Our Daily Bread

Well, thank you, Mr. Blakey. I'm going to upset the sound crew and make a little adjustment here. Very beautiful special music, Mr. Blakey. Very appropriate words for the Spring Holy Day season. Thank you so much for that.

Well, today we are concluding the Festival of Unleavened Bread. And to me, this festival has gone by very fast. I not only called it the first day of unleavened bread, but during the entire festival it has been a blur. It has been an exciting time, a time of reflection, a time of growth, I'm sure, for all of us. And the days of eating this stuff are drawing to an ear. Now, this year my wife purchased what I call really godly matzo, not made by Gentiles. The godly matzo, of course, is made only with wheat and water.

And the way that you can tell that it's godly is if you accidentally eat the box, it tastes about the same. That's how you know. If it has that egg and onion and everything and all that stuff in it, that's kind of like cheating. So we had a few boxes of the really godly stuff this year. So I want to ask the question, what is the connection between humankind and bread anyway? What is it about this stuff that almost every culture on earth eats it in one form or another?

It may not be a wheat, it may not be barley, it may be some other grain or some type of root from a plant, but what is this unique connection between bread and humankind? Did you know that bread is one of the oldest prepared foods of the human race? They have evidence in Europe in caves from thousands of years ago where they have found starch residue on rocks.

And what they found is that the rocks were used for pounding plants. And they think that during that time that the ancient Europeans took starch extract from the root of plants, such as cattails and ferns, and they put it on that rock and they beat it into a paste, and they placed it over a fire and they cooked it as a primitive form of flat bread. At the dawn of what they called the Neolithic age and the spread of agriculture, grains became the mainstay of making bread.

And yeast spores are everywhere. And that includes, by the way, on the very kernels of grain itself. So if you grind the grain and you put some oil in it or you make it moist, all you have to do is just leave it alone for a while and naturally it will begin to ferment and rise. A man named Pliny the Elder—he actually was a child around the time Jesus Christ lived—he was a Roman scholar.

He died 79 AD. He reported that the Gauls and Iberians used a skimmed form of beer to produce, quote, a higher kind of bread than other peoples. Actually, I thought that sounded pretty tasty. I might try that myself. So they used the yeast from beer as the starter for their bread. Most of the ancient world that drank wine instead of beer used a paste that was composed of grape juice and flour, and they used that as the starter method to make their bread rise. The most common source of leavening was to retain a piece of the dough from a previous day and just to use that day after day as a starter to rise a new batch of dough.

So there's an ancient connection between human beings, humankind, and bread. For the past week, we have been eating unleavened products because we understand that the Passover and the days of unleavening are powerful reminders of spiritual principles. Let's review some of the things that we rehearsed. First, there was the Old Testament Passover. The unleavened bread pictured the fact that ancient Israel left Egypt in haste. And we were reminded that in a similar way, when we recognize sin in our lives, no, they left Egypt, we leave spiritual Egypt. When we recognize and have an opportunity to leave sin, we need to do it quickly.

We need to do it right now in haste. Not compromise with it, not negotiate with it, not form a personal committee to discuss it, but to take action and leave sin immediately. Then we had the New Testament Passover. This unleavened bread pictured the broken body of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. His body was beaten. He was crucified for our complete healing.

Because He's our great High Priest, we can now go to the Father and plead that our physical diseases and illnesses can be healed. We can go to Him and request that our emotional hurts and our offenses can be healed. Most importantly, we can go to Him and ask that our sins be healed. And that's what was represented in the Passover by that broken body of Jesus Christ. Then we began the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Eating that unleavened bread pictures the righteousness of Christ living in us. The life of Christ hopefully being demonstrated in how we live. Because simply removing sin from our lives and leaving a void isn't enough. You see, we have to replace weakness with strength. If we just leave a void, something else probably undesirable will come and fill that void when we remove sin. So we represent the fact that we want Jesus Christ and His righteousness living in us and living through us. So now that this Feast of 2012 is ending, what are lessons about the symbol of bread that we can continue to take with us throughout the year?

What lessons of bread can we continue to ponder and remain with us throughout the rest of 2012? Well, let's begin by taking a look at the sample prayer that Jesus taught His disciples. We'll go to Matthew 6 and verse 9. Matthew 6, and we'll pick it up in verse 9.

