What Are You Eating?

The newspaper of Kenya is called The Daily Nation. In an article in The Daily Nation, when we visited there last, said that music is a powerful influence on thought and behavior. Kenya is rapidly changing its culture due to the music that people are listening to. It's more Western music comes in, more of the rap and the rock that just grinds and sort of attracts the youth over there.

It's changing the culture, this article says. All of us know what it is like to ride in a public vehicle and be forcibly exposed to the loud music provided by the driver. Too often it is shameful, vulgar rap songs that are graphically insulting to a person of moral character. I recently asked a driver to switch it off as it was offensive to me. He responded that he needed to play it as a public service. I objected that it served nobody, and all who were riding in the vehicle preferred not to hear it.

He replied that I could get out and pay again to ride in another matatu, but the music would remain on. All aboard averted their eyes to avoid confrontation as the journey continued onwards. That speaks to a certain diet that we can have mentally. It speaks to that which, as she wrote, is a powerful influence on our thought and behavior.

Not just music, but living in this society. And all of the things that permeate it, which you and I are exposed to. What is in your mental diet? What are you absorbing into your mind that impacts your character and influences your thought and behavior, as this person so accurately pointed out? Today we're going to examine various brain foods that affect our thoughts, our intentions, and our decisions that we make every day. The title of the sermon is, What Are You Eating? What are you eating? Of all the foods that are mentioned in the scriptures, bread is the most common.

Bread is a staple among humans. Forget American bread for a moment, because we have something different in this country. It's old, it's cold, it's bagged, it's sliced, it's soft. And it's really not used as a bread, it's used as a platform for other things. Things you spread on it, things you stack on it. And the bread is more of a carrier, it seems.

But let's step back into the old world for a minute. Italian Panet and the French baguette coming hot from the bakery, from the oven. Let's look at Mexican tortillas hot off a grill, or the Indian bread that comes from a pandour oven. And it's wonderfully cooked. Nothing quite smells like that Indian bread called nan. Or the African chapati that, again, is a fried bread. Nothing quite has the smell of an Arabian pita that is coming out puffy and hot. And all of these breads tend to reach out and grab you.

And the smell and the aroma cannot be contained within. It spreads outside and it drifts down the street. And it drags you in almost as a Cinnabon shop would in a mall. Because the smell of fresh, hot bread is almost magical. Italian bread that comes right out of the oven that can be pulled apart, torn in strips, and dipped in an olive oil sauce that has been created and soaked for a while, and marinated with fresh chopped garlic and fresh leaves of sage and rosemary.

Ooh! And some thyme and crushed and left for a week or two just to sit in there and let the... And then you dip the hot bread in that. And pretty soon you're full and you haven't even eaten dinner yet. Bread is a fabulous thing and there's huge lessons that we can learn about bread. God intended us to learn certain lessons from bread.

In Matthew 6, Jesus Christ gave a model outline. This is what we are to do when we pray. It includes the statement, give us this day our daily bread. The Bible also talks about breaking bread because bread traditionally is not sliced. It is broken or torn apart. And as part of any meal, you would tend to reach out and take from a loaf that which you wanted.

You would break it apart. The nan bread that's hot and fluffy, almost too hot to come out. You know, it's used with the saucy Indian dishes and the two just go together so well. The reason why bread is...when it talks about breaking bread, it's talking about a whole meal, but breaking bread is that the bread itself is a central component to the food or to eating. This bread that is used and it is so central. Some people, in fact, can't even eat without bread. It's like, well, may as well not eat if we don't have bread.

I'd like today to look at seven biblical instructions about what we are to eat each day. Of course, I'm using this in a symbolic spiritual sense of the spiritual type of food that we are to eat each day. We need to eat daily just as we need food daily. We need to eat spiritual food daily. And there is nutrition that God is creating for the saints and He intends us to grow up with it, to become strong by it, and to live by this bread.

The first point that I'd like to give you is to get your bread from God. Get your bread from God. This statement from Matthew 6 that says, Give us this day our daily bread, indicates that we are to get it from God. You give us this day our daily bread. He is the source. Let's go to Exodus 16 and verse 4. As the Israelites left Egypt, notice something that took place. The Lord said to Moses, Exodus 16, verse 4, Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you.

