A Day When Many Walked Away From Jesus

I want to speak to you from my heart today, a message that I've been meditating on, reading over and over again, thinking about, knowing in my heart that God had spoken it to me, and it's from John chapter 6. It's called, A Day When Many Walked Away from Jesus. John chapter 6, if you go there, we're going to be reading a lot of that chapter today. John chapter 6, and while you're turning there, let's pray together.

Father, I thank you, God, for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. Jesus, Son of God, with all my heart, I say thank you. You're the only one who can make these words live.

We won't hear it if you don't draw us. You yourself said no one can come to God unless the Father draws him. And so, Lord, I'm asking you to draw us.

Let there be a strange warming in each of our hearts. God Almighty, give us the strength we're going to need now for the days that we now live in. I pray with all my heart that you would overshadow the frailty of this human vessel.

You would give me the ability, Lord, to speak this word. Holy Spirit, we need you. We need you.

We welcome you in this church. We're not looking just to get through a two-hour service and say how wonderful that was. We're looking for transformed lives.

We're looking for the inner power of God. We're looking for that within us that makes a difference in our generation. We're looking to be taken out of mediocrity and brought into the supernatural life of Christ.

God Almighty, your church needs you. Your church needs you, Lord. Before this generation can even call out to you, your church needs you.

So God, help me today. Help me to speak this, Lord. Jesus Christ, I ask it in the power of your name, the mercy that the cross represents.

Father, help us to hear it. And I praise you for it in Jesus' name. I'm going to begin in John chapter 6, verses 60 to 66, a day when many walked away from Jesus.

The apostle Paul, in the book of 2 Thessalonians, speaks about a moment in history. Well, it starts in 1 Thessalonians and translates over into the second book that he wrote, the second epistle. A moment in history when this world is going to launch a worldwide rebellion against everything of God.

Everything that is holy is going to become unholy. Everything unholy is going to become good. We're seeing that in this generation.

There are so many signs that are pointing to the soon return of Jesus Christ. The day is going to be hard. The day is going to be dark.

The day is going to test the fiber and fabric of every believer in Jesus Christ. Many false prophets are going to arise and lead people to another easier path than the one that Christ ordained for us because of his cross and his call that's on all of our lives. And there's going to be alternate Christs presented to the point where, if it were possible, even the very elect would be deceived.

But you see, the beauty of it all is that those who have a true heart for God, those that are not trying to mold God into some fashion that they consider palatable, won't be deceived, can't be deceived. You have the spirit of God within you. If you have a heart for him, a heart that says, Lord, I'm coming to you because I'm asking you to conform me to your image.

I'm not trying to conform you to mine. I'm not trying to make you into some God that I'm willing to follow. But I'm asking you to reveal to me clearly who you are.

And as you do, I will follow you if you give me the strength. And of course, the obvious response from the Son of God is, I will give you the strength. I will raise you up.

I will give you a new mind, a new heart, and a new spirit. John chapter 6, beginning at verse 60. Therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, and we'll get into what the this is in a moment, they said, this is a hard saying.

Who can understand it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this, he said to them, does this offend you? What then, if you should see the Son of Man ascend where he was before? In other words, he's asking a question. What if my words prove to have the power to raise the dead? Will that make a difference? It's the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing.

The words that I speak to you are spirit. They are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.

For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray him. And he said, therefore, I've said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

From that time. They had the physical Jesus in their presence. They were hearing audibly the words that we read from pages today.

They heard it audibly from the mouth of the Son of God. They had the one who could raise the dead, give sight to the blind, walk on water, turn water into wine at a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. And because of this, John chapter 6 tells us that many of them began to follow him with great enthusiasm.

But later they walked away because they're unwilling to deal with a key issue in their own hearts. And we'll see that just in a moment what that is. And I believe that if we're wondering what the great falling away Paul was speaking about to the Thessalonians is, he said that the day of the Lord will not come until there's a falling away first.

Well, you can't fall away from something that you weren't on or near or close to or at least marginally embracing. You can't fall away from somewhere you haven't been. You can't drop something that's not in your hand.

You can't fall off something you're not standing on already. And Paul talks about this great falling away that's going to take place in the last days. And when this rebellion has reached its height, then this world is going to elect a leader who offers to them messiahship really.

