Spiritual ROI

Another one of our little ones came up to me before church today. I've started this whole process of things, and I've got to stay on my toes because they are pretty sharp little ones, I'll tell you. One little one came up and said, Mr. Myers, do you know why the baker goes to work? I said, I don't know. Why does the baker go to work? And they said, because he needs the dough. So I immediately came back and said, why doesn't anyone want to work in a matzo factory? That's a crummy place to work.

Well, it's good to have fun on the holy days. We have been so blessed, and it is interesting sometimes the way we describe these days. We have our own little acronyms for things sometimes. You know, these days, what do we call them? If you have to write it out, I don't want to write out days of unleavened bread. So I'll just... This is the dub, right? D-U-B, dub, days of unleavened bread. So we're rub-dub-dub-dub.

The feast is F-O-T. F-O-T, the feast of tabernacles, right? I think we love acronyms. Maybe KFC or BFF or whatever it may be. LOL. I got kind of confused when I first saw this one. It was like somebody's writing me ox, ox, ox, ox. What is that? So somebody had to explain about hugs and kisses and all that sort of thing.

So how about Roy? What about Roy? In business, and I think in spirituality, it's all about Roy. Now it's not R-O-Y, so Dr. Foster can relax, but R-O-I instead. What is the value of Roy? Well, in business, it's all about return on investment. R-O-I. You think God worries about the value of Roy?

The value of his return on investment? In business, if you didn't get a return on investment, what happens? You're out. You shut down. You're not going to make anything. You go out of business. You go bankrupt. And so if you invested $100,000, let's say, in your business, and you worked, and you did everything you could to make money, that $100,000 is the capital that it took to start, and you work, and you work.

By the end of the year, if you have $110,000, that's pretty good. Better than nothing. That's a return on your investment. About a 10% increase. That would be a 10% Roy. And 10% by today's standards. I suppose it's a lot better than putting your money in a savings account. You might get 1% if you're lucky and you do that. So 10%? All right. That's not so bad. But you know, there's a big difference between an investment and a donation. Isn't there? A donation, you just give it, you don't expect anything in return.

But an investment, you expect something back. Now, has God invested in us? Absolutely. We just came through the Passover, and we were reminded of 1 Corinthians 6.20, where it says, you were bought with a price. You were bought with a price. And so we could say, God expects a return on that investment. Right there, He says, therefore, because we were bought with a price, He expects with that investment there should be a return. He says, glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are God's.

So in a way, God owns us. And He expects a return. Expect some spiritual growth. So we could say, all right, how are we spending that investment? How are we spending our life? Since we're owned and our life has been bought for a price, God owns us. And the store that we manage, our life, we've got to manage that company.

We've got to manage our life, that store. And Passover certainly reminds us that if we are a true disciple of Christ, our life must be the right kind of investment. So let's think about that for a moment.

Let's think about the value of that return on God's investment. Let's think about the spiritual ROI, the spiritual ROI. And look at a couple of lessons from a particular story that's found in the Bible. In fact, it's a bread story, not one that you might necessarily associate with the days of unleavened bread, but one nonetheless that has interesting lessons that certainly apply. In fact, this particular miracle of Jesus Christ is the only one that's found in all four Gospels.

It's the only one in all four, other than the resurrection. It's the only miracle of Christ that's found in all four of the Gospels. Do you know which one that is? It's feeding the 5,000. The story of feeding the 5,000. So if you will, let's turn over to Matthew. We'll look in Matthew to begin with of that story of feeding the 5,000.

So Matthew 14 is where we'll begin. Matthew 14. It will begin in verse 6. It says, When Herod's birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. So what would the dancer ask for? She hadn't been prompted by her mother, said, Give me John the Baptist's head here on a platter. The king was sorry, nonetheless, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him.

He commanded it to be given her. So he sent and had John beheaded in prison. So we have a terrible, awful, just horrendous banquet, a big party that had taken place, and horrible results came from it.

