, I have a I have a problem.

Now you need to understand that Canaanite means Gentile, that's all it means, and this is offensive to the Jews, his disciples.

And Jesus is saying, Well, or the disciples are saying to Jesus, why are we even here?

These are the enemies of God, these are the spiritually ruled and backwards, poduck people, the Canaanites, like these aren't God's people.

Jesus, why are we here?

And we even find that when the when the woman comes up to Jesus, he calls her a dog.

A very unPC thing for Jesus to say.

You're probably not gonna see that um in the chosen.

I'm just saying.

All right, and Jesus wasn't making a racial slur here, he was making a spiritual statement.

She was like a spiritual dog who was lost and desperate.

And so Jesus heals her daughter because she comes up to Jesus and says, I need you to do something.

My life, my daughter's dying, and Jesus heals her.

And again, the disciples are like, What are you doing?

And Jesus is making a statement here again, not only with the walking on water and calming the storm and the power to accomplish what he wants to accomplish, but he comes into a Canaanite woman and heals her daughter.

And the statement he's making here is I'll heal anyone with faith.

And then we find that Jesus walks into again as he's teaching the Gentiles, much like he did with the with with the Jewish people.

They're all gathered.

Now, this time it's not 5,000, it's 4,000.

And again, it's almost a like miracle.

Everyone's hungry, they don't have any means.

Again, some some bread and fish shows up, and Jesus prays over it, and they hand it out to everyone, and everyone is their stomachs are filled, and everyone's happy, and Jesus is there, is there teaching.

And this time there's seven baskets left over.

You're probably wondering, well, why not twelve?

Why not twelve?

Is Jesus losing his power?

No, that's not what's going on.

The reason that there are seven full baskets left over is because when the people of Israel moved and manna was coming down, you need to understand that they were surrounded by seven Canaanite nations.

Gentiles.

So what Jesus is saying to the Jewish people is, I'm coming to you.

The 12 baskets, by the way, represent the 12 tribes of Israel.

And then he went to the Gentiles across the Sea of Galilee and preached, the kingdom is at hand.

And he's saying to the Gentiles, I'm also here for you.

Whoever would be someone who would have faith, who's hunger, and faith come together and come to me.

I will be that bread of life in your life.

And so we have this kind of sandwich.

Can you see it?

Where you have the feeding of 5,000 on the top, you have the feeding of five or 4,000 on the bottom, and then you have this incredible two miracles in between, miracles of power where Jesus walks on water, the first one, and then the second one, he heals the Canaanite woman.

Jesus' point is you need to understand this, is not his ability to put physical bread in our stomachs or overthrow Rome.

The point is, is whatever you're in need of, he has the power to pick that thing up and heal it in your life and bring you ultimate satisfaction.

Maybe the storm of your marriage, your kids need healing, the hunger of addiction, whatever it is, Jesus can step into your sinking boat and bring peace, everyone.

Again, the greatest human need is not physical, it's spiritual.

And you're hungry, like I'm hungry.

There is, and this is I guess my third point, there is a satisfaction that we all desire.

Have you ever heard Christians or we use this kind of word?

Hey, you need to be satisfied.

I probably have already said it four or five times.

Or you need to find happiness and joy in Jesus.

Like, what does that mean?

What does that actually mean?

Does it mean a full stomach?

And we find in John chapter 6, verse 35, Jesus says that I'm I am the bread of life.

John 6:35

And whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

I think you need to understand the grand scale of what's going on here.

But Jesus is basically standing up and saying, I am God, I am not only the center of the universe, I am the center of history, I'm the center of present, I'm the center of past, I'm the present, the past, and the future.

There is no other God but me.

Hey, that's a that's a bold statement.

I don't think anyone else has ever ever done that.

C.S.

Lewis has a very famous quote about Jesus that that I'll use every once in a while.

You all need to read everything C.

S.

Lewis writes.

He's brilliant.

If Jesus wasn't actually God, one or two things has to be true.

Either he's the worst liar that ever emerged from the pit of hell, cruelly convincing people to worship and to trust him, or else he's a lunatic on the level of a man who says he's a poached egg.

Right?

I've heard other people say things about this quote from C.S.

Lewis: either Jesus is a liar, a lunatic, or Lord.

What does satisfaction actually mean?

It means this.

This is important for you guys.

Some of you should all you should write this down.

It means that you have the absolute assurance that you belong to him and he belongs to you.

So when you win, and you win big, and you're excited about that, everyone around you is excited about that, it pales in comparison to Jesus in your life.

And it doesn't mean that you don't care about that win, you just have farther sight, spiritual sight, to understand that even if I win here on earth, it's fleeting and it really doesn't have any purpose eternally.

Because I have Jesus.

Because simply I belong to him.

I can withstand anything that this world throws at.

It's not gonna bring me down.

And people look at you and say, I don't understand why, but he has some kind of inner peace and satisfaction and fulfillment in his life.

Why is that?

Because you belong to Jesus.

And then lastly, if you find in John chapter 6 at the end, there's the supper.

John 6 · chapter mention

The Lord's Supper.

And we find that Jesus says this as he's handing out bread.

