441 and I'll tell you guys the same thing I told the girls get to sit together
but if it gets bad then I have to separate you if you don't mind getting
some pass an amount I'd appreciate it day is 28 days 28 so I want to first
appreciate everybody for returning back to normal activities and be patient no
no if nobody needs one that's fine but thank you Mike so we didn't we are
obviously we had the storm we canceled and I was that actually I was torn you
know brother he's gonna trail tell you I called him for the last minute I was
like I don't want it but and then I felt bad because it wasn't that bad like
they're like oh it's not gonna be as bad as it was but then you know the next
day there's a bunch of accidents on 290 and all over the place people driving on
the ice so I'm glad I made the call and that nobody got hurt you know we're
Houstonians you know ice no or not or don't know what to do with all that so
I'm glad everybody's safe I've got everyone's warm and by the way just as a for all
those that are here and anybody listening you know if ever there's a
challenge just reach out to me we can do something in the church or I can do
anything to help out we will in situations like that we should always
stick together we're always available for each other so I appreciate everybody doing that we
obviously are back to our normal day to day services so Sunday we'll be here God
willing it'll be cold but it's not gonna be frozen so I mean I expect
everybody to be here and then our services 1030 a.m. Sunday Sunday evening
430 and Wednesday 530 p.m. Sunday sole winning is 2 p.m. you know one of the
things that we got it we've been going out but we just we've only got four for
the year but God willing to lead us to more people who will continue to go so week of the
verse the Philippians 1 15 the one preach Christ contention that's
sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bond then we just have some
instructions there we have the family integrated room in the back mama mother
I mean we're a family integrated church we have the mother baby room in the back
and so if you need to step out go ahead and do that we have all the birthdays as well
and then the upcoming activities this Saturday I'll send out a text this
Saturday church workday we will feed you if you come I mean I guess that's a
bribe so just accept it come on down but if you take our food you also got to
take the instruction and work with us you can't leave we'll lock the door I'm
kidding I'm just joking and then next week the reason we're doing is next week we
have pastor Dylan Oz of Anchor Baptist Church in Oklahoma he's gonna preach
for us both services so we're looking forward to that you've never heard of
preach you'll really enjoy it he's a young preacher but he's great actually
really good in town that's a really good doctrine I think you'd enjoy him he's
also famous for pissing off sodomites which we have no problem in this church
you know so but before that on February 7th he's coming in really quick you know
because he does have a regular job and so he's coming in February 7th we're
gonna meet at NASA Space Center we already met our quota so we are getting
a group discount but if you want to join us if you're not on the list just reach
out to us or use the link that we've texted out a few weeks back and then on March
22nd we have Pastor Bruce Mejia and we will have a soul-winning marathon on
March 21st that Saturday I'll get more more details out as the weekend
approaches but we have Pastor Bruce Mejia of First Words Baptist Church and
so we're expecting a good turnout for that as well so make sure that you get
the word out. Pastor Bruce Mejia is also a really good preacher. I really enjoy him and so I
think you guys will have more than enough to deal with. And then just pray for the
expecting mothers Haley Milutich and Christian Rogers and then there's some
general instructions right there. On the back we have the prayer list so just
continue to pray for Sister Millie Jones. Did have open heart surgery. She can do
well. We did send her on behalf of the church a dinner one of the day so they
really appreciated that. So she's got family taking care of her. Can you pray
for everything on here? And then on the Dolores Barden, she went on to be with
the Lord earlier this week. And so there will be a funeral on Monday for her.
That's Brother Heath's aunt. She was 80 years old but I'm pretty sure even when
you get to 80 or 90 she's just looking to talk in. So just pray for the
family. Thank the funeral. We love Ken. And then they're they're driving all the
way back to Southeast Eastern for the burial. Huh? Oh Livingston. Sorry,
Livingston. And then just pray for all of those. Oh it's not on here. I'll
add it. I think I already did but also there's like a prayer request. Unspoken
for Mo's friend. And then we have more instructions in the back. If there's
nothing else is there any announcements or anything that I'm missing? Oh that's
right you did text me faster. Where is she? Oh that's right. So Shelly went on to be
with the Lord as well. I'll update it. Yes sir. Yeah she didn't know. Now she does.
So just pray for all those that just passed away. Pray for the families.
Nothing else. Let's turn our hymnals over to page 449. And then we're gonna be in
John 6. John 6. So buckle in. 71 verses. Fair warning. We're gonna read them all
but still 49. Bible's over to the book of John. John chapter 6. John chapter 6
pastor. John chapter 6. Starts there in verse number one. It says after these things
Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee which is the Sea of Tiberias and a great
multitude followed him because they saw his miracles which he did on them that
were deceased and Jesus went up into a mountain and there he sat with his
disciples and the Passover feast from the Passover a feast of the Jews was high
when Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come unto him he
sayeth unto Philip when shall we eat when shall we buy bread that these may
eat and this he said to prove him for he himself knew what he would do. Philip
answered him 200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one
of them may take a little one of his disciples Andrew Simon Peter's brother
said unto him there is a lad here which has five barley loaves two small fishes
but what are they among so many he said make the men sit down now there was much
grass in the place so the man sat down a number about five thousand he took the
loaves and when he had given thanks distributed to the disciples the
disciples to them that were sat down likewise of the fishes as much as they
would when they were filled he said to his disciples gather up the fragments
that remain that nothing be lost therefore they gathered them together
and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which
remained over and above them that had eaten. Then those men when they had seen the
miracle that the miracle that Jesus did said this is of a truth that that
prophet that should come into the world when Jesus therefore perceived that they
would come and take him by force to make him a king he departed again into a
mountain himself alone and when even with some now the disciples went down
to the sea and entered into the ship went over the sea towards Capernaum and it was
now dark and Jesus did not come to them and the sea arose by reason of great
wind that blew so when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlong
they see Jesus walking on the sea drawing nigh unto the ship they were afraid but
he said unto them it is I do not afraid then they willingly received him into the
ship and immediately the ship was at the land of whither they went the day
following when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that
there was none other boat there save that one wherein his disciples were
entered and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat that the day his
disciples were gone away alone albeit there came other boats from Tiberias
nigh unto the place where they did eat bread after that the Lord had given thanks
when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there neither his disciples they
also took shipping and came to Capernaum to seek Jesus when they had found him on
the other side of the sea they said unto him rabbi when came it now hither
Jesus answered them but said barely barely I said unto you seek me not because you saw the
miracles but because you did eat of the loaves and the filth labor not for the meat
which perishes but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life which the
Son of Man shall not give unto you for him hath God the Father sealed then
said they unto him what shall we do that we might work towards the God Jesus
answered and said unto them this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he
hath sent they said therefore unto him what I show us thou then they what show
us now then that we may see and believe that doubt without what does thou work
our fathers did eat man in the desert as it is written he gave them bread from
heaven to eat and Jesus said unto them barely barely I say unto you Moses gave
you not that bread from heaven but my father giveth you the true bread from
heaven for the bread of God is he which comes down from the heaven give it life
unto them the world since they then said they unto him Lord evermore give us this
bread Jesus said unto them I am the bread of life he that come unto me shall
never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst but I say unto you
that ye also have seen me and believe not all that the Father giveth me shall
come to me and him that cometh to me I will know why it's cast out for I've
come down from heaven not to do my own will the will of him that sent me and
this is the Father's will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I
should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day and this is the will