This is a little bit of a precursor to what Jesus Christ would do. John the Baptist dies at the hand of Herod. His whole administration was filled with leaven, filled with evil, filled with jealousy, and he kills the prophet, kills John the Baptist, in a way almost foreshadowing the death of Jesus Christ. And so we see that by this banquet it sets up a number of other situations. In fact, verse 13, when Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. And so here we see a little bit later Jesus Christ goes out into the wilderness. Now we're not sure exactly where this is. The place is not specifically given. In fact, the last location mentioned in chapter 13 is Nazareth. It doesn't mean it was there, but somewhere out in a place that was deserted, it can mean solitary, a lonely place, a desolate place, Christ departed there. And it seems that He's a ways away from the lake where this boat was available. And He went out, and verse 14, He saw a great multitude. So people had followed Him here. They had heard of some of the miracles that He had performed. It says when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. And when Jesus went out, verse 14, He saw that great multitude. He was moved with compassion for them, and He healed their sick. And so Jesus takes pity on them. He was moved. This word here literally means had compassion. He had yearning bowels. He was just heart sick, as we might say. Or He had a stomach ache over the fact that these people were without a shepherd. They had no direction. Their life was going nowhere. They weren't even into the business yet and had no direction. In fact, if you hold your place here and turn over to Mark, we'll see a little bit more detail in the story. Mark 6, verse 34.

We see the compassion of Christ is explained a little bit more here in chapter 6 of Mark. Notice verse 34. It says, Jesus, when He came out, saw that great multitude, was moved to compassion for them. Why? Because they were like sheep, not having a shepherd. They were lost. So He began to teach them many things. It's amazing. As Christ departed to this solitary place, instead of getting frustrated with the people that just showed up, He had compassion on them. He pitied them. He was moved to compassion for them. And what did He do? He preached, He taught, and He healed them. He healed them. We could say that He filled their needs, but there were more needs that needed to be filled as well.

Verse 35. When the day was far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, This is a deserted place. The hour is late. Send them away that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat. This is kind of interesting because we find Jesus Christ in this situation where they're in a secluded place. There is no food. There are no KFCs around here. There's no fast foods that are anywhere near here. So the disciples, they send them away because the hour is late.

That phrase, the hour is late or the evening is far spent, is the same wording that's used just before the Passover. When Matthew uses that phrase, when it was evening, that is the exact same phrase that we find here. I don't think it's by accident. I think we're supposed to be thinking in those terms. What was Christ's purpose? What was He about? What was He doing? Here He is meeting the needs of the people. He cares about them. He's sacrificing His time. He's sacrificing His opportunity to relax, to serve, and to give, and to teach, and to heal. And so we see some Passover implications that are mentioned here as well. So in this deserted place, when the hour is late, they say, send them away. But Christ does something different. Instead, verse 37, But He answered and said to them, You give them something to eat. And they said to Him, Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?

They didn't get it. How in the world would this be possible? We'd need two hundred denarii. That's a Roman silver coin that's a little over a troy ounce. So we're talking about big bucks. In fact, if you were to translate into that amount into modern terminology, a denarii would be what an agricultural worker would earn for a day's work. So what do you earn for a day's work if you have to you know, pick the beats? If you have to take care of the cotton? If you, well, an agricultural worker today here is going to work for minimum wage. You multiply that by 10 hours a day, $72.50. Take that by the 5,000 men plus women and children that would have been there. We're talking 200 denarii. It would be something like $14,000.

Where are we going to come up with $14,000? How are we going to buy even enough bread to make that happen? But what does Christ say?

Did you notice what He said? What did He tell them? He said, You give them something to eat.

It's our job. It's our responsibility. Christ didn't say, Let me do this miracle and I'll handle it. Did you notice that? He said, You give them something to eat. I think by extension, that's a lesson of Roy. Talk about a return on investment. God has invested in us. He expects us to do our jobs. Can you imagine what this world would be like if everybody just did their job?

You know what it's like where you work or when you worked if you're retired. People do their jobs. Hardly. Hardly. If everybody actually worked, maybe even half the time they're supposed to be working. Can you imagine the productivity that we would have?

Christ is saying, Do your job. It is your responsibility. Jesus made it very clear. He regarded this task of feeding the people their responsibility. Yeah, He was going to give them the means to accomplish that job.

And He would never assume that they could do something that they couldn't do. That was beyond their capabilities. God never lays on us a responsibility that we aren't capable of completing or fulfilling. How do we know that? Well, I think there's one verse that reminds us of that.