So Jesus said to them, 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 him.

And this, by the way, you'll see the next scripture confuses everyone.

The Jews then disputed amongst themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

And when many of the disciples heard this, they said, This is this is so confusing, Jesus.

We actually have to eat your flesh and drink your blood.

And what they didn't understand at the time, and thank the Lord for his word, everyone.

Thank the Lord for the understanding of his word.

We have the great privilege of almost looking at hindsight and understanding what Jesus really truly meant.

And what he was saying to his disciples is listen, I am the new Passover.

In Exodus, when I God asked you to put blood on the doorposts in Egypt, it was actually my blood.

When you were picking up manna off the ground, I am the bread of life, my blood is the doorpost, my body is the real manna that is broken to feed and sustain you.

So you can see how Jesus says again in John chapter 6, verse 35 if anyone hungers, let him come to me and eat.

John 6:35

He that feasts upon me will never hunger, and he that believes in me will never thirst.

I am the bread of life.

There's a very famous sociologist looked at what were the favorite phrases of humankind.

Three things.

I figured the first two, I was a little surprised.

On the third one, they're this.

I love you, I forgive you, and dinner's ready.

Now, these sociologists weren't believers, but can you see the gospel in this?

That Jesus loves you unconditionally, created you, placed something inside of you.

He's forgiven you even though you've searched after things consistently in your life that have not brought satisfaction.

Maybe they filled your stomach for a while, but it never lasts.

And he forgives you and brings you into your family, and then he invites you to the Lord's table to sup with him.

It's actually a book.

The Seven Lives, Lies, The Seven Lies That Will Ruin Your Life and Ruin Mine.

It's my it's written by uh James Broom, who was a very famous porn star.

In 2013, he was at Excuse me, I don't know how to talk about this stuff without making a mistake, so I'm going to.

But he was at the top of his game.

I don't even know what that means.

He was real.

He was really good at what he did.

He was the top porn star of 2013.

And even though he had reached kind of the pinnacle of the porn industry, very damaging, damaging thing, he he said I was highly successful, and I was the most miserable person on the face of this earth.

He said in 2015, as his life was falling apart, he said, I had a friend who came to me.

And she said, John, that was his name, his real name.

Now, you need to understand that in this industry you have a porn name, and it always is created out of violence or brokenness or fear.

But he said, and that's what everyone called me.

They never ever used my real name.

She used my real name.

She used my real name and she said this to me.

The gospel is that you aren't defined by the worst thing you've ever done or by the best thing you've ever done.

We're defined by Jesus' love for us and nothing less and nothing more.

At the time, John said, no one had ever talked to me like this.

It was

Like a combination of her using my real birth name and her speaking the gospel over top of me, and it began to transform my mind and my scales started to fall.

And I began this incredible journey of turning my life over to Jesus.

He said, I was in the porn industry because no one ever talked to me like this.

My mom told me I was worthless.

My dad didn't love me.

And so I just didn't dive into the porn industry.

It just happened with small decisions that led to horrific large decisions.

So I I eventually found myself in the pit, as he calls it.

And he said, Jesus reached down and gave me purpose and pulled me out.

He says something very interesting in the book.

So what's your laughter on the other side of pain and death?

Because pain and death is what we experience.

So what's your joy on the other side of that?

What's your joy in the midst of that?

The reason that you're in the pit as most of us are, it's not large decisions.

It's small decisions away from Jesus, not towards Jesus.

What you did to separate you from God was a symptom of a hungry heart.

A hungry heart we all have.

So Jesus comes with the greatest need.

If you are hungry, I need you to come to me.

And I'll fill you with an assurance and forgiveness and salvation.

Again, John 635.

If you're hungry, come to Jesus.

If you're thirsty, come to Jesus.

It requires two things.

Number one, that you're just hungry.

You're tired of this world.

You're tired of the sin that almost has become your personality.

You don't even quite know why you make the decisions you make.

And it's deeply rooted in this soul nakedness that sin and insecurity and fear come into our lives as we make small sin decisions in our lives that lead to larger things.

You gotta be hungry.

And like the Canaanite woman, you gotta have faith.

Gotta take a step towards Jesus, everyone.

So I'm gonna invite you as we move into the Easter season at Lons and Atanagden here at Ishbaming.

If you'd stand with me, again, I'll I'll always invite you into the presence of Jesus.

Some of you just need to move.

We don't care what's going on.

We care, but that's not important.

The most important thing is that you come to the maker of miracles in your life.

And you need you need to move.

I know you have hunger, but do you have faith to move towards Jesus?

Let's pray, Father.

Lord, your spirit is here.

Lord, we look to you, Lord, a deep hunger, a spiritual hunger, Father, that we've created in a multitude of ways.

And Lord, I'm getting up, Father, and I'm moving towards you into your presence, into your Father.

You are the bread of freedom, Father, for us.

You're the bread of healing for us.

You're the bread, Father, of forgiveness and new life and eternity.

And so, Lord, we come to your supper table and we consume all that you are, and we ask this as we move forward and we begin to worship you, Father.

We ask this in the mighty name of Jesus.

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