The Gospel of John: Chasing What Matters - Mar 23, 2025 (Myles Holmes)

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

So good to be together this morning.

If you have a Bible, and I hope that you do, you can open them up to John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

We're going to be in verses 27 to 36.

If you don't have a copy of God's Word with you, our ushers are making their way down the aisle, you can just flag one of them down.

They'd love to get a copy into your hands, which you can keep as our gift to you.

I want you to know, I have a problem.

Now, some of you guys who know me well are saying I have a lot of problems.

But there is one problem in particular that has plagued me constantly in my life, and that is this all or nothing mindset I often have.

Anyone have that?

Like anyone willing to confess in this moment?

Like kind of this all or nothing mindset.

It can be a great my wife is laughing her head off in the front row.

It can be a great blessing.

It can be a great curse as well.

For example, I'll start a hobby like golf, and within four swings, I will feel like I am on the right trajectory to be, to have a career in the PGA.

And people who have golfed with me, they know that I have a shot at seeing the PGA someday.

I can go home this afternoon, I can watch it, you know.

That is the closest I'll ever get though.

Beyond that, it's a pipe dream.

Beyond that, every time I golf, you know, in the few minutes I dream of what it might be like, I'm really chasing something I can never actually achieve.

Now, that's a sad reality, but it's only really on a small scale, isn't it?

It's not really that big of a deal.

What is a bigger deal, though, and what is far more serious, is the reality that apart from the gospel, apart from coming to Jesus Christ and finding life in him, all of us will spend life, a whole lifetime, chasing something that we can never actually receive.

It's been a reality throughout all of human history.

Apart from being inside God's redemptive plan, every other plan has failed.

And with intellectual honesty, we can just take a moment right now and consider what plan has stood apart from God's redemptive plan.

Think about it, every attempt to build a perfect family has fallen apart.

Relationships strain, children grow up, family names pass away.

Every pursuit of a higher position in a career, it has eventually come to an end.

Someone has taken that title that you are dreaming of right now.

Someone has filled that office or replaced that role.

Every effort and plan to accumulate wealth has eventually slipped through that person's fingers.

Money is spent.

Amen.

Money is spent.

Investments crash, possessions decay.

God's redemptive plan.

While all these plans rise and fall, his plan remains.

God's executing a plan.

We're told about it actually in Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

Let me read you this.

He says, it's a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

And let me tell you why you can be excited about this plan, because he goes on, Paul goes on to say in Ephesians that in him we have obtained an inheritance.

God has a plan.

And his plan is eternal to bring the heavens to the earth.

And the amazing part about that plan, Paul says, is that if you are part of God's family, he has an inheritance for you.

His plan includes you.

And yet we have a problem.

And your problem and my problem is that even though God has sent his son to the world to tell us about this plan, to invite us to come to him and to receive really what each of us are looking for, the problem is that we still live as though we must provide for ourselves.

We live like we have to provide our own security, create our own identity, prove our own worth.

That's true if you're not a believer, but that's also true as believers.

That we chase things in this world hoping that we can get for ourselves what has already been promised in the gospel.

And so listen, I understand that what we're talking about this morning is very serious.

There are some of you who are exhausting yourself to the point that it is affecting your physical health, to the point that you are forsaking things like your family, things like the church.

You are exhausting yourself for work.

And the consequences are very real.

They're not only physical, they are spiritual.

There are some of us, we are pouring everything, everything, everything into our families to hold our family together, to kind of just have this sort of picture-perfect family.

And I don't know about you, like I can hold that together sometimes.

It's about 10 seconds long before my family erupts into complete chaos.

Anyone here with me?

Anyone had some crazy Thanksgiving dinners before?

Like we cannot hold this thing together as hard as we try, but we try and we try and we try.

Cling to financial security.

If we can just get enough, we'll be in control.

If we can just get through this season, then we'll find happiness.

But we keep trying, exhausting ourselves, being filled with anxiety, but we never find the control.

It's very real.

Jesus wants to hit us with these sobering words this morning.

This is our main idea.

If you take anything away from this morning, I pray that it would be this: that apart from the gospel, you will spend your life, your life pursuing what you can never actually get.

This is the profound claim of the Christian worldview.