He offers to them a way forward, declares himself to be a man of peace but goes into the temple in Jerusalem and ultimately declares himself to be God. Now these people in John chapter 6 are going to show us what a falling away looks like and why it happens. In John chapter 6 verse 2 tells us that they were initially drawn to him by the evidence of what he was doing in the lives of others.

It says that a great multitude followed him because they saw his signs which he performed on those who were diseased. Now most of you, myself included this morning, came to Christ because of what he had done in somebody else, right? You heard a story. You saw some evidence.

I had a man come to me who claimed to be a born-again believer in Christ. And when I saw what God had done for him, when I saw what Christ, how Christ had touched him, I was drawn to Christ because of him. I was drawn to a living relationship with the Son of God in my heart.

I thought if God can do that, I want to get to know who he is. And that's exactly what happened with these people. And there was a multitude of them.

I mean a crowd, a lot of people. And initially they were there because they saw him doing something outside of themselves. It was really for others.

And because of that they were drawn. That's why most people are drawn to Christ in the first place. And in John chapter 6 verse 11 says Jesus took loaves.

Now they gathered. It was the Passover. They were hungry.

The scripture says he took the loaves. He had five barley loaves. And when he had given thanks he distributed them to the disciples, the disciples to those who were sitting down.

And likewise to the fish as much as they wanted. And when they were filled he said to his disciples, gather up the fragments that remain so that nothing is lost. Therefore they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.

Then those men when they had seen the sign that Jesus did said, this truly is the prophet who is to come into the world. Now that was a promise that had been given to them through Moses. Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take him by force to make him a king, he departed again to the mountain to himself alone.

Now it's very, very interesting that there was no talk of making Jesus king until they saw that by the power of God their bellies could be filled. There was no talk of making him king when he could heal a leper, touch a blind man. All of that was fine.

But when the multitude saw that he could make bread out of nothing, then suddenly everybody got a vision of how wonderful their brand new bread filled lives could be. I think they believed that they could escape the curse that, and of course they would be familiar with the curse that Adam brought into the world because he sinned against God. Here's what Genesis says.

The Lord said to Adam, because you've heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree which I commanded you saying, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil, in other words in labor, you will eat of it all the days of your life.

That's why you all have to work so hard every day. Get up in the morning. Come home exhausted at night.

Endure the bosses and work environment that you have to endure. Thank you for not saying amen. Anybody over on my level? Now the curse that Adam brought into the world, he said in toil, you'll eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles that shall bring forth to you and you will eat the herb of the field.

In the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground from out of it for out of it you were taken for dust you are and to dust you shall return. And so they would be familiar with this curse that sin brought into the world. That's they knew that's why they had to work.

That's they knew that's why they had to sweat. That's why their lives were filled with sorrow. But suddenly there's somebody in their midst who can make bread with no sweat.

And they were thinking, I have a thought in my heart that every person must have a vision. I don't have to go to work anymore. I can just make bread by speaking it into existence and I can sell some on the roadside for sending my kids out.

I don't even have to go out and sell bread. Somebody else had probably had a vision of a bakery, divine bread for sale. You know, even as the tempter once suggested to Jesus, you see this makes the temptation in Matthew chapter four very pertinent.

He came to Jesus and said, if you're the son of command that these stones become bread. In other words, break the curse of sin on this world. You claim that you've come to redeem humankind and to break the curse of sin so that if that's true, then command these stones to be made bread.

You see, Satan was there when God pronounced the curse on this earth because of the sin of Adam, that you bread would be hard to come by. You'd have to work hard. You'd have to sweat.

And there's times that you would labor and there would be very little if any profit for it. That's the curse of sin. In other words, if you are the son of God, break the curse of sin on this world by supernaturally creating bread to fill your own belly.

Use your authority for yourself. Fill yourself. Let it be about yourself.

Break the curse of sin and show me you're the son of God. But Jesus responded by saying, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. In other words, Christ was saying, my father has a divine purpose that he has spoken over my life and that purpose will be fulfilled by yielding to him and not by living to satisfy my own desires.

It's in yielding to him that this purpose will be fulfilled. Now, I want to show you where the walking away begins in John chapter six and beginning at verse 24. Now, when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they got into boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus.

Now, they're zealous like you are today, like many are. It's like if you heard that God was doing something supernatural in Baltimore, you'd probably get on a plane and go there to see. There's a zealousness about them.