Matthew wrote in the sixth chapter, In this manner therefore pray, our Father in heaven, this is Jesus teaching His disciples to pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, thy kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.

Amen. Now, at first glance, bread may seem to be the only material request in this entire model prayer. The other requests are spiritual, such as forgiveness, seeking God's will, forgiveness, protection, guidance. So with this in mind, let me ask the question, do you think Jesus is suggesting that we pray for physical bread every day, considering the other things that are mentioned?

Well, the continuing context of this chapter might suggest something differently. Drop down to verse 24 with me, if you would. Verse 24, Jesus continues in the same discourse, and no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon, so you can't be God-centered and wealth-selfish, materialistic-centered. Verse 25, therefore, I say unto you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you put on is life, or is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing.

So you see, brethren, in looking at these verses in the same discourse as was previously mentioned in what's called the Lord's Prayer, it doesn't appear at all that Jesus had in mind physical bread to eat when he taught the disciples how to prayer. What he was doing is he was instructing his followers to pray every day and to ask their Father to send the unleavened sinless bread of life to them to dwell with them.

Without the righteousness of Jesus Christ dwelling in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, there is no spiritual life in us. We need to find our nourishment and spiritual strength through our relationship with God. So what Jesus was saying was deepen our relationship, bring the power through that spirit of a presence, of a relationship today within my life. Now let's see some comments Jesus made about bread during the Passover season. Not the Passover season that we traditionally think about in 31 AD, but a year or two before the final Passover that he shared with his disciples.

John chapter 6 beginning in verse 1. Let's go there. John chapter 6 beginning in verse 1. Jesus wanted to teach the people who were involved in this miracle, this number of miracles, some spiritual lessons. Now unfortunately, aside from the disciples, it doesn't appear that any of them got the message.

But the message really is for you and I to glean from after all. That's why John wrote the message down. John chapter 6 beginning in verse 1. After these things, Jesus went over to the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, then a great multitude followed him because they saw his signs which he performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up to the mountain and there he sat with his disciples. Verse 4. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. And obviously this is way back early in John 6. So this is not the Passover of 31 A.D. that we're all familiar with. Verse 5. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and seeing the great multitude coming towards him said that Philip, where shall we buy bread that we may eat?

Jesus desired to feed the people who were there. But this he said to them to test him for he himself knew what he would do. Jesus knew he would perform a miracle. So again the Lord wants to teach a spiritual lesson through his miraculous ability to provide physical bread for the multitude. He has the attention of thousands of people. They all know the physical connection between bread and the upcoming Passover. They're fully aware of that. In verse 7, and Philip answered him, 200 denarii, which was a figure they didn't have, 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, even if we had it, is what he implies, that every one of them may have a little.

One of disciples, Andrew Simon's Peter, said to him, there is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?

Then Jesus said, make the people sit down. Now most likely this young lad was there selling bread. He was an entrepreneur in this situation, and most likely he was there selling this bread. Barley bread was considered an inferior form of bread. It was a hard, rough bread to eat. Basically the poor people were those who could afford to buy barley bread, and this is what this young lad was selling. And Jesus said, make the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down.

A number of about 5,000. Now according to Matthew's account, it was 5,000, not including women and children, so it could have been much larger. Verse 11, and Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he looked up to his Father in heaven, and he gave thanks, and he distributed them to the disciples and the disciples to those who were sitting down and likewise of the fish as much as they wanted, so they were filled.

And he said to his disciples, gather up the fragments that remain so that nothing is lost. Therefore, they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with the fragments of five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten.

So many of those in the audience witnessed yet another miracle, another sign from Jesus Christ. He had been healing the diseased earlier. They witnessed another sign, but this time they get something additional. They get a free meal. They're excited to see how the five loaves can be blessed. Actually, there were seven items of food.

Five loaves, how they can be blessed, how they can be distributed to 5,000 people, and more remain left over than the original five loaves. They're impressed when they see that. And Jesus, by the way, is also teaching another lesson here. He's teaching that even in abundance there should be no waste, and that's why He gathered back the fragments. Even when you're blessed, you should not be wasteful. You should not say to yourself, oh, there's plenty.

