Atkins is Wrong – Eat Bread!

Well, happy Sabbath, everyone! Thank you for the special music. Really appreciated that, Chad and Ray. Certainly what a great reminder of the Passover, God's plan, looking forward to the ultimate time when Christ will come that second time. Boy, we can't wait for that. We look forward to His return. Of course, here we are in the middle of the Days of Unleavened Bread. Has food been on your mind? It has been, hasn't it? Sometimes, as we consider that, you think of the things that are going in your mouth so that you make sure certain things aren't going in your brain. You're not thinking about some of those things. Yet sometimes it's hard to get it off of our mind. You may have heard the story about a very, very concerned mother because there are some really strange diets that are out there. Just eating unleavened bread isn't the strangest of them by any means.

But this mother called up the doctor's hotline and she said, my doctor, our doctor, my daughter's got this crazy diet. He said, well, what is it like? She said, well, she stays in bed all day long and all she'll eat is yeast and car wax.

He says, I don't know what I'm going to do. What's going to happen to her, doctor? The doctor said, listen, there is nothing to worry about because eventually she will rise and shine.

All right, no rising right now. We heard about that. But as you think about what we eat, here's something to keep in mind and we'll come back to it a little bit later. The number 1776, keep that in mind. 1776, write it down. Help me not to forget to come back to it now that I said that. We certainly live in an age of dieting. Everybody seems to be on a diet. I looked at this one website called Within Health and you know what percentage of Americans are dieting right now. What percentage? 44% of Americans are on a diet right now. Now, if you consider all of us Americans, how many of us have been on a diet in the past? Now it really gets up there. Over 80% of us have dieted at some time in the recent past. And there are some crazy ones out there. There's, well, let's see, the fat-free diet. There's the vegan, the vegetarian, carb cycling. There's one that they actually call the caveman diet. And it's so easy even a caveman can eat it. That's true. It is a diet, a real one. But have you considered what diet would Jesus Christ recommend? What diet would He recommend? Well, He would say, eat bread. Eat bread. Biblically speaking, He would say, Adkins got it wrong. Eat bread. Keto is wrong. You need to eat. You need to eat. And the diet that He would suggest is one that most people don't know too much about. I've dubbed it the Bread of Life Diet. The Bread of Life Diet because it's a spiritual food source. It's the kind of diet that ultimately it has full spiritual nutritional value. And you know how diets are. Sometimes diets make these crazy claims. I mean, you've heard them. You know, lose 90 pounds in one week. Comes up with these really unbelievable things. And yet you look at this diet. God's got some pretty amazing promises with the Bread of Life Diet.

Extravagant claims. But He can deliver on those claims. Bold promises. Big promises. Momentous things that almost sound as unbelievable as some of the physical diets that are out there and the claims that they make. But as you consider this diet, the Bread of Life Diet, it reminds us of two basic kinds of foods that we can choose from. And as you look in the Bible, there's an amazing metaphor that is wrapped around this Bread of Life Diet. If you turn with me over to John 6.

John 6, in fact, if you've got a little marker, you might put it right here in John 6. We'll come back and forth to it a couple times during the message this afternoon. Here Jesus Christ is giving some instructions about the Bread of Life Diet, using it as a metaphor. And one of the foods in this diet that He warns about is right here in verse 27. John 6, verse 27. If you've got a red letter Bible, these words are red. These are Christ's very words. And He says, do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him. So this first kind of food that Christ talks about here is perishable food. Perishable food. And if you begin to think about perishable food, literal perishable food, what comes to mind? Well, lots and lots of things. Maybe berries don't seem to last very long in the refrigerator. You know, maybe you think of that bread that turns moldy before you can even begin to eat it. Or how'd those bananas get so brown? Didn't I just buy those yesterday? Yeah, that's perishable food. Even milk turns sour before too long. And so when you begin to think about that, this kind of food doesn't last. It spoils pretty quickly. Even after we eat perishable food, what happens after a while? I'm hungry all over again. Right? We had the night to be much observed. Anybody eat food after that? The next morning, how many had breakfast? Okay, many of us did. It doesn't last. You have to eat again. And so you look down to verse 49, and notice Christ referring to this perishable food, this food that perishes. Verse 49, Christ said, Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. Okay, it satisfied them for a while. It supported their life for a while. But could it preserve them? No. No. In fact, just a chapter or two before, this Christ told the well woman, that Samaritan woman at the well, she said, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. It doesn't last. It doesn't last. So perishable food in this metaphor that he's using here, things that we consume, it doesn't last. It passes away. It spoils. And so it causes us to ask the question, am I focused on physical food?