That if you don't believe the words that Jesus says, the very gospel good news words that he came to proclaim, you will spend a lifetime of wasted effort achieving something you cannot receive.

This is the exact human condition we see in John 6.

That after John reveals himself, Jesus reveals himself as the one who provides what truly lasts, the crowd will respond with these words.

What must we do?

What must we do?

You see, their problem is like our problem.

The trap that they fall into is the same trap we get caught into.

We think that the life that will satisfy is something that we can get ourselves.

And Jesus is here this morning to hit us with this sobering reality that it just cannot happen.

It is an impossibility.

You cannot do it.

It's not something you can achieve.

But Jesus is here this morning and he wants us to understand this: that it is something you can receive.

It is something you can receive.

Let's read the text together.

John chapter 6, verse 27 to 36.

John 6:27–36

And as we read, would you stand with me as a way to honor God and give him glory for the gift that is his perfect and infallible word that he has given to us?

John chapter 6, verse 27.

John 6:27

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

For on him God the Father has set his seal.

Then they said to him, What must we do to be doing the works of God?

Jesus answered them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

So they said to him, Then what sign do you do?

That we may see and believe you?

What work do you perform?

Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Jesus then said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

He said to him, Sir, give us this bread always.

Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

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

But I said to you that you have seen me and do not yet believe.

Let's pray together.

Father, we bow our hearts before you.

You are the bread of life.

And whoever eats of you will never hunger again, whoever drinks of you will never thirst again.

God, that makes a profound claim on our life.

And God, that every other thing that we could pursue will leave us empty.

Leave us hungry again.

And yet, Lord, here you are with such profound words, such hope-filled words, such meaningful words that will radically change our eternity if we will just believe them.

And so, God, we need vision this morning.

I pray that you would give us a spiritual sight in the eyes of our heart to see your Son Jesus Christ.

God, it's a miracle.

It can only happen by the presence and work of your Holy Spirit.

So do your work in our midst, we pray, Lord.

Bow our hearts before you and put our ears in submission to you.

I pray that's the name of your Son.

Amen.

Amen.

You can take a seat.

Apart from the gospel, you will chase a life you can never actually get.

And so John is asking us two heart-probing questions this morning.

And the first is this Are you chasing or trusting?

You chasing or trusting.

Now, here in verse 27, we find the same crowd that Jesus had just miraculously fed.

They had eaten their fill and they had spent the night searching for Jesus again.

They were chasing that fill again.

You know this about bread, you eat it and you get hungry again, unfortunately.

And so the next morning they got in their boats and they went on this wild manhunt to find him, and they finally do.

And when they find Jesus, Jesus says to them in verse 26, Truly, truly I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

Now listen, the problem is not with them seeking Jesus.

Seeking Jesus is never wrong.

And my prayer this morning is that whether you're a believer or not a believer, that you are here seeking Jesus.

What Jesus exposes is the motivation behind their seeking.

They aren't looking for him because they recognize that he is the Messiah.

They're looking for him because they got their fill of bread and they want that fill again.

In other words, they don't want Jesus.

They want the bread.

They don't want the giver, the gift.

They want the giver.

They don't want him.

They're just chasing the thrill of what he offers.

And what Jesus is doing this morning is looking inside of our souls and asking us the same question.

What are you interested in?

What do you want out of life?

What are you really after?

What are you chasing?

Is it the gift or the giver?

Are you like the person who acknowledges how great the food tastes, but never actually acknowledges the chef himself?

The heart of the problem for the Galileans that Jesus is talking to here is materialism.

Materialism is this belief that life's value is measured by what we have rather than by who we know.

And so you can understand the Galileans' problem here.

If life is valued by how much you have and the things that you have, and Jesus can miraculously multiply bread, then their question is this: what else could Jesus do?

In fact, that's why in John verses 1 to 6, at the beginning of John 6, when Jesus multiplies the bread, what do the Galileans do?

They try to make him a king.

Because can you imagine if if Jesus can multiply bread from the power of just a field in their home, what could he do if he were on the throne?

Could you imagine what material provisions he could provide for the people?

He can give them more of what they thought would make their lives valuable.

And I hope you understand, loved ones, that materialism has not changed.

Isn't it interesting that we open up this book that's 2,000 years old and it speaks so relevantly to our situation today?

