John: I Will Never Cast Out

Pastor Fletcher teaches from John 6:22-71. Discussion points: People may walk away from church because they are not getting the earthly things they came for; real Christianity is coming to Jesus because you want more of him, not because of what you want him to give you; Jesus will never cast out those who come to him.

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  Scripture reader: [John 6:22-71] On the next day, the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberius came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, rabbi, when did you come here, Jesus answered them. Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves, do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life which the son of man will give to you for on Him. God, the father has set his seal. Then they said to Him, what must we do to be doing? The works of God.

  Jesus answered them. This is the work of God that you believe in him, whom he has sent? Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe all that the father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out for. I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the sun and believes in Him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go away as well? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and come to know you that you are the holy one of God. Jesus answered them. Did I not choose you the 12? And yet one of you is a devil. He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot for he one of the 12 was going to betray him.

  The word of the Lord.

  Preacher: We're currently in the middle of the largest and fastest change in the history of religion in many ways, es especially in our country, maybe the fastest and, and largest religious shift in the history of the United States would be more accurate way to say it over the past 25 years, which is like since 2000. Ok. So if you're a geriatric millennial like me, I think of 25 years as being like way back in the nineties sometimes or farther. But no, like since 2000, 40 million Americans have stopped going to church. It's not merely that there's 40 million less Americans going to church or that the percentages say that there were 40 million Americans who were going to church who are no longer going to church. It, it's called The Great Durch. There's a few people that have written a book about it. Jim Davis and Michael Graham, and in their book, they partner with sociologists.

  What they actually found is Jim Davis was trying to study this for a class and he went to his professor and said, I want to write on the, the Great durch how everybody's leaving the churches. And he said, well, good luck. There's not been anything researched. We have no research on the Great de Church. And so what he did is he partnered with sociologists and they went and researched this and through like thousands of interviews and surveys. They were able to find really great statistics on who these people were, why they left and what would take to bring them back. Found all kinds of interesting things in that. For example, of the 40 million, 10 million of those left beca left intentionally, they left because they experienced some sort of hurt or their beliefs changed. 30 million left unintentionally meaning that they casually left the churches.

  So do you know the number one reason why people left churches in the United States over the past 25 years? It's really very simple and it, this is a good plug for our membership class because we talk about this. It's simple. It is, I moved, I, I moved to a new place and I never got back in the habit of it. COVID also was a big reason for a lot of people, but that was all. It was just punctuating a, a trend that was happening already in the United States of people treating their faith very casually and then moving away from church. And so once they had an opportunity to leave the church, it was not easy to get them back.

  But what they also found was somewhat encouraging because they found that of those 30 million people that left the church casually, many of them would be willing to come back by a simple invitation from a friend, which is a good plug. I'm just plugging all of our announcements through my introduction. It's a good plug for the sharing your faith workshop that we're doing in a few weeks, the, the mission of God workshop. But still we see and we all know we've experienced this. I would dare to say that each person in this room has a friend who has left the church in the past several years. We all know people who have left Jesus or who have left the church, or maybe even Jesus himself have walked away from their faith and are now walking a different way and possibly away all by themselves. And what are we to make of this? And how are we to think about it? Why do people walk away from their faith? Well, I don't know if I'll answer all of the questions today. Ok. That's kind of a big selling point. But I would love to talk about it more.

  And what we find today are many of the answers to that question. Many of the reasons why people do walk away from their faith and what it takes for people to stay in the faith. You see more of that in this passage than anything, what it takes to, for people to stay walking with Jesus. We're in the middle of a series in the book of John. If you haven't been with us, we've been going through the book of John the past several months. We'll continue to go through the book of John until we're done with it, which will probably be sometime around this summer. And right now we're in John six and this is what we call the bread of life discourse. We have been going through it. just kind of verse by verse. Last week, we did Jesus feeding the 5000, which is just a great passage where Jesus feeds 5000 men. It's probably more like 10 to 15,000 people there at the at, at this desolate location. And then Jesus has to retreat. He's like, I'm gonna go up on this mountain and pray for a little while. You guys disciples, you handle yourselves. So he sends his disciples back across the sea of Galilee. They get in their boat and they walk over there, it's storming. Jesus catches up with them just cruise and walking on the, the stormy sea and he hops back in the boat and they go to the other side and this week we're going to pick up where we left off last week. With what? With, what happens after this?

