Bread

You know, it's uh Christmas time. And uh Christmas and bread. seem to go together. Like every nationality Seems to have their own Christian bread. The Italians have their own Christmas bread.

Uh the Germans Have their own Christmas bread. I guess the American, I don't know if fruitcake would be our version of Christmas bread, but. Every nationality seems to have bread, and bread has been demonized in our culture. In fact, I'd stopped eating bread. I love bread.

I love it. I had stopped eating bread for a while because it just messed up my blood work, booger that bad. And I finally had to come to this question. Do I want to live long and miserable? Or short and happy.

And I've chosen the short and happy routes. I'm back on bread. I eat bread all the time. I love it. And now, my wife said, Chase, you can't do that, you gotta stay in shape.

I said, sweetheart. Round is a shape. And so I'll just keep eating that stuff. But um But Christmas and bread seem to go together, doesn't it? You know, a recurring symbol in Jesus' life and ministry is bread.

Jesus was born in what town? Bethlehem, which means house of Bread. That's prophetic, isn't it? House of bread. When Jesus was tempted by Satan, Satan said, Turn these stones to.

Bread. Um at the Last Supper. Jesus instituted The Lord's Supper. Which is comprised of juice, wine, and Bread. An interesting theme that runs through the life and ministry of Jesus.

And in John 6, Jesus focuses on this symbolism of bread. And himself. Jesus kind of hones in on this metaphor of bread being a symbol of Jesus.

So turn there to John 6, if you would. And I want to take every one of y'all, I'm really serious, I'd love for everybody to be able to go to Israel with us at least once. Because one of the places we'll take you is the synagogue at Capernaum where Jesus had this teaching. And the ruins that you see above ground are probably from a little bit after the time of Jesus. But when you go beside the synagogue of Capernaum, I took a picture of this, you can see the foundations, this black basalt.

This is the original foundation of the synagogue where Jesus taught what I'm about to read to you right here. John chapter 6, 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.

Look at verse 48. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread. which comes down from heaven.

That one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. Wow.

Now Jesus says something very interesting. In verse 49, he says, Your fathers told the Jewish people, your ancestors ate the bread in the desert, ate the bread in the wilderness.

So, what Jesus is doing is saying, Let me take you back. To an Old Testament story that took place about 1,400 years ago. And I want to show you, Jesus is saying, that that Old Testament story is a prophetic picture of me. When I say I'm the bread that came down from heaven, here's what I'm talking about.

So go back to, if you've got your Bibles, flip all the way back to Exodus 16, okay? Exodus chapter 16. Here's the story Jesus is alluding to. God's people have been in captivity for about 400 and something years in Egypt. God has just released them from captivity.

They're now in the desert. They've just come through the Red Sea. They're in the desert. And it says in verse 2: Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt.

When we sat by the pots of meat, and when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us. Out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you.

Now look at verse 10.

Now it came to pass as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel that they looked toward the wilderness and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, At twilight you shall eat meat. And in the morning, you shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. Look at verse 31.

And the house of Israel called its name, this bread that came down from heaven, manna, and it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

So you see what Jesus is doing. In John 6, Jesus is teaching at the synagogue, and he says, I am the bread of life that came down from heaven. Just like your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. He's pointing back to this story, and he says. That mana?

That bread that came down from heaven? It's a symbol of me.

So let me give you about six ways where Jesus Christ is like the manna in the wilderness that came down from heaven.

Now, this is really important, okay? Number one, the first way that Jesus. Is like the manna of Exodus 16, is this. Jesus, like manna, came down from heaven. Look at verse 51.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven. Actions 16, God says, I'm going to bring bread down from heaven. Jesus says, just like manna came down from heaven, I have come down from heaven. Letting a stop right here. Jesus doesn't say, I've come from Nazareth.

I've come from Bethlehem. Here's what Jesus says. I originate from heaven. There's a big debate today. Did Jesus ever claim to be God?

And you have a lot of naysayers who say, Jesus never claimed to be God. Jews don't believe he's God. Muslims say he never claimed to be God. And yet there's this push to kind of bring Islam and Christianity and Judaism together under one big can. You can't do that because they deny that Jesus Christ is God.