They got into boats. There had just been, if you read it, there'd just been a terrible storm. They knew that, but in spite of the storm that just had been and could even come again, with great effort, they rode across the lake.

Zeal does not mean truth. You have to be careful because many false prophets are going to arise in our generation who are full of zeal, but zeal is not a substitute for truth. It's not a substitute for the calling of God that he's placing on each of our lives.

And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? And then Jesus answered them and said, most assuredly, I say to you, verse 26 of John six, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. In other words, you're not seeking me for the things that initially drew you. When you initially came, you saw me doing miracles on others and you're not seeking me for that reason.

You're seeking me because your belly was filled. You were self-satisfied. You saw that the power of God could meet your own needs.

And that's why you're seeking me just because of the bread. And then he says in verse 27, do not labor for the food, which perishes, but for the food, which endures to everlasting life, which the son of man will give you because God, the father has set his seal on him. Now it gets very interesting here.

They're all, they're after bread and they never really get off the topic. Then they said to him, what shall we do that we may work the works of God? In other words, how can we make bread? That's really what they're saying. Supernatural.

They never forget. They're only really there for the bread. How can we make bread? And Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he set.

This is the work that you go beyond just your own needs and hear what I'm trying to tell you, that there's a divine purpose for you and there's power to accomplish it. But it is a purpose that can only be fulfilled by following me as I go to a cross by yielding yourself for the sake of others. Therefore, verse 30, they said to him, what sign will you perform then? Now watch where they're going with this, that we may see it and believe you.

What work will you do? Verse 31, our fathers ate manna in the desert as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. They're still after bread.

They want to know how to make bread. And when he seems to be dodging their request, then they go right back to it again and say, well, Hey, give us a sign. Sort of like God did when his people passed through in the wilderness, he gave them bread.

So make some more bread. 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 God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread.

Always. We want bread. We want more bread.

We want more bread. Fill us, fill us, fill us, fill us, fill us, prosper us, make us healthy. Take away all poverty.

Give us the power to speak away our troubles so that we would breeze through this life free from all the curse of sin and be always satisfied. Then Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life and he who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. In other words, you're looking for physical bread and you think this is giving you a relationship with God, but I'm telling you, I am the bread that God the father has sent down from heaven.

If you are willing to partake of me, your true hunger, that true hunger that's in you will be satisfied. But I said to you that you've seen me and yet you do not believe all that the father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out for I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And here, this is the key.

Now, this is where everything starts to turn. He starts to speak something they don't want to hear. And sometimes in my heart, I have a trepidation for this generation because I feel these are words that this church age hasn't wanted to hear for a long time, that we're called to follow the one who came down from heaven, not to do his own will, but the will of the one who sent him.

And Jesus himself said to us, as the father has sent me, I am now sending you. As I came down to this world, not to be served, but to serve, I'm sending you out not to garner and glean to satisfy your own desires or form some theological focus that's all about yourself, but I'm sending you out as emissaries of the one who went to a cross and gave his life that all who believe in him might have everlasting life. This is the will of the father who sent me that of all he's given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.

Now they should have known they should have, they should have asked something. There should have been some questions come out here, explain this to us, help us to understand it. And he would have drawn them back to the original miracle of the loaves.

And he would have said, don't you remember that after everybody had eaten that 12, 12 baskets full were gathered of everything that remained. Everything I have done has been pointing to this one work of God on the earth, that all who believe might find eternal life. And there will be a day coming, a day when even the dead will hear the voice of God and they'll be raised out of the grave.

And we who are alive and remain will be gathered together with them. But until that day, in the last day, I will also raise up a testimony. I will also raise up a church.

I will also raise up a people who will be able to stand, who will shine as lights in the darkness, who will be signposts to so many trying to find their way to safety through the darkness. I will raise you up at the last day. I will give you life.

I'll give you purpose. I'll feed you. I'll cleanse you.

I'll give you strength to stand when others are bowing. I'll give you everything that you need. And this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the son and believes in him may have everlasting life.

And I will raise him up at the last day. The Jews then complained about him because he said, I'm the bread which came down from heaven. I can hear the complaining beginning.

We came here for bread and he's trying to draw us to himself. We know what we need. And he's trying to tell us that we don't fully know what we need yet.

We're ready to make him our King, but shouldn't a King be solely focused on meeting the needs of subjects as loyal as we are? You see, here's the deal, Jesus, you give us bread, we'll make you our King. That's the deal. You give us the power to speak away all our troubles.