  The next day, the crowd looks around and they notice, hey, where's Jesus? Where's the bread guy? I, I need some more of that. All right. Where's Jesus? And so they look around, he's not there. And so they decide that Jesus has gone back to the other side of the sea of the Galilee where they know he came from for the first part. So they all get in their boats and go chase after Jesus. And when they eventually find Jesus is just such a different passage, Jesus goes from Hero to zero so quickly in the in chapter six of John earlier, like yesterday, Jesus passing out bread and fish, everybody loves him. They're seeking him out. Now they find him, they start asking him questions. They don't like what he says in return because he's starting to say some weird things in this passage. All right, Jesus comes with some things that are difficult for us to understand at times and many of those people that were seeking him out, walk away from him. And so today, as we go through this, this is the first of seven, I am passages today, Jesus says, I am the bread of life. And as we go through these, these I am statements of Jesus, we're going to be learning more and more about who Jesus is as we go through this. All right.

  So let's dive in to the point today. And this is it. why do some people abandon Jesus and others remain faithful? Why do some people abandon Jesus and others remain faithful? Two points? Why do some people abandon Jesus? And do why do some remain faithful? Why do people abandon Jesus? Number one? Why do people abandon Jesus? I have three reasons why. But first of all, let me just mention I am always so shocked at how chill Jesus is when people abandon him. Like when my friends abandon Jesus, I tend to kind of freak out. I want to beg them back into the kingdom. I feel like I need to argue with them and just like emphasize everything which may be a good, I think it is a good a good indication of of my desire for people to know Jesus. But Jesus is like never scared of casual followers walking away from him. He expects it. He never begs them to stay. He doesn't change his message. He feels no need to change his message to, to get them to stay. He's just kind of OK with letting people walk away.

  It's instructive to us. We don't have to beg people into the kingdom of God. God will call people to himself. And Jesus knows that everyone, this is in this passage, everyone who is called by the father will come to him. And so he rests in that reality that everyone who is called by the father will come to him. And so he doesn't feel the need to bag anybody into the kingdom. He doesn't feel the need to chase after everybody. He knows he rests easy in that reality. All three reasons why people walk away from their faith according to this passage, it is not all of the reasons.

  And, and before I dive into those again, I wanna recognize that a lot of people leave the faith and leave churches, especially for good reasons. Over the past several years, we've seen just a, a tremendous amount of abuse come to light. We've seen physical abuse, abuse of power, sexual abuse. All these different kinds of abuse come to light that are happening within the churches. Real abuse. And these things have no place in the family of God and these are serious topics and ones that deserve thoughtful consideration, things that I have preached on before. Here. Today's sermon is not about that though. Ok. Today's sermon, you often times when these people do walk away, even if they've experienced bad things in the church, it's compounded by many of the things that we learn in today's message about why people walk away.

  And so we're going to be looking at this passage and see some of these common reasons for people to walk away from their faith. We're jumping around the passage a bit today. Jesus does not teach very linearly. It's, it's sometimes you have to hop around to, to pick up the major themes that we're that we're getting here. So first people leave Jesus because they're because they're just interested in what Jesus has to offer and not Jesus himself. People leave Jesus because they're interested only in what Jesus has to offer and not Jesus himself.

