John Chapter 6:30-35

If you think, this morning, that if you get enough money that you'll be satisfied one day, that much money does not exist in the world. They asked John D. Rockefeller, who was by today's standards multi-multi-billionaire with a B, they asked him how much, because he was still being aggressive in business, they asked him how much money was enough, and he said a little bit more.

Interestingly enough, somebody asked the accountant how much John D. Rockefeller left when he died, and the accountant very wisely said, all of it. You can't drink enough to make you physically satisfied. You can't do enough drugs to make you physically satisfied. You can't have enough sex to be physically satisfied, because there's a spiritual hunger that has to be dealt with in our lives.

And until you deal with that, you're going to be unhappy with all those other things. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. As David continues teaching through the Gospel of John, chapter 6, we have a special guest in the studio, one of his associate pastors, D.A.

Brown. Welcome, brother. Bob, until we are spiritually satisfied, we will never be physically satisfied. It's important that we remember God wants to fulfill us, and in that fulfillment, we will be content. So here's David McGee with part 2 of his teaching, God is Your Source. We are in John, chapter 6, verse 29. Jesus answered and said to them, and He gave them a long list of stuff to do. No, that's not what He said. He said, this is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He sent.

Wow, that's got to be a misprint. This is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He sent. Guys, don't miss this.

They ask, what can we do? And Jesus didn't give them anything to do. Jesus said, believe. Believe. Verse 30. Therefore they said to Him, what sign will You perform then that we may see it and believe You?

What work will You do? Golly. Can you believe this? Jesus, do us a trick and we'll follow You. That's pretty sad, isn't it?

Some people still do that. Jesus, do some kind of trick. Do some kind of miracle and we'll believe You exist. How sad, and these people have just seen the feeding of the 5,000.

This kind of reveals how hardhearted we can be. I've thought the same thing, and maybe you're sitting there thinking the same thing. I've thought in the past, well, you know, if I could see a miracle, I mean, you know, like a miracle, miracle. And if I could see one on a regular basis, you know, people, you know, rising from the dead and stuff, boy, that would really build my faith. Would it?

We think it would, but wait a minute. One of the people groups in the Bible that saw more miracles than anybody else was the children of Israel. Did it build their faith up?

Apparently not, because they struggled, they murmured, they complained. Don't get me wrong, God still does miracles. I've got no doubt about that. He does miracles. He's a supernatural God.

But don't, He's not a cosmic magician that you can have Him do a command performance at your whim. Verse 31, our fathers ate the manna in the desert. It is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

You know what they're saying is they're saying, you know what, we've seen the thing with the bread before, do something else. We saw the trick with the manna, and so they're hungering physically. Why are they hungering physically? Because they weren't satisfied physically. Why weren't they satisfied physically? Because until a person is spiritually satisfied, they will never be physically satisfied.

Until a person is spiritually satisfied, you will never be physically satisfied. If you think this morning that if you get enough money that you'll be satisfied one day, that much money does not exist in the world. They asked John D. Rockefeller, who was by today's standards multi-multi-billionaire with a B. They asked him how much, because he was still being aggressive in business, they asked him how much money was enough, and he said a little bit more, a little bit more.

And interestingly enough, somebody asked the accountant how much John D. Rockefeller left when he died, and the accountant very wisely said, all of it. You can't drink enough to make you physically satisfied. You can't do enough drugs to make you physically satisfied. You can't have enough sex to be physically satisfied, because there's a spiritual hunger that has to be dealt with in our lives. And until you deal with that, you're going to be unhappy with all those other things. Are you spiritually satisfied?

That's a question only you can answer to the Lord. See, I'm radical enough to believe this book and to believe Jesus, and to believe that Jesus really is the answer. I believe that.

Well, you don't know what I'm going through. I don't, but he does. And Jesus is the answer for whatever's going on in your life. He's the answer to our hopes, our fears, our problems, our depressions, our anxieties. He's the answer to all of our questions and concerns in life. And friend, if you're here this morning and you're not spiritually satisfied, but you're physically satisfied somehow, that's a dangerous place to be when you actually lose that hunger for the things of the Lord.