God is the source. We need to get it from Him. God says, I will, I will, reign bread from heaven for you. Now, there are other things to eat out in the desert. If you, like me, wander in the desert very much, there's a lot of things out there you could eat. On my last hike, as with a couple of you, and on my way back, I decided to sort of sample some of the culinary delights in the desert. Well, they weren't very culinary and they weren't very delightful. I didn't die from any of them, but I just started to think, you know, God made all these bushes and trees and plants and things out here.

What would they be like if you put them in your mouth? Not so good, it turned out. But God sent them into the wilderness and He gave them what they needed that was good. He gave it to them. And that's an important lesson for us. As it continues, the people shall go out and gather. He didn't just stick it in their mouth. You know, as He could have just made it materialize on the tongue. Oh, num num num. Oh, num num num. He could have just put it in the belly.

They just would have never been hungry. Didn't even have to chew. But He required them to gather it. They had to go out and get their bread from God. It showed a desire on their part. If they didn't want bread from God, you didn't have to go get it. But if you wanted bread from God, you had to get up. Put something on your feet, I guess, and go out and actually pick it up and bring it back.

So the people had to go out and gather a certain quota every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. So even though they may even gather the same amount on the sixth day, it'll be twice as much as they would gather daily. There was a miracle there concerning the Sabbath to where they didn't have to go out and work to bring in that which they would eat the following day. In verse 15, so when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, 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 every man 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. This is a very important lesson for you and me. We need bread. We need it daily. We need to get it from God. It comes from God. In Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 2, Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 2, we read a little more about this manna.

And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble and to test you to know what was in your heart. Whether you would keep his commandments or not. The purpose of the bread wasn't just to fill their tummies. No. Verse 3, So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by physical bread alone. But man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

Jesus quoted that passage in Luke chapter 4 and verse 4, that which he had said to the Israelites as their God, 1500 years previously.

That manna was a teaching tool. It was a way also that God could know where their heart was. Where their heart was.

What is this word that we are to live by? That he said, Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

In John chapter 1 and verse 1, we find that this word is referring to Jesus Christ himself. To the same one who was the God of the Old Testament.

He says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the Father, and the Word was God. He was part of the Elohim family of God.

He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made.

So anything in the universe that has ever existed was created through the one we know as Jesus Christ by the Father. Don't let anyone kid you. Satan didn't get out and create, or the angels didn't recreate, or anything like that. It was all done by Jesus Christ, as it says here.

Without him nothing was made that was made, and in him was life, and the life was the light of men.

So this Word, this Logos, the one who wrote the Word, was the Word, and is the Living Word, is the one by which we are to live.

In John 6, verse 31, we see that this new type of manna is different than the old.

John 6, verse 31, Our fathers ate the manna in the desert.

As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Then 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. True bread comes from heaven, and the first point is, get it from God.

Now there's a lot of other things we could eat, but if we eat what society is feeding us, or what our human nature is feeding us, or what Satan would encourage us to eat, it's not from God. It's not the true bread.

We need to get our bread from God. Our spiritual diet needs to come from God.

Point number two, in order to be fed spiritually, we need to connect with the source of the bread first thing in the morning.

We know where the bread is. That's point number one. Now we need to connect with the source of that bread, God, first thing in the morning.

Prayer is an offering, a daily offering. It's a sacrifice of our time. It's a sacrifice of our thought. It's the first fruits of that which we have for any day.

In Psalm chapter 5 and verse 3, David, who was a man after God's own heart, made this statement, My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord. In the morning I will direct it to you, and I will look up. You know, like giving a tithe. When it's time to tithe, you don't get your paycheck and say, okay, let's see, I've got to pay the rent, I've got to pay the car, I've got to pay the insurance, I need to eat, I need to do this and that. Oh, let's see if there's something left over here for God. See if we can squeeze somehow a 10%. Let's see if we can pay our festival tithe here. If you do that, you've missed the whole thing. Missed the whole point of tithing. You know, tithing is to, first of all, take the holy thing, that which already is God's. You're not giving him anything, it's already his. And to give that to him, perhaps with even a little bit of a offering to it. And to take his holy festival tithe and set that aside. Now, you ask the question, can I cover the rest of my bills with what's left? The same applies to our offerings of praise, our sacrifice of our lips. We begin the day, we give the first of it to God. We don't sort of use up the day and then if there's anything left, say, oh, let's see, do I have any thoughts left? Do I have any energies left? Do I have any focus here? Oh, I think I'll try to connect with the one who feeds me. See if we can have a connection. You know, that's wasted. It's a waste of time in one way when compared to putting it first. So God shouldn't get leftovers. He should get the first fruits. In Psalm 88, verse 13, David also said, But to you I have cried out, O Lord, and in the morning my prayer comes before you. There's something very important about this, very important, and prayer during the rest of the day cannot be like prayer first thing in the morning. It's impossible.