of him that sent me that everyone which seeeth the Son and believeth on him may
have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day the Jews then
murmured at him because he said I am the bread which came down from heaven
and they said is not this Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother we
know how is it then that he sayeth I came down from heaven Jesus therefore
answered and said unto them murmur not among yourselves no man can come to me
except the father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the
last day it is written in the prophets and they shall be all taught of God
every man therefore that hath heard and has learned of the Father cometh unto me
not that any man hath seen the Father save he which is of God he hath seen the
Father barely barely I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting life
I am that bread of life your fathers did eat man in the wilderness and the dead
this is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof not
die I am the living bread which came down from heaven any man eat of this
bread he shall live forever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which
I will give for the life of the world the Jews therefore strove among themselves
saying how can this man give us this flesh to eat then Jesus said unto them
barely barely I said unto you accept me eat the flesh of the Son of man and
drink his blood ye have no life in you whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my
blood have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is
meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my
blood dwelleth in me and I in him as the living Father had sent me and I live by
the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me this is that bread
which came down from heaven now as your father's did eat manna and are dead he
that eateth of this bread shall live forever these things said he in the
synagogue as he taught in Capernaum many therefore of his disciples when they
had heard this said this is an hard saying who can hear it when Jesus knew
in himself that his disciples murmured it at it he said unto them doth this
offend you what and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was
before it is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words
that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are lie but there are some of
you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believe
not and who should betray him and he said therefore said I unto you that no
man can come unto me except they were given to him with my father from that
time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him then said Jesus
unto 12 will ye also go away then Simon Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we
go thou hast the words of eternal life we believe and are sure that thou art the
Christ son of the living God Jesus answered them have not I chosen you 12
one of you the devil he spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon for he it was
that should betray him being one of 12. Pastor Cobb will you leave us in order?
Amen all right we're there in John 6 is that a little loud or is that good I
did I can hear myself so I just don't know that's why I'm asking you guys so
we're there in John chapter 6 and the title of the sermon this evening is John
6 wants versus needs right and and I kind of did a little subtitle wants
versus needs and it's kind of you know up to this point everybody's following
Jesus and excited this is where they leave them right and so the same part of
the title is the sermon that ended all the hype right and and this is a really
important chapter I think in in the book of John this is probably one of my
favorite chapters because this kind of dispels a lot of the modern church you
know most Baptist churches most contemporary churches and then on down
to the most watered down will will not preach the heart stuff of the Bible so
you know you can go to a Baptist church today and there's a lot of good Baptist
churches that will preach salvation by faith through grace alone they'll preach
soul-winning they'll preach the fact that you need to be a good husband and
a good wife and raise up your children and the fear and that mission of the
Lord but then when it comes to some of the harder stuff maybe specific sins and
specific attitudes and emotions that we need to have towards God and Jesus and
our brethren they just won't touch and I mean some of this stuff shouldn't even
be controversial but it is you know I've been touching on it over the last
couple of weeks months you know I just was clipping up one of the sermons that
I did on marriage and I was like oh man that was a good sermon I needed I you
know because you forget what you preach sometimes I was like man that's good you
know we need to be more specific and people don't want to touch it sometimes
it's because it's taboo or you know they just don't want to offend or you know
they're but the Bible is not offensive unless you don't like truth right the
reason that we have this separation here is because what the people thought they
needed was actually not what they needed God gave them I mean what they they went
over to Jesus and they're like this is what we want and Jesus is like no this
is what you need it's not what you want it's what you need and those two things
are very different right like my children need food my children need
clothing my children need a food over a roof over their head that's it right my
children need an education you know they may want a Nintendo and I don't know
they may want certain toys or to go places or to travel or maybe you know I
say hey this is the food that we're serving today and of course every child
has done this in existence so I'm not picking on my kids particularly I'm just
using them as an example you know we'll be like hey this is what we're eating
and what it would you know they make a face or they make a gesture but they
don't want it the reality is because they don't know what they want and they
don't even know what they need you know they're just that's why we need the
truth because we as grown children I mean in this world we're considered
adults but in God's eyes we're children we don't always know what we need right
we come to the Lord and we're like we want want want and God's like no this is
exactly what you need right and so when we preach the word our goal or at least
my goal is to give you what you need not what you want and even at times you
know sometimes people say oh you should preach on this subject and I love I and
I'm gonna I try to I wish I had more time to just preach all the subjects
that that I keep thinking about I have this long list I keep adding to I'm like
stop adding to this of like future sermons that I want to preach but not
all of them are necessary right now what I would I try to do when I'm putting a
sermon is what do we need right now like what does the congregation need and at
times I don't even know sometimes I just ask God like guide me I'm not saying he
talks to me you know I just let the word guide me and I try to give what's most
relevant not only in the news or in the drama that's going on but just sometimes
just in general just what does the church actually need to grow and be
faithful and be in the in the battle right so let's go there you know just
real quick as a way I mean I'm giving you this introduction as a way of
introduction John 6 is is this famous chapter because it's one it's really
long but there's a lot that's going on right Jesus feeds the five thousand and
I know we say stuff like that we really fed more than five thousand right it's
really referring to another part of the gospel gives us a specific it says he
fed five thousand men not counting basically women and children and back
then it's not like today where people had 2.5 children they had more children
so he's probably feeding somewhere probably in the vicinity of over 10,000
people I mean that's a pretty serious miracle right but what's interesting is
the crowd gets fed and then immediately after a couple days later what do they
do they get offended and there's this interesting phenomenon where when you
help people out and then you stop giving them that assistance then what they do
is they get mad at the fact that you're not helping them out anymore and then
you know what they do they quickly turn against you and also they get a
sense of entitlement and so this chapter really what you know what it does it
separates the men from the boys it separates the women from the girls right
it separates who's who in the kingdom of Christ. There's a term, I'm literally just going to
give it to you just because I have it because I did the research but I decided not to add
all of it. In modern day, there's a psychological term and it's called extinction burst. It's
just basically what I describe where people get this immediate anger when you make a hard
stance or when you put your foot down and they're used to getting things a certain
way. What we need to do is just ignore that and just realize that that's not the way
it is. What's a great example of doing that, what's going on in America right now? Everybody's
mad because ISIS in Minneapolis. ICE finally comes down. Now they're putting into effect
basically law and order. What happened was people were getting away with breaking the
law and now that all of a sudden law and order is in there, they're like, oh, without tyranny,
it's stepping over the line, it's doing all this. No, it's just law and order. If you
study out tyranny, we may be headed that way. I'm not disputing that fact, but currently
right now it's just law and order. Even in a tyrannical government or in a tyrannical
system, there's law and order. The fact of the matter is, we were just talking about
it, common sense is something that you just need to have in the environment you're in.