It's not a good place to be. Verse 32, then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of heaven is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. See, Jesus in his response indicates that they thought Moses gave them the bread.

Boy, isn't that one of our human characteristics. We seem to always think that a man is behind the move of God and responsible, entirely solely responsible for it. I read an email yesterday about some church that the Lord is blessing, and the guy said, they said, well, you know, why is your church? And he said, well, the Lord's blessing it. And I thought, good.

And then he said, because we have such powerful leadership and we do this right and we do that right and all this other stuff. I tell you, when you begin to follow a man, if you begin to follow anybody else other than Jesus Christ, you're going to be disappointed. Don't follow me. Follow Jesus. Now, you can watch me following Jesus and join with me, but be careful about following any man because a man will disappoint you. But you know what I found? God will never disappoint you.

He will never disappoint you. Now, notice the tie-in between the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus now going and talking about the bread. It's a key to this Gospel of John. We're told in John chapter 20, verse 30, it says, And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. And what we're going to do is we're going to tie these miracles to the teachings.

We're going to note these connections. We're going to note that Jesus heals a blind man and then starts talking about being the light of the world. We're going to note that he feeds the 5,000, then he starts talking about being the bread of life. Jesus fed them physically, but then he begins to teach them what real feeding is.

He begins to tell us what we're really hungering for. And I believe the church needs to be active in feeding the hungry. I believe the church needs to be active in clothing the poor. But I also think the church needs to tie those opportunities in with presentations of the gospel. See, because when we get to heaven, we need to tell Jesus that we told other people about him. Not just we fed this many people or we clothed this many people, but this many people were one from the kingdom of darkness into the light.

Now, don't get me wrong. I started this by saying we should be active in these things. We have a food pantry where we give away food. We have a blessing closet where we give away clothes.

But here's what happens. When somebody comes in to receive those things, if they're in this church and we just love on them and see if there's other things that we can do as far as helping them with bills or whatever else is a problem. But if we've never seen them before, somebody on the staff stops what they're doing and they go into the blessing room or the food pantry or whatever, and they start to talk to the person about whether they know Jesus as their savior or not, because that's what they're really hungry for.

That's the real need that exists in their life. And these other things are opportunities to minister the real deal. And that's what Jesus is doing here.

He's the perfect model of it. Verse 34. Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. Now, I'm torn on this verse.

I'm torn. You know, part of me wants to believe that they understood what he was talking about. The crowd understood what Jesus was saying and they were like, yes, we desire this spiritual food. But part of me suspects that perhaps they were going, wow, bread forever. Sounds great.

Sign me up. I'm not sure. I have the suspicion that that's what was going on. And you know what's sad? Look what Jesus was offering them. Himself.

And what, in all likelihood, what were they thinking about? Bread. Jesus this morning is offering you something more precious than you could ever imagine. He's offering you Himself.

Don't be satisfied with anything less. He desires to bless you in a way that is beyond your comprehension but how often we're so easily satisfied with scraps. Oh, no doubt, the Lord wants to bless you this morning. He wants to provide for you physically. He wants to provide and nourish you and take care of you and clothe you.

But so much more than that. He wants to provide eternal life. He wants to provide you with Himself. And that's the most precious thing He offers you here this morning. And friend, you better think long and hard before you turn that down, before you accept a partial payment or agreement. Well, I'll take a little of this because we get so ripped off as believers.

We do. There's a story about a businessman who had done well. God had blessed him and he looked for ways to bless people. One time when he was on his way to a business luncheon that it was at a place that had a buffet. And he walked past an alley and he saw a guy in the alley and the guy was going through the dumpster and the man's heart just went out to him. And he thought, oh, man, you know, that guy's looking in the dumpster for scraps. And then the Lord laid something on his heart and he thought, oh, this is great. This is great. I'm going to go invite him to this luncheon.

This is going to be great because it's a really nice place with ice sculptures and all the huge layout and chef stations and all this stuff. He gets the guy and he says, hey, go with me to this buffet. And he walks into the room and the guy's like, yeah. And the man who had been digging in the dumpster looked at this lavish layout, the carving stations, the meat, the bread, the cheeses and all these things. And he turned to the man and he said, do you have any dumpsters around here? Do you realize how many of us live our Christian life like that? We're rooting around in dumpsters when God wants to give us so much more. We're settling for the scraps. When God has given us, he is offering us so much more, a way to live, a way to be blessed and to be a blessing to others.