There is a morning prayer, and then there's prayer at other times. But first thing in the morning, it's almost magical in a way, because God created something very unique, and that is a little window of time where the brain is clear and cleansed. I didn't say necessarily alert and bright, but it's cleared and it's cleansed.

A night's sleep has gone on. Various other thoughts and dreams have sort of come through like little scrubbing bubbles, and the next morning you wake up, you may even wonder exactly where you are if you're staying over with somebody. But you have a unique, precious opportunity to give the first of those thoughts to God in prayer, and that is a special, special time.

And that is a special, special time. It's a precious link. It's a precious connection by putting God as the foundation of your thoughts. You then build the rest of your thoughts that day on the foundation of God, on your relationship with God.

If you start a fresh day, then God will be a central part of it. If you start that day with God, He will be part of the first person you see, because you will have just prayed. You'll have been praying for God's will. You've been thinking of godly things and wanting to be a godly person, therefore your interactions with others in the home, at work, the way you do your job. You can continue to add prayers onto it and always be praying. And it just goes together very well all day long. You put God first. He is at the beginning. He becomes a part of every event that unfolds during the day. He is integral to relationships, to people, to events, for the reasons why you're doing whatever you're doing today. But you know when you hurry into the day and you don't include God, you can't sort of stick him back at the first part of the day later. It's impossible. It's like fresh bread. You're either there for the experience or you're not.

You can't go back later when the bread is stale and try to recreate that experience.

It's like slippers in coffee at daybreak. You probably know what I mean. You get up and it's just that magical time of the day, the early light starting to flurry, the first of the birds outside is beginning to chirp. Things are just beginning to awaken. It's quiet. You hear a little traffic that's going to work, but the neighborhood really isn't alive yet. It's just amazing. The first part of sunrise, the steaming coffee first thing in the morning. Too busy this morning? Maybe they do that. Maybe you got up late. Maybe there's something you had to hurry off to do.

Try doing that at your noon break. Run home, put on your PJs, put your slippers on, go sit out on the porch, get yourself some coffee, you know, maybe reheat it in the microwave, and try to relive the magic, you know, of 5 a.m. With all the traffic going by and the guy's cutting their lawns and it just doesn't work, does it? The sun's way up there. It's kind of bright, kind of feels stupid to have done that. You miss the event, you know. Everything and everyone is far into the daytime events and so are you. You can't put God into today's events. You can't sort of run back home and say, okay, I'm going to have a clean mind. I'm not going to think about what my boss told me or what my co-worker said or what the traffic was like or what the news is like or what's on my shopping list or the things that are breaking down or the maintenance I have to do or how I feel.

No, you can't do that. You missed it. God wasn't there. And it's empty. You know what it's like. It's empty. It's a little bit frustrating. Pray later in the day it's better than nothing. That's for sure. It's better than nothing, but you can't go back and make it fresh.

Point number three is eat your bread first thing in the morning.

After you make the connection with the one who has the bread first thing in the morning, eat the bread first thing in the morning. You know, in the old world, bread is baked early in the morning. Staff will get up maybe at three o'clock in the morning, get themselves together, be in the shop at least by 3.30 or 4. Be grinding the grain into the flour. Be making the mix, getting the dough going. The ovens are all firing up and getting heated up. The place is going to open by five, so you're always racing and hurrying. The aroma starts to come out as the stuff starts to bake, and the customers are already waiting before it even comes out of the oven. The doors open, customers stream in, deliveries are made to various other restaurants and morning businesses, other places. There's an aroma about bread when it comes off. It's a unique thing. It's got a texture to it that you can't describe. It's soft and yet it's spongy.

The flavor just bursts out of bread. The crust is only crusty on the outside. It's called crusty because it's crunchy crusty, but the inside is just steaming. Oh, it's so soft, so wonderful. It's an incredible taste. People in the old world hurry through the streets in the morning to capture that bread at the right time and to get it home.

