Life is the Trip

John 3:5-8; John 6:53-59

What’s the most hungry that you’ve ever been? For me, it was the Boy Scouts Polar Bear overnight that I attended as a teen. I had to do all of my own cooking, and basically I starved. When I got home Saturday night, my Mom fixed seven slices of her mouthwatering French toast which I devoured in front of the TV until I fell asleep.

 When teaching, Jesus would often use earthly objects and events that people could easily visualize in order to drive home a spiritual lesson. Because of this, he spoke to Nicodemus about being “born again”.

 In Capernaum, he taught in the synagogue about the “Bread of Life”. Bread from God was a familiar image to the Jews. After all, God had provided manna for the nation of Israel as they roamed the wilderness for forty years.

 The crowd that Jesus was teaching had been a part of the five thousand he had miraculously fed. They followed him, not because they knew who he was, but because they were hungry. Jesus on the other hand, was trying to steer their attention from the temporal to the eternal.

 

²⁷ Jesus told them, “Don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you…                       John 6 NLT

^33 “The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world…  ³⁵ I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.  John 6 NLT

When I got home from the Polar Bear overnight, all I could think about was food and sleep. HALT is an acronym that stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. These are emotions that can affect you any day of the week. You don’t have to go on a winter camping trip to experience them. Life is the trip.

 How do you deal with HALT distractions in your life? How does the Bread of Life regain your nourishment; refocus your sense of purpose; revitalize your spiritual strength? Answer these questions and you will experience the abundant life that Christ promises.

1 Corinthians 10:11-22

The Bread = Life   

The Cup = Eternal Salvation

As God’s will soaked into Paul’s heart, Paul reached out to the Christians in Corinth in A.D.54-55.

He attempted to appeal to their inner fulfillment as he warned them about being careful not to fall.

Their immorality was like that from Israel’s history. As a result of testing the Lord, twenty three thousand of their forefathers died. Paul’s appeals seem to be endless. Why were they so deaf to his words? Why are we so numb to these warnings?

We have heard it said that we cannot serve both God and money for money is an idol if not properly used. The same is true for many other things of this world. 

Paul says; “Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we partake in one loaf.” 1 Corinthians 10:14-17

Visualize how even though we partake in the body and blood of Christ in many locations throughout the world, it as though we are eating from the same loaf and drinking from the same cup. How cool is that! Now as we exit our places of worship how do we conduct ourselves? “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too.” 1 Corinthians 10:21

Our world seems to be continuing in a downward spiral with immorality of all types being revealed to us and our children. It is more than concerning and so big it feels hopeless but is it really any different than in A.D. 54?

Despite popular belief the Bible does not say God won’t give you more than you can handle, it says this;

“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is Faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

It does not say it will be easy, but that He will be there to offer us an out, better options than those the world leads us to…….The Bread---Life     The Cup---Eternal Salvation

Please read/Listen to 1 Corinthians 10:11-22