Most people don't do that. They get very emotional about these things. Let's go to the first
point. I have six points for you real quick. Today, even though it's a long chapter, the
majority of it is going to be spent on the people leaving because that's really where
I want to focus on today. There's so much we can unpack.
The first point I have for you is that the multitude wants miracles, not mastery. They
keep looking to Jesus and they're following Him because He's doing these miracles. They
think He's really cool, but not only that, what they really want is not just the miracle
because Jesus already had done miracles. What they want is the benefit of those miracles.
See, it's not the miracles of the healing that they like. It's the miracle of the fact
that He fed them. It must have been very impressive for this to have happened. It wasn't just
like He got them. And you think about it, everybody got fed that probably went back
for seconds and then there was leftovers. I mean that's an insane amount of nourishment.
And back then it's not like today where sometimes you guys have done it with us. We'll have
pizza or something and then there's leftovers and we'll send you over. And of course that's
really nice but nobody's coming back and be like, "Hey, can we have more?"
Do you know why? Most people can go to the grocery store and even if you're not getting
the highest quality of food, everybody can get decent food in America. I mean you've
seen the articles where people are on welfare and they're getting like steak dinners and
all kinds of chocolate and candy and all that stuff. We live in a society where we can order
on Amazon and Sister Millie, I was like, "Hey, we don't really have, we're still not big
enough or most people live far away so we don't have a meal train." A lot of churches
will do a meal train for someone who just had a kid or someone who just had surgery.
So I called her and I said, "Hey, we don't have a meal train but what would you like?"
She's like, "Oh, I said just pick anything. Don't worry about it. I know you need protein
because it's a major surgery." She's like, "Well, I want a steak dinner." Did I go pick
up the steak dinner? No. I just went on DoorDash or whatever and it was delivered to her house.
But back then, we're going to see this. It's not like that. Let's go to there verse one
again. It says, "After these things, Jesus went over to the Sea of Galilee, which is
the Sea of Tiberias, and a great multitude followed him because they saw his miracles,
which he did on them that were diseased." So they're kind of getting to this inkling
that he's doing cool stuff, right? "And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there
he sat with his disciples, and the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus
then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, When
shall we eat by bread that these may eat? And this he said to prove him, for he himself
knew what he would do." Basically, he's testing Philip, and Philip answers him and says, "Two
hundred penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take
a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said unto him, There is
a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes, but what are they among
so many?" And who's ever been in a situation where you need something and somebody like
gives like this solution that's not a solution? You know, sometimes it's almost like a throwing
up in the hands, almost being like, it's almost impossible to fulfill this thing, right? That's
basically what I read when I see Andrew's response, right? And Jesus said, "Make the
men sit down." Now, there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, a number
of about 5,000, and Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed
to the disciples, the disciples to them that were sat down, and likewise the fishes as
much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, 'Gather up the
fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.' Therefore they gathered them together and
filled twelve baskets with the fragments of five barley loaves, which remained over and
above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracles Jesus
did, said, 'This is of a truth that a prophet should come into the world.' They're really
impressed with the situation. You've got to think about back then when they're talking
about baskets, what I envision is probably more something like in a third world country
where you see people running around with baskets of food. It's a lot of food. It's not like
a picnic basket that we envision from modern America. Really the thing that we see here,
going over to John 2, just go back a few paces, John 2, and we see that they're following
him for what he could do, not necessarily for who he is. That's evident by the fact
that they're like, "Oh, this truly is a prophet." He's doing the miracles and it's
almost like they're not completely convinced, but now they get fed and they're like, "Oh,
this truly is a prophet of God." There's a famous saying by John Wesley, which says,
you've heard it in different formats, but I'm going to give you the actual quote, is
"Light yourself on fire with passion and people will come from miles away to watch you burn."
Jesus has compassion on the people, but by benefactors of it, they're reaping the rewards
of his power, of his divinity, of the fact that God's allowing him to do these miracles.
But not only that, they're following him thinking that there's more to come. They're still not
getting it. But for us, the lesson here that we should take is that we need to just continue
in the miracle that God has allowed us to live in 2026 America, where we have all this
technology and we have all this ability to spread the word and preach the truth and that
we should just burn it all down and let everybody come watch us burn from a good perspective
and from a negative perspective, right? People will come and listen to the gospel and they'll
come out and listen to God's word and the preaching and sometimes it'll be good and
sometimes it'll be bad or as long as it's truth, you know, we just keep that fire going.
Other times people are just going to attack us and they're not going to like what we're
saying, but regardless, we just continue to preach the truth.
You know, earlier today I was here with Brother Heath.
We've been here working all day and he was like, "Hey, you really need..."
Brother Heath sends me all these videos and so do all these other church members of like
things they're interested in and I'm like, "Guys," they're like, "Did you watch my
texts?"
I'm like, "No, I didn't.
I don't have time to watch every single video.
I wish I did."
I said, "You know what?
Let me show you this really cool tool."
And so Google has this thing called Notebook LM, and if you don't know what it is, it's
a free tool.
So actually, moms and my wife, I'm talking to you too, we should use it because it'll
make quizzes for you and flashcards, and you can dump a bunch of info in there and it'll
just synthesize it all and put it in graphics and a podcast and all that stuff.
And I said, "Look."
And so we took all the YouTube videos that he wanted me to watch, and I said, "Look,
this is like six, seven, eight hours worth of viewing."
I said, "Check out what this thing does," and then it made a really cool flashcard and
infographics and a blog post and all stuff, just basically giving you a synopsis of all
that.
That's what I need, is the bullet points.
If you want me to read this stuff, make these, and I'll just come in and just be like, "Okay,
I get it."
Right?
Because these things are long-winded, all this stuff.
But if you realize, there's so much in there.
The miracle of today is that we have all these tools that we can do that with, but most people
are using it for just goofing off or doing all that.
We should be using it to light the world on fire.
Right?
We should be using it to preach the Word.
But the most important thing is the tool should just be an extension of the truth.
It shouldn't manipulate the truth.
Right?
That's really where we need to go.
Go to John 2.
We're there in verse 18.
The Bible says, "Then answered the Jews and said unto him, 'What sign showest thou unto
us, seeing that thou doest these things?'
Jesus answered and said unto them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise
it up.'
Then answered the Jews, 'Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou
rear it up in three days?'
But he spake of the temple of his body.
When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said
this unto them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name
when they saw the miracles which he did.
But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men, and he did not that
any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man.
And I know we touched on this, but I think this is just a good reinforcement of what
we're seeing.
Everybody's just impressed with miracles, they're not impressed with the truth.
Look, the miracle is the after effect of the truth, not the other way around.
And today, one of the things that I'm doing a study on, and I think it's worth it, but
I came on my radar and that's really where I had that conversation with Belhezis.
He's like, "Hey, you should preach on the new apostolic reformation."