They said he never claimed to be God. And yet, blue-collar construction workers don't go around saying, I've come from heaven. Which is exactly what happens right here. And in fact, Jesus Christ claims to be God in a more significant way in this passage. Look at this.

He says I am The bread of life. Seven times in the Gospel of John, Jesus says, I am this, I am that. This is the first of the I am statements.

Now, here's what's very important to follow, track with me because those of you who say, I don't know that Jesus is really God, claim to be God, you got a problem right here. I am the bread that came down from heaven. The way you say I am. In the Greek language? Is this word right here?

Edo. Edo. Do we have that? Yeah, eggo. Um We get the the uh English word ego from that.

Ego simply means I am.

Okay. There's another verb form. For the word I am, and that verb form is a me. A me. Maybe the next service will have that a little bit bigger where everybody can see it.

Because if you have your magnifying glass, you can see right here, it says Amy, okay? That's another way of saying I am.

So you could either say eggo The bread of life. Or you could say Ami, the bread of life. Ego means I am. A means I am. Here's what Jesus does.

He puts those two together and says. E go e me, the bread of life. Which is almost like a redundancy. I am the bread of life. Now, that's a very rare, very strange conjunction right there.

In fact, I may be wrong on this. I don't think we ever see that anywhere else in ancient Greek literature. People either say, eggo, I am. Or ami, I am. But nobody puts egg go and me together.

You just don't do that. The only other place it's done Is shortly before the time of Jesus, a bunch of Jewish scholars got together and they said, Nobody reads Hebrew anymore. And the Old Testament's written in Hebrew. Nobody reads Hebrew anymore. We've got to update the Hebrew Old Testament into the language everybody speaks, which is Greek.

That's what everybody spoke.

So they updated the Old Testament Hebrew. Into Greek, we call that the Septuagint. It's the Bible, almost like your NIV or the English Standard Version. It is the version that Jesus and the apostles used. And in Genesis, by me, in Exodus chapter 3.

When God finally reveals his name, Do you know how he reveals his name? He says, my name is... Ego ami. The only other time you see that conjunction of ego and me together is when Jesus Christ says, I am the bread of life. I am the door.

I am the way. Jesus is trying to say very clearly: the God who says, Ego and me in Exodus 3, when he reveals his name, That is me, Ego and me, the bread of life. You with me on that? Number one, Jesus came from heaven. Number two, Jesus, like manna, is a free gift.

It's kind of interesting. The Israelites are in the desert and they're hungry. And God could have said, for a love offering, you can have some manna. If you're good. You can have some anna.

If you go through this ritual... You have some manna. No, it was free. God says to the people of Israel back in Exodus 16: if you're hungry, I am giving you for free this bread called manna. But you understand something.

You don't earn Jesus. You don't deserve Jesus. You don't work for Jesus. You don't be good enough to get Jesus. Jesus Christ says, I am like manna.

I am here. If you want me, take me. I'll give you eternal life. You can't earn it. You can't pay for it.

It is free. But love, I want you to listen to me. That's what sets us apart from every other religion. Every other religion says if you do this. God will give you that.

If you work hard enough You'll make it to heaven. Catholics teach that. Buddhists teach that. Islam teaches that. If you do this...

God is obligated to give you that. Jesus is on the manna. You don't earn me and you don't deserve me. I am free. You come to me, and I'll give you myself.

I will give you eternal life. You know, President Trump a little while back was interviewed. And the person who was interviewing President Trump, the reporter, said this. President Trump, you're a praying man, aren't you? He says, Oh, yes, yes, I do pray.

When you pray, President Trump. What do you pray for? Trump says, well, I'll pray for our world. I pray for our nation. I pray for my family.

And I pray for myself.

Well, you do.

Well, President Trump, what specifically do you pray for when you pray for yourself?

Well, I pray that I'll be good. I pray that I'll be good. Because Um if I do good I'll go to heaven. If I don't do good, I'll go to the other place. That's the biggest heresy, even in the body of Christ.

If I do good. I go to heaven. If I do bad... I'll go to Hill. That's not biblical.