The food that doesn't last. And as he discusses this very thing, it brings up this physical, spiritual metaphor that he's using here. And as we think about unleavened bread, and we're eating unleavened bread, it's supposed to remind us of spiritual things, that we're actually on a spiritual diet as we're watching the physical foods that we eat. And so when we consider this, it causes us to answer, am I only focused on physical things? Because there's no doubt there are some foods out here, literally, physically, and spiritually, that aren't good for us. I was reminded of this the other day, we were getting ready for the Days of Unleavened Bread. What do you do to get ready for the Days of Unleavened Bread? Well, if you're in the kitchen, you start looking for things that might have leavening in them. Well, you know what I found at the back of our little pantry, way up on the top shelf, stuck way in the back, a box of matzos from last year. And it was unopened! So I pulled out that box, I was looking at it, like it expired a year ago. But you know what next came to mind? Well, you got to remember how my mind works. Like, hmm, I wonder what those taste like?

So I opened the box, and in the box, it was this beautifully sealed little plastic wrapper that was still there. Well, what do you think? So I opened up the package, pulled out a big square matzo. I thought, wow, I gotta have some butter on it, right? And it was an egg and onion matzo, so you had to go for it, right? So I got a little butter, put that on there, and then the moment of truth came. It tasted exactly the same! There was no difference! It was like, these things never perish! They never spoil! It's like, there's not much in there! It was like, unbelievable! And so, as I thought about that, spiritually speaking, though, there are so many things in this life that spoil. So many things that are perishable. And you think about what kind of food is Christ referring to here in John 6 that soon perishes. I mean, look at the culture we live in. It is falling apart. Our society is spiraling out of control. We don't know the way to life.

And it reminds us, well, are we partaking of the society and the culture around? Are we getting wrapped up in these types of things in our lives? Does it get our attention? Think about all the claims that are out here of the things that we can do and what we know and technology can solve our problems. And yet, what good is it? What good is human reasoning and knowledge, human wisdom? I mean, we know those Proverbs that discuss that very thing. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fearing God is where wisdom begins. Proverbs 1, 7 reminds us of that very fact. That's where knowledge and understanding and wisdom begins, not in our human realm. And yet, all too often, we can get pulled into that. And we get pulled into the diets of foolishness and wrong thinking, the foolishness of entertainment, addiction, obsessions, infatuations, the foolishness, the food and bread of wealth or riches. I mean, those are some of the genuine categories that are out there that we could get pulled into if we're not careful about the food that we eat. And yet, what did Solomon say about that kind of food? If you look, hold your place here in John 6, go back to Ecclesiastes 2. Here we have a familiar section of Scripture where Solomon describes that kind of diet. If we get pulled into humanity's diet and its way of thinking, here's where it leads. Solomon was certainly one that was going to try it all. It wasn't just the matzos on the back of the shelf that he was going to try. He was going to get into everything he possibly could. In Ecclesiastes 2.1, here he says in my heart, he says, come now, I'll test you with mirth. Therefore, enjoy pleasure. Yeah, our world is about pleasure, aren't we? We got all our streaming services. It can be on our phone. It can be on our television, our computers. And what does he find with that? He says this also was vanity. It was useless.

It wasn't lasting. Verse 2, I said of laughter, madness, and mirth. Yeah, let's just have a good time. What did he find? He says, what does it accomplish? The answer was the same. It doesn't go anywhere. Verse 3, I searched with my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine. Yeah, I could put my problems away. I could drink them away. Yeah, I could snort them away. I could do all kinds of crazy things. What did it get him? Well, he starts just listing all these different diets that man has to offer. Verse 4, I made my works great. I built houses, all kinds of building projects. He plants vineyards, gardens. Verse 6, water. Verse 7, servants. Verse 8, silver and gold. Let's pursue the riches because that's where real satisfaction comes from, right?