  Verse 26. If you have your Bibles open, you can look with me. Jesus answered them truly. Truly, I say to you, you were seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. And so what Jesus is saying is that these followers are like a bad hinge date. They're not really into the person that's on the other side of that table. They're just looking for that free dinner. All right, I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands. But some of us have either been that person or we've been with that person. All right. I, I know that that happens. Sometimes these people, if you wanna understand, they, they ate their, they ate their fill of the loaves yesterday. Now they're looking for that bread. They want the bread, they want a little bit more of what Jesus has to offer. If you wanna understand why people leave Jesus, you need to understand why people originally went to Jesus.

  There's this saying that goes around churches. What you win them with is what you win them to. And it's a very real phrase. If people see Jesus as the giver of health, wealth and prosperity, well, when they don't experience those things, then they're gonna say the problem is with Jesus and they're gonna walk away from him. But Jesus never promises to give us those things. Why do we come to church? Why do many people come to church? There's a varying degrees of reason and sometimes God can take these things and he can turn them and he can use them for his own glory and he can turn people's hearts to him. And so I'm not bashing these things, but I'm just saying, sometimes people are just after what Jesus has to offer. Not Jesus himself. Many times people go to church because they need friends. Church is a great place to make friends. It's a great place to make friends, but it is a by-product of what Jesus has to offer. It is not the product of what Jesus has to offer. Sometimes people go to church looking for a future spouse. Sometimes people go to church, that's a great place to meet a future spouse. Also, I met my spouse at our church. and I'm thankful for that again, a by product that sometimes people go to church looking for entertainment. Sometimes people go to church looking for a political home, looking for a place where people think like they do and they're looking for a tribe to join in that way.

  And I'm so thankful that Jesus sometimes draws people to himself that are looking for these things. But it is not always the case unless they start looking to Jesus himself, people who go to church or look like they're following Jesus just because they're looking for one of these by products of Jesus will eventually walk away from Jesus. I've seen it happen many times over. Unless you're looking for Jesus, you're not going to stay following Jesus. Are you pursuing Christ? What brings you here this morning? We're all mixed bag of motives. What are you, Jesus? Plus? Ok. I think most of us would say, yeah, I want Jesus, but then we have that plus sign and you're like, I want this too and that's ok. Here's what I want to see happen in your life. I wanna see those things become less important and Jesus become more important. Just let Christ fill your heart more and more seek him more. These things will come too.

  It's like that CS Lewis quote. It's not a, it's not a city on a hill sermon unless I have a CS Lewis quote. He says, aim for, he aim for earth and you're not getting earth, aim for heaven and you get earth thrown in. Ok. He's saying if you aim for the things of Christ, you'll see that it changes your desires and you actually get the things you most want. That's what that quote is basically saying. Second people leave Jesus because they find his teaching to be difficult. And Jesus taught a lot of difficult things in his life. Jesus said that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go into heaven. He told a rich young ruler, a very important influential person that he needed to go and sell all of his items and give the proceeds to the poor and then come back and follow him. He told his disciples that they must be willing to leave their father and mother and the rest of their family. If they want to follow after him, Jesus said that there is, he told a parable of a sower who throws out seeds and some of the seed fell in soil, that's thorny and the cares of the world come up and they choke out the good seed and they kill the good seed.

  So basically, what he's teaching with that is that a relationship with Jesus is monogamous, a relationship with Jesus is monogamous. Meaning that Jesus has to be your number one love in life, your priority for your life. And that if you love the things of the world, the things of the world will continue to grow and will choke out your love for Christ. He teaches many difficult things. And today I love this passage. This is, this is one of my favorite verses. because I his disciples just call him out verse 60. They say this is a hard saying, who can listen to it? They're like Jesus. This is tough. I don't, I don't know about this. And what is it that Jesus is teaching? That's so tough. Verse 53. Not a weirder verse that Jesus speaks OK. Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Not only is that a difficult saying? It's a creepy one. All right. I don't wanna be reading my bible thinking about cannibalism. OK.