Jesus Christ didn't come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people live. And when you realize I'm a sinner, I'm not good enough to go to heaven. My goodness will never get me into heaven. But that man, Jesus Christ, died on the cross for my sin.

He paid the price for my salvation. I am not good enough to go to heaven. Jesus, have mercy upon me. I surrender my life to you. That's what gets you into heaven.

It's not doing good. And so Mana Like Jesus, it was a free gift. Number three, manna like Jesus was pure. You see that in verse 31 of Exodus 16? It says the manna was white.

White is a symbol of purity, okay? And so when it says that Jesus is like manna and manna was white, it's a symbol of purity, okay? Let me just say this. I got a lot to cover, so I'm gonna move on. I'm not gonna park here too long.

When I say that white is a symbol of purity, because we got a big, we got internationals here, African Americans here, Latinos here. You do understand that's not saying that white people are good and black people are bad. You do understand that, right? Because there, you know. I can tell you why that's not what that's saying.

Do you know white people? Aren't even white. I mean, what do you call it? You wouldn't call that why? I mean, I guess you only.

Legitimate white people are albinos, and it's not saying that all albinos are going to heaven. That's not what it's saying. Here's what I'm saying: the Bible is very clear that Jesus Christ is the pure, righteous, holy Son of God. He uses the symbolism of white, but the point is this: we serve a holy God, a good God, a pure God, a righteous God.

Okay? Does that make sense? I always get nervous now. Ever since 2020, I get nervous when I start talking about white skin or whatever.

So, you understand what I'm saying? When I say white people aren't even white, I guess you'd look at this as peach or what would you call that? Maybe like a. Glowing bronze is what you'd call my skin, like a Greek god or something.

Okay. Um Number four. Jesus, now again, how is Jesus like manna? Look at this. Number four, Jesus like manna came with the glory of God.

Exodus 16.10 says this. Watch this. I just read this. When manna appeared The glory of God appeared. That is the first time in the Bible you ever see the glory of God mentioned.

It's mentioned a lot after this, but Exodus 16:10, when the manna comes, that is the first time you see the glory of God appearing as well, which reminds us of what John says in John 1:14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Jesus, like manna, accompanied the glory of God. Number five. Jesus Now, this is important right here.

Jesus, how is Jesus like manna? The bread that came down from heaven. Jesus, like manna, feeds us despite our sin. In Exodus 16. Here's what's happening.

Verse two. All these Jewish people. That the people of Israel Several million of them. are complaining against God. Verse three.

They have the audacity. of accusing God of trying to kill them. And the ironic thing is, this takes place. If you look at the chronology of the book of Exodus, this takes place less than one month after God split the Red Sea in two and they walked through on dry land. Less than a month later, they're complaining and saying, God, you're trying to kill us and you don't love us.

Now you know if I if I were God I would say, I'm done with you. I brought you out of bondage. I parted the Red Sea. I destroyed your enemies. You are now free, liberated people.

And all you're doing is griping and complaining. I think I'd have a little bit of an attitude toward my people. Do you know what God does? He says: Despite your complaining, despite your grumbling, I'm still going to send bread down from heaven and bless you. Which is the beautiful picture of the grace of God.

Listen to me. I wrote this down because it's so powerful. Let me say this. There are two terms you need to understand if you're going to understand Christianity. First term is mercy.

Mercy is not getting what you deserve. How many people in this place deserve an everlasting devil's hell? Raise your hand. When you got born again and saved, God says, I'm giving you mercy, which means I'm not giving you what you deserve. The second term is grace.

which means getting what you don't deserve. To understand Jesus, you got to understand mercy and grace. Because of Jesus, I'm not going to get what I deserve. And also, because of Jesus, I'm going to get what I don't deserve. Here's a radical concept.

I want you to listen to me. This this thing right here. I know every Sunday I say, now this will change your life. Actually, this will change your life.

So listen to me. Here's a radical concept. Grace means that God blesses us. Even when we mess up. Otherwise, it would not be grace.

Are you with me on that? Grace means God blesses you. Even when you mess up, And you don't deserve it. Otherwise, it's not grace. You've earned it.

You're good, God blesses you. You're bad, He doesn't bless you. No, grace means God blesses you. Even when you mess up, otherwise, it wouldn't be grace.