Nope. He has singers, treasures, music. Verse 10, he says, whatever my eyes desired, I didn't keep from them. I didn't withhold my heart from anything, from any pleasure. And where did it take him? What was the ultimate solution? What was the final decision that was made about it? Verse 11, I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor which I had toiled. Yeah, he was toiling for food that perishes, laboring for that kind of food. What was the answer? He says, indeed, all was vanity. All was useless and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. So that kind of living, that kind of diet is meaningless. It's useless. It doesn't last. Oh, it might be instantaneous, but it's pointless. It's a waste of time. He says, it's like chasing the wind and you can't grab onto it. There's nothing to gain, nothing long-term in those things. Nothing long-term. You've heard that famous phrase, you can't take it with you, right? No one's ever seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul. Never seen it. You can't take it with you.

And this is certainly reminiscent of what we read in 1 Corinthians 5, 15, 19. 1 Corinthians 15, 19. I won't turn there, but that's that passage that says, if in this life our hope is in Christ only, we should be pitied more than anyone else in the world. If this life is all it's about, this is the only time we count on God during this life. He says, that's useless.

And we find then when Jesus says He's the bread of life, He's telling us that without Him, this is what's in store for us. Solomon's perspective is all that's in store. You cannot be spiritually healthy. You can't be fit, spiritually speaking or whole or spiritually nourished or balanced without Jesus Christ as the bread of life. It's just not going to happen.

And it's such a reminder that we tend to get our food from sources that don't make us whole, that don't spiritually nourish us. You heard of the internet diet? The internet diet. Hours and hours and hours spent searching the internet, looking for the next thing.

Yeah, it's also known as the Facebook diet or the social media diet. Where does that get you? Well, I know what my friends are having for dinner. I saw a picture of it there. Valuable things, right?

I mean, related to that, you've got the TV diet, the Prime diet, the Netflix diet, just passively watching, watching. Yeah, whatever happened to reading something?

Nobody reads anymore, it seems. Related to that, I think we have the smartphone diet, otherwise known as maybe the Candy Crush diet or Name Your Game. How many hours go by that we're just passing time? Life can oftentimes take us in that direction. Does that make us whole? Is that anything that's going to last? Is that food from a source that is spiritually nourishing? It's just not. Related to these, we've got the Hurry Up diet or the Busy diet. We're so busy with everything that life has in its activities, but is it really focused on what's most important? You see, these days on 11, bread focus our eating and our diet on things that should remind us of the spiritual diet we should be on. How we're weaning ourselves from these kinds of things, and whether it's the gaming diet. I'm so into the games online that I, they just take over. They take over. And the result is we're starving spiritually. We are sick spiritually. And humanity as a whole is bought into all of these kinds of things. And it's easy. I don't really have to do anything. It just is there. It's just there. And we get our attention diverted from the things that are most important.

Something I ran across in this regard when you think about this amazing metaphor, you know, if someone were to ask you, name a fast food restaurant, what would come to mind immediately? Probably McDonald's. Well, unless you worked at Wendy's before, maybe, maybe that would come to mind. But McDonald's. 1968, there were a thousand restaurants. You know how many there are today?

36,000. More than 36,000. And you've seen those old signs that you say, serving millions all that. Well, not anymore. They serve more than 75 burgers a second. A second. Their customer, 70 million customers. More than that every day. 70 million. That's more than the population of Italy, France, and England combined every day. Can you imagine that? We focus on this kind of food. They also tell us that one in eight American workers have worked at McDonald's in the past. What of eight of us? Isn't that something? And maybe something that really surprised me.

Who do you think is the world's largest distributor of toys?