You give us the power to push away all our trials, all our poverty. You give us the power to stand in a place of authority and provision. You do it our way and we make you King.

Don't talk to us about needing something more. You see, in their sin nature, they had become as God and they knew what they needed and they knew what was good. Remember that was the sin nature that fell on the human race in the garden of Eden.

You shall be as God's and you will know what is good and what is evil. So here is an argument developing with the son of God. He's saying you need something more than physical bread.

You're laboring for that which does not satisfy. It will not raise you up. It will not give you strength.

There's a deeper calling and with the deeper calling comes a deeper provision than just clothes in your cupboard and a good job and a nice car and all the rest of the things that come with it. There's a calling that's going to come on those that belong to God in this world and you will need the strength of God to accomplish it. And then they said in verse 42, now see what happens now, they have to justify rejecting revealed truth.

Nobody walks away from God without justifying it folks, especially in the house of God. There's nothing worse than religion that has rejected Christ. Nothing worse than churches that have put away any talk about the cross or the blood or heaven or hell about living a holy life because they fear that that might be offensive to their adherence.

They have to justify walking away from Jesus and they say well is this not Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know. I mean up till just a moment ago they're willing to make him king until he said no I'm not giving you the bread you're asking for. I'm not doing that.

That will only weaken you. That will only put you in a place where you'll eventually be overcome. But they begin to walk away because it's a message that they simply don't want to hear.

In verse 44 Jesus said no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day. Oh God raise us up. We're living in the last days folks.

We're living in the last days and there has to be a prayer in your heart now. Oh God raise me up. Oh God deliver me from self-focus.

Oh God deliver me from just reading the bible to see what I can get for my own belly. Oh God help me help me to look beyond living for myself. Help me not just to be a seeker of you just because I want things for myself.

I want to be self-satisfied. Yes there's a place for that in the beginning. In infancy there's a place for that but for those who will go on with God and make a difference especially at this time there has to be a yielding to him.

There has to be something in the heart that says father if it's possible take this cup from me. Nevertheless not my will but thine be done. If it's possible I don't want to do this.

If it's possible this is too hard for me. God this you're you're talking to me about yielding my life for the sake of others who might not even appreciate it. You're talking God about me giving up my dreams and my plans and my ambitions.

You're talking about not using my relationship with you just to command bread out of every hard place that I will ever encounter. You're asking me Lord to be willing to be given for others as you were given for me and that is not a decision that any person can make lightly and I honestly don't believe that we can make it unless the father draws us to it. Unless God himself says my son my daughter this is a better way.

Come let us reason together. This is the way of life. This is what you need.

The Jews therefore in verse 52 it says they they quarreled among themselves. Verse 50 let's go back to verse 51. I am the living bread which came down from heaven.

If anyone eats of this bread he will be he will live forever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I shall give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves saying how can this man give us his flesh to eat. Then Jesus said to them most assuredly I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood is eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living father sent me and I live because of the father so he who feeds on me will live because of me.

This is the bread which came down from heaven not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever. And it was at this point they were offended.

It was at this point that many turned and walked with him no more. It doesn't mean they abandoned religion. They just walked with him no more.

They just went back to another way to try to make bread and they abandoned the one who was the living bread. But to those who can hear Jesus said here's my purpose. My life is to be given for the life of this world and you are called to follow me but unless you partake of the victory that I'm about to win for you unless you let my blood cover you unless you come in with a fully yielded heart with a desire to live for me and lay hold of every promise that proceeds out of the mouth of God for you you will not be able to fulfill the calling that is before you.

But if you do I promise you eternal life and I will raise you up at the last day. I will raise you up. You see we are in dire need of a church rising out of the ashes in this generation.

We're in dire need of evangelists again. We are in dire need of people who know how to exercise the power of God and don't use it for their own gain. They use it for the sake of others.

We're in dire need of a testimony of of people who go into the workplace and even if they're persecuted day in and day out in their heart they say I am here for you. I am here for those that are headed for an eternal hell and have no hope without God and have no way to him without a testimony for the scripture says how shall they hear without a preacher. So God I am willing.

I'm willing to eat what you ate. I am willing to partake of what you partook of but God I'm asking you to raise me up in this last day. I'm asking you to make my life a testimony that can't be denied.