Now, that doesn't mean we're going to live like hell and we live like the devil. No, I've found this. I think the book of Jude says this: the grace of God has appeared. Grace of God. teaching us to say no to sin.

When I started to understand God's grace. It makes me want to run from sin, not run towards sin. But now here, listen to me. Most Christians are functional. Hindus.

You know, Hinduism has this idea of karma. Have you heard of karma before? You get what you deserve. Most Christians are functional Hindus, really. You call yourself a Christian, you're really a Hindu.

Because what you believe is this: if I'm good, God's going to bless me. But if I'm bad, he ain't going to bless me. That's not biblical. God blesses us. Despite our sin.

If I got what I deserve every single day, my life would be a very hard, rough life. But God says, Chad, even though you deserve this, I'm giving you that. Please stop believing in karma.

Now, I'm going to tell you: here's, I used to be a karma pastor. I was the Hindu pastor of Cross Assembly, okay? Because I used to believe this. If I spend a lot of time in my Bible study and living right and walk the line as a pastor, Then attendance will go up. Offerings will go up.

That's functional Hinduism. If I walk a tight line Do right. God will bless me and bless the church. But. Ooh.

If I spend 20 minutes... in quiet time when God wanted me to spend 30 minutes in quiet time? Or somebody pulls out in front of Pastor Chad this week, and Pastor Chad honks the horn and says a no-no word. Attendance is going to start going down. God's blessing is going to be off this church.

He ain't going to bless. Honestly, that sounds psychotic. I used to live like that.

Some of y'all do the same thing. Man, I gotta walk the line and... Be tough and hang in there and don't mess up and don't have any fun and don't just got to be really, really careful. Because if God sees me having fun and not taking Christianity seriously, he's going to stop blessing me. I'll tell you how psychotic this used to be.

It's actually a good bad. Like I used to do, I don't travel much now. You know, the older I get, I just don't like traveling anymore. But when I was here earlier on, I used to do a lot of traveling. And um I hate to admit this, but I'd be like, but if I knew I was going to travel, I was going to take off next Tuesday.

On a plane? I'd make sure I doubled my quiet time leading up to next Tuesday. Because what if I'm not walking with God as close as I should be? And I get on that airplane, and God says, You know what, Chad? I'm just done with you.

This plane is going down. And I'm going to crash. And I want to take all these innocent people with me because I'm not living like I should. And that's a horrible way to live. Sweb of y'all.

You're waiting for the other shoe to drop. I got good news for you. The other shoe is never going to drop. It was thrown at Jesus at Calvary 2,000 years ago. There is no other shoe to drop.

You're accepted in Christ Jesus. God loves you as much as He loves His Son. When God sees you, He doesn't see you sin, He sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is grace. And when you start to understand grace, You start to enjoy walking with Jesus.

Well, Chad, I'm afraid God's going to get me. Hey, he's already got you. You already belong to him. Start enjoying Jesus Christ and stop living like God is going to pay you what you deserve. Because he does.

Now, again, if you're hearing me say live morally loose, I'm not saying that at all. What I'm finding is The more I start to enjoy Jesus In His grace. The less I want to see, I just don't want to see it anymore. And so Jesus is saying this. Just like manna came down.

and was free. Just like manna came down into the midst of some complaining, griping, mean people, but God chose to bless them anyway. God chooses to bless you even when your attitude isn't what it always should be, even when your words aren't always what they should be. God chooses to bless you despite. Messing up.

Let me give you one more. Jesus. White mana. satisfies our hunger. Verse thirty-five.

And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never Hunger. Verse 48. I am the bread of life. Wow.

What does it mean in verse 35 when Jesus says, If you come to me, You will never be hungry again. What does that mean?

Well, I I think it means Here's how a neighbor of mine put it.

Now, I'm going to share this phrase that this neighbor used. We use this phrase in Christianity all the time. In fact, we use it so much, we roll our eyes when somebody says this. But Da and I had a neighbor one time. who had gotten radically saved.

A great neighbor, wonderful neighbor. But but this neighbor Uh wasn't a born-again believer. Found Jesus Christ. I mean, she was living with somebody, wonderful lady, but she wasn't a born-again believer. She got saved.

