Hard to Swallow
John 6:51 NLT

• God is covenant establishing and covenant keeping.
  
• A covenant brings peace and security in relationships – we were alienated from God.
  
• The covenant is blood bought and composed of the oath of loyalty, provision and protection.

Gospel of John

• Theme: Jesus the creator!
  
  • John 1:1-5
    
• Perspective: Weary in Weakness – Self-absorbed and myopic humanity
  
• Discovery: Humanities’ great needs are exposed and remedied by God’s gracious compassion and provision

The work of a believer is to believe!
John 6:35-70 NLT

Faith, Doubt and Unbelief (willful disobedience)

• Temptations
  
• Signs
  
• People of Faith

People of Faith!

• Sometimes people of faith are a lot like Mr. Magoo.
  
• In a comical form of lunacy we walk not by sight, but by faith!
  
• We are totally dependent on God in His story for His grace and favor.
  
• We should not take ourselves so seriously!

Choose To Believe

• John 20:24-29 – “Doubting” Thomas
  
• “I know down in my knower!”
  
• An overstatement of great faith!
  
  • “I don’t believe it, I know it!”

Sermon in a sentence
Faith is not the absence of doubt, it is the overcoming of doubt.

The Reality of Faith & Doubt

There lives more faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds.
- Alfred Lloyd Tennyson

• Hebrews 12:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
  
• “You can believe in your heart while you doubt in your head.”
  
• We must break through the three barriers of faith:
  
  • Cynicism – Ignorance – Empiricism

Fatherhood
Following God’s Model
Colossians 3:12-21

September Series:
“For Our Children and Our Children’s Children”

The family is the foundation for Godly seed, the demonstration of Divine agreement, and is sealed by blood covenant!

“Pay close attention, friend, to what your father tells you; never forget what you learned at your mother’s knee.”
Proverbs 1:8

Fathering

“The men you choose must be well thought of for their good lives; they must have only one wife and their children must love the Lord and not have a reputation for being wild or disobedient to their parents.”
Titus 1:6

• It is important
  
• It is a learned skill
  
• It has great rewards

Fathers are free to fail, but they are not free to be irresponsible!

Building Families

The family is the place to:

1. Establish identity and security.
   
2. Teach and transmit values.
   
3. Make and store lifetime memories.
4. Develop hidden talents and potentials.
   
5. Learn how to love and forgive.
   
6. Grow in a safe environment.
   
7. Learn honesty and transparency.
   
8. Fail without criticism or condemnation.
   
9. Hide during the storms of life.
   
10. Experience the kingdom of God in action.
    
11. Translate Scripture into living realities.
    
12. Establish a command center for safety to bring the Kingdom of God to a lost world.

For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs⎯heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
Romans 8:15-17

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
I John 3:2

God’s Bread
John 6:22-40 NLT

Gospel of John

• Theme: Jesus the creator!
  
  • John 1:1-5
    
• Perspective: Weary in Weakness – Self-absorbed and myopic humanity
  
• Discovery: Humanities’ great needs are exposed and remedied by God’s gracious compassion and provision

What To Live For!

• John 6:27 “Don’t waste your energy, your life, striving for food that perishes!”
  
• Key Questions:
  
  • What is the “eternal” that we are to pursue?
    
  • What is the work of a believer?
    
  • What are we to believe?
    
• Answer:
  
  • Jesus is sent from the Father
    
  • Expect resurrection on the last day!

Then How Should We Think Of This Life?

• Life is very transient – A puff of smoke
  
• Life is very important – it is a gift
  
• Our temporal existence: James 4:14 “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”
  
  • NOW is a brief moment of eternity
    
  • We have no choice of when or where we live
    
  • But life is a great gift!
• We are weary in our weakness
  
• Our life is easily high-jacked
  
  • Because of our fallen and fractured nature
    
• The demands of life:
  
  • Life’s physical demands
    
  • The reality of our unregenerate state
    
  • To live well demands faith and obedience
• Our natural unredeemed drives oppose our Divine image:
  
  • Sex – A created motivation to fulfill God’s mandate
    
    • Genesis 1:28a “Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern.”
      