I can waste the things that I have. I want you to notice how organized Jesus didn't want this to be a free-for-all. He knew the way human beings are. He had everyone sit down, and it was distributed in order to the disciples, to the people who were sitting down in groups. And then there was a collection back of all the fragments, because Jesus Christ believes that there should be no waste.

It is by wasting the small fragments in life that the great waste occurs in our lives. And they collect the fragments. That's how they knew how many baskets they had remaining. And Jesus set a beautiful example for all of these who witnessed this. But you know, beyond eating a free meal, they didn't get the lesson yet, because their minds were not opened, that Jesus Christ Himself is the bread of life, and as the Son of God, He was trying to get that message to them.

Let's now go to John 6, verse 22. It says, on the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no boat there, so they were looking for Jesus already, who knows, maybe He'll give us another meal, except the one that His disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but His disciples had gone away alone.

Verse 23, however, other boats came from Tiberius near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks. When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. And they found Him on the other side of the sea, and they said to Him, Rabbi, when did you come here?

And Jesus answered and said to them, most assuredly, I say unto you, you seek me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves, because you got a free meal. That's why you have come seeking Me. So He understands that their motive for seeking Him is not because they want to learn spiritual lessons, not because they desire to understand spiritual things, but because they got a free meal ticket. You know, they remind me, for many years, I was a regional sales manager.

At times, I was a national sales manager. And oftentimes, I heard this scenario. The scenario was, yesterday was a record-setting day. Sales hit an all-time high.

But what have you done for me lately? And that's kind of the way that the Jews were, to Jesus. Oh, it was a great meal that we had yesterday. But what kind of side are you? going to give us today? Verse 27, Jesus 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 the Father has set His seal on him. Then they said to Him, What shall we do, that we may work the works of God? Verse 29, Jesus answered, and sent to them, This is the work of God that you believe in whom He sent. Jesus said, You have to believe that I am the Son of God sent by the Father. Verse 30, Therefore, they said to Him, What sign will you perform then, that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? Oh, here's a hint, by the way. Verse 31, Our fathers ate manna in the desert. As it is written, He gave them bread from the desert. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Hint, hint. I mean, you did it yesterday. We got a free lunch yesterday. How about another sign? Then maybe we'll ponder, believing, if we can just see another sign. But in this statement, Jesus Christ weaves into the discussion two very important ideas. First of all, Jesus is the Son of God. He has the Father's approval and the Father's seal of authority. He is the bread of life sent by the Father to sustain all of mankind. Number two, He teaches them that becoming a disciple of Christ, He uses the word believe and all that that entails. And it certainly entails more than just, oh, okay, I accept it. It entails a change of lifestyle. It entails dedication. It entails commitment. It entails a life of being a disciple and a follower. So He teaches them that becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ will provide spiritual nourishment that will lead to eternal life. However, they're still focused on a physical meal. Perhaps, again, they're hoping for another free lunch in this discussion. Verse 32, then Jesus said to them, Most shortly I say unto you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. So now He's getting into the deep, serious spiritual conversation. He says, verse 33, For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Verse 34, and they said Him, Lord, give us this bread always. Again, they don't get it. They don't understand that it means a change in lifestyle. It means a calling. It means changing who and what you are. It means putting your hand to the plow and looking forward your entire lifetime.

It means becoming a different type of creature. Verse 35, and Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life, and He who comes to me shall never hunger, and He who believes in me shall never thirst. So Jesus Christ picks up on the comment that their ancestors were fed on bread in the wilderness of sin.

And He offers them a contrast to think about the ponder. And the contrast is this, that anciently, the physical manna provided life-giving sustenance for their fathers in the wilderness. And Jesus says, you know, if you believe, if you understand what that entails, the true bread of life is offering to provide you spiritual sustenance that leads to eternal life.

Again, Jesus Christ is God's provision for all mankind. Verse 36, but I said to you that you have seen me and do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, meaning that all that the Father calls and draws will understand, will have their eyes opened. All that the Father gives will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. Verse 40, and this is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day. Again, Jesus is emphasizing we're not just talking about physical bread here like your ancestors had after they left Egypt. We are talking about spiritual sustenance that leads to eternal life.