They can walk away from it but they can't deny it. I'm asking you to put a love in my heart that's supernatural for the lost. I'm asking you to put a generosity that doesn't come from me it comes from God.

I'm asking you to put a willingness in me to yield my own plans to that which is spoken over my life by the mouth of God and Christ made a way when he rose from the dead. He took my captivity captive and promised to give me giftings so that this call in my life could be accomplished. He said for my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed.

In other words it's the yielded Christian life to the purpose of God that knows the satisfaction of God. That's no longer driven by this unsatisfied eternal itch running from meeting to meeting church to church town to town saying more bread give me more bread help me to make bread. Finally somebody who has found out what true life is really all about and lives satisfied abides in him for he who eats my flesh verse 56 and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.

In other words he or she has vision has life has direction has power has purpose understands something that the casual seeker of God will never know. As the living father sent me verse 57 and I live because of the father so he who feeds on me will live because of me. I will be the sustaining strength of your life.

This is the bread which came down from heaven not as your fathers ate man and are dead but he who eats this bread will live forever. There is a call my brother my sister. The calling of God is so deep that you need the father to hear it.

Has to be something in your heart because everything in the fallen nature of man will resist this. Everything just wants a bread king. That's why so many powerless churches have been raised in this nation with thousands in attendance saying we've made you our king give us bread.

Make us comfortable and happy. Make us the head and not the tail and all the rest of it that so many of you have heard over the years but the true bread is to live for the will of the one who sent us and left us here and redeemed us. That's the true bread and so my prayer is exactly like yours.

Lord give me this bread. Is this strange they didn't even ask the questions. Explain this to us.

What does it mean? I have no doubt he would have explained it had they had the courage but they were so entrenched in their viewpoint they weren't willing to hear that what you're seeking even though it's in the name of God might be not sufficient to get you through the days that we're going to face. We're going to need strength folks that comes from God and God alone and that kind of strength doesn't come to the self-seeking. That kind of strength only comes to those who are willing to be yielded for the sake of others and that is so not in the thinking of this society.

Surely you see it in the political forums now. The conversation of the day. The biased news media and everything else that is flooding this society.

There's nothing in the talk of the society about living for others. It's all about living for our own benefit. We'll make you king if you give us bread but now there's a cry from the heart of God.

Who will go? Who will tell them? Who will trust me for the strength? Who will represent me among the lost multitudes of this world? Who will adopt heaven's value system? Who will partake of this victory of Christ and take it to its fullest? Who among you will go? And I tell you from my own experience it's not easy to say yes. It's hard. There's nobody hops, skips and jumps to this conclusion because it's a call that comes with a cost.

It's a call that speaks about giving and not getting. It's a call that talks about days that will be difficult but in my heart I say Lord give me this bread. Give me the power to live beyond my own needs and desires.

Give me the inner strength and the life to care and to reach out to those who need help all around me. I don't think anything has brought this to my attention more than being alone for the last five years. When I have the power to pick up my cell phone and say to Pastor Teresa come home but yet the call is deeper than living to satisfy my own needs and desires.

And to come to the place in life where you begin to realize that I had a view and a vision of what life should be and how it should finish and it's not going to finish that way. The plan of God is deeper and it doesn't mean it's going to be easy. So I'm not standing here as somebody who just has a revelation from God's word and is just throwing it out to people that have to make the decision without me being a partaker of it myself.

And it's deeper than what I've just shown you but there are there'll be other times to talk about that. Give me the bread you spoke about. Give me the willingness to go to the cross.

Give me the power to get through my own Gethsemane where everything in me says if it's possible take this cup from me. Give me the ability to be given for people when they don't seem to even care. You know you have to go into neighborhoods and office buildings and be laid down for people that all they do is abuse you.

But that is the bread that came down from heaven for us. Give me the inner strength to care and to reach out and help those around me. Because if I'm looking for my own bread folks we're about to see a church age almost scattered to the wind in our generation.

People who have been in what they thought was the church of Jesus Christ only for their own viewpoint of bread are going to be without strength and they're going to scatter or compromise or bend or bow to the statues of this time. God just give me the power to live beyond my own needs my own desires. I feel you know Paul said to Timothy that the husbandman that labors must be the first partaker of the fruits and may the Lord give you understanding in these things and I think the Lord in his mercy is bringing me through a very long dark tunnel for your sake and helping me to make the right choice and helping me to understand the right choice is not easy.