And one of the things that you'll see in that movement is that it's all based on spiritualism
and sensationalism and it's all about the flesh and it has nothing to do with truth.
And so go over to Romans 16, go to Romans 16, I'll read for you really quick in Matthew
12.
But go to Romans 16, in Matthew 12, we just see more of this in the Bible.
And verse 38, it says, "Then certain of the scribes and the Pharisees answered, saying,
Master, we would see a sign from thee.
But then he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh
after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas.
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of
Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it
because they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and behold, a greater than Jonas is
here.
Hey, even today, you know what people are seeking?
A sign.
You know why modern day Israel and the Jews, modern day Jews, have such a backing?
It's because they think that there's a sign and a miracle attached to that people.
They really do.
Everybody's waiting for the perfect red heifer and the rebuilding of the temple.
They think some magical things are going to happen, and it is.
What they don't realize, because they're not reading their Bibles, is that that miraculous
fake thing that's going to happen is that the Antichrist is going to come in and dwell
and take over the world.
And the only people that are going to realize that this is a farce is us as Baptists that
believe in the King James Bible.
And you know what the world's going to do?
They're going to persecute us.
The Bible says that there's going to be nowhere in the world to hide.
But what's interesting though, we also know that in the end times the Gospel is going
to spread even further.
So it's not a time for us to hide, but for us to come out of that bushel and light it
up, right?
We're there in Romans 16, and in verse 17 the Bible says, "Now I beseech you, brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned,
and avoid them, for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly,
and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
For your obedience has come abroad unto all men.
I am glad therefore on your behalf, but yet I would have you wise unto them which is good
and simple concerning evil.
And you say what does this verse have to do with the miracle?
Because we need to realize, look, if Jesus is not impressed because they're following
him because of miracles, he wants followers of truth, then we need to do the same thing.
We need to be what?
Followers of truth.
And in today's America and this world and as we continue to wax worse, you know what's
going to happen?
It's the satialism is going to continue to be on the rise, right?
People love, I mean, there's this guy with long hair and tattoos who's apparently a Christian
singer.
I forget his name, Blake, I think something Blake and he sings this song and now it's
like they sang it at like, or I don't know if it's like a halftime show.
It's like become worldly, but you know what, because people just like this, the sensationalism
behind it.
It has no truth.
It has no reality.
It has no foundation, but they just, everybody just wants to see these signs.
Remember a couple of years ago when Kanye said he was a Christian and everybody was excited
because they're like a rapper can become a Christian.
No, that's not impressive to me.
You know what's impressive to me?
When someone just humbles themselves and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, they don't need
any signs.
They don't need anything fancy.
They just need the truth, right?
Second point I have for you this afternoon, go back to John 6, is that we know this,
but it's still worth pointing out.
Point number two is that Jesus is the key, but this is a very important point.
It may seem trivial, it may seem oversimplified, but today the main thing that's always going
to be attacked, whether you look at it from a biblical perspective, people attacking the
King James Bible, or attacking a fundamental church, or attacking the doctrine of the Trinity,
or attacking salvation, you know, and the way you get saved, everything always comes
down to what?
Jesus.
You're either for Jesus and the way Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, or you're
against it.
It's either one or the other.
And here's the thing.
There's two ways that you can get off on this path.
You can get saved, you can believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, but then you can get off on
bad doctrines because you're not grounded on the word and the word is who Jesus Christ.
But we see this here in John 15, I mean, John 6 and verse 15 says, "When Jesus therefore
perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a king, he departed again
into a mountain himself alone." See, they're missing the point. They're making him king,
but not yet. It's before his time, right? His hour had not come and that's not what
the purpose of Jesus was at that time. His purpose was what? To die on the cross, right?
It says in verse 16, it says, "And when even was now come, his disciples went down under
the sea and entered in his ship and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now dark
and Jesus was not come to them. And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew."
So when they had rowed about 5 and 20 or 30 furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea
and drawing nigh into the ship and they were afraid. "But he saith unto them, It is I be
not afraid." Then they willingly received them into the ship and immediately the ship
was at land, whether they went. And this is a picture, I don't have time to go into it
because that's not the sermon, but we have to touch on these things because we're here
in the chapter. This is where I get the point that Jesus is key. This is a great picture
of what? Salvation is by faith, right? The world is basically at eminency with us. We're
in a storm of life. It doesn't matter what your life looks like today, tomorrow, there's
going to be a storm. You know, I'm just, I tell my wife sometimes I hate getting that
weird feeling. I'm like, something's up. I was like, I don't know what's going on, but
something's, something's around, something's a brewing, right? It's just something's around
the corner. But then the other thing is when Jesus gets in the boat and they willingly
receive him, which is a picture of salvation, and also what of our, not imminent, but of
our future rapture, not a secret rapture, but our future rapture, it says immediately
the ship was at land whether they went. But who is the key figure? Nothing happens without
Jesus Christ, right? Go over to Psalm 77. Go over to Psalm 77. I'll read for you really
quick in Isaiah 43. Psalm 77 in Isaiah 43 verse 1, the Bible says, "But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have
called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee,
and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire,
thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. And the reason I'm focusing on
this is because that's what the sea represents in the Bible for the most part, right? It's like the
dark place. It's the trials. It's the dangers of the world. I mean, even at the end of Revelation,
it says, "And the sea gave up the dead," right? I mean, it almost feels like there's a place in the
sea where all this is occurring. And it makes sense, right? Even from a physical standpoint,
where does most... I don't know if you know this, but I like studying some things.
Where does most lava come up from? I know we get volcanoes like in Hawaii and stuff, but a lot of
it comes up through the sea, right? Hell opens itself up through the ocean, which makes sense
that God would do that so that not everywhere in the world, everything's getting burnt up.
I remember when we went to Yellowstone, right? Yes, Yellowstone. We went to Yellowstone,
and it didn't dawn on me until we were there. My wife and I took a vacation to Yellowstone
many years ago. We were walking through, and we went to go see Old Faithful. Basically,
every stop is like a geyser or some thermal place. You finally get there, and you get to one of the
places where you're reading, and you're standing over one of the largest volcanoes in the world,
and you're like, "What in the world?" If this thing erupts, it will dissect a third of the United
States, right? Thank God that he's in control, because this thing, it's scary to think about
the fact that we just were walking on like eggshells literally, the world could be destroyed in just a
quick second, but let me not digress, but I just wanted to point out that that's why the sea is so
dangerous, right? Because the sea kind of, it shows that it holds things in place, right? It's
there physically, you know, you have a lot of things that go on that just we don't hear about.
You think about all the ships that are lost at sea, the sea so vast, you know, it's still not
filled up. It's not even a wasteland like people would like you to think, but go to Psalm 77,
right there in verse 14 the Bible says, "Thou art the God that doeth wonders. Thou hast declared
thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people." The sons of Jacob and
Joseph, Silah, "The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee, they were afraid. The depths also
were troubled. The clouds poured out water, the sky sent out a sound. Thine arrows also went abroad.