And first thing she did is come over to our house and she said, Chad, darling, you'll never believe this. I got saved. No Christian background as far as evangelical Christianity, and now she's on fire for Jesus. And I said, Well, man, that's that's fantastic. What happened?

She said, Well, I went to this church and I heard the gospel, and then the pastor said something that I've never heard anybody say this before.

Now, here's the phrase that she said that I've heard all my life. She said, The pastor said, There is a God-shaped hole in everybody's heart. That only Jesus can feel. And when he said that, I got saved.

Now, I didn't say, wow, we've heard that. Darling, how many times have you heard that? I've heard that all my life. Can't believe you're just down here and that. I didn't say that.

Accept my vision. That's an incredible statement. Let me make sure I got you right. You said, there is a God-shaped hole in everybody's heart that only Jesus can fill. She said, yeah.

I thought about that when I read this today. Jesus said, You come to me? You'll never be hungry again. What he's saying is there is a God-shaped hole, a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every human being that only the bread of life can fill. You believe that?

Something missing in your heart. With that hunger For acceptance, or a hunger for identity, or a hunger for purpose, or a hunger for forgiveness. When that hunger is not fulfilled in Jesus, You turn to functional idols to try to fill that place in your heart. Do you understand what I just said to you? There's a hunger for forgiveness, a hunger for acceptance, a hunger for identity.

And if that hunger is not found in Jesus, you will turn to other functional idols to try to fill that hunger. Blue Aback. I had to go get some blood drawn. And I won't tell you where it was, that's not important, but it's a big center. And I go into this room.

I always get a little bit nervous. I don't like needles. And I like to get blood drawn. And this young lady. Uh came up.

And I can't remember her name. I wanted to say Brittany, but that probably wasn't her name.

Okay, but let's just say Brittany, just whatever. She came up. Come on. And Brittany started talking. And I said, huh?

Brittany's got kind of a deep voice. Then I looked and I said, huh? Brittany's got some stubble on her face. And then I said, huh? Brittany's got an Adam's apple.

And then I realized Brittany was not a girl. Brittany was a guy. And you say, now, Pastor Ted, what did you do? Get away from me. Did you say, no?

No, because I'm a noticer of people. I'm going to tell you a couple other things I noticed. I noticed That young man's fingernails were bitten down to the quick. I I I noticed he just He seemed really nervous, just very, very jittery, very nervous. And I I looked around.

And I noticed his co-workers. And his coworkers are looking at him and they're rolling their eyes and they're acting like this is the biggest freak in the world. And if I saw that, I know he saw that. And you're going to think I'm crazy, and you're going to think I'm sissy, and I'm getting soft in my old age. But I teared up.

And later on, the Spirit of God spoke to me. And so, Jen. What was that young man? Hungry for. What was that God-shaped hole in his heart?

That caused him to want to go and change his fundamental identity, his fundamental gender. Was he hungry for acceptance? Did he maybe not have a father who spoke into his life when he was young and said, I believe in you, and you're a young man, and I want to teach you how to be a young man? Was he hungry for a father? Was there always something a little bit different about him?

And as a little kid, he goes to school, and instead of finding friends, he's laughed at and scorned. Was he hungry for acceptance, and when he did not find that acceptance, he turned to the functional idol of transgenderism to try to change who he was to gain that acceptance? Was he hungry for healing? Was something horrible done to him? It scarred him.

He was hungry for healing that he never did find in that surgery. Was he hungry for a sense of identity? He doesn't know who he is. Is he hungry? For sense of forgiveness.

Did he make some bad moral decisions earlier on that made him think he was this way? And if he could find the forgiveness that only comes in Jesus Christ, that could have been broken. Here's my question: What was Brittany, or whatever his name is, what was he hungry for? And what I'm saying to you is, we're living in a lost and dying world, and we can look at them as enemies and the bad guys, or we can look at them as a hungry world that can only be satisfied by the bread of life, Jesus Christ. And when Jesus comes to these people, he says, I am the bread of life, and you consume me, you find forgiveness, you find a sense of identity, you find a sense of acceptance.