Why?

Because the human heart hasn't changed.

You and I, even though certainly material possessions have changed, I can't imagine that bread would have been, you know, what the Galileans were asking Jesus to multiply, knowing what we know now, it probably would have been like Krispy Kreme donuts or something, right?

Like give us, give us something good.

However, I want you to see, loved one, that there is a great and strong and destructive power in material things.

Material things will whisper value statements into your heart and preach this gospel that because you have something, you are worth something.

Isn't that true?

You ever noticed what a new outfit can do for your confidence?

It's a mean it's a material thing, it's a spiritual outcome.

You ever driven a new car and suddenly felt like everyone was looking at you?

I uh, when Amber and I early in our marriage, we drove, you're gonna be shocked by this, but an absolute beater of a car.

And eventually this car died.

And someone in the church gave us a convertible BMW.

Now it's very hard in youth ministry to minister driving up to the church in a convertible BMW, but I loved it for a season.

I loved it.

Why?

Because materialism lies to us.

It tells us that we are worth something because we have something.

You've experienced this.

Be honest, okay?

Have you ever walked into a store and just thought, I should just buy something?

Like you don't even you're not even in that store for a reason.

You're like, I should just buy something.

It'll make me feel good.

Why do we think that?

Because it does.

For a moment, it actually does.

And maybe you're here and you're like, no, no, no, listen, materialism isn't my struggle.

Don't think you're off the hook.

We all think like that.

We all think control will give me security.

People's opinion will give me worth.

Success will make me feel like I actually matter.

You see, materialism, it's the same idol, it's wearing different clothes.

This is what our idolatry does.

It preaches this gospel of, hey, if you just work for me, I can give you something.

I can give you what you long for.

Materialism is the same.

Well, what's the problem?

Jesus gets to the heart of it in verse 27.

I love what he says.

Do not work for the food that perishes.

What is Jesus' problem with the crowd?

Listen, we need to understand this, okay?

Because we get Christianity so wrong.

Jesus' problem with the crowd is not that they seek satisfaction.

You understand that?

Some of us have this sort of doom and gloom view of Christianity, like, oh, it's like stifling my fun.

If I could only just, you know, have the bread of the world, then I would truly be happy.

But man, I'm here and I'm a Christian.

Here I am on a Sunday morning, you know.

I could be at home, could be watching golf, but here I am.

We feel like stifled, like it's a strafe jacket.

Jesus doesn't say, hey, listen, stop satisfying, stop seeking good things.

Stop wanting to be satisfied.

See, the problem here is with worshiping the gift rather than the giver.

The problem is that we become materialistic junkies.

We're always craving the next hit.

Our mind is obsessed with the next hit of materialism.

We fill our belly, but the full belly empties.

We get the new thing, but the newness expires.

We're excited, but the excitement fades, and the soul is still hungry.

The love of Jesus this morning is he is picking up these things that we crave.

Is it control?

Is it security?

Is it approval?

Is it feeling like you're something?

What is it?

Jesus is picking it up at the things you desire, the things you pursue, the things you love, and he's pointing at it and he's saying, There's mold on this.

It's perishing already.

And you can eat it all you want, but but the feeling will fade away.

I love what Dennis read this morning in Isaiah 55.

This is what Jesus says.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread?

It doesn't why do you spend your money?

It's why do you spend your money for that which is not bread?

Why do you labor for that which is not satisfied?

Listen diligently to me.

And here is the command, loved one.

Here is the command.

Listen, Christian, that's been caught up in legalism your whole life.

Here's the command: eat what is good.

Delight yourselves in rich food.

Stop eating what is moldy and expired when a fresh banquet of the gospel and God's mercy is offered to you every morning.

This is always the love of God.

He calls us to live for him, to walk in him, to hear him, because he wants us to experience what life truly is.

He created joy, he created satisfaction, he wants us to know it.

Jesus looks at the things that you and I spiritually feast on, and he says, there is only one thing that endures.

Look at verse 27.

Do not work for the food that perishes.

Verse 27, but work, Jesus says, for food that endures.

Work for food that endures.

And we hear that and we say, yes, that makes sense, doesn't it?

Like I don't, I don't think I need to exposit that very much.

It just makes sense.

Don't pick the item on the shelf that is going to expire tomorrow.