The voice of thy thunder was in the heavens. The light means light in the world. The earth
trembled and shook. The waves and the sea and thy path and the great waters and thy footsteps are
not known. Thou leadest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. And you know,
obviously the sea is a very dangerous place. You know, there's entire films and literature,
folk stories about it. You know who controls it all? God, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know,
everybody's all impressed when Jesus is asleep during the storm and then he gets up and calms
it, but he's not impressed because he's God, right? I had you turn over to Matthew or did I
did I have you turn over to Matthew? If not, turn over to Matthew, Matthew 14 and right there in
verse 23, Matthew 14 and verse 23 the Bible says, "And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went
up into a high mountain, a park of prey. And when the evening was come, he was there alone, but the
ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with the waves, for the wind was contrary. And in the
fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him
walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It is the spirit." And they cried out for fear.
But straightway, Jesus spake unto them, saying, "Be of good cheer. It is I, be not afraid." And
Peter answered him and said, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water." And he said,
"Come." And when Peter was coming down onto the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But
when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink. He cried, saying, "Lord,
save me." And immediately Jesus stretched out forth his hand and caught him and said unto him,
"O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" And when they came into the ship,
the wind seized. Then they were in the ship, came and worshiped him, saying, "Of a truth,
thou art the Son of God." And you know, I always love this story because we do this all the time,
don't we? I remember being little, living, when we moved to the States, we lived in my grandma's
house. You know, we were really poor. We didn't have a lot of money. So we moved in with my
grandmother. We were in this tiny little home. Back then, it didn't feel tiny. But then when I
went back to visit, I was like, man, this is a tiny home. And my brother and I slept on bunk beds
in one of the rooms. And the bunk beds, my head was up against the wall. And I could see the window.
And you know what I could see all night, every night, it was horrible, was a monster trying to
get into the room, right? Turns out common sense said, hey, if you were to just open the blinds,
all it is is a branch moving in the wind, right? We make up these figments of our imagination,
right? I've heard it said before, and it actually is true that 99% of the things we fear will never
come to fruition, right? But the challenge is as a Christian, the Bible instructs us to be courageous
and to fear not. But the challenge is why do we do this? Because we remove the key from our life,
which is Jesus Christ. The biggest challenge most people have in their life is not that they have
challenges, is that they look at challenges the wrong way. When things happen, we let our
imaginations run wild and then these things amplify and they become worse than they should
because we're not focused on the word of God. It's so interesting when you just make these small
changes. I have ebbs and flow in my Bible reading. I have ebbs and flow in my prayer life. For the
most part, I'm pretty consistent, but there's times when I'm just like really on fire about
it. I can just read twice as much or three times as much. I have a good discipline of reading,
but other times, it's just life. I'm human. I'm not trying to justify one or the other.
You should read your Bible every day or very consistently, number one. Number two, hey,
if you feel that inkling to just do a little bit more, take advantage of it because momentum is
fickle. It's going to disappear, but when you got it, get it. Right now, I'm in one of those modes
where I'm just like, maybe the Lord's just given me this time. I'm over reading the Bible. I'm
spending way more time than I've spent before, but you know what comes with it? You know what I don't
worry about is a lot of the other things that I worry about normally, right? What calms the spirit
is Christ. The thing that causes unrest is when you're not doing the things that God's asking you
and you say, well, that's, that's a given pastor. Yeah, but it's obviously it's not that given
because literally the entire world walks around in constant fear. I mean, Peter literally just saw
Jesus walking on water. He's like, Hey, let me get out on the sea. And he gets out on the sea
and he sees the waves come in and he knows he's with God almighty. And you know what? He still
has fear. I'm not picking on Peter. I don't know that I would have reacted any differently, right?
It's just something we got. We need to just trust on the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the key. Go
back to John six and we're there. And the third point and third point I have for you this afternoon
is the crowd sought for the flesh, but Christ fed them with faith, right? And I guess I could have
worded it differently. The crowd is looking to feed the flesh, but Jesus is like, no, you need
to feed what the spirit. And we see this theme constantly, not only in the book of John, but in
the gospels. It actually throughout the entire Bible, even going back to the first books of
the Bible, you know, man does not live by what? By bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. Right. And we're so heartily minded. Sometimes we forget we don't
need, I would say we, I would venture to say we don't need about 80% of the stuff that we think
we need. I'm being dead serious. Like, you know, generations have survived without the internet
and without phones and without fancy food and without being a foodie and a food critic. I mean,
what does the world worry about? Like if I were to open my social media, even though it's kind of
focused towards me, you know, and I'm, I click stuff that I don't like and, and I tell it, I
don't want to see this or this is inappropriate, you know, and I block people. You know what? It's
still, it's still does every once in a while stuff pops up that I don't want to see or that I'm not
interested in. And I'm not just talking about the lewd and the wicked stuff. I'm talking about just
like even stuff. This is stupid, right? Who gets pop-ups about, you know, the top five restaurants
in Houston to go eat at, right? And there's some guy sitting there and he's eating his food and
smacking, trying to make it sound all good, right? I mean, am I lying? Like you could be on your
social media, you could be on, or the 20 best places to visit in Houston and go hang out or the
best places to shop or the best places to visit. You know, when we were growing up, the only thing
that we knew was our world. That was it. There was no internet. I remember in 1988, the coolest
thing that we would like that we were most excited about when I was eight years old was that we would
cross the street in 100 degree weather and we would walk this empty field from far Texas to San Juan
Texas. And the only thing that we knew that was really cool at that time, I didn't know what
anything else was, was that the municipal pool was there. That's where I learned to swim. I didn't
know that it was dirty and it was poor and it was some of the greatest times of my life was learning
how to swim at the municipal pool. But now you have so much information, some people would look
down at the municipal pool or walking to the municipal pool. How dare you do these things?
Because we're just trying to feed the flesh. Everybody's trying to tell you what the best
thing is instead of actually looking at what the best thing is. I remember the world was so small
and I'll just end with that point because I want to get through these, but the world was so small
that you only had local access TV. We didn't even have cable. We didn't get cable till later.
Just like always, they have these commercials about Texas, Six Flags, Astro World or whatever.
I remember telling my mom, of course, I was born in Mexico City. We moved to the States when I was
five years old and there was this commercial and it looked really cool, I guess. I don't remember
what the commercial was and I'm pretty sure it was some theme park or something. I remember turning
to my mom and being like, "Hey mom, I would love to visit Texas one day." She's like, "Honey,
you are in Texas. You're in Texas." Because there's no internet. If you wanted to learn
geography, you had to open an Encyclopedia Britannica. My kids could go on that Notebook
LM today and just be like, "Teach me geography and it'll teach them." When I wanted to learn
geography, we had this big shelf of books. Who remembers those? We had the Encyclopedia Britannica
and they would deliver them once a month or whatever. You had to open them up and you had
to know how to do the order of things so you could find the subject you were talking about.
That's the problem, right, is that we're so spoiled we're constantly trying to feed what?