You are adopted as a child of God because you accept me, the bread of life. I can go on, but I got to close out. Look at verse 51, and we'll close this thing. Jesus is I think he makes a very audacious statement here. He said: if anyone eats of this bread, he will live.

Forever.

Okay. How can Jesus say You bring him into your life, you consume Jesus, Jesus becomes your Lord. You're going to live forever.

Okay. I'm going to one up you on this. John 11:25. You ready for this one? You think that's audacious?

Here's one. I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth in me will. Never die.

Okay. That's a pretty audacious statement. You believe in Jesus, you'll never die. I look back on 2025. I I think We as a church may have done more um I think we've done more funerals this year, at least than I can remember in a long time.

We've lost a lot of good people this year.

Some of them are friends of mine. They were all sheep and I love them all. I knew some of them personally. And they knew Jesus. Wait a second.

How could they have died? How could we have done all these funerals? When Jesus says right there in verse 26, whoever liveth and believeth in me will never die. That doesn't make any sense. Do you understand the question?

How can I have done so many funerals for good people who believed in Jesus, but Jesus said right there, you believe in me, you'll never die. I think the Lord answered that for me this past week. Uh I watched a movie. Several years ago, Christian movies used to be bad. Did you know?

I mean, some of y'all who don't realize this, Christian movies years ago used to be bad and cheesy. Are the Christian Movie people have upped their game. We got a lot of good Christian movies out there now. And one was called Paul the Apostle of Christ. I think it came out in 2018.

Jim Caviesel from The Passion of Christ, he was in that movie. It's a great movie. All right, I'm trying to answer the question. How can you say you believe in Jesus, you'll never die, and yet all these good people died? In that movie, Paul the Apostle of Christ.

It's about the first century Christianity. Where Christians are being persecuted. Get ready. It's going to happen again. In the end times, Revelation says Satan comes after two groups of people: Jews and Christians.

It's going to happen again. Leonard Sweet said the church of the 21st century will be more like the church of the first century than the church of the 20th century. It's about to happen again. And in this movie, a bunch of Christians, just normal, good Christians like you and me, they've all been arrested: men, women, old, young children, and they're all in this dungeon. And they're cold and they're hungry and they're scared, they don't know what's going on.

And Jim Caviesel, who plays Luke, who wrote the Bible. is now in that prison. And once it comes in, They say to him, You're Luke, aren't you? Yeah. You're the friend of the Apostle Paul, yeah?

Yeah. Can you tell us what's going on? We don't know what's happening. They're not telling us anything in here. What's going on?

And you can tell Luke doesn't want to say it. But he finally says. There will be games tomorrow. And everybody screams. Everybody panics.

Because they know what that phrase, there will be games tomorrow. You can look at this on YouTube, it's great. Just do Paul the Apostle of Christ movie, there will be games. Everybody loses it. And then Luke says, calm down, calm down, calm down.

He says, gather around. Gather around. And all the prisoners gather around Luke, all these Christians. Men, women, boys, girls. And Luke says.

There will be a moment of pain. But only a moment. Only a moment. And then we shall be home in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. Forever.

And I think that might be what Jesus means when he says, he that believeth in me will never die. I think what he's saying is. There will be a moment. of pain. But only a moment.

As mortal, puts on immortality. And then we'll be in the presence. of our Lord forever. There will be a moment of pain in your chest.

Okay. But only a moment. And then you'll be in the presence of the Lord forever. There will be a moment of screeching, breaks, and impact on the interstate, but only. A moment.

And then you'll be in the presence of the Lord forever. There will be a moment When you can't catch your breath. And you're having a hard time breathing. But only a moment. And then We will be in the presence of Jesus.

Forever.

And that's what he means when he says. I am the bread of life. You believe in me? You'll never die. Church, isn't it a great hope that we have in Jesus Christ?

Nobody else can give us that, only Jesus. And this eternal life that we have, that we celebrate, that we take for granted. Cost him everything. And that's why Jesus instituted communion. Because he says, I don't want you to ever.

Forget. What your salvation costs me.