Reach to the back.

Okay, I'm offering you guys some life hacks here.

Reach to the back of the milk fridge and grab the one that is expiring later.

Jesus says, don't pick up the pursuit in life that will expire tomorrow.

Reach to the back and get the one that is eternal.

Jesus Himself.

Work for the food that endures.

It's simple.

But what our mind can agree with, our heart struggles to live out.

It is easy to grasp the principle.

If you work for something eternal, then of course if you can work for something eternal, of course you should do that instead of chasing after what perishes.

But the problem is that our hearts are hardwired for perishable food.

You know, it's easy to eat healthy too, isn't it?

You just gotta stop eating Oreos.

What's the problem, though?

The problem is that food science exists.

Do you know that?

There are scientists who it is their job to make food as palatable as possible.

They measure the crunch factor of the lay's chip and they make sure that it is not too soft and not too crunchy, that it is perfect.

I got some of your guys' attention right now.

This is great.

An Oreo, it's it honestly, an Oreo is like a scientific miracle of our day, isn't it?

Amen.

Can we worship the Lord?

It's if it it it in your mind, it is easy to be healthy.

Just stop eating a junk food.

What's the problem?

The junk food is created to be so palatable and easy and tasty and chaos.

Kale will always be kale.

Satan laughs at the food scientist.

He is into the science of spiritual junk food.

So your soul is wired to crave a quick hit of satisfaction.

And perhaps this is nowhere more evident than in the way we use our money.

And even as I bring this up, I know that internally some of you guys, you know, are thinking, okay, here it comes again, here comes the guilt factor.

But I want you to hear Jesus' word.

There is a way to work with your money for a food that endures.

Money is something we all have to work for, isn't it?

Like any of you guys have a funnel in your house that's just shooting out money right now, you're not even there.

Like anyone?

I don't, I mean, I certainly do not have that, but if you have it, I'm eager to talk to you after the service and figure that out.

Like most of us, we work hard for money.

We make sacrifices for it.

We spend so much time and effort to get it.

We willingly endure the anxiety and pressures that come along with a job all for money.

And Jesus is looking at the money that we earn through honest and hard work, and he asks us, What are you doing with it?

There is a way to use your wealth, and I'm not just talking about the rich here, I'm talking about everyone because of the reality that we live in North America.

There is a way to use your wealth to purchase food that endures.

There's also a way that's completely temporary.

We know that money can't buy lasting security unless and yet our hearts still chase it.

We crave more.

We want a bigger savings account, a better house, a financial cushion that makes us feel in control.

This week I was praying through Psalm 49, and I was struck by how the psalmist reminds himself of the nature of wealth.

In verses 16 and 17, he says this: Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases.

For when he dies, he will carry nothing away.

His glory will not go down after him.

You've heard it said, you can't take a U-Haul to the grave.

Well, Psalm is contrast that in verse 11, where he speaks about those who amassed this great wealth in life, and he says, their graves are their homes forever.

Their dwelling places through all generations.

Though they used to have lands by their own names, though there was literally a city once named by them, now their home is the grave.

Isn't I mean think about it for a moment?

If the Lord doesn't return, where is your more permanent home?

In the place that you live now or in a grave?

And the reality is, so long as the Lord doesn't return, and we pray that he would soon, but so long as he doesn't, our more eternal home for our bodies will be the grave.

And yet we obsess so much about our home, we pour so much money into our home, and the psalmist steps back and he says, I mean, it's kind of laughable, isn't it?

We let our eternal souls be shaped by temporary wealth.

We work hard for money, and then we invest it in food that perishes rather than using it for eternal treasure.

Notice what Jesus doesn't say here.

He doesn't say that money, he doesn't say that bread is the problem.

He doesn't say stop working.

He says, work for food that endures.

He's saying, use your money for something that lasts.

Instead of hoarding wealth, give generously to the mission of the gospel.

Instead of seeking security in riches, invest in things of eternal value, care for the poor, love those that are around you, support the church, make disciples.

Instead of trusting in money, Christ looks at our money, he says, Trust in me who alone gives food that never perishes.

There's an application here for us.

The closest thing to a funnel in our home that's going to shoot out money is likely coming in the next few weeks, isn't it?