I've purchased two loaves of hot garlic bread to bring home and only arrived home with one.

You know, you just can't do that to a person.

You know, in Germany, the pastries, the hot apple strudels, when they come out of the little strudel place. I don't know what they call it, but wow! They're not these soggy little flumpy, wet, cold things that you get elsewhere. When they're hot and they come steaming out, the various fruit strudels they have, I love the apple strudel. You just have to be there for that thing. And that is like God's Word. You know, the Bible is free. It's free. It's you know, the Bible is food for the soul. The soul just means the life. It's food for the life that God has placed within us. It's food for the life that he is creating within us.

In Psalm 143, in verse 8, he says, Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for in you do I trust.

Cause me to know the way in which I should walk in the morning, for I lift up my life to you.

You see, when the Bible study goes into the mind first, first thing in the morning, before the newspaper, before the internet searches, before the emails, before all the clutter that goes into the brain, when God's Word goes into our mind first, it provides another layer of the foundation for the day's activities. It provides us with a proverb in which to think and ponder and apply a passage or something about the kingdom and the fact that we're not of this world, but we are related to a different country. And then we begin to build every email, every other thing based on God's Word. And it changes us. It motivates us.

Cause me to know the way in which I should walk. We need to know daily what way we should walk and be influenced by this Word. Otherwise, we will be walking some other way.

The mind then would become geared towards godliness, and God's Word would be applied to everything. And that's very important. When the Bible study gets in first, it becomes, again, that foundation to the day's thoughts, the day's deeds. We apply it from the start. You see, the mind is geared towards godliness. Everything can be applied then to being godly. And you have a good godly day, just as he said. You'll know the way that you should walk today.

But we get in a hurry, and we get on into the day, and later in the day, and you know, then we say, well, now I think I'll have some bread. I think I'll have some of God's Word.

Well, you know, it's like eating bread later in the day. It's like seeking bread later in the day.

You know, you head down to the bakery. What do you find? Well, the ovens are all off. They're cold. See, the ovens only run in the morning in the old world bakeries. They're not going to run an oven in the heat of the day. Besides that, all the bread's been baked, and it's done.

The magic is gone. Oh, there's still some bread around. There's bread up on the shelves.

It's cold. It's a little bit hard. You miss the event. You can say, well, I still have a loaf of bread. That's fine. Here's a loaf of bread. Take it on home, or go ahead and eat it. That's fine.

Kind of like Bible study at night. You know, you miss the event if you're studying your Bible study at night, and you're doing your Bible study at night. Really, because what are you going to apply it to? You know, you've gone the whole day, and now you're going to study the Bible only to sleep, and it's gone. It's gone. I know you think you'll remember it, but you can't possibly fill your day with what you haven't read until the night. It can't guide you. It can't influence your thoughts and deeds. It wasn't a foundation to what you thought or what you did. It's better than nothing. I mean, stale donuts at dinner are better than donuts at all, right?

If they have chocolate and peanuts on them, anyway, you can kind of eat off the top and pitch the rest. But eat the bread first thing in the morning, and it will guide and strengthen you and really make your day good. The fourth point is to get new bread every day.

Jesus said, give us this day our daily bread. Yesterday's bread, while it may be fine, is not prominently in our mind. And each day we need to be fed with new bread.

It's daily bread. We are to get each day. Let's go to Exodus 16 and verse 19.

Exodus 16, beginning in verse 19.

And Moses said, let no one leave any of this manna until morning. Bread was only good for one day. Notwithstanding, they did not heed Moses, but some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank.

It's an interesting thing about bread. It really is only good during one day.

Yesterday's bread that's left out becomes what we call stale. Stale usually is a term that refers to the humidity content of something. If you have something that's supposed to crack and crunch, like a chip or a cracker, if it gets humidity in it and goes a little wimpy, it's stale.

If bread, which you hope is soft in the middle, has dried out during the night, or the crust has been put in a plastic bag and the whole thing has kind of gone in. Stale is something wrong with it. It's stale bread. It toughens the texture.

The flavor and the aroma aren't there. It's useless to a bread lover, except for duck food.

Ducks don't know any better. They'll eat it. So we need to get our bread fresh every day. Daily bread.