McDonald's. McDonald's. 1.5 billion toys a year. That's what makes us happy. Happy meals, right? That's what it's all about. Well, when you think about that, what kind of nutrition are we getting from those meals? You know, you've got higher abdominal obesity. You've got higher risk of cardiovascular disease. You've got higher risk of type 2 diabetes. Then the list goes on and on and on. Yet, 90% of our kids can identify Ronald McDonald. Amazing. Isn't that great? What a wonderful thing. And I think when you recognize those types of things, it shows just how easily we can get taken in by things that seem good, it looks good, seems helpful, but it focuses on the physical side of things, the temporary side of things.

And Christ said, don't labor for that type of thing, especially when you think of it in the spiritual realm. When we think of it in that spiritual realm, it just shows us how we've got our priorities out of order. There's a passage in Haggai that speaks to this very thing.

If you go to the prophet Haggai, right at the very beginning of his prophecies in Haggai chapter 1 verse 5, he summarizes what happens when we put the physical ahead of the spiritual. When we get our diets all mixed up, when we don't recognize spiritual truth and spiritual value is where our focus should be. These days of Unleavened Bread are helping us to get realigned into a spiritual way of thinking as we watch the things that we eat.

And here Haggai talks about what happens when we get out of sorts, when we get our priorities in the wrong order. Haggai chapter 1 verse 5, he says, now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts. Here's what God says, consider your diet. Okay, it doesn't say that. Consider your ways. Be careful about your thinking. Be careful about the results of your thinking is really the emphasis here. Verse 6, he says, have you sown so much and bring in little?

Well, I'm busy. I'm accomplishing things. I'm getting things done. Well, is it really a value? Is there any spiritual value to it? You've sown much. I've been so busy planting, but what am I getting back? Solomon said nothing. It was useless. It was vain. Didn't last. It was perishable. He says, you eat, but you don't have enough. You drink, but you're not filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one's warm.

And he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes. And you see, that's the spiritual, physical connection being made all over again. When our priorities are wrong, it doesn't matter how hard we work. It doesn't matter if we give it everything we've got. It's like rolling a boat against the current. You're working and you're working and you're working, and you can't get anywhere. And there's no return for all the effort and all the struggle. And so when our priorities are wrong, that means we're seeking the wrong things. And when we seek the wrong things, that just leaves us with an emptiness, wanting more, something bigger, something better.

And yet we're left without. We're left unsatisfied. And all too often, that's what happens. We expend all this time, all this energy, all this money for food that soon perishes. And so Christ says, eat different bread. And this time, we should be taking extra time during the days of unleavened bread, really, to take an assessment of our priorities. Where are our priorities? Have we taken an assessment? It's not just something we do before Passover, but what is it? What is it that consumes most of your time?

You ever taken that exercise just written down? Here's how I spend my time. I've got this many hours on the job. I have free time. Here's what I do. I actually write a list because whatever that list would look like, those are your top priorities. Don't kid yourself like, oh, well, it's something else. Oh, you may think it, but if you actually look at the time you spend with your life, those are your priorities.

And we can make that list. We should make that list, and we can pray over that list and ask God to show you, what is it in my life that I need to change God to get those priorities in order to make sure I'm consuming the right kind of diet?

How many times in Scripture are we told that we should examine ourselves? It's not just the 1st Corinthians thing. Examine my heart. Examine my mind. That's what Psalm 25 too says. God, help me. Try me. Examine my heart. Help me to do that very thing. Help me to get off the perishable food diet, because there's a different kind of food we can choose. And that's the 2nd one that Christ mentioned. If you make your way back to John 6. John 6, verse 32, this bread of life diet describes this second kind of food that we should choose to partake of. John 6, verse 32 is where Christ expounds on that. It says, Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. Of course, initially, manna would come to mind. Yeah, God gave us manna. But wait a second. That's not the true bread. Remember if they collected too much manna, wasn't going to last. It was disgusting the next day. But here he describes in verse 33, The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And they said to Him, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

Yeah, talk about these extravagant claims. Here's a big one. You eat this bread, you're not going to hunger again. You won't thirst, spiritually speaking. So this second kind of bread is non-perishable. We had first perishable foods, now non-perishable, spiritual bread, food that endures, food that lasts. And so what is He talking about as He describes this kind of food? Where can we get it?