Sadly, the response was verse 41, then the Jews complained about Him because He said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. So Jesus teaches here a spiritual lesson that most didn't perceive because they weren't being called by the Father. But a few of His disciples remembered it and recorded it down for our generation today, for other generations of believers. I want someone like John to thank for this, because His disciples were beginning to understand these spiritual principles. The Father's will is that everyone who is called will never be abandoned, and He won't abandon any of us, but we will continue to remain sustained by the true bread of life, and that leads to the resurrection of life. We had a discussion between Jesus Christ and the crowd regarding the original historical story of the Israelites, where manna was given from heaven. Let's go there now and see what we can learn from this biblical event. If you'll go to Exodus 16 with me, beginning in verse 1. In context, please remember that these are a very carnal and ungrateful people who had left Egypt. They still had a slave mentality of dependency at this point. They're struggling with the results of being slaves for generations. I want to draw some analogies for us from Exodus 16, but not take it too far, because all analogies eventually break down if they're taken to the extreme. So let's go to Exodus 16, beginning in verse 1. Jesus certainly knew these events here because he was the God of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ was the one who was speaking to Moses here. He was the one who was providing physical bread for these peoples, who himself, after he emptied himself of his divinity and walked on earth as a man and lived a perfect sinless life, and died and shed his blood for our sins, who himself would be the bread of life, not just for Israelites, but for all mankind. Exodus 16, beginning in verse 1. Verse 3.

In the end of the Lord and the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, and when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger, then the Lord said to Moses, our patient, loving God, in spite of that attitude, Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not.

So approximately a month after they witnessed a number of incredible miracles, including the parting of the Red Sea, that resulted in their freedom from Egypt in just a short period of time they are complaining. Aside from their complaining, a patient and gracious God is willing to honor their request because he loves them so much. And you know their requests are bogus. You know their requests don't even make sense. Here they are, sitting by, whining about all the days when we had pots of meat. Well, Exodus 12.38 says that they left Egypt with much cattle. Why don't they slaughter their own cattle if they want meat? The very next chapter, chapter 17 verse 3, they complain that their thirsty cattle doesn't have anything to drink. So you see, their complaints aren't even valid. They're just whining. They're just in a foul carnal attitude. But our loving God, with grace and mercy, decides to provide for them. Exodus 16, verse 10.

You shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. So again, God would provide a number of miracles, as he's done so many times up to this point, to sustain the people in spite of their weaknesses and their complaints and their attitudes. Verse 13. So it was that quails came up in the evening and covered the camp, and in the morning, dew lay all around the camp. And when the layer of dew lifted, there was on the surface of the wilderness a small, round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. So when the children of Israel saw it, they said something to one another. Actually, they said the same thing that my wife says when she comes home from work, and I've made dinner. They said, What is it? For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord has commanded. Let everyone gather it according to each one's need. One omer for each person according to the number of persons. Let every man take for those who are in his tent. The children of Israel did so and gathered some more, some less. So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and you who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one's need. So no matter what their personal or individual needs were of each Israelite, they were provided with enough nourishment to sustain them. From the bread that came raining down from heaven. Not too much, none was wasted, none would go unused, and neither was there too little. Verse 19, And Moses said, Let no one leave any of it until morning, notwithstanding they did not heed Moses, but some of them left part of it in the morning, and it bred worms and stank.

And Moses was angry with them. Verse 21, So they gathered it every morning, each man according to his need. So they went back and got their daily bread. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 6? Give us this day our daily bread. That's exactly what they were doing with the physical bread that they were eating.

So they had to go back day after day to receive this bread that now sustained them and provided them life. They couldn't store it away for the future. They were required to rise early and gather their daily amount before the sun became hot and melted it away. And if they didn't go out and gather, they would go hungry for that day once that bread was melted.

If they were lazy, if they didn't want to make the effort and go out and gather the bread, when the hot sun came out, it would melt away. And, brethren, the same is true for us today. We have to go to the source of eternal life each day. We have to go back and request that daily bread, that daily presence of God in our lives each and every day.

And for those of us who have been around a long time, we cannot deceive ourselves into thinking that somehow we have just stored away faith because we've been part of God's church for 30 or 40 years of faithful living. And now we can just stop going to that source every day.