Boy number five. Get real bread. Now, there's many substitutes for fresh bread, like bread in America, for example. We hardly know what real bread is like in this country, and there's a reason for that. It's a commercial thing, but we get it sliced in plastic bags. If you really want to keep it fresh, put it in the fridge. There's no aroma to it. You can freeze it and take it out again. It's fairly tasteless. Humidity probably isn't going to hurt it at all, because it's already very humid. But, you know, it's kind of like pastries here in this country.

They're pretty disgusting. You can get them in the freezer section, or even worse, you can get them in a little cardboard box with a window you look in there, with a shelf life of a couple of weeks, and they're just nasty.

American breads are kind of like saints who only study their Bibles before going to sleep. They're clueless because they don't know any better. And our bread, we think we have bread. We don't know any better, oftentimes. Why? Well, because the U.S. economy is based on mass commercialism. And you really can't get rich running a bakery, grinding fresh wheat, and having wonderful smelling stuff come out of the oven. You need to chain, mass produce, merchandise it, corporately grind it, and ship it, and have it already pre-packaged and ready to flash out at a bunch of people who are waiting for it. And so, consequently, do you know of a bakery? Does anybody know of a bakery? Does anybody know of a pasteria or whatever they call, where you get pastries? You know, it's interesting. Do you know of a miller? Do you know somewhere you could take your grain if you don't have the equipment yourself and have it ground to make fresh bread today? It's nothing like fresh bread or fresh cornmeal. Out of corn, dried corn, it is ground and then made into cornbread. You would take whatever you thought was cornmeal before and throw it in the trash if you could experience the difference. It is just fabulous. Do you have a milk cow or goats to milk? You know, we don't know what fresh is. We have pre-ground pepper, of all things. And all these things that are pre-ground are oxidized. We have pre-ground meat, pre-chopped garlic that's cooked because you can make a fortune on the stuff, putting it in a jar, pre-ground coffee, dried ground herbs. When was the last time you used fresh basil or some of the other fresh thyme? Fresh, parsley, fresh. We even do the chives they put on potatoes. Sometimes you get dried ones out of a jar, pre-chopped, kind of like paper come out. Nasty things. We have reconstituted, freeze-dried orange juice. Go figure. Pasteurized, homogenized milk. Pre-ground almost everything.

Our foods are prepared. They're refrigerated. They're canned. They're instant. They're ready to use. They're imitations of the real thing. This whole thing about just like grandma's, homemade, you know, that's a lie if you ever heard it. So in the rest of the world, people will grind grains often. They will bake real bread every day. They'll create real pastries using real fruit, real creams. You'll see people, bikes and subways, going to work, bread sticking out of a backpack, a briefcase. It's the real deal, and we just don't know what we're missing. Let me say this.

Have you read a good book lately? Seen a good TV show? We think we are also the purveyors of entertainment, it's called. Analyze the content of most of the works that are out there. It would kind of be like if you're reading a book, you want to read a non-fiction book. Here's one, Storming Heaven, A Social History of America. Sounds good. True story. Weaving an astonishing tapestry of science, psychology, politics, the arts, and counterculture. What are we reading about?

Reading about the weird society that's around us and the history of it. What is there? What is real food for the soul? What is food for life? Not much.

Might be reading some other books, you know, but what are they? They're going to be about society in one way or another. What about fantasy, novels of escape, romance novels, or there's Harry Potter, the adolescent wizard. I mean, a bunch of fake stuff.

Film. Film based basically on violence, greed, lust, theft, murder, sin with humor, sin with mystery, sin with intrigue, and oh, it has plots and twists at the end.

What is that? You know, is that what we can grow and live on? Or television, you know, which is a bunch of godless tripe. They're continually out trying to outdo. We outdo last season by doing something more dramatic, more whatever, to try to suck people into watching it so they can sell advertising. That's what television is about. Get the more astonishing news, which isn't even news, but the events that crazy people do on this earth, and get people to try to come and watch so they can sell more advertising. In Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 20, woe to those who call evil good. I asked the question, have you read a good book lately? Seen a good show lately? It's hard to find things that are good. And God says, woe to those who call evil good. And good evil. You know, what's interesting, calling evil good is what the society is all about. And if you don't think that certain things in this evil world are good, then there's something phobic about you. You know, you need to get fixed. But on the same vein, people who have these strange things that they're calling evil will turn around and say to a person who is doing good that that's wrong. There's something really wrong with you, you know, and make you feel guilty about doing the things that God said are fine for humans to do. And eating things that God said are fine for humans to eat. And activities and godly things.