So, I'm going to ask now: if you're a follower of Jesus Christ and you didn't get a communion packet when you came in and you'd like one, just raise your hand for a second. We'll have our ushers make sure that you get one. If you're not a born-again believer and you don't believe in Jesus, this is just for the family. Watch as the family celebrates this. Y'all ready?

Stand with me right now. Two thousand years ago. On the night before he died. Jesus called his followers together. And he said, I'm about to go through the most agonizing pain anybody has ever experienced, not just physical, spiritual.

The sin of the world is about to be placed on me. And I'm doing this because somebody's got to pay for the sins of humanity. Either you're going to have to pay for your sins or somebody else is. And Jesus is saying, I am now about. to pay for your sin.

And Jesus said, I want you to take this piece of bread. Y'all do that right now. Jesus said. I'm the bread of life. It came down from heaven.

I'm the one. This satisfies every hunger. and every longing. And I am the bread. Then if you'll take me in And you surrender to me.

You'll never die. Yeah, okay, your body's gonna wear off. But the real you. The eternal you. It's an audacious statement.

Never die.

And Jesus said, Take and eat, for this is my body, which is broken for you. I've come to do this just about every time we do communion now because somebody needs to hear this. I'm being sarcastic. Be ready? 1 John says, And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us of most of our unrighteousness.

Is that what it says? And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us of some of the bad stuff, but the really bad stuff. See what it says? It says in 1 John, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all unrighteousness. How can God be good to a messed-up man like me?

Because when God looks at me, he doesn't see me, he sees the blood of Jesus because I'm covered in the blood of Jesus Christ. When God looks at me, he doesn't see my sin because my sin has been washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ. Here in America, we don't believe in double jeopardy. We don't believe you can be tried for the same crime twice. Folks, Jesus Christ was tried for your crime, sentenced to death, killed for your crime.

It's done. It's complete. You are forgiven. You're now an adopted child of God because of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And Jesus said, Take and drink, for this is my blood which is poured out for you.

Can you just lift up holy hands right now? And just say, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for what you did for us. Thank you. We bless you.

We exalt you. Thank you, Jesus. In Jesus' name, amen. You know, this Christmas season, don't I talk about this coming over here today? You know, the Bible says this: the angels long to look into and experience what we're experiencing.

Angels can't experience salvation like we can, angels can't understand grace like we can. That's why at the birth of Jesus Christ, it says a multitude of angels appeared over the skies of Bethlehem because they wanted to see this miracle child that had come into the world to crush the head of Satan, to forgive us of our sins, to give us eternal life. The angels wanted to see what we're experiencing right now. I'm going to ask you again: how can you hold this in? Jesus is good, he is righteous, he is king, he is Lord, He's given us eternal life.

I don't have to worry about death, dying, hell, Satan, demons. I don't worry about any of that kind of stuff because of Jesus Christ. Can the people of God raise your hands and raise your voice and let's praise the King of kings and the Lord of Lords right now? Lead us in this. How wonderful.

And my soul. Shall ever be how marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior? Here's the glory eternal. Look my seat. Um My song.

He made death his Yeah. He bore the burden to carbrie. He suffered and died alone with sing. How marvelous, how wonderful and my song shall ever be how marvelous how wonderful is my shape is love for me and how marvelous how wonderful and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior, His love for me, man?

Because of what Jesus did. You, listen to me, you are perfectly loved by the Father. And perfect love casts out what? fear. That's what the Bible says.

Perfect love casts out all fear. Deb, you afraid of dying? No? I mean, I just don't want to be there when it happens, but no, I'm not afraid of dying. You're afraid of Satan?

Nah, not really. You afraid of demons? No. Liberals? No.

I'm not really that. This isn't boldness or whatever. This is just fact. When Jesus Christ comes in and forgives you, and cleanses you and changes you, and you're loved by the Father, it just drives out all that fear. And that's why I can say to you in an even deeper way what God said to Joshua.

millennia ago. Kazakh Behamatz. Out that road they're on a hit. Adonai Elehecha Beho Asha Tela, which means cross assembly. Be bold.

Be strong. You ought to be afraid. And you don't be terrified of anything. Why? Because the Lord your God is going to be with you this week everywhere you go.

In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen and amen. God bless you, beloved. Let's go change this world for Jesus Christ. Yeah.