Didn't Paul write to the Philippians that I can do all things through Christ? Who strengthens me? And who is going to strengthen the disciples to make sure that they could give them something to eat? You see, we are required to do our job. Ephesians 6, 10 says, Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. And, boy, these days of Unleavened Bread remind us of the awesome acts of God and the powerful, amazing things that God can do. But, boy, those people still had to walk out of Egypt. He didn't whisk them out on some magic carpet or anything, did they? He didn't do it that way. They had a job to do. They had a responsibility to fulfill. We do, too. We're to be strong in the Lord. We're to be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus. That's what it says in 2 Timothy 2, verse 1. Are we strong in grace? In fact, Ephesians 3, 16 says, Be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. That's our job. He's given us a job to grow in grace and knowledge. He's given each of us a job to preach the Word, to live that Word, to warn the world, to live for God. Every one of us have a responsibility to set the right example. We're to live the days of unleavened bread, aren't we? We're to live sin-free. Every day, as we remember no yeast, no donuts at the Dunkin' place this week. Sorry, can't do that. Every time that thought comes to mind, we go, No way! That's not—it's my job to remember what goes into my mouth should affect what goes into my brain. I am not going to be allowing sin in my life. That's my job. It's my responsibility. I have to live the days of unleavened bread. I have to live and be the kind of husband God expects me to be. That's my job. I'm supposed to be the kind of father God expects me to be. And if you're a mother, the kind of mother God expects you to be, He says, You give them something to eat. I've given to you, now it's your turn to fulfill the responsibilities that God has called you to. Raise good families. Be the kind of people God wants us to be. We're to be strengthened. And we can be strengthened, Philippians tells us, through Christ. I can do all things through Christ. In fact, that's an interesting phrase because it's a present tense kind of verbiage there in the Greek, which means Christ is continuing to strengthen me. He continues to strengthen me, and by His constant renewed strength, I am able to act. I'm able to do my job. I'm able to fulfill the responsibilities that God has called me to. And I wholly and I completely depend on Him for that spiritual power. And so God has given us that power, and now He says, You give them something to eat. I think that's the first lesson of Roy, of that spiritual return on investment that God expects from us. Of course, sometimes we're like the disciples. What was their initial response? No way! We can't do that! We don't have—what did they say?

How can we go buy 200 denier worth of bread? We don't have that. How can we give them something to eat? Their answer was almost like, well, we don't have anything. There's nothing.

But He said to them, verse 38, How many loaves do you have? Go and see. And when they found out, they said five loaves and two fish. And all too often, I think we end up like the disciples at times. Do we ever find ourselves this way? When God calls and He gives us the job to do, do we say, I don't have what it takes? We beg off. I don't have enough. I don't have enough to do this job, God. I can't grow. I can't accomplish that. I'm too old for that sort of thing. I've already done my time. I've already served. Well, boy, God, I'd love to, but you know, I've got issues. I'd really like to. God, you know how busy I am. I don't have the time. Well, isn't it somebody else's turn? Isn't it somebody else's turn to take care of that?

Maybe we should let somebody older take care of that job. Or maybe somebody younger should take care of that job. Because after all, I don't know if I know that much about the Bible. That's not my gift. That's not my talent. Well, I've got way too much on my plate right now. And so we could go down the list of excuses like the disciples did. We don't have the money. There's no way. We can't do it. And see, Christ didn't say, oh, okay, well then, just don't worry about it. No, He held them to that responsibility. They were unaware. They were unaware that they had the resources to do that very job. They had the resources to fulfill the command of Jesus Christ. They didn't know it. They didn't realize it. But they did have something. In fact, after looking around a little bit, okay, we do. We've got five loaves. We've got two fish. That's what we've got. Not much. But Christ's point is pretty clear, isn't it? When you take what I've given you in my business, I'll take care of distribution. Is that what He told them? I'll take care of distributing. You find that I've given you what you need to accomplish the job. So He said, well, how many loaves have you got? They found the five and two fish. He commanded them, verse 39, to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat in groups of 50 or 100, and when He'd taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, gave them to the disciples to set before them. And the two fish, He divided among them all. And look at this miracle through Christ. So they all ate and were filled. And they, the disciples, they took up 12 baskets full of fragments and of the fish. Now those who had eaten the loaves were about 5,000 men.