The flesh. Even as Christians we just want flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh. And God's like,
"No, you need the Spirit. You need the faith." Let's go there to John 6 and right there in
verse 22 it says, "The day followed when the people which stood on the other side of the sea
saw that there was none other boat save the one wherein his disciples were entered.
And that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away
alone. Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias night onto the place where they did eat bread
after that the Lord had given thanks. When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there,
neither his disciples, they also took shipping and came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus. But it's not
the right seeking. And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him,
"Rabbi, when cometh thou hither?" In other words, hey, why did you leave us? And when did you get
here? Because you know what, basically what they're saying is, how come you didn't tell us you were here
earlier? Who's ever slept in when you were little, like maybe in a family gathering and everybody's
like together at this breakfast table and you get mad at your mom? At least I have. Why didn't you
wake me up? I'm missing out, right? They're like, we're missing out. And when they had found him on
the other side, oh yeah, I'm sorry, verse 26, Jesus answered them and said, "Barely, barely,
I said unto you, ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves
and were filled, labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed."
Notice this talking about someone who's already saved. He's like, hey, if you're sealed,
then you need to seek after. Don't get it mixed up, right? Then say that unto him,
what shall we do? And they still get it mixed up, right? They got it mixed up. They said unto him,
what shall we do that we might work the works of God? And I love Jesus answers as Jesus answered
and sent him. This is the work of God. Notice it's not the work of man. This is the work of God
that ye believe on him whom he hath set. Now, this is a little bit more deep of a basic
understanding of salvation, but it's a really good one because this debunks that the work is
even from man. The work of God is that we should believe. Actually, the only way we draw an eye to
God is he draws an eye to us. God's already in the midst of us. That's the work that he's done.
He's already put people out there that are preaching the gospel. It's just up to us to
receive it and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I didn't just magically wake up one day and we're
like, "I need to get saved. I'm just going to pick up this book right here and I'll just turn
it somewhere." There you go. I'm saved. I figured it out. John 3.16. No, somebody had to preach the
gospel to me. I'd read my Bible all the way through, I think maybe once or twice before I got saved,
and none of it ever stood out because I was just a natural man. I perceived not the things of the
spirit of God. It didn't resonate onto me. It didn't make any sense. They wanted this checklist.
"Hey, tell me how much I need to do to go to heaven." And Jesus is like, "All you got to do
is believe." They're like, "No, no, no, no. That's not good enough. What do I need to do to get to
heaven?" He's like, "You just got to believe." I mean, how many of you know we go so many and
what's the biggest challenge? They want to just prove it by works, right? I saw some clip of one
of these old IFB pastors and he's literally talking about, I mean, this is like generally taken over
where he's like, "You know, if you didn't have a change or if you're not living a better life,
were you ever even saved?" Yeah, if you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're saved, period.
Go over to Romans 4. Go to Romans 4. I love Romans 4. I'll read for you really quick in Isaiah 55,
verse 2. Bible says, "Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for
that which satisfies not? Harken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul
delight itself in fatness." It's talking about the spiritual fatness, right? Look, God wants you to
get fat on the Spirit. Fat is good if it's coming from God. As a matter of fact, actually fat is
good, just obesity is not good. Having a little fat on you is okay, right? As a matter of fact,
that's how you know the devil just messes everything up. What does the devil sell you on
as far as men being attracted to women is usually you're looking at some supermodel who's got
bulimia or some kind of eating disorder and she's like sticking bones. When really the ideal woman,
and they've done this many, many times, the study comes out every few years, the ideal woman is a
woman who, you know, is slender, but she has some meat on her because that's a healthy looking
person. Like our eyes will naturally be drawn to a healthy woman as men than a skinny woman or vice
versa. Like women, you know, they say this, it's called a dad bod. I don't know what that really
means, but apparently when you become a dad, you get this bod, whatever that body means, but it's
basically making this comparison of this guy who spends all his time at the gym and he's over
built out and worked out. He's got all these muscles and our women are really not that attracted to
that. That's just what the world wants you to think, but they're attracted to just the man who
looks normal, right? We just want normal. The world's what's convinced us that normal doesn't
work, right? But go over to Romans one and it's the same thing with this. It's like the normal
thing is just to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The world wants you to think that you have to do
something to get to heaven. Go to Romans one and says, what shall we say then that Abraham, our
fathers pertaining to the flesh, hath found for if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof
to glory, but not before God. But what say the scripture, Abraham believed God and it was counted
unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
Hey, if you think you're working your way to heaven, it's always going to be a debt. It's,
you know, you might as well just think of it like the U S right. We just keep adding trillions to our,
our debt. When is it going to pay it off? Never. I mean, the U S is a perfect picture of working
your way into hell. I mean, cause we're just never going to get out of it. There's no way to
do that unless we just literally decide as a country to obliterate the debt and start from
scratch, which that'll never happen because too many people would suffer financially that are
greedy, but go to verse five. It says, but to him that work is not, but believeth on him to justify
the ungodly. His faith is counter for righteousness. You know, the problem is people will come to
church and sometimes they come to church thinking they want to hear what they want to hear. And then
the preacher gets up and preaches truth and they're like, he's out. I'm going to tell you something.
Our church believes in the truth. So if you want to come to church, just be ready because we're
going to preach the truth. I don't know if I'm a hard preacher in the sense of, I think I'm a hard,
well, if hard preaching is telling the truth, I'm a hard preacher. I don't know if I'm necessarily
the most dynamic preacher, but I will tell you this, as undynamic as I've been, and I started
preaching, this year will be 10 years that I got ordained. In October, it'll be 10 years, pastor,
since we got ordained. I know, and now we got ordained since you ordained me, since we were in
that. I'm just, Pastor Cosby preaching way longer than 10 years, but in those 10 years, I know my
preach is improved. You might not think so, but if you go back to listen to some of my songs,
it's just like, oh my goodness, I cannot believe I preach that. Not the doctrine, but just like,
sometimes I was really boring. Like I just didn't have any dynamic. And even with that,
people walked out. And you know what? One time, Pastor Cobb, he's always encouraged me. He came
up and he came, he's like, Hey, you were preaching on the Catholics. And so and so walked out,
you know, cause they didn't like it. You were preaching on the Catholic. He's like,
you don't worry about it. You just keep preaching the truth. Amen. You know, that's,
that's all the encouragement I need. I don't care if people want to be here in church or not. Like
I care in the sense that, Hey, we're here. Let's fight these battles together. Let's do more work
for the Lord. Let's do it. But if you want me to do something that's not biblical, then, you know,
leave, I guess, get out. Right. Point number four is that Jesus is the bread of life. You notice
this, this is a really important chapter because Jesus makes it like he makes the sand in the line.
He says, like, you guys are still not getting it. You've been following me for five chapters.
And I mean, obviously I'm breaking this down, but you've been following me for all this time
and you still don't get it. So let me, let me just make this very clear for you.