Where can we get that kind of nourishment? Oh, we can say, well, we get it from Christ. Well, yeah, absolutely. But more specifically, if you hold your place here in John 6, come with me back to Deuteronomy, all the way back in Deuteronomy 8. Notice verse 3 in Deuteronomy 8 verse 3. Christ uses this non-perishable bread, this non-perishable spiritual food, figurative. He uses it figuratively. And in Deuteronomy 8 verse 3, we see what it points to. Deuteronomy 8.3, it says, so He humbled you, allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna, speaking of the ancient Israelites, which you didn't know, nor did your fathers know manna, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

Now, we could have turned to Matthew 4.4. Same thing is what Christ reiterated there. Christ said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Yeah, Christ inspired all these words that we see here, the Word of God, that is non-perishable, that is food that lasts. That's going to endure as we partake of the Word of God, we can have real life. And we apply that word in our thinking and in our actions. And when we eat of that bread, He says, that's valuable, that's lasting. And so I have to ask myself, how much do I really value the Word of God? Do I really value that word? Do I value it like King David valued the word? I mean, he wrote about it over and over and over again. I think of Psalm 119, the longest Psalm in the Bible. In fact, we sing some of those words. David said it's more valuable than gold, better than the best foods that you can imagine.

Hmm, gold's pretty cool. It'd be nice to have a lot of gold. Like to be rich, but is that really what's most profitable? David said that's nothing compared to the Word of God.

Remember he said, it's sweeter than honey. It's sweeter than honey to eat.

We sing that hymn, you know, how I love thy law, O Lord. Sweeter are thy words to me, more than all other words. I sing those words. Do I really mean it?

Are God's words really more important to me than anything else?

We know if we apply them, say if I walk, thy truth, thy truth my light.

And it can't help but manifest itself in my life, hating falsehood, loving right.

When we partake of the Word of God, it can't help but change our thinking. When we focus on that Word. Before we get back to John 6, on the way, we could stop at Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40 certainly emphasizes how important this figurative bread of life, the Word of God, Jesus Christ living in us and through us, how critically important that really is. Isaiah 40 verse 6. What a powerful prophecy here where we're reminded. It says, the voice said, cry out. And he said, what should I cry? What should be known? Well, he says, all flesh is grass. But boy, it sure seems real. This life seems so real. It doesn't seem like it could be over tomorrow. It doesn't seem like it's not going to last. It seems like it's going to keep going, at least for a while. I don't have to worry about that, do I?

But he says, it's grass. Flesh is just like that. Our physical lives are like grass. Yeah, it's all that's loving. This is like a flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades. Says, the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Those promises that he made as he gave us the Bread of Life diet, those are real. Those are lasting. God's promises cannot fade. They cannot wither. God cannot lie. When he says, you won't thirst or you won't hunger, he can fulfill that promise if we eat of Jesus Christ, if we eat of his word. Jesus is the Word of God. He is the Logos. He is the spokesman. He's the true bread. And he has to be in us. And we proclaimed that at our baptism, didn't we? That we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Master and our Savior, our high priest, our soon coming King. And they laid hands on us and we were imbued with the power of God's Holy Spirit so that Christ is now living in us. And we don't just have faith in Christ. We're moved to having the faith of Christ. We have Christ's faith when we rely on him, when we partake of him, when we delve into his word and let it live and breathe and change who we really are. That we are now different people. And he says, that's the food we work for. That's what we should labor for. The only solution to this temporary life is what Jesus says to feed on him as the true bread of life. He says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Remember the other part of that beatitude? That's in Matthew 5-6. He makes another one of those amazing promises about this diet. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And he says, they shall be filled. It's a promise. A promise we can take to the bank. You'll be blessed. You'll be happy. You'll be happy because it's true happiness. It's not fleeting happiness. It's not something that's based on going to be gone tomorrow. It's going to be spoiled. It's going to perish. It's going to be over. Now he says, when you count on me for your existence and I'm at the heart and core of who you are, you'll never hunger again for those things you shouldn't have. Those things that are meaningless. Those things that don't last. But boy, it's so easy. It's so easy to get off track, isn't it? I thought of it the other day. My wife, Kathy, sent me to the grocery store. We're out of milk. You got to pick up some milk. So I go to the grocery store. I hadn't eaten anything for lunch. I was hungry. I grabbed this cart and I'm rolling down the aisle. I was like, hey, that looks pretty good. I think I'll throw that in the cart.