You see, Christ responded that the disciples, they shouldn't doubt that through Jesus Christ, they've got the resources that even with so little, He could do amazing things, amazing things. He could take that serving of, well, what would this be? Maybe 650 calories, 55 grams of fat, 130 grams of carb, 35 grams of protein. And they could eat as much as they wanted, absolutely as much as they wanted. And it wasn't just a little feat. This was an awesome miracle. I mean, by today's standards, have you ever thought, how much food did He actually create?

I mean, it's unbelievable what you really think about. 5,000 men, probably add a woman and maybe a child per person. All right, now we're talking about 15,000 people possible to be there. 15,000. So if every one of them, forget the fish for the moment, let's just talk about the bread. So we look at that bread, if each had several, they ate as much as they wanted, so they just didn't have one little slice. If they each ate maybe a third of a loaf of bread, these people were hungry. You've got to have 5,000 loaves. So you start doing the math, 15,000 people times a third of a loaf per person, you need 5,000 loaves of bread. Does that sound reasonable? Okay, something like that. All right, how much would 5,000 loaves of bread, how much space would that take up?

That would fill more than a semi-full of bread. You would pack that whole semi-full and then some leftover, not even talking about the fish. So can you imagine Christ making a semi-load full of bread appear from the five that were there? I mean, that pointed without a doubt that Christ was the Son of God. This is the Christ. And when they picked up the fragments, they had more left over than what they started with. Talk about a return on investment. You think God expected something in return? He expected them to do their job. He expected to distribute what God, what Jesus Christ did.

And so it's an amazing thing. Even when it seems impossible, God can do awesome things. In fact, sometimes we're put in our life in a situation where it doesn't seem like we can do it. It seems like there's no way. There's no way that this is going to happen. I'm doomed to fail. I can't accomplish that. You ever felt that way?

I have. Well, what does that cause us to do? What should it cause us to do?

Well, hopefully it helps us to realign a little bit and realize I've got to totally depend on God. It forces us to. The disciples had no way to come up with this much bread. It forced them to rely on Christ. And then the miracle came. You ever thought about it like that? Maybe you've seen that in your life. When you are forced to totally and fully depend on God, who gets the credit when it works out?

God gets all the credit. God gets all the credit. And I think sometimes He's got that – what a divine strategy, maybe we could call it – that, I mean, you see it over and over in the Bible. You see that same scenario play out over and over. And when we're in desperate straits and there's no way out, there's no other options, we can't find any human way to get out of this situation or make it right or get out of this health difficulty or this challenge, we cry out to God. We put our trust and our faith and our hope in Him. And when we are delivered, nobody else can get the credit but God. And Christ was focusing the disciples on that very fact. It doesn't pass over, do that for us. And who gets the credit for bringing us out of sin? Well, God does. God does. And now we have the responsibility to stay sin free. If you want to hold your place here, let's go over to Romans 8 for just a moment.

Romans 8. It's a reminder of the return on investment that God expects.

In fact, today someone reminded me it's April 15th. It's tax day. Oh, boy. I did hear this story about a pizza guy. He opened a small little pizza place. Sure enough, the IRS audited him his very first year. He looked at his tax return. He had reported, Roy, return on investment of $80,000 for the year. The IRS said, no, this isn't possible. He said, just leave me alone. He says, I work like a dog. I put everything in the business. My family helps out. I'm hardly closed at all during the entire year. I got a lousy $80,000 for all of my work, for my entire family. And the agent said, listen, it's not the $80,000 that we're worried about. It's all these deductions. You listed six trips to Bermuda for you and your wife.

Guy thought about it for a moment. He said, I forgot to tell you, I deliver. Here's a return on investment, right?