Woe to those who get it mixed up. Because they're eating something that's not doing well. So why do you spin? I'm sorry. What are those who call evil good and good evil who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter? I don't know about you, but sometimes I'll go into one of these video shops if I want to rent a movie. And I don't know what's in there. It's any good. So I'll go ask a person. Try to find somebody who's looking wholesome behind the desk. Not too many tattoos, not too punched up, maybe a certain age, especially a woman.

Okay, so pick her out, go up there. Any good movies out? Oh yes! This one was exciting, exhilarating. This one is really good. You'll love this one. Your wife will love this one. Oh, okay, here's the movie. Let me tell you. Those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

You know, I don't know anybody online or in the human form that is not in the God's Church that can recommend a decent movie. You know, it's just you kind of find out what twist the person has.

So anyway, I keep telling my wife every time we see a movie, I say, see dear, there are no good movies. So let's quit trying.

In Isaiah 55 in verse 2, God says, Why do you spend money for what is not bread?

The point of this number five is to get real bread. Why do you spend money for that which isn't real bread?

And your wages for what does not satisfy?

You know, the point is get real bread going on. Listen carefully to me and eat what is not bread.

It is good. And let your life delight itself in abundance.

Incline your ear and come to me and you shall live.

The real bread is not some of the things that sound like bread, look like bread necessarily. You know, it's not that white puffy loaf up there that's been sitting on the shelf for a week. It's all sliced up and sort of got the brownish glow on the outside like it has a crust, but it doesn't have a crust because it's not crunchy. That supposedly is, you know, good for you because it says so right on the outside. You know, it's been shot full of all kinds of artificial vitamins and things. But, you know, it's not going to have the aroma, it's not going to have the texture, it's not going to satisfy. Is this going to be some crummy little piece of something that actually crummy is a good word because it does have crumbs.

And it's going to let you down. That kind of stuff makes my joints hurt, actually, when I eat it for some reason. But he says, come and hear me. Let's look in John chapter 6 and verse 32 and see what Jesus said. This, come to me, come to God. Here's what he says about himself. John 6 verse 32. Then Jesus said to them, My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. The true bread. This is real stuff. Verse 33. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. So we see here the analogy that was used with the manna in the wilderness. It was a physical type of that which now comes into us. If we desire God to be there, if we pray, if we absorb, if we read and study and we're in sync with Him, He is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. He lives in us and He puts life in us. The library at Alexandria, before it burned, was full of books. There are various book institutions. The Library of Congress is probably one of the largest libraries in the world.

If you think of all the books that are in the world, how many of those books are true? I mean, absolute truth and fact. How many of them are godly truth? I'll bet you could go through pretty much the whole Library of Congress and toss most all the books out of there.

Because there's one source of truth, and it's the word, it's the logos, it's Christ, it's the written word of God. And it says, let every man be a liar, but let God be true.

This is the source of truth, and whenever we go somewhere else, we can be inspired, encouraged, you can get some scientific facts, but if you want real truth, you know, real truth is sitting on your lap right now. And it's an amazing thing. In verse 35, we see that truth comes from one source. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. There's for godliness. There's for the spiritual bread is. One source, one source only. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. In verse 40, this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life. That's the goal, the purpose of the spiritual bread of eating the word of God, of having this daily diet, of building it into our lives, is so that we can have everlasting life. And he said, I will raise him up at the last day. We're going to become spirit at the last day, at the last trump. It's going to be real, true, eternal life. And that is the whole point of eating godly food. Point number six, you are what you eat. We really, truly are what we eat spiritually, mentally. The Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years. They ate only bread from heaven. They had one source of food.

Exodus 1635 states that the Israelites ate manna 40 years until they came to a land that was settled. They ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan. And when they crossed the Jordan, the manna ceased. 40 years of bread given by the one who had become Jesus the Christ. Their diet was untainted by anything else. However, society offers a lot of other things. And if we eat other things, again, we're going to be a product of what we eat. Society pushes choices, temptations, alternate philosophies at us. We bump into many things that are off our diet, as you might say. There's a little quip that people sometimes use. Well, I may not be able to order, but I can still read the menu. Well, that's not right, because that is desiring to say, well, I don't really have a taste for godliness. I don't really want godliness, but that which I would like to do, I can fantasize about. Well, we live in this society, and what do we choose to think? What do we choose to put in? What kind of food are we really ingesting? We are what we eat, and therefore we really are either godly or ungodly, depending on what's going into our mind.