  This is like when my wife sees a baby, I don't know why she does this. When my wife sees a baby, she says, oh, I could just eat those little cheeks. And every time she says that I say stop saying that it's weird like moms don't wanna hear you talking about cannibalism with their child. It's just a weird thing. I don't want to take the mental picture of what's happening there. And then, and then she says, but I could, I could, I told her I was gonna tell this story and I told her how weird it is and she was like, oh, but I could, what does it mean to drink his blood and eat his flesh? We use the same kind of metaphor all the time. Actually, we devour books, right? We drink in lectures, we chew over a matter. It's a way of saying that you're completely engrossed. It's a way of saying that you're all in that you're completely engrossed in this topic. It's a metaphorical way of saying you're absolutely committed to Jesus.

  When we think about eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his blood, it means that we are absolutely committed to him and his wives as, as Augustine puts it, believe and you will have eaten, believe and you have eaten. Now. I do want to take a moment. This is one of those verses that many different religious groups split over because, it sounds a lot like communion. Does it not in this passage? This is very similar language that Jesus uses to introduce the communion meal. And I just want to take a moment to address that. And I think that that's significant. I don't actually think that Jesus is talking about communion in this passage. I don't think that Jesus is talking about communion in this passage. I think that communion is talking about what Jesus is talking about in this passage. So I think it goes the other way around this passage is not about communion. Communion is about this passage. And so when you take communion, you're saying I'm all in on Jesus. I'm absolutely committed to who he is. This is a symbolic way of me remembering that Jesus is the bread of life. Communion is meant to point us back to the person of Jesus.

  Third reason why people might leave Jesus and walk a different way is that they have been slowly won over to a secular worldview following Jesus in Somerville can be quite challenging because many of our neighbors and friends do not hold the same worldview. They do not see religion as something to be revered or respected. And instead they kind of scoff at religion, you know, it's kind of a huh whatever. You know, it's stupid people, stupid, religious people. It's kind of the way the, the attitude of the day and many of the people in this passage were experiencing something similar, verse 42 they said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph whose father and mother, we know, how does he say I've come down from heaven? We know his parents. How did he come down from heaven? How is this possible?

  You see the people that were doubting Jesus of that day were thinking with just a secular mindset and they weren't thinking about the reality that unseen forces could be at play here. A modern secular world view is what philosopher Charles Taylor might say has an eminent frame, which means that we only believe the things that we can observe and quantify that makes for very good science. If you're a scientist, I am so thankful that that's what you believe in your science. But it does not make for a very good world view because there's plenty of things that we cannot quantify and that we cannot measure in life that are valuable and important. And we believe that God is active and that he's moving and that there's a whole spiritual realm that we cannot see and that we cannot quantify. But yet it is real.

  In Somerville, there is a gravity to the secular world view. There's a gravity pulling us in slowly making us think the way that the world thinks. And over time, if we just surround ourselves with that, we tend to shift our thinking to match that of our neighbors friends. I, I just wanna give you a little bit of courage this morning and patience. When you start sharing your faith with people in this area, often times it takes a little while because you need to work through many of the secular world view issues. You need to just get to the point to where they see religion as a possibility as something that they could embrace. I've often said that planting a church in Somerville is like building and planting a garden in the middle of a parking lot. The first thing you have to do is get out the jackhammer and like dig up all of the concrete and move it out of the way and then there is soil there. And I'm telling you that in Somerville, there is soil there, this, you have to move a little bit of concrete first and it's gonna take a little bit of time, but the Lord is gracious and patient and he gave us this mission. And so I will say he believes in you that you can do that and that's why he sent us on the mission to do it. Ok.

