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
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
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
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,
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.
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
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
chapter 8 verse 3, because He references Moses and they
referenced the manna in Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse
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.
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?