Tax season.

I guess that's the closest thing I'll ever know to a funnel in my house that just shoots out money.

And it is easy to get this lump sum of money and begin to dream about what you might do with it.

Jesus is asking us to dream big.

He is asking us to dream beyond the perishing treasures that money might buy, and dream for the eternal treasures that our money might reward.

That's the misunderstanding.

Thinking that the things we chase can actually provide for us a satisfaction.

Thinking that the things other than Christ that we pursue will get for us what we want from them.

That's the misunderstanding Jesus wants to correct this morning.

But what must we do then?

Second thing that Jesus wants to do then is correct our misunderstanding by asking this question: Am I achieving or receiving?

Am I achieving or receiving?

I love the words of verse 27.

Do not work.

Do not work.

It reminds me of what God said to the Israelites when he was redeeming them from the slavery in Egypt.

He looked to them and he said, Stand there and do nothing.

You stand there.

You ever say that?

You know?

You say that to their kids?

Stand there and do nothing.

Okay, just stand there.

That's what God says to us.

Stand there and do nothing.

This is the gospel.

You can't achieve it.

You can only receive it from Him.

And as simple as that command is, our sinful human hearts struggle to obey it.

We are restless workers.

We're always trying to achieve something.

Our hearts are like my printer at home right now.

It's broken.

So if you close the laptop while it's printing, it just keeps printing until eventually it just dies or runs out of paper or runs out of ink.

And that is our heart.

We keep working, working, working.

And even when the words of Jesus fall into our ears, do not work, we say, Well, we must, we gotta do something.

Notice in verse 28, the crowd completely misses the point.

They say, What must we do to be doing the works of God?

The food Jesus wants them to understand here, the food in verse 27, he says, is the food which the Son of Man will give to you.

For on him the God the Father has set his seal.

What you're after is something that only Jesus gives.

This is the radical claim that Jesus makes.

Like if you're if you're here and you're testing out the Christian worldview, I want you to know that the claims it makes on your life are more radical than you ever thought.

It's not just like, hey, come, come, come to church on a Sunday morning and sing some songs and everything's gonna be hunky-dory, it's all nice.

The claim is like, you're not gonna find this anywhere else, Jesus says.

If you do not come to me, you will always find food that perishes.

I alone am the food given by the Father, with the the seal is set on me.

I'm the food that endures.

Look how the crowd responds.

Instead of receiving what Jesus offers, they turn again the conversation back to themselves.

What must we do to be doing the works of God?

They still think it's about their effort.

They still think it's just about finding the right formula to earn eternal life or to live the life.

They don't ask, how can we receive this bread?

But instead, what must we do?

It's a work-based approach to God.

It's the assumption that eternal life is something to achieve rather than something to receive.

But I want you to understand this morning that this isn't just a religious mindset.

When we think of a works-based approach to life, it's not just religion that this is applicable to.

Even in a secular society, we are after the same thing.

Just in a secular society, of course it's going to be without God.

We may not be working to earn something from God.

Working to earn righteousness from God, it might be foreign to us.

Indeed, it is in the secular society.

But we're all working to craft a life that we think will satisfy apart from God.

We have a works-based solution to life itself.

And so don't we do that in our society?

We sort of elevate these people who have made it and who did it their own way.

Christianity isn't about what you earn, it's about what you must receive.

And here's the question I want to ask you this morning.

If I were to ask you this question, do you have eternal life?

Have you received the life that Jesus came to offer?

Are you saved?

If I were to ask you that question, and your response was this, well, I'm trying.

I'm trying.

I want you to understand something.

You have not yet understood the gospel.

Because the gospel is not something about something that you try to achieve.

The life that Jesus brought, you can only receive from him.

You can do nothing to earn it.

See, the problem with the answer I'm trying is that you're still working for something you will never earn.

This is why John wrote earlier in John chapter 1, he said, To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

John 1 · chapter mention

You see, you don't become a child of God by living a certain way, by being a certain way, by acting a certain way.

You can only receive that status, and this is what it is all about, is a status from God Himself.

It can only come from Him.

You know, you could break into my house tonight.

Please don't, by the way, that wasn't like a permissive thing.

But you could do that and sleep in one of the beds in my room.

But I still will not call you one of my children.