  So that's just a few reasons why people walk away, there are more. But from this passage here are some of the reasons why people walk away. They walk away from Jesus because they're interested only in what Jesus has to offer and not Jesus himself. They walk away from Jesus because they find his teachings to be difficult. I've seen that happen. I was trying, I met this guy after church back in, in Louisville when I was a, a pastor before moving to, to Boston. I've been to Boston for about 12 years. So this was a long time ago. But he came to church. He met with me after church one Sunday, he was teary. He wanted to give his life to Jesus and he joined my community and group, we were working with him toward baptism. And then one day he disappeared. And I, and like after calling him and calling him, he eventually answered again. And he said, yeah, I want to keep living and sleeping with my girlfriend. So I can tell you guys aren't cool with that and I can tell that's like not really what Christianity is about. So, yeah, no, the teaching of Jesus sometimes turns people away from Jesus because his teaching is hard. His teaching is hard to follow him.

  And the third reason why people leave Jesus is because they embrace a secular world view. And so let's look at some of these reasons why people might stay with Jesus. Some of these reasons why people might stay with Jesus first. People stay with the who are the type of people or what does it take to actually stay with Jesus. That is a great question. And that's actually what this passage is more about. What does it take to actually stay with Jesus first? Those who stay with Jesus are people that understand that Christianity is not just another religion that Christianity is not just another religion. It's easy to think of. Christianity is just one of a long list of religions, but Christianity is really unique in the way that it operates. It is not just like every other religion. It's not just another set of religious teachings to live your life by so that you can live the best, best life possible or a set of religious principles that you live so that you can satisfy God or some spiritual foundation or some principles of reincarnation. That is not what Christianity is about.

  Christianity is different. Christianity is not about changing your behavior. Although some behavior does change with Christianity, but Christianity is the only religion where the God actually sins himself. He actually comes himself to satisfy the requirements of the religion. Jesus, fully God, a member of the Trinity came and lived all of those principles on our behalf. And so therefore, Christianity is unlike any other religion because the other other religion says it's up to you, you live up to the principles you do that thing. But in Christianity, Jesus has already done it for us. This is why in verse 28 they said to him what must we do to be doing the works of God. How can we do this thing? And Jesus responds to them, this is the work of God that you believe in Him, whom he has sent? The people who are seeking Jesus. They just want some things to do. Tell me what to do Jesus.

  But Jesus frustratingly tells them there's nothing that they can do. They just need to believe in Him whom God has sent in Christ. What does it mean to believe? I think that oftentimes when we think of belief, it, it's easy to think about it like this because this is a definition of belief. We think about belief in Jesus much like we think about belief in Santa Claus. Like if we believe in His mere existence, we will Him into being. And that means he is real for us. But the word in Greek that we use that we translate into belief. Puo it's translated a variety of different ways and it has a wider meaning than just what we might say is belief. We translate this word to also mean faith. We translate this word to also mean trust. Now a belief that trusts, that's like me saying to my wife, I believe in you when she's, when she's having a difficult time at work, I believe in you. I trust you. I know that you can do this for us. Belief is to look to God and say, I trust you, I depend upon you, not merely I believe in your mere existence that you are up there somewhere, but I trust you. I'm depending upon you that is belief.

  And so when Jesus says the work of God is that you believe in Him, whom he has sent, meaning that he has accomplished the thing. And that all we have to do is to believe in Him. Second, people stay with Jesus because with Jesus, they experience true satisfaction. People stay with Jesus when they experience true satisfaction in him. Amen. I love that Jim Carey quote. I've used it before. But yeah, Jim Carrey, the, the guy from Dumb and Dumber. I'm quoting him at church right now. The Grinch himself. He said, I think everyone should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dream so that they can see that it's not the answer. I love that. And that's what you see every time someone gets all the things that you want, find the person that gets all the things that you want. And unless they're trying to convince you that they have the best life ever, if they're truly honest about it, they would tell you that it's still not satisfying to have all the things that you want. Today. We're all looking for things. We have this hunger for life, we want to accomplish things, but all of these things are empty calories. Ok? These are just empty carbs. It's, it's gonna, it's gonna fill you up for the moment, make you feel satisfied, but then you're gonna be hungry again very soon.