You see, you cannot store it away. They couldn't store it. It stank and bred worms. And in the same way, we need to go to the bread of life himself each day and ask him to fulfill our needs for that day.

And then the next day, we need to go back once again and ask for our daily portion of that presence in our lives to sustain us spiritually.

And this was symbolized by the events that these people were going through.

It says, It says, Then he said to them, So they laid it up till morning, And Moses commanded, And it did not stink, Nor were there any worms in it. Then Moses said, Eat that today, for today is the Sabbath to the Lord, Today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, But the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, There will be none. So brethren, on Friday they were given a double portion so that they could learn to enjoy the Sabbath and celebrate God's grace among his people.

But some of them were workaholics. Some of them just felt they had a need to always be doing something. Some of them were anxious. And they weren't content unless they were doing something. So instead of obeying the command of Moses, here's what we read in verse 27. It happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none.

And the Lord said to Moses, How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? Verse 29c, For the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore he gives you the sixth day, bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day, and the house of Israel called its name Manah. And it was like white chol Do you realize that in its basic form, this white-colored flaky bread that resembled a heavy frost and tasted like honey must have been unleavened?

It was a supernatural gift from God intended to protect them from malnourishment. It was a true miracle. And I always find it rather humorous how the scholars looked for natural ways that manna could have been provided. And they have found the resin from particular trees that when it dries up, it's kind of white. And they say, Oh, maybe this was manna. They have found plant lice and said, Oh, well, this kind of becomes white. Maybe this is what they were eating. They have found some fungus in the Middle East that turns white.

But no matter how you try to explain it in some natural way, providing it for 40 years for two and a half million people daily was an absolute miracle and an act of Almighty God. Verse 32, Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord has commanded. Fill an omer with it, and be kept to be kept in your generations, that they may see the bread which I feed you in the wilderness, that I brought you out of the land of Egypt.

And Moses said to Aaron, Take a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before the Lord to be kept for your generations. And the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to be kept. And the children of Israel ate manna 40 years until they came to an inhabited land. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. So this miracle was important. So important regarding the bread that gave them life and sustained them for 40 years, that they were commanded to put some in a pot and lay it up before God.

Later that pot was placed inside the Ark of the Covenant. So, brethren, the manna which God had provided fed the Israelites, and they journeyed throughout the wilderness. And the bread who provided that for them, the God who provided that physical bread, was none other than who would later become known as Jesus Christ, the bread of life.

And the Israelites had an individual part to play in receiving nourishment from that physical bread. And you and I have an individual part to play to receive spiritual nourishment from the bread of life. I would like to recap some of the things regarding the bread of life that we can carry with us long after these holy days have ended at sunset tonight.

I'd like to give you some things to ponder and to think about. First of all, Jesus Christ taught His disciples to ask for daily bread. This was His way of saying, we need to come to the Father every day making our needs known for that day. Requesting that Jesus Christ be in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. He will provide our needs and our spiritual sustenance today. And tomorrow we need to go back to Him and once again request the bread of life as our daily bread.

Renewing your mind with the truth and the presence of God on a daily basis is essential to Christian growth. It's essential to who and what we are. Similar to Jesus taking five loaves of bread and multiplying it into food for 5,000 people with 12 baskets left over, Jesus Christ is not offering simply addition into your life, brethren. He's not into addition. He is into multiplication. He wants to greatly multiply His presence in our lives.

He wants to give us greater blessings. He wants to multiply our spiritual fruits, our talents. He wants to give us a full, complete measure of His spirit. He wants to continually expand our spiritual family throughout the world. He wants to multiply the blessings that we can receive in our lives if we're willing to feed on His presence consistently and faithfully every day. Again, Jesus Christ is not into addition. He doesn't like plus signs. He's in the multiplication.

And He wants to multiply the fruits and the gifts that He offers to us. Anciently, the manna bread came down from heaven and it provided physical sustenance to the Israelites. It provided them continued physical life. It was a complete food in and of itself, giving them everything their bodies needed for growth. In contrast, Jesus Christ, the true bread of life, came down from heaven to offer His called-out ones.