You can't earn that.

You must be born again.

You must be born into the family.

So Jesus looks at these people and says, like what you are trying to do is impossible.

Scriptures say that eternal life is a gift.

Could you imagine?

You imagine for a moment.

If you have kids, this will be easier.

But imagine giving your children a gift and you've picked out the perfect thing for them if you've wrapped it so beautifully.

I mean, the wrapping doesn't matter to them, but then you give them the gift and they open it up and they're amazed.

Oh, thank you, Jesus, thank you.

This is this is exactly what I wanted.

And then they get up and they walk to their room and they come out with their piggy bank and they say, Hey, listen, how much do I owe you?

Some of you guys are like, Well, it's actually$35, so if you want, you know.

Right?

But you're like, no, no, listen, you you miss on your misunderstanding here.

This is my gift to you that I've given to you because I love you.

You don't do anything to earn it or buy it.

You just re- you just just take it, you just receive it.

They say, no, no, no, no, let me do some chores.

Now, this is, you know, I made up this kid in the illustration.

I know your kid wouldn't say that.

In that moment, you'd have to wonder: does this child understand that I am not their business partner?

I am their father.

This is a father-child relationship, not a business transaction.

And so listen, the question for you is not, am I trying hard enough?

If that's your answer, if that's what you're thinking about, I just like as clear as I can be with you, I want you to know you are not a child of God.

Children don't achieve, children receive.

And Jesus is here this morning out of love, confronting you with this reality that for as long as you've been trying to do it yourself, he is here to say, I have done it already.

That the work is finished.

Could not be clearer as he was in verse 29.

This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent.

The only work is believing in him.

And notice that the important thing here is who we believe in or what we believe in.

It is not a system, it is not a method, it is not a philosophy, it is the one whom he has sent.

And this is where the crowd will struggle.

For the rest of John 6, the crowd will struggle with this, with the fact that Jesus is the one whom he sent.

They will say, Who is this Jesus?

I mean, we know his parents.

He isn't anyone special.

And to this very day, all who reject God reject the one that he has sent.

They don't reject belief.

Do you know that?

You know, if you're not a Christian, it's not that you have rejected the life of faith, it's not that you don't believe in anything.

Some people say that, and I just want you to know, anyone who says that they don't believe in something, they're lying to themselves.

Everyone believes in something.

Even the most hardened atheist who says, I don't have faith, I don't believe.

They believe in something.

They believe in their reasoning, they believe in their worldview, they believe in their conclusions about reality, they believe in science, they believe in all these things, and all these things.

The Christian looks at it and says, Yes, and amen.

But I I cannot hear the words again, I just don't believe.

You do believe.

The question is, what do you believe in?

Everyone has faith in something.

Every person who says, I don't believe in anything, still builds their life on a foundation of belief.

Some put their trust in reason, assuming that maybe intellect will lead them to truth.

Others trust in wealth.

Maybe it's financial security that will give them peace.

Some trust in success, thinking if they can just accomplish enough, then they will be truly satisfied.

Doesn't matter what the thing is, the the reality is that we all believe.

What matters then is that you believe in the one who can actually give you life, loved one.

Who do you come to when you want peace?

Who do you come to when you're looking for worth, when you're looking for validation?

Jesus confronts this head on.

He makes this startling claim.

The only way to receive the life you've been searching for all along is by believing in him.

And you can believe the crowds react the exact way you would expect them to.

They ask for a sign.

Jesus says, I'm giving you something from heaven, and they know about something that once came from heaven, something that satisfied their ancestors.

It was the manna, the bread which God provided in the desert so that they could be sustained.

They believe there's something that can meet their needs, but once again, you see it here?

Their focus is entirely material.

They're thinking about things, they're thinking about temporary provisions, physical satisfaction.

But what they miss is that the true bread of life is standing right in front of them.

And what Jesus is doing for you this morning is saying, listen, no matter what you are pursuing, I want you to understand that the thing you are after, I want you to have.

But you cannot find it in the food that perishes.

You can only find it in the bread of life, Jesus Himself.

Listen, the problem isn't with our desires.

You need to hear that this morning.

The problem is not that you want, the problem is what we do with our desires.

The problem's not with satisfaction, in other words, it's the problem with it is with how we try to get it.