  But Jesus says, thus, listen in church, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall not thirst. Jesus is saying that he is the satisfaction behind all satisfactions that all of your longings in this life actually point to this greater longing that says that you desire to be approved, to have a greater approval from Jesus. You desire to be secure, to have a secure relationship with Christ. You desire these things that only Jesus can provide. He is the bread of life. Whoever goes to him, well, not hunger. That is what he's teaching us. And I have one final reason why people stay with Jesus. And really, it's the main point of the whole passage. So if you don't hear anything else, just tune in for this, this last part. OK.

  People stay with Jesus because Jesus will never cast you out. People stay with Jesus because Jesus will never cast you out. Verse 37. Look at it with me. All that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out one more time. All that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. There's a book that I've given out to many of you. I have a million copies of it at the, at the community space down the, down the street. So sign up for the membership class, you'll, you'll get a copy of this book, no doubt. It's called Gentle and Lowly. And this book spends an entire chapter talking about this one verse. And I just, I'm gonna borrow liberally from it. For this last part in the book, he highlights, he breaks down this verse so much. He says all that the Father gives me. Not most, not some, all that the father gives me will come to me. Once the father sets his loving gaze upon a center, that person is coming to Christ. The rescue is certain. I also love that. It says the father, he's the one giving to the son. It's not that the son is rescuing people from the wrathful. The gracious son is rescuing people from the wrathful father. No, the father is giving to the son. They are working in concordance with one another. The Father himself ordains our deliverance. He takes the loving initiative.

  Now there is some tension here. Look at this, all that the father gives me will come to me. It's sure God ordains the salvation of every person who comes to Him. It happens. That is true. Now look in the next part it says, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. It's both God ordains it and we have to come. God's purposes are never thwarted. If he wants to save us, he'll do it. But also we're not robots. No one is dragged, kicking, kicking and screaming to Jesus. That's just not the way that Christianity works. God calls us. And when he does, he shows us the most beautiful thing. He shows us the bread of life. And when we truly see that we go to Him, we desire that He changes our desires in that it is both he calls us and we go to him. Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out, consider this, consider this portion of the verse. Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. There is nothing you can do for Jesus to cast you out of his home.

  Many of us had terrible parents. Many of us may have been cast out of our homes as Children, as adolescents. Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out Jesus remains committed. He will never disown his Children. If you are a child of God, he'll never cast you out. Yes, there are some professing Christians who walk away from their faith. And I would say that that proves the nature and quality of their faith to begin with that. They never truly knew Jesus. Although my prayer for them is that they would return and that we never really know if someone was of a child of God or not. But we do know that Jesus says whoever comes to me, I will never cast out and we, we rest on that truth. Maybe you are here today and you struggle with sin like all of us. OK? All of us are struggling with that. But maybe you struggle with this idea of maybe I'm not, maybe Jesus will give up on me. Maybe he's gonna get tired of me. Maybe I've just screwed up one too many times. Whoever comes to me. I will never cast out. Oh, but I just can't stop obsessing. I can't stop failing whoever comes to me. I will not cast out. But you don't understand. I'm really weak. I, I, I don't have anything to offer whoever comes to me. I would not cast out.

  This is what Jesus says to us. Jesus has no problem letting spiritual seekers walk away. But for those who have truly placed their faith in Jesus, he'll never let them fall. He will never abandon us. It's how is it that people stay with Jesus? It's not dependent upon our resolve or dedication to him but only the obedience of Jesus. There are times where I'm resistant to the love of Christ often where I, where I'm resistant to the love of time. There's been times in my life where I felt like my faith has been hanging on by a thread, but my salvation is not based upon the strength of my faith, but the object of my faith, I have a three year old and I still wipe his butt. So, therefore I still have full rights and responsibilities and ability to tell stories about this three year old without his permission. Uh, that is my line. You know, if I'm wiping your butt, I get to tell stories, uh, about you at church.