And we settle for the scraps. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from Associate Pastor D.A. Brown. Hey, Bob, we're excited about God's word going forth with Pastor David, and we want to pray for some people in these cities where we're broadcasting today.

In California, we have Yucca Valley, and in Colorado, we have Burlington, Fort Morgan, Grand Junction, Lamar, Lyman, and Montrose. God, we thank you for the people listening today in these areas. We pray that they would be encouraged in your word. They would realize that you want to bless them.

Lord, you have a good plan for them. God, we pray for those who are sick in the area that you would please heal them. And, Lord, we pray for the pastors and the churches, that they would be ignited in all the good plans you have for them and sharing your word throughout their city. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 35, and Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. Now, notice, Jesus ties comes and believes. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. So you come and you believe. Now, a lot of people think, well, that means you've got to believe absolutely with no doubt. What do you do with a man in the Gospel of Mark when he says, Lord, I believe, help my doubts? You remember that story? Jesus didn't go, well, if you're doubting, let's call the whole thing off.

No, he did a work there. Why? Because there was part of a man that was going, you know what, I believe you. I believe you. See, and if there's part of you that believes in the Lord, the Lord will draw that. He'll help you with those doubts. Don't look to have your faith absolute and perfect before you come to the Lord.

That'll never happen. Now, this is the first of some I am statements that Jesus makes. We kind of miss this because we don't understand the Hebrew Scriptures. See, remember that in Exodus chapter 3 verse 14, when God is speaking to Moses, God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. He said, tell them I am. That's an important phrase. Now, maybe you're sitting there going, oh, come on now. You're kind of overemphasizing this, aren't you?

No. And if you doubt this, look at the Pharisees. See, Pharisees are great.

You know why? Because part, and some of them were godly and followed Jesus. We see that in the book of Acts, but a lot of them didn't. And what happens as you read the gospels, as you'll note, sometimes the Pharisees get really mad. Well, when they get really mad, ask yourself why they're really mad.

You can discover some great biblical truths that way and get a clue. When they get mad, they've gotten upset about something that Jesus said. And every time he uses that phrase, I am, they get really freaked out.

Why do they get freaked out? Because Jesus is making a claim to deity. You see, Yahweh, and I'm not mispronouncing that, in the Hebrew, it's the Yod, Heh, Vav, and Heh. Now, we're reading from right to left. You know why we read Hebrew right to left? Because English is backwards. Well, I mean, Hebrew came first, guys.

I don't mean to disappoint you. But so Yod, Heh, Vav, and Heh, Yahweh, I am, that's what that means. The Jewish people refer to God as him who has no name. Or if you go to a Jewish website, you might see G-D. Why? Because they speak the Word of God, the name of God. They want to be so careful, they don't want to use his name.

Now, before you go thinking that's really, you know, legalistic, think of what we've done to the name. I know believers, and keep in mind, if you ever do this around me, in love, I'll correct you. I've been around believers that, you know, will hit their hand or something and go, oh, God, that's not an appropriate use of his name. Or somebody to use Jesus Christ in a way of being profane. Even then, you know, you got to, people know where the power is, right? That's why they cry out when they get hurt or whatever, they cry out the name of God, sometimes appropriately, sometimes not appropriately. When's the last time you saw somebody hit their finger and go, oh, Buddha? They don't do that, do they?

Why? Because they at least know where the true power. Now, again, I'm not saying it's okay for them to use that, but at least we can recognize that they see where the true power is. There's another clue about this statement. Here in John 6.35, he says, I am the bread of life. In John 8.12, Jesus spoke to them again saying, I am the light of the world.

He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. John 10.7, then Jesus said to them again, most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. And it's almost like Jesus figured out this really upset the religious people.

He starts saying it all the more. I like Jesus. It's kind of like healing on the Sabbath when he figured out that bothered him. He just quit altogether.