And Freddy's, oh wow, I've never tried this snack. I think, well, maybe this would be pretty good. I should try this. And I'm picking things up and looking at these things and throwing them in the cart. I finally get to the checkout. Way too many snacks and all this other things. The cashier helps out. I actually went through the cashier and I did it myself that time. It's like, unbelievable! That's what this costs? I can't believe this is all you get for... It's crazy. My cart isn't even full. And so my shopping spree was kind of shocking after I went through that. Finally get home and you know the worst thing that it was even worse than the cost? I forgot the milk.

Got everything else in there. But the object was, get milk. I didn't have a shopping list. You do pretty good when you got a shopping list, don't you? It's like, okay, stick it up. Not on the list. Don't buy it. Don't buy it. Yeah, when you don't have a list, you run the risk of, yeah, doing what I did. Buying all this stuff I don't need. It's not...

What am I doing with that? And then you try it and it's not that good anyway. So, we go, oh, great. Do we have a spiritual shopping list?

If we don't have a spiritual shopping list, you're going to risk spending your time and your effort on wrong foods. You've got to have a spiritual shopping list because there are so many choices on the shelves of life that are out here. They can get us off course. And as we don't have God's ways on our mind, oh, it's easy to go to Holtzman's. I want a donut. Yeah, that'd be great. I'm kind of craving a donut this week, aren't you? Wait a second, I can't eat that!

It's not on the list. It's not on the list. And here's the thing. If I would have had a shopping list when I went, I could easily refer to that. And it's such a reminder, before I got to the store, I needed to have the list. You can't wait till you get to the store and try to come up with something. It's like, oh, was that on? I don't remember. I didn't write it down. And so, I can't... You got to decide ahead of time. And life is like that. We better set our minds to God's truth. We better know His Word. And it better be such a deep-seated part of us. We're going to get out there without a list. And who knows what we're going to partake in? How easily will we be swayed? How easily will we get distracted? And then look at the shelves of the things that we don't want, that we shouldn't buy, that we shouldn't labor for. And so, we have to make sure we allocate our time and set our priorities and have that spiritual shopping list to make sure we have our focus perfectly set. Our primary focus. And that primary focus has to be Jesus Christ and the Word of God. Has to be. Because it's going to dictate what we're working for, what we're laboring for.

And so, it takes us beyond just believing in Him, but believing Him and putting Him to work in our lives. Because if we follow Him and put those things on our shopping list, those words of eternal life, wow, the promises are absolutely astounding.

If you can turn back to John 6. John chapter 6. Notice the focus here that Christ zeros in on, that spiritual shopping list we should have. John 6 verse 66. Christ said some hard to understand things. And it says, from that time many of the disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

Couldn't get away from that physical perspective. They couldn't grasp the significance of the spiritual side of life. Verse 67, Jesus said to the 12, do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we've come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And so, when we claim to know Christ, that He's living in us and through us, to know Him is eternal life. We can grasp that promise to obey Him, to obey the author of life. He is the author of eternal life. And it reminds us that our shopping list has to be His shopping list. You know, what would He say? What would He eat? What would be on that list? Well, we know it would be love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. He was at on our list. There's peace and purity and generosity and gratitude.

All of those attributes that can't help come out of us if Christ is living in us.