  My youngest child, my three year old, he's, he's a cute dude. And, uh, right now many of you have experienced the skating rink known as Somerville sidewalks, right? It is terrible. It's treacherous out there. And I often have to stop rowing and say you have to hold my hand, but I, he never wants to but you have to hold my hand. Ok? So he does and sometimes we're walking along and he starts to slip and his grip isn't very strong, but mine is all right. I got a, I got a dad grip, ok? though he tries to fall, I hold on to him and that is our faith with Christ. It is not the strength of our grip as the child, but it's the strength of his grip holding on to us. Even when our faith is feeble. Jesus holds on to us and why? It sounds so trite because he loves us. I mean, that's all there is to it. He has his heart set on his Children. He loves us as a father loves his Children. He's been united to us as a husband loves his wife, this is the love of Christ and those are actually pale comparisons. Those are actually the communion compared to the real thing. Those are just light momentary things that point to the eternal realities that we have in the love of Christ. He loves his Children.

  If he loved us enough, get this. If he loved us enough to bear the weight of our sin and to die on the cross, won't he love us enough to hold on to us? Won't he love us enough to remain faithful in our moments of weakness? Won't he stay persistent to us in our folly yesterday, Jesus spoke to a crowd of thousands of people and then he, he, he traveled to a desolate place. They all traveled to a desolate place to hear him speak. It's like Woodstock. Ok? Jesus Woodstock here. And he miraculously fed them five loaves from five loaves of bread and two fish. Then he left them. He walked on water and to the other side of the sea. And that didn't stop their fandom. They went chasing after Jesus even though he had walked away. And when they found him, he taught them again. And this time, many of them turn their backs on Jesus because Jesus is not concerned about drawing a crowd, but he wants disciples to follow after him. After many of the people that were looking for Jesus, leave him, turn their back on him.

  He turns and asks his 12 disciples, his closest disciples, the ones that he has called and he said to the 12 verse 67 do you want to go away as well? And Simon Peter, the one who's always speaking up, he answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You know, some, you know Peter says some dumb stuff. Sometimes he just knocks it out of the park though, right? Like this is a good one. OK, Peter Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God. Amen, amen church. You have the words of eternal life to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God. May that be the answer of our hearts as well? Where shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

  Have you tasted of those words? I plead with you to receive it. Now that Jesus has the words of eternal life and we have believed and come to know that you are the holy one of God. Let's go to Him, the living bread, the one whose words give us satisfaction and eternal life, the holy one of God. May we eat and be satisfied. If you've never received this living bread, I invite you today to be satisfied by it. And if you are coming to him again for the 100th 1000th time. I will never cast you out. That's what he says that we come to him as feeble sinners and yet he receives us over and over again.

  So I encourage you to receive him again, to go to him again. We're going to be participating in a sacred meal. We do this every week and this meal is meant to represent what Jesus is talking about today that as we take of the bread on the night that he was betrayed, he took a loaf of bread and he tore it. And he said, this is my body broken for you. And he took a bl he took a cup of wine and he said, this is my blood shed for you. Who if you take these, do it in remembrance of me. And so these things point us to this eternal truth that we will be satisfied with Christ. And today, we are partially satisfied. It's like the appetizers of Jesus Christ in today's day and age. But one day, if our faith is in him, we will be fully satisfied by him. That being said, let me invite you to stand as we prepare our hearts, to receive this meal and to respond to Christ through song.

  Father, as we come to you this morning, we pray that you would fill our hearts with this truth that you will never cast us out. That though we go to you, we will never be cast out. And God, we pray that this communion meal would be a meaningful opportunity for us to be reminded that you are sustaining and you are satisfying. And that as we go to you, our hunger for life will be satiated. And God, we pray that anyone in here who doesn't know Christ or who needs to rededicate their life to Him. We pray that they would return. We pray for those who are walking away. Would you give us faith to know that you are in charge? But also would you give us courage to reach out to them and to bring them back into your church? Father? We trust you and we pray that you would be working. Even now that we would be meditating that we'd be going to use the living bread. In Christ's name, Amen.