The right choice is hard but it still is the right choice by God's grace as a people we will be given for the sake of others. I thank God today that the theme of our Bible college is living for the benefit of others. I understand it more today than I ever have in my lifetime.

So I want to give an altar call this morning here in the annex North Jersey people that are at home. I just want to give an altar call for people who just say God not my will but thine. Lord lead me guide me use my life for your glory and where you lead me give me the grace to follow and the strength that you promise.

If that's the cry of your heart we're going to just stand and come to this altar please if you will and we'll just worship together for a little while then we'll pray together. The balcony go to either exit and make your way down the main sanctuary just slip out of wherever you are and just come and join those that are going to come and we're going to pray together. Thank you God.

Thank you Lord. Thank you mighty God. Hallelujah.

You see what what you're experiencing this morning is what I call just an old-fashioned altar of consecration. This is where missionaries are born. This is where pastors are called.

This is where evangelists are given their their anointing. It's it's in coming and saying God I'm not going to be found among those who just come to you for what they can get but think that there's no requirement of your deposit of life in them. And so Lord I I just choose to yield my life to you.

You know Jesus turned to his disciples who remained and said are you going to go away too? Peter said where do we go? You're the only one who has words of of life of everlasting life. Where do we go? And he was really just being honest. In other words he was saying I I don't know where this is going to lead but I know that it's God and many of you are at the altar today and you just you can say like Peter I don't know where this is going to lead me but I know God is in it and I know that where God is that's where I want to go and and I I want I want the words that when I was in my mother's womb and God looked at me he spoke something over me.

He knew my heart he knew I'd turn to him one day and I want that. I want what God spoke over my life and yes he will give me that living bread so that it can be accomplished. That's where I'll find my strength to do what I'm called to do and somehow in this nation in particular maybe part of the western world as well we we kind of took the whole thing and turned it upside down and we we made church this heaven's bake shop where you just came to come to get free bread and there's no requirement you just come and get it and get it and get it and get it and there's there's no requirement on our part.

Well the only requirement that I know in the scriptures is to live for the benefit of others and let God be my strength to do that and that's what opens the door and then suddenly you find yourself going places you never thought you would. That's where life is. It doesn't look like it.

Remember last week I said everything in God's kingdom is upside down but that's where life is and before anybody who's visiting here thinks I'm divorced I'm not. My wife is the president of our bible school and we she works two and a half hours from our home and we're that means we're apart about 50 percent of the year but it's a calling of God. Thank God for that.

Thank God. I would be a fraud if I stood here and said to you give your all to God and yet I withheld myself. I'd be a fraud.

May it never be. Let me just pray for you now if I may. Father I just pray for these men and women of God.

Lord this is what your church is. This is where your church began. This is this is how you touch the world with the gospel.

You just took ordinary people that just said Lord be my life. Let me partake of your victory. Let me let me fully accept the cleansing of your blood.

Let me really believe your promises given to me. God take me and use me Lord for the sake of others. Use me God for those who you died to save to bring them to the knowledge of who you are.

Help me to say yes to you and to never say no or make excuses or walk away pretending theological confusion. God help me just to say yes. God help me this morning.

Help us to stand at the cross and just say yes. Yes Lord whatever that means. Yes wherever it takes me.

Yes what whatever you ask of me. Yes whatever you want me to speak. Yes whoever you want me to love.

Yes Lord but you will be the source of my strength. You will be the one I'll have to partake of. You will have to be my bread to do this God for it's not in any of us to do this.

It has to be you. Has to be Christ in us the hope of glory. So Father thank you God.

Thank you Lord that we will not go out a whimper in this generation. We will go out a powerhouse for the name of Jesus Christ. We will go out representing the God who died for this world.

Give us grace. Give us strength. Oh God almighty all of us Lord.

I pray that you make young people and older people just aware of our calling. Just aware that you are calling us Lord. Help us to go forward.

Help us to go through the doors that you opened before us. Father I thank you for this with all of my heart and I praise you and bless you for it oh God. In Jesus mighty name.

Amen and amen. Praise God. Now listen to me in this one thing.

Where God has been and where there's victory a shout comes into your heart because you know you've been in the presence of God. So I'm going to ask you before we go today let's give God let's give Jesus Christ a shout of victory in this house and declare hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Thank you Lord.