That's you. To offer His called-out ones spiritual sustenance. He provides us continued spiritual life as He actively lives in us. Ancient Israel struggled with their problems and their difficulties in the wilderness of sin. We, too, are struggling as strangers in pilgrims in an ungodly world. And we need that sustaining presence of the bread of life Himself to be in our lives. Manna came down from heaven, unleavened in its pure form. The Israelites were given a quota to consume every day. And we, too, need to consume the true bread of life each and every day. We need to study His word to learn from it.

We need to pray to the Father and make all of our daily needs known to Him. Our Lord is sinless. He's unleavened. He's righteous in His very nature.

And He desires that we grow and develop the very mind of Jesus Christ in our lives.

In the miracle of the manna in Exodus 16, it stated, He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one's need. In a similar way, every one of us are going through different situations in life. We're going through different trials. We have different needs, depending on our age, depending on our health, depending on different factors. We are all going through our own individual trials and needs. Yet, God promises to supply all of our unique needs with His bread of life. Let's go to Philippians 4, verse 19.

Philippians 4, verse 19, Paul wrote, And my God shall supply all your need according to the riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. So in ancient Israel, when that bread fell from heaven, that manna, no one had need.

There was none left over. Those who needed much were able to gain much. Those who needed very little were able to tap in and receive and gather very little. And all were nourished and sustained. And no matter what you're going through, no matter what kind of problem or trial or situation in your life, God will always supply our need. That's a promise. That's something that we can absolutely be sure of. The manna that fell from heaven as a miracle was very important to them, to their survival. But you know that they needed to make a continual effort to go out and gather that manna in order for it to benefit them. The manna didn't fall in their cooking utensils. Did you notice that? It didn't fall in their cooking utensils. It fell on the ground to be gathered. And they had to make the effort, the motivation, to go out and gather that bread that was available to them. Brethren, the same is true for us. We must go to the source of eternal life each day. And not skip a day. And not become lax. And not back off. Not become distant from our Father, from our God. It's so essential and so important. Turn with me, if you would, to Luke 11, verse 23. God wants us to gather the bread of life in our lives each and every day.

We are to go out and gather from God, in contrast to something else. Luke 11, verse 23.

A little over a year ago, when the Church of God was going through a particular crisis, this scripture meant a lot to me personally, because I believe that every minister will not only face that they have judgment, but because to whom much is given, much is required, will face greater, more severe judgment. And this is a scripture that rang in my head over and over again a little over a year ago, something that Jesus said.

He said, He who is not with me is against me, and He who does not gather with me scatters.

You see, God is a gatherer. God brings things together. He doesn't want to tear things apart.

And each day we need to go to the throne of grace. We need to go to the bread of life, and gather through prayer, and study, and meditation, His spiritual sustenance, His very presence, into our hearts and our minds.

God provided the manna continuously for forty years, until they reached the Promised Land.

And His promise to you and I is that He will provide us every day until we enter the Kingdom of God.

And if our lives cease before that time, just like some of their lives ceased in the wilderness, but if our lives cease before the Kingdom of God, we can be assured that we will be part of that first resurrection that we read about earlier through Jesus's statements.

The manna in the wilderness tasted like honey. It motivated them to desire the land of milk and honey.

Every time they tasted that bread and they sensed that honey, they thought of what awaits for me in the Promised Land.

And, brethren, every day having a rich, personal relationship with God can give us a sweet foretaste of His Kingdom.

And that's why we need to go back every day and say, Father, sustain me. Fill me with Your Spirit. Fill me with Your presence. Don't allow me to drift away. Don't allow me to cut you off. Don't allow me to back off from the bread of life Himself.

Because, brethren, that is truly what sustains us. What keeps us is part of the vine and the body of Jesus Christ.

So, in conclusion today, let us partake of the bread of life tomorrow and throughout the rest of this year, throughout the rest of our lives.

Let us feed on His Word. Let's allow Him to live in us and through us, as the ambassadors of His Kingdom, let's continue to feed on Him because He truly is the bread of life.

And He sustains us. He gives us everything that we need for any situation, for any trial. And we know that we can go to Him and we can draw and feed on Him each and every day.

So, as we conclude the feast tonight at sunset, let's remember that maybe eating this stuff has ended and for some of us it's like, thank you, Lord.

But, even though that may stop, each and every day we can be blessed to go and feed on the true bread of life.