If you want to eat bread, the Logos, Christ, let me tell you, it's an acquired taste.

It's not for everybody. It is something that human nature, it doesn't taste good to human nature.

I don't know how many of you liked broccoli when you were a kid, or some of the other more noxious weeds that mothers will put at you and call a salad. But I would have to say that broccoli has been an acquired taste. Now, in my older years, I'm almost addicted to this stuff.

Can't imagine eating a meal in a dinner time without broccoli. My wife and I will often say, well, do we have broccoli? We have plenty of broccoli. We're at the store. Do we have enough broccoli? I still scratch my head. Broccoli? How come we like broccoli?

Let me say it's an acquired taste, at least it was to me an acquired taste.

And that's sort of like godliness. As a child, I also didn't like godliness a whole lot. I couldn't stand the Sabbath. I was kind of like some of my grandkids. They're like, I'm bored. Saturday nights were pretty exciting, but the Sabbaths were an acquired taste, let's say.

When we look at this bread, it may not be something that we automatically just say, oh yeah, bring it on, this bread from heaven. Because human nature dislikes it. Just like in ancient times, some who ate manna rejected it. They didn't like it. They said, oh, this isn't for me. I want to eat something else. In Numbers 11, in verse 4, we see these individuals mentioned, and it was not pointing actually to the Israelites, but to the mixed multitude that came out with them. Numbers 11, verse 4, Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving.

See, the manna just didn't do it. So the children of Israel also wept again and said, who will give us meat to eat? So, see, somebody got them going, and now they all wanted something else. The bread from heaven was not what they wanted. We remember the sin, and we want that. In other words, we remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our whole being has dried up. There is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes. It's an acquired taste because it's sort of a family thing.

Which father do we really ascribe to? Which one do we really follow? Are we really about God as our Father and His nature and His way? Or are we somehow stuck in this church by guilt and requirement? But our real Father, the one that really pulls our chain, as it were, He is Satan the devil! Let's notice the context of give us this day. Let's go now to Matthew 6 in verse 11 and see part of this model prayer. It's important to understand what He's saying, what He's talking about when He says, give us this day our daily bread. It's not a complete sentence. It doesn't end there. It's actually referring to something more than just that statement. It says, give us this day our daily bread. There is a period there. There's no punctuation. I have no way of knowing if that was the end of the statement. But give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts or our sins. That's interesting. Look at what it's in combination with as we go along here. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us because sin is fresh every day just like bread.

Sin is fresh. It needs bread in order for us to work against the sin and not be filled with something else that is appealing to us. If we're only left with one choice, we'll take the sin every time. But if we have bread from heaven available, we can, with God's help, eat that instead. But going on, deliver us from the evil one and the context is today. So when we look at this, what he's telling us is the bread is daily, the sin is daily, and we need to be delivered from Satan today. And we're to pray that every day. We're to be praying about these things every day. They all go together. We are what we eat, and we need to be actively having a link with God first off, putting on the armor of God, of the faith, the truth, the gospel. We need to fight each day against Satan the devil, and we need to be ingesting God as we make our choices thought by thought, deed by deed. This is like the two trees. There's bread from God and bread from Satan. There's bread from, there's fruit from God and there's fruit from Satan. Which one do you want?

Oh, I don't want that fruit of the Holy Spirit, human nature says. I don't want the tree of life. I don't want that fruit off of that tree, but look over here. This tree from Satan, this knowledge of good and evil, that one looks good to me. Well, there are daily pressures, there are daily choices, and there's daily food available. We are to get our minds straight in the morning and ask God to forgive us our sins the previous day, to fill us with His bread, and to keep us from the temptations that will come to us from our nature and from Satan.

The result is daily you become what you eat, and God will eventually sort out the godly from the profane. We see in Revelation 22, in verse 14, that there is this sorting coming.

In the 12th verse, He said, Behold, I'm coming quickly, and my reward is with me to give everyone according to His work. This isn't some final thing when you die. Somebody gets up and says, Well, let's remember Joe or Sally. Were they good overall, or were they not so good overall? Well, we kind of like Joe or Sally, so we think they were good overall. No, it's not about this.