And you know, when you look at what those expectations are, doesn't Christ say that's the minimum daily requirements? That's the minimum daily spiritual requirements for a life that ultimately would last forever. And so He says, don't get caught up in the shelves at the wrong kind of physical, perishable grocery store. He says, you run away from that. Paul said, flee those things. Flee, lust. But it's not just good enough to get away from it. We recognize that this time it's not just good enough to get away from leavened bread. The focus is on unleavened bread. That we've got to put in what's good and what's right. We put out sin. We put on righteousness. And so we recognize, okay, we run from sin, but we have to pursue righteousness. We have to go after it. We have to, like Christ said, labor for the food that lasts, for that non-perishable food. And we sing that song as well. Turn thou from evil, get away from the evil and do what is good. You seek peace. You pursue it. You go after it. You go after what's right. And these days remind us of that very thing. Yes, there's plenty of food out there that is perishable. There's so much out there that could take our life from us. And yet Christ offers the non-perishable spiritual food. And these days, we have a week long to remind us, stay on the diet. I think that's a third lesson that Christ gives us. Yes, watch out for the perishable. Eat the non-perishable and stay on that spiritual diet. Don't depart from it.

Don't get distracted. Philippians chapter 3 verse 7 is such a great reminder of that very fact.

Here the apostle Paul is writing to the Philippians, and he kind of explains, you know, we can get out of the wrong prior. We can get out of source, and we can get taken up in all the various diets of the internet or the gaming, or those things that would steal our time. The materialistic diet. All of those things can get us off track. And yet here Paul is in a way asking that same question. Am I laboring for the food that endures?

That endures all the way to everlasting life. Philippians 3, 7, Paul said, the things that were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Verse 8, he says, yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I might gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. Because you boil it all down and what does that world have to offer us? He says it's rubbish. But you know, that's a much stronger word than just rubbish. It's dung, literally dung. That's what the world has to offer. And yet, he says, here's the focus. Here's what I had to come and see. Here's, I had to be knocked down on the road and be clearly shown that prophets nothing.

And God opened His mind to the truth. And He says in verse 10, now that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

And so in 11 bread reminds us, we seek the power of His resurrection. When we went under that water at baptism, they didn't hold us down to the bubble stop. They didn't do that. They let us up. And we got up out of that water, synonymous with the resurrection. We stood forth. We had hands laid on us and we received the Spirit. And so we are now standing, like in the resurrection, when we will stand. We're to have a new life, be a new creation in Christ. And 11 bread reminds us of that commitment to God, to keep that sin out of our life and walk in His footsteps, allow Him to live in us. And we're called then, symbolic of that bread of life and to eat that kind of life so that it's in us. We consume it. That's what you have to do. You can't just look at the bread of life. You can't just consider. You can't just know about it.

You have to consume it. It has to be in you so that it can ultimately be in our thinking and come out of us in Christ-like behavior so that we do walk in righteousness. So 11 bread reminds us of this amazing diet to allow Jesus Christ to more thoroughly and more completely live in us and through us to get rid of the temporary perspective, to have an eternal perspective. And we're reminded Christ prayed, give us this day our daily bread. So Christ is not only eternal bread, but He's our daily bread. He's our daily bread, which takes us all the way back to that number I asked you to remember. 1776. No, it's not the American Revolution. You might have that in mind.

But $1,776 is what the average American spends on fast food every year. 1776. Don't be average when it comes to spiritual health. Can't have anything to do with that.

Remember Isaiah 55 says, you spend money for what is not bread. Your wages for what is not something that satisfies. Yeah, that's 1776. He says, incline, you're to me, come to me, and you shall live. And so what a wonderful reminder. What diet are you on?

Is it food that you're laboring for that ultimately will last? Yeah, unleavened bread. It's going to come to an end. We won't have to think about some of those foods anymore. But we can't afford to get distracted by the momentary, by the perishable, by the temporary. Because ultimately, unleavened bread reminds us we strive for the things that are imperishable. We focus on the things that are enduring. We gain that perspective that's eternal. And so we remember the true bread of life, the real bread that ultimately satisfies, the true bread that God gives us abundantly, the true bread of life that is hope, and the true bread of life that lives in us, that makes all things possible, and that bread of life that ultimately is eternal. So as we close out the days of unleavened bread, let's be intentional. In fact, not only during this week of unleavened bread, but let's be sure we always feed on the bread of life.