This will separate basically the man from the boy spiritually. We go there. Verse 30, the Bible
says they said, therefore unto him, what sign shows thou then that we may see and believe the,
what does thou work? Our fathers did eat man in the desert as it is written. He gave them bread
from heaven to eat, then said unto them, barely, barely I say unto you, Moses gave you not that
bread from heaven but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he
which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore
give us this bread. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you that ye also have seen
me and believe not. All the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out for I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me
and this is the father's will which he had which hath sent me that all that of all which he hath
given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day and this is the will of
him that sent me that everyone which seeth the son and believeth on him may have everlasting life
and I will raise him up at the last day. Juice then murmured at him because he said I am the bread
which came down from heaven and they said is not this Jesus the son of Joseph whose mother whose
father and mother we know who how is it then that he sayeth I came down from heaven Jesus therefore
answered and said unto them murmur not among yourselves no man can come to me except the
father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day it is written the
prophets and they shall be taught all taught of God every man therefore that had heard and had
learned of the father cometh unto me not that any man had seen the father save he which is of God
he had seen the father barely barely I said to you he that believeth on me hath ever last the life
I am that bread of life your fathers did eat man in the wilderness and are dead this is the bread
which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die I am the living bread which
came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever more forever and the bread
that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world it's interesting he even
explains what it is he's like the bread is the fact that I'm dying for the world and that's all
you need is to believe on me and the Jews are what murmuring you know murmuring is a sin complaining
is a sin right look if you don't like something then don't engage in it it's so funny how people
watch like our sermons especially like the more prominent uh my more prominent friends and they'll
watch them and they hate them and they hate us and they'll still watch it, right? I mean,
I literally can communicate with some of the heretics that have left the church just by
preaching on them. And then a few hours later, like the next day, I'll get a message. I wasn't
even mentioning them, but they're watching, right? They're interested and they're just,
but they're murmuring, they're complaining. They have a choice. We have a choice. People
get up and they're like, oh, you know, HPO and CNN and whatever, they're promoting this
and they're promoting that. You know, the only reason they're promoting it is because
you're watching it. You know, if you just turned off the TV, they wouldn't have the
money to produce all the crap that they produce. You don't have to watch the crap that's on
TV. You know, you don't have to watch the crap that's on Facebook or TikTok or YouTube.
You don't have to even listen to me. If you're here and all of a sudden you're like, oh,
I don't like that guy. What are you doing here? I mean, nobody's like, I'm not chasing
you. We're not a cult. It's not like if you leave, I'm just going to be like hounding
you and chasing you half the time. I don't even remember who was at church or not the
other. So I was like, you know, cause it's just like my brain is going really fast. Try
to do a million things. Right. But why, why do you murmur? Because you're just, you want
things done your way. You're sinful. You have a bad attitude. The Jews hated Jesus and you
know what they're doing. They're complaining. You know what complaining does is it's contagious.
And it all of a sudden it seeps in and it starts distracting other people from it. And
so Jesus takes it to the extreme because they're murmuring. He's like, look, I'm the bread
of life. You got to eat this flesh. He takes it beyond anything they understand because
at the end of the day, that's how Jesus had to communicate. So they would never believe,
you know, anybody with common sense knows that he's using a metaphor, right? But they're
taking it literal, just like the Catholics do today, right? The Catholics are like, Oh,
take the sac, the, the catechism, right? The sacraments so that you're eating his flesh
and you're drinking his blood. It turns gross. I remember when I had an argument with that,
that idiot about the Trinity and I took him this verse and it said, you know, the lamb
of God. And he's like, you know, that's not a literal lamb. Of course I know. You know,
I know I learned proper English, you know, and there's in literature there's called metaphors
and allegories and examples. Not everything is taken at its face value, but they're taking
it at face value. They're just, they're all jacked up. Go over to first John five. I'll read for you
really quick. And in John three, verse 16, for the sake of time, I got to wrap this thing up. But
you know, in John three, and I'm only going to focus on the verse that, uh, here in John three,
not, not 16, uh, it says, uh, in verse 22, John three, verse 22, his disciples were with him before
they left him. It says, and after these things is after God says, you know, for God's soul of the
world and nobody's condemned. Right there in verse 22 says, after these things came Jesus and his
disciples into the land of Judea. And there he tarried with them and baptized. So up to this
point, everybody's all, we're good. We're going to follow you everywhere you go. We're going.
You're awesome. Let's get this thing done. When we get to chapter six, it's a whole other world.
In first John five, verse nine, it says, if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is
greater for this is the witness of God, which he had testified of his son. He that believeth on the
son of God have to witness in himself. He that believed in that God has made him a liar because
he believeth not the record that God gave him his son. And this is the record that God has given us
to us eternal life and this life is in his son. He that hath the son hath the life and he that
hath not the son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name
of the son of God. And by the way you know why you eliminate murmuring? We just take things
you know as truth from the word of God. The reason they're mad is because he's like
you can know these things but the Jews are like how do we work the works that we need to work to
go to heaven and he's like well you just got to believe. They're like no no that's not good
enough. John 10 28 you don't have to turn them for the sake of time go back to John 6 it says
and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out
of my hand. Hey how many times does God have to tell us this for us to believe it? I mean literally
it should be once but apparently needs to be a lot of times that even with all this 90% of the
people are going to hell they listen to this stuff right? Wide is the gate narrow is the way.
Challenge is people don't want to listen to it and they'll make up any excuse they want right?
You know I know I sometimes am self-deprecating but I'm just picking on myself because it's the
reality of life. People are going to like you people are not. I don't pretend that everybody
listens to sound my voice likes everything I say but look if you don't like it just because it
doesn't line up with what you think God should say that's your problem not my problem. I've
heard boring preachers that I thought was like that could be a little bit more dynamic but the
truth was the truth it was good stuff and then I've heard preachers that just like even the sound of
their voice is difficult for me to take in but it was truth and so you'll never hear me complain
about those guys because it's truth. What I complain about is people that are doctrinally wrong
that are false right and so we need to realize this thing I don't even remember what my point was
I do I mean I'm talking about but yeah that we need to realize that that the bread of life is
Jesus right and that the word of God is the only thing that needs to feed us. Look there's a lot
of good information out there that you could or could not take but at the end of the day if you
don't know how to decipher that just ignore it and just read. You know what I love about AI I have
all these books that I've wanted to read all my life you know because I started out like in the
business world so I have these other business books and self-help books that I just haven't
gotten to and I'm still in a business I'm bivocational. I told my wife last night we
were organizing my shelves and I said you know with AI now I'm just gonna download these books
Dump them into Notebook LM. Have them give me a synopsis. So I only read the books about what?
About the Bible or about faith and religion because I don't want to split my time. Give me
the bullet points on the stuff that doesn't matter and let me get deep into the things that matter.
And even if I don't get to the faith books, you know what I want to spend time reading? My Bible.
You know I read more Bible than I read any other book because it's the only book where you can read
it over and over and over and over and over and you're just going to get better over time.
The best self-help book is to not self-help but let Jesus help you. You really want to help yourself?
Remove yourself from the equation and let Jesus take. That's how it's hard when I just came out.