Well, God expects us to deliver as well. When you look at Romans 8, look at the beginning of the chapter there. Here's our responsibility to do our jobs. He says, there's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. And we've been given that Spirit. We've been baptized. We've been cleaned up at the Passover. He's washed our feet. We are clean when we repent before God. And so He says, stay that way. Stay that way. Verse 2, He says, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Skipping down to verse 9, He says, but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, He is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And so God has given us a job that sometimes seems overwhelming. It seems like we are wandering in the desert sometimes, and that we have the challenge of hanging on to hope. And yet God says, we can have that hope. He's invested in us, and He says we can walk according to the Spirit. And so He says, well, that's what we need to do. He's given us what we need, and so let's accomplish that task. He's given us the resources. In fact, what we need, I think, is what the disciples asked for. Now, it wasn't right here in this story of the breaking of bread and feeding the 5,000, but you know, there was a time when the disciples came to Christ and they said, increase our faith. Increase our faith. I think that's maybe a lesson we could take from this return on investment that God expects of us, that we ask Him to increase our faith. Because when you look at that story, it wasn't just a story about feeding 5,000. That's not just what the story was about. Part of the lesson of that story was opening the disciples' minds, that they could see changing people's lives. I mean, certainly it was an amazing miracle, but maybe even a more powerful miracle was the perspective of the disciples, the ones who were doing the feeding. What do you think their perspective was? Do you think it changed the way that they looked at things? Do you think it helped set their frame of reference that now their vision could be different? Their faith could be expressed through Jesus Christ. Since Christ carried that out, they could have a deeper faith. And certainly it worked. When they were able to see a huge return on investment, they could change their perspective, and their faith could be that much deeper. And it can be the same for us. I think the Days of Unleavened Bread help us to deepen our faith and our trust in God. It helps us to do the work of God. We are the hands, aren't we? Aren't we the feet that accomplish God's will? Aren't we the eyes and all of those parts that do the task?

As we think about that, it makes it very challenging because sometimes life looks like this bread problem. Unleavened Bread is certainly a reminder of that. It seems like the easiest things to spot are the things that we desire, the bad things. There's the donuts, and there's the pretzels, and they're everywhere, aren't they? Maybe you noticed that before. Maybe things you never thought had baking soda in them and sodium bicarbonate. What in the world? It's everywhere!

Yet just because it's everywhere, does that mean we shouldn't fight it? Just because sin is everywhere, does it mean that we don't try to overcome? You see, if we ask God to increase our faith, we have to come to the conclusion that just because something seems impossible—boy, it's going to be impossible to come out of sin. I can't be sin-free. So, oh well, why try?

You see, it's easy to feel that way, but just because something's impossible is an excuse for not trying. Sometimes we may feel that way. Well, if you can't do it, why bother trying? It's not worth the effort. But what would have happened if, well, if Moses had that perspective? The Israelites would still be in Egypt, wouldn't they? How about if Jacob had that same perspective? Well, why bother hanging on to Christ? Why hold on and wrestle? Why do that? Imagine if Joshua felt that way. Jericho would still be standing today. David felt that way. Goliath might still be terrorizing the Israelites. And so, you never know how God can work something out. And so, I think, as a reminder, we can increase our faith and remember the job that goes along with that. Because when we were baptized, we signed on for that. We signed on, and we said we had faith in Jesus Christ. We had faith in His sacrifice. We accepted Him and His sacrifice as our Savior. And as we did that, we know faith tied in with belief, tied in with obedience is something God expects. He expects a return on His investment. And so, we should never have the sense that it's impossible for us to obey God, even though, wow, we may lack what it takes. But that's what the disciples thought. Because there are so many of those passages that say God is faithful to give us whatever we need when we ask. You see, God is great at supplying what is needed. You see, that's another business thing, supply and demand, right? When we ask, God gives it. God supplies it. When the disciples realized they didn't have the means, that it came through Jesus Christ, they were able to accomplish the task. We can too. We can too. We can grow in our faith. We can ask God to increase our faith, especially during the days of Unleavened Bread. You know, as we eat Unleavened Bread, we could be reminded of that. I need to ingest Christ. I need to eat of Him. I need to ask Him to continue to live His life fully in me. I need to ask Him to do that. And as I see all the bad things around me, I can ask God to help me to see what it represents, what it symbolizes, help me to see the sin in myself so that I can overcome that through God the Father and Jesus Christ. I think an easy way is right now, sometimes we'll find ourselves, especially this week, having a little leftover time. You ever find that? It doesn't take that long to eat a matzo, does it? They crumble up pretty quick in our everywhere. You probably end up a little more time, maybe at lunch, maybe in the evening. I think you can increase your faith by reading the Word. Read it and heed it. That's what God's Word is here for, to read it and heed it. I think it's an easy thing to increase faith as we pray and ask Him to intervene in our lives and as we read the Word. If we don't take any time this week to read God's Word, how can we increase our faith?