  • Success – Genesis 39:2 = Godly success is a life of growth with prosperity
    
  • Significance – motivated the desire to fulfill our created purpose

Ecclesiastes 3:9-13 Message Bible
What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.  Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

Then How Should We Think Of This Life?

• We are blindly lead by our senses:
  
  • sight – sound – touch – taste – smell
    
• We are dimensionally deprived:
  
  • We are made for heaven and earth
    
  • We are made in the image of God
    
  • We have access to the heavenly realm only by faith in this life

John 11:25-26 NKJV
I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?

Romans 10 NKJV
But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart"-- that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed."

Weary In Our Weakness

• Wrong motives = wasted energies
  
• Consumer Christianity
  
  • Motivated by pragmatism and emotion
    
  • What do I get out of it and how does it make me feel?”
    
• We are to seek Christ for Christ’s sake!
  
  • All the concerns of life, should be subservient to the interest of man’s soul.

He who labors not, in the work of his salvation, is never likely to enter into the kingdom of God. Though our labor cannot purchase it, either in whole or in part, yet it is the way in which God chooses to give salvation; and he that will have heaven must strive for it. Everything that can be possessed, except the salvation of God, is a perishing thing: this is its essential character: it can last to us no longer than the body lasts. But, when the earth and its produce are burnt up, this bread of Christ, his grace and salvation, will be found remaining unto eternal life. This is the portion after which an immortal spirit should seek.
Adam Clark Commentary

Weary In Weakness

• We must be careful not to strengthen the layers surrounding our weakness!
  
  • Weary in Shame
    
  • Wicked in Sin
    
  • Wounded in Situations
    
  • Weakness in Self
    
• Our weakness, then, can be distinguished from our shame, our sin, and our wounds.

I Peter 1:3-5 A Doxology of Hope
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

Jesus On Board
John 6:14-24 Message

Jesus the Creator!

• The theme of the Gospel of John: Deity of Jesus
  
• John 1:1-5 “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.
  The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

Jesus’ Creations In John

• John the Baptist – Light in our darkness
  
• Nicodemus – Re-creation
  
• Mary – Provision by multiplication
  
• The Samaritan Woman – Living Water
  
• The Royal Official – Distance Healing
  
• The Paralytic at the Pool – Local Healing
  
• The Religious Elite – No miracle
  
• The Hungry Crowd – Provision by multiplication
  
• Disciples at sea – Controlling Creations Elements

Lessons At Sea

• You can’t fix a boat in the middle of the lake!
  
• Keep the boat in the water and not the water in the boat!
  
• Jesus is not so concerned with the storm. But He is concerned about you!

Weary In Our Weakness

• The Creator God and Weak People
  
• In this portion of Scripture Jesus has revealed Himself as our provider and protector.
• Two groups in this Scripture portion:
  
  • The hungry crowds
    
  • The frightened disciples
    
  • They are:
    
    • Looking to Jesus
      
    • In great need
      
    • Totally dependent
• Both miracles (signs) began with the natural elements mastered in a miraculous way.
  
• In both instances, Jesus was moved with compassion.
• We must be careful not to strengthen the layers surrounding our weakness!
  
  • Weary in Shame
    
  • Wicked in Sin
    
  • Wounded in Situations
    
  • Weakness in Self
    
• Our weakness, then, can be distinguished from our shame, our sin, and our wounds.

What to do in the middle of the storm

• The Time to Trust
  
• When nothing whereon to lean remains,
  When strongholds crumble to dust;
  When nothing is sure but that God still reigns,
  That is just the time to trust.
• Trust in yourself, and you are doomed to disappointment.
  
• Trust in your friends, and they will die and leave you.
  
• Trust in money, and you may have it taken from you.
  
• Trust in reputation, and some slanderous tongue may blast it.
  
• But trust in God, and you are never to be confounded in time or eternity!

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. Proverbs 3:5-6

This is a trustworthy saying:
If we die with him, we will also live with him.
If we endure hardship,
we will reign with him.
If we deny him, he will deny us.
If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful,
for he cannot deny who he is.
II Timothy 2:11-13