No, he didn't do it. He did things like, hey, man with a withered hand, come up in front so everybody can see you. I like Jesus. John 11.25, Jesus said to her, oh, 10.11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. John 11.25, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. John 14.6, Jesus said to them, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. John 15.5, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. And we see every time Jesus uses these I am statements, people around him get freaked out.

Why? Because it's a claim to deity. Now, if you're taking notes and you just wrote those passages, those scriptural references down, you're going to note something else. How many of them were there?

There were seven, the number of completion. Jesus is the bread of life. Bread at that time was a real staple. And Jesus was offering them so much more than they were willing to settle for. How about you?

What are you settling for? Jesus is the bread of life. Are you feeding on that bread?

Or are you feeding on something else? Jesus offers us himself. He offers us bread that nourishes us, that's good for us, that will sustain us, that will strengthen us, that will empower us. But you know what we do? We settle. This is what we settle for.

Molded, contaminated, corrupted bread. If you come to him and you believe, you'll change your life. He's changed mine.

And the sad thing is so many of you have been settling for something far less. There was a man that got married. For his honeymoon, he was going to a hotel. Nice hotel, one of the nicest hotels in Oregon. And beautiful place, reserved the room months and months in advance. And they got in late.

When they got in late, there was a thing at the desk that had the room number and the key. And he's just tickled, you know, and he gets his bride. And he walks into the room and he opens the door and his heart just falls.

Because it's a little room with a couch that's a pull-out bed. He's trying to hide his anger, but not very well. He's not doing very well with this. And he's like, you know, I'm going to back down the front desk. And his wife said, no, honey, let's just... It's okay. It's okay. Here, I'll get to bed already for this evening.

We'll be fine. And he says, well, okay, I'll go talk to him about that, I guess. So in the morning, he storms down there and slams the key on the counter and says, you know, I'm supposed to be in the honeymoon suite. And he says, yes, sir. He goes, you guys have me in room 115. And he goes, yes, sir. He goes, well, that's not the honeymoon suite. And the clerk said, well, 115 is the honeymoon suite. And he said, no, it's a small room with a pull-out couch and that's just unacceptable.

He goes, 115? And he says, yes. And the clerk said, sir, there was a door at the rear of the room to the left. Did you go through that door? He goes, no, I didn't have a need to go into the closet.

He said, sir, that's not the closet. Please go back to your room and open up that door. He goes back to the room. He opens up the door. There's a beautiful king-sized bed, sunken hot tub, candles that were still lit from the evening before, chocolates laid out. Looking out the rear of the room, there was glass that overlooked the waterfall.

We sleep in the foyer too often, guys. Now, some of you may say, well, you know, I chose Jesus 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago. Praise God. Awesome. Awesome start. How are you doing now?

How are you doing today? This is why Jesus died. He died for you, to offer you Himself and all that that is. And that's what I wish for you guys, that you would choose life, choose Jesus, and that He would become your priority and that you would really follow Him. That's what Christians are supposed to do. They're supposed to follow Jesus. Guys, if you leave L.A. and you're one degree off going to Hawaii, you will never get to Hawaii.

You'll end up in Japan. And what we have to do as believers is make course corrections. And this morning, I'm sure there's many in this room that need a course correction. You've been reminded of what's important and what the priorities should be, and now Jesus is offering you something more precious than we can even begin to realize. He's offering you Himself. And if you come and you believe, you will receive. Maybe some of you don't know the Lord. You've never asked Him to forgive you of your sins. Maybe you've been waiting, thinking that you've got to be good enough to come to Him.

And for the first time this morning, you've heard that that's not right. Jesus never turned anybody away. He's not going to turn you away this morning. If only you'll come. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again.

Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him, and He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Or you can write to and share how God is working in your life. Well, D.A., before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, Life Lessons to Consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee.

That sounds good, Pastor D.A., and again, it's been great to have you with us on the program today. But tell us, what else can our listeners find on crossthebridge.com? If you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 10 a.m. Eastern time or on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern time? Just visit crossthebridge.com and click on our live stream link. You'll experience a live service from David's Home Church, The Bridge in North Carolina. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.