So God says, faith comes by hearing, hearing the Word of God. In fact, James talked a lot about that. We heed it, we do it, we live it. We're doers of that very Word. And so God certainly can increase our faith. So let's step back during these days of Unleavened Bread and really read and heed the Word and allow God to increase our faith at this very special time of the year.

And as we do that, we can certainly thank God that He is working in our life. God is an amazing God. You see, when He provided the bread, when He provided the fish, He would never say, all right, now everybody, you only get a little piece.

You ever have that happen? It's like getting the candy bars, you know, the fun-sized candy bar. They're not very much fun. They're about that big. That's not a fun size. You see, God didn't provide the fun size, did He? Everything they ate as much as they wanted. We've got a generous God that is willing to pour out everything for it. We've got a God of abundance. He's not just a little God. He is the greatest of all. He is amazing, and He measures back to us far greater than even we can imagine. And I think that's kind of the law of this divine investment, that God pours out abundance on us. And so we should never think, well, we don't have what it takes. We don't have it. Because, wait a second, we can thank God that He is so generous and that He's going to give us whatever we need to fulfill His will. In fact, we see this back in the book of John. If you want to flip back to John, let's notice as the story goes on. Let's notice the story here in John 6, verse 22. Notice how amazing our God is. John 6, verse 22.

It says, on the following day, so right after feeding those 5,000 men, plus women and children were there. It says, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except the one which 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. So they came from Galilee, 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. When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said, Rabbi, when did you come here? So he miraculously ends up on the other side. Jesus answers, verse 26, Most assuredly I say to you, that is the word, Amen. This is absolute fact. This is the truth. I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 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. And so as we begin to understand the amazing lesson, it becomes, I think, a clearer connection with Unleavened Bread, that God has performed a miracle in our lives. And because He's performed this miracle, it is a miracle that should endure, He says, to everlasting life. We've been given the Spirit of God. And so as we look at this, we see this lesson of food. They were looking for physical food. They were looking for a handout. They were looking for a free lunch. But we know there ain't no free lunch. And as we might go without food for a little while, we might feel faint. We might start to get a little weak or a little sleepy. That can happen. And we've, I mean, in a way, we almost start to die. We start that process. If we don't eat it sometime, we begin to realize pretty quickly life is temporary, and we have to eat to stay alive.

And perhaps Christ is leading to this maybe key lesson from feeding the 5,000. Look at verse 47. In verse 47, we have a section of Scripture we read at the Passover. It falls right in line after feeding the 5,000. Christ says again, Amen. Most assuredly, I say to you, He who believes in me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.

Of course, the Jews quarrel among themselves, saying, How can this man give us flesh to eat? They were getting it all mixed up with this miracle that they had seen before. Verse 53, Jesus said, Most assuredly I say to you, Unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

As the living Father sent me, I live because of the Father. So he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.

And so on 11 bread reminds us of this very fact. We partook of the bread and the wine at Passover. Now we continue to feed. But what do we feed on? You see, it's a reminder this whole week, a perfect completion of seven days that we feed, not just on 11 bread. That's just symbolic. That's not the important lesson. Yes, we do that physically, but it better remind us of something spiritual. It better remind us of the return on investment that God expects of us, that we are to eat of Jesus Christ. And we're to eat just like that 5,000 men did, to eat to the full, to be filled up with Jesus Christ. So we can make it our goal to eat of that bread, because that's where eternal life, we have Christ living in us. And more fully and more completely, as we go through day after day after day of unleavened bread, we can be more fully dedicated in every way to be filled with Jesus Christ, because God has provided even more than we need, more than enough to live by Jesus Christ. Unleavened bread reminds us He expects a return on investment because we've been bought and paid by that very bread and wine, the blood and body of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. And so we can fulfill our responsibilities, because God's going to make sure we can. He's going to give us all the resources we need through Jesus Christ. And so we can be ready to accomplish the task at hand and allow the bread of life to fill us and feed us. And then we can feed others as well. And so our faith can grow as we rely more and more on Him. And we can't have the strength as we're strengthened through Jesus Christ. And as we read and as we heed the Word of God, we can face anything and everything that comes. And as we do that, there will be no doubt that by these days of unleavened bread, we will give God a spiritual return on His investment.