And this is exactly what James is getting at.

In James 4, 2, he says, You desire and you do not have, so you murder.

You covet and you can't obtain, so you fight and you quarrel.

James gives such a simple solution.

You do not have because you don't ask.

James is saying this, listen, I have provided a way for you to get everything you need.

The problem is that you're going about your own way to get it.

I see this play out every day in my house.

For three young kids, there are injustices everywhere.

Every twelve seconds, there is another injustice.

A stuffy has been stolen.

Everyone gasps.

A snack has disappeared from a plate.

It's absolute chaos.

You know what's even more chaotic is the way that they react, trying to handle it themselves.

There is hitting, screaming, crying, yelling, shoving.

The problem is not with the so often, I mean, my parenting is never really with the first thing that happened.

The stuffy that was stolen, it truly is an injustice.

My kids are in the kids' class.

Amen, you know.

The problem is not with their desire to have justice in the house.

Their stuffy shouldn't have been stolen.

The problem is the way they go about dealing with it.

It's not the desire, it's the action.

The problem is with how you deal with the desire.

And this is exactly what we do.

We want joy, we want security, we want peace.

Things that God has actually designed for us to have.

But instead of asking him, we take matters into our own hands.

We fight, we grasp, we demand.

And you'll notice that the crowd here is doing the same thing.

They want satisfaction, but they're looking for it in the wrong place.

They're too obsessed with the physical bread.

They're asking for bread, but what they really need is Jesus.

So Jesus in verse 33 is saying this: listen, listen, it is me.

It is me.

I am the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

I pray right now that in this moment, some of you who have never heard this before would have the eyes of your heart opened to this reality that God wants you to live the life that you have always been searching for and the things that can never provide it.

He came to provide that life.

Jesus this morning stands in front of you, loved one, he says, It's me, it's me, it's me.

I have come.

In verse 35, he could not be more clear.

I am the bread of life.

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

We're interested in achieving it for ourselves.

Jesus tells us that it can only be found by coming to Him.

So here's the question for us this morning, then.

Do you have the self-awareness?

Do you have the self-awareness?

Do you have the spiritual understanding, the insight into your soul to know what is what you're actually chasing?

Do you?

You know, it's easy to see the action, but do you ever stop and look at the desire beneath it?

It's easy to see that you're working 70, 80 hours a week.

It's easy to see that you're willing to sacrifice family life, church involvement, rest.

The hard thing to see is this.

Why?

What's the deeper desire that is driving you to work like that?

Is it security?

The need to know you'll be financially stable?

Maybe it's approval, the need to prove to others that you're worth something, that you can do and accomplish something?

Think about anxiety for a moment.

You wake up in the middle of the night, your mind is racing with fear over a situation, that's easy to know.

What's hard is this.

Why does that specific situation grip you so much?

Why do you obsess over how to fix it?

Why, what is the desire beneath the anxiety?

Is it control?

Is it comfort?

The fear of losing what Makes life manageable.

What about anger in your life?

You know?

I mean, it's easy to know that we're angry.

The yelling happens.

The physical anger, it's so visible, it's easy to know we're angry.

You can pinpoint maybe that there's someone in your life you just can't seem to forgive.

And every time you think about them, you know, you're driving in the car and you're not thinking about something, and so they come up.

And when they come up, your heart rate rate rises, and you're you're living in this bitterness and unforgiveness.

It's easy to know that, but but the hard thing to know is this.

Why?

What is it that that person took from you?

When you lash out in anger, what expectation do you have that your kids or whatever, whoever you're angry are isn't living up to?

What is it?

Is it justice that need to make sure that anyone who's wronged you pays for what they did?

Is it respect, this feeling that, like, you know, you deserve to be treated a certain way?

Listen, we need to stop.

And often this takes a community of people to help us understand what is truly happening in our hearts.

We need to stop and examine what is beneath the striving, or we will keep tasting things that never satisfy.

I want you to understand this so practically, because so often we have this sort of like, okay, come to Jesus and everything's gonna be fine, just come to him.

And then the question is like, what does that mean?

What does it look like this week for me to come to Jesus?

And I want you to understand, the only way you will do it is if you see the heart issue, then you will see how Jesus satisfies it.

Is it respect that makes you angry?