He's coming to give to each of us according to our work, and when do we work? We work every day.

Our life is a sum of those choices we've made on a daily basis.

Blessed, verse 14, are those who do His commandments every day, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city of New Jerusalem.

But here's the separation. People have also been eating other things, and they've become not godly, but ungodly. And outside are the so-called dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practice a lie. We are what we eat, and we truly will be sorted out according to what we have become.

The seventh point is, eat bread and grow up.

Eat bread and grow up.

There's an ad about bread where this little boy is supposed to eat this white trash, and he's supposed to be strong and healthy with big bones and all that stuff. It's hogwash. But we are intended to not stay the same, but actually to eat this bread of life and to grow. Food provides substance to grow on, to mature, to reach a full stature.

In Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 16, referring to this manna that was eaten in the wilderness, Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 16, God gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. That's what it's about. It's not about the daily thing. It's not about just perpetuating us as we are, but so that in the end, in the judgment, it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me. But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce. Produce. Not to stay the same. It's all about producing. You know, the parable that Christ gave in Matthew 13 and verse 3 about the sower in the soil, the sower in the seed it's often referred to, it's about what the seeds ate. You think about it. It's all about what the seeds were eating. Here we are as the seeds. What are we eating?

What's becoming of us? Are we growing up? Matthew 13 and verse 3 through 9.

Then he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, A sower went out to sow.

And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them.

That seed didn't eat anything. It was still seed. Some fell on stony places where they didn't have much earth, and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. They weren't eating enough, in other words. There was soil there, and the seeds were sort of gobbling it up, but there just wasn't much that they were eating. And what can you do if you just nibble a little bit now and then? Well, it turns out when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. You have to eat and grow up, otherwise you won't survive.

And some fell among thorns, and they tried to eat among thorns. But you know what?

The thorns had eaten all the dirt, and there wasn't any dirt for them.

They went where there was no food. They chose to be among things that were not godly, and there was no real food there.

But others fell on good ground, and ate and ate and ate. Those little seeds just chomped away, and they ate a lot of dirt, and they yielded a crop. That's what we're to do. We're to feel, to fall on good ground. Here is the good ground. We're to surround ourselves with godliness and godly people, and we're to eat. Eat godliness. Eat God's Word, and grow and yield a crop some hundred times bigger than what they started out to be. Some 60, some 30. You might not think that you've grown a hundred times, but I guarantee you've grown a lot more than that. When you go back to when you were just a little speck in your mother's womb to what you are now, you've really put on some growth, and that's a good thing. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 15. Concerning this growth that we are to put on, Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 15. 15 through 16. But speaking the truth, we know the source of truth, and we're to have that come out of us. It's talking about the church. Speaking of the truth, may grow up, grow up in all things, and to him who is the head Christ. We're not to come to the church to stay good. We're not to come to the church to stay holy, to remain. No, we're to come here to grow up into him who is the head, Jesus Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which each part does its share. It causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. And that, brethren, is the magic of fresh bread right there. All of that works together. The hot bread in the morning with prayer and Bible study and steaming coffee and the early light and the birds. It's yummy. It's just a special, special time. And if you begin that way and you start and continue that way each day, then we are absorbing those nutrients spiritually that we need, that God is trying to feed us.

In conclusion, today we've reviewed two forms of spiritual food. One is nourishing, health promoting. It's also tasty once you get a taste for it. It can just almost make you crave it.

The other is attractive. It's empty and it's harmful. And you won't grow at all by it.

Jesus tells us to ask the Father, give us, you give us this day our daily bread. So what are you eating? What are you allowing into your daily mental diet? And what is it turning you into? I'd like to close by reading John 6, verses 57 and 58. Again, more words here from Jesus Christ, the true bread. John 6, beginning in verse 57. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. He who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the Word of God. He was the logos. He is living in us. He will motivate, inspire, and saturate our thoughts if we will allow him to.

And we can eat him as it were by symbolism. He who feeds on me will live. That's ultimately living forever, and also your day will just be amazingly better. Verse 58, 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. Christ's bread is all about life. It is tasty. It is nourishing. It's filling. And it produces godly growth.

So get it daily, get it fresh, and get it often.