Let Jesus take the wheel. It's been sung so much that there you go. Just let Jesus take the wheel.
Who's that? Carrie Underwood? Yeah there you go Carrie. You get some credit for that.
Let's go to the next point. Heart doctrine. This is the point that I'm really going to
spend the rest of the time. I might not even give you the sixth point because this is where
I want to, this is the most important part of John 6 in my opinion. It could change over time,
but this is where I'm at in life. Heart doctrine divides, but it's not just the division,
it's the purification or the sanctification. The reason we need division is because it keeps
things pure, right? Division is not just about conflict, it's actually about purity. It's about
sanctification. It's not that we don't want to hang out with our family members or ex-friends
that maybe were worldly, is that if we do, we're watering down the truth. That's, I mean, it's a
reality of life. You know, we don't want to be these holier-than-thou Bible thumpers, but there
is a line that we have to draw and it has to be from the Bible. There is balance in the Bible,
but there are certain things that we just cannot give ground to. If you do, you're in big trouble,
right? There in verse John, John 6, right there in verse 52 says, "The Jews therefore strove among
themselves saying, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'" Notice how Jesus is like, "You gotta
eat." He's using this example and the Jews are now fighting amongst themselves. They're like,
"What is this guy talking about? How is it that we can eat his flesh?" Now I don't know how this
looks, but instead of like now, instead of fighting Jesus, now they're fighting themselves. They've
got enemies all over the place because they can't make up their minds. "Then Jesus said unto them,
'Barely, barely I say unto you, except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood.'"
Now he adds to the blood. He says, "Ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me,
and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did
eat manna and are dead. Notice he's just like being extremely facetious to them too, right? Like he's
he's over doing it because they're not going to get it. He that eateth of this bread shall live
forever. These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his
disciples when they had heard this said, this is an hard saying. Who can hear it? Now it's not the
Jews anymore. Now it's the disciples. They're like, whoa, this is a little rough. And what does Jesus
say? I love the way Jesus said it. He says, when Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured
at him, he said unto them, doth this offend you? What? And if ye shall see the Son of man, I said
up where he was before. It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you that
believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believe not and should betray him.
And he said, therefore I said unto you that no man can come unto me except that were given unto
him of my father. From that time, many of the disciples went back and walked no more with him.
Hey, truth divides. You know, we shouldn't let things fester and bubble up. You know,
I learned this, this principle and this gentleman probably got it from the Bible because he was a
Christian. And in business, my mentor always taught me, he's like, Hey, there's things that
you can just let fester and slide. He's like people issues. You never let faster. You,
you address them right away. Like if there's an issue with someone, you know, they're,
they're mad about something, you address it right away. Same thing with, with Jesus. He's like,
I'm just going to, let me just put this to bed. Now he has the blood. He's like, Hey, I'm the
bread and the blood. You need to eat this. Basically what he said is I'm the salvation,
but they're already striving. Remember what they say. How can we eat this guy? Like,
what is he talking about? See the problem with most Christians and the people that are lost is
that's exactly it. They want all the answers and the group that's following him. They don't need
all the answers, right? It's kind of like when we were, you know, fighting a couple months ago
about the Trinity. Somebody, you know, if you ask me, I asked Pastor Cobb, I was like, how do you
explain the Trinity? He's like, he's like, it's much more than I can, whatever the Bible says,
that's what I take. That's it. But the other idiots are like, well, how can this be? How can
he be man and God? That's what the Bible says, right? And so he's already causing this division,
this purification. And you know what it is? It's offensive to them. Look, I don't get offended
about just about anything in the Bible. And if I do find myself being offended, you know what
I try to do? I step back and I'm like, Lord, why is this happening? Because I'm not that important.
I'm glad my wife taught me that lesson many, many, many years ago, but I really am glad you're not
that important. So stop making about yourself, make it about God, right? And these guys, they're not
only, he's like, does this offend you? And why did it offend them? Because it was a hard saying.
What was hard about it? That it required humility and the removal of pride. That's really the fact,
right? Whenever you come to church, not every sermon is going to appeal to you because sometimes
it's going to step on your toes. It's going to prick at you. But what it should do is you
shouldn't go home offended. You should be like, Oh, thank you Lord for reminding me to clean this
thing up. You know, I brought that up. I've got one minute. So let me just, you know, close this
out right here. Let's just read the rest of these verses and then give me, if you guys will give me
three minutes, but it says there in verse 67, then said Jesus unto the 12th, will you also go away?
Then Simon, I love Simon Peter's answer. Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom should we go? Thou
has the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God. Jesus answered them, have I not chosen you 12 and one of you is the devil. He spake of
Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he that should betray him, being one of the 12th.
But the thing we see here is that only the true followers are the ones that are going to stick
with God, not the ones who pretend, right? Not the ones. And this is how the Bible should work in
your life. And I'll close out with this because this is the application. When you hear something
hard, it shouldn't offend you. It should make you better. A couple of months ago, when I had the
broken, when I was recovering from surgery, not that I've already broken the calico, I had people
come in to preach Wednesday service and Brother Philip came and he preached a sermon about
1st Corinthians 13. I've already said this, but I think it's worth saying here. And his whole sermon
was actually taking 1st Corinthians 13 and applying it to soul winning. And he was like taking points
out of it. The application I got out of it had nothing to do with the sermon, but he's going
verse by verse about how charity endureth and charity doesn't bounce itself and charity love.
And it's, you know, it just, it goes above and beyond. My wife and I had just gotten in a big
fight earlier that day and we were just like pissed at each other. I mean, let me just, let's be
honest. We're sitting there in church and we're just not like in the best of mood with each other
and we're both listening to the sermon. And by the end of it, I'm just like, I'm sorry, honey.
I'm so sorry. Like, but it's because the word of God pricks, right? And that's why you need to
show up to church because the preacher might be preaching about something else, but that word,
man, it's going to prick at you for whatever's happening in your life now. So sometimes I don't
even know, I might not even be preaching about the thing that you're suffering, but I'm using
verses that are applicable to your life at that moment. We need to let the word of God purify and
sanctify, not divide. And if it does divide, it should always be division towards the purification
and the sanctification. So let's close out in a word of prayer. Heavenly father, Lord, thank you
for this day. Thank you so much for the lesson. Thank you for this long chapter, Lord. It's
impossible in one sermon to just cover so much truth. But the biggest thing that I pray that
our congregation will take away today is truth offends, and we just need to be willing to offend
with the truth, not with our opinion. And also we need to be willing to know that if we feel
offended, that it really is a purification, this is maybe a chastisement or sanctification,
we should apply it in our lives and make it better. Lord, I just pray that you would continuously
allow me to preach truth so that we can continue to divide the church. Because the only way we're
going to grow is to divide it properly. So Lord, I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but it's not.
It's a paradox. So thank you, Lord, that we can learn from your word and that we can grow,
help us to continue to push through in 2026 and do better things and greater things than we did
last year. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's turn our hymnals over to page 410.
Faith is the victory.