Jesus says that if you believe in him, then God the Father views you as his own son.

That you have all the respect that the Son Jesus Christ had in his perfect righteousness.

You see this?

Jesus is after our hearts, but he won't play by our rules.

The people wanted bread, but he's after something deeper.

He's not going to give in to your childish demands.

You want security?

You want security in life?

Listen, it is Jesus who we will see next week in verse 37.

Although at this pace, verse 37 could be two weeks from now.

I don't know.

Going at a snail's pace through John chapter 6, because there's so much here.

John 6 · chapter mention

But look what Jesus says in verse 37.

If you want security, whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

Listen, your job, it's fragile.

You can lose it in a day.

You could go in Monday morning and it could be gone.

Finances, health.

These things are so immensely fragile, aren't they?

As hard as you try, you you cannot hold on to it hard enough.

It can be ripped from your hands.

But Jesus is here this morning saying, listen, if you want security, I have given you something you cannot lose.

Do you want to feel loved?

It's Jesus who in the Gospel of John says, Greater love has no end than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends.

No human relationship can ever give you that kind of love.

Do you want to know that you matter?

Jesus says in Isaiah 43, verse 1, I've called you by name.

Isaiah 43:1

You are mine.

Your value is not in what you can achieve today, this week.

Your value is in who you belong to.

And Jesus says, You're mine.

I've redeemed you with my blood.

Listen, bread is important.

The crowd needs to eat.

Jesus knows that.

But it is much more important that they actually receive life in him.

Work's important.

Jesus knows that your work is important.

No one values work more than Jesus.

But it's not an altar that's worth sacrificing your life on.

Relationships, marriage, health, salvation of your kids.

All of these things are so important to the heart of Jesus, but he is unwilling to not give you himself.

He doesn't want you to miss that.

If we make these things the ultimate thing, we miss the very thing Jesus came to give, the most important thing, himself.

He came to us that we might receive him.

We're going to enter into a time of communion.

I want you to know this is the heart of it.

This is the heart of it.

Communion's the reminder that Jesus is the true bread of life.

The bread and the juice, in and of itself, is going to be a shocker to some of you.

It is not going to satisfy you.

You will still need lunch after this.

That's not the point.

The point is that these point our attention to the thing that will give us life: the body and the blood of Jesus Christ, which was broken and poured out for you.

If you didn't receive one of these cups on your way in, the ushers are making their way down the aisle and you can flag them down, they'll get one into your hands.

If you're not a believer, we just ask that you let this pass.

If you haven't come to Jesus for salvation, this is a celebration for believers.

And if you are a believer and you're living in unrepentant sin, not that you have sin, but that you are unwilling to repent of it, please let this pass.

As we approach this taking of communion, I want to, with a few moments of silence, ask you to let it be a moment of surrender.

In fact, it'd be fitting right now to bow your head and close your eyes.

And in a moment of silence here, reflect on what is what you have been chasing that cannot satisfy.

What is the thing that is always out of your grasp, that you just believe in your heart of hearts that if you can just work a little harder, you'll get?

And notice as you hold this cup in your hands, the gospel reality that the eternal bread of life, which if you consume, you will never hunger again, and if you drink of his blood, you will never thirst.

It is in your hands and you have it.

Would you take a moment to consider those things?

And God, we stand here if if we're honest with ourselves, looking back on our lives and just so aware that we have we have just been so eager to pursue things that just cannot satisfy.

And yet there's no shame because all of us in that this room who are who have the honesty and the humility and the presence of your Holy Spirit to give us clarity, we look back on our lives and recognize this that we cannot rescue ourselves, we cannot redeem ourselves as hard as we've tried.

We cannot find something in this world to satisfy because nothing was created to satisfy but you.

Let's eat in remembrance of him.

As we drink together, we proclaim the finished work of Christ, that his blood was shed for our forgiveness, that through his blood we have restoration in our relationship with him.

Paul continues, he says, In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

Let's take the cup together.

Father, our hearts are filled with praise.

Thank you for what you have given us in Jesus Christ, and we continue to respond to you now, Lord, by saying that you are everything that we need, that we are coming to you, God.

We are coming to you in repentance and coming to you for life.

We need you, God.

We pray this in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Would you stand and worship with me?