Harvest Pointe Methodist Church

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If you have your bibles, turn to mark 938.

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You know, it's really great I get to see my little cousin up here singing. I didn't even know she could sing until today.

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Please stand for the reading of the gospel. Mark 938. John said to Jesus, teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us. But Jesus said, do not stop him, for no one who does the deed of power in my name will soon be able to do evil afterward. Whoever is not against us is for us.

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For truly, I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose the reward. If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me. It would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.

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And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than to have 2ft and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than have two eyes and to be thrown into hell where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched. For everyone will be salted with fire.

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Salt is good. But if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus, thank you for your word.

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We pray today that your holy spirit would come among us and fill our hearts. Give us understanding, Lord, in your name I pray. Amen. You may be seated.

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If you were here last week, then you may remember that my father preached about the disciples and their selfishness. They were arguing about who was the greatest. In today's text, we see the same thing. The disciples tell Jesus that someone was casting out demons in his name. He started to think, man, you know, that's great.

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Jesus ministry is spreading and it's growing, and people are using his name to heal people. But they told him to stop. And they told this man that he needed to stop casting out demons in Jesus name. Why? The disciples say it was because he was not following them.

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Notice they said, the man was not following us. The disciples thought that they were also ones to follow, that they were in some secret club. That nobody could be a part of except through them. They obviously thought pretty highly of themselves because they had just finished arguing about who was the greatest, but they were wrong. Ultimately, Jesus is the one we followed.

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We must trust in and follow Jesus himself. It is in his name that there is power. It was his name that the unidentified disciple invoked, but because he didn't go through the disciples, because they didn't know about him, because it wasn't the formal structure that they thought was set up, he was not apart as far as they were concerned. If we go back to earlier in the chapter, we can find another reason that they told him to stop. The disciples themselves had just failed to cast out a demon in the same chapter.

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Imagine you're trying to do something at your job and you just try and you try and you try and you just cannot get it. And then somebody comes up and they just do it immediately without training. I mean, I don't know about you, but I don't think that that would make me like them very much. The disciples, they felt the same way in their minds. This random guy had just shown up and showed them up.

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Their ego was hurt because they got selfish. Jesus responds by telling them to not tell anyone using his name for good to stop. Becaus

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That's where we're going to be this morning.

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I don't sing on microphone often, but last week, Jackson, my oldest son, who works back there in the sound booth, he told me that I accidentally had my mic on for the last song last week. So there you go. I serenaded you along with the. With the crew. So.

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All right, turn with me to Mark, chapter eight. Because I'm a little self conscious of that sometimes. Because Jack, one time he told me when I leddehe a song, he said, well, he said, that was good, but let me know what four keys you're going to be in next time. You know which. Hey, look, I am no singer.

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That's why we've got other people doing that kind of thing. Hey, stand with me once you've found mark, chapter nine. And we're going to read starting with verse 30. Notice these words here. This is the word of God.

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Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the son of man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him. And three days after being killed, he will rise again. But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. Then they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, what were you arguing about on the way?

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But they were silent. For on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all. Then he took a little child and put it among them. And taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

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And whoever welcomes me welcomes not me, but the one who sentence me. Lord Jesus, thank you for your holy word. We pray now that the same holy spirit who inspired these words for our benefit would be among us and enlighten us and call us to himself, and then transform us and empower us, Lord, to go and be about your business. We pray this would happen today in this room. In your name, Jesus.

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Amen. And you can be seated.

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Well, we come to this text here, and maybe it's one you've read before, maybe not. Maybe it's your first time hearing it. Jesus prophesies something here. And of course, we've got a little scuffle with the disciples. And then he brings a little child among them in front of them, which is a fairly famous story in Jesus life, where he does this but sometimes for us modern readers, some things are lost on us because we don't really think in terms of the first century world, all right?

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And so if you may, let's just dial it back for just a second and think in terms of the first century and read it in such a way that we're back in ancient times, right? And if we do, we'll see that this little child being brought before them is quite shocking. In fact, in the ancient world, children were of no avail. What were they going to do, okay? Especially little children, all right?

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They can't produce anything. They're not going to help your bottom dollar. They're not going to spend any money. And so for the ancient world also, they died often, okay? Most kids didn't make it past one year old, and even the ones who made it past that, it was even less, okay?

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And then most people, you know, shoot back in, what was it? I think, like 1800, the average life of a male was like 43 years old. That's my age. That was like normal to be dead by that point, okay? Like, statistically speaking.

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Again, now we've elongated that all the way into seventies. Now, like a male is like 74 or something. But not in the ancient world. Not an ancient. You have to remember that little things would kill them, okay?

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Things that, like, for instance, my wife had an appendectomy once, r

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For us here, let's turn to the gospel according to Mark, chapter eight. So the Gospel of Mark, chapter eight. And once you found mark eight, go ahead and stand for our gospel reading this morning.

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As you know, and as we've been saying, we've been in year, or we are in year b, which deals with Mark. So, A, Matthew, B, Mark C, Luke. Right. Makes sense, doesn't it? With the gospel of John interspersed through all three of the years.

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Okay, so it's a three year cycle of scripture readings. And today the readings have already been great. But catch this one. This is one of the most important, if not the most important section within the gospel of Mark because it is a turning point. There's a pivot here.

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This is Mark, chapter eight. And we'll start reading with verse 27. Notice these words here this morning. This is the word of God. Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi.

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And on the way, he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am? And they answered him. John the Baptist and others, Elijah and still others. One of the prophets, he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered him, you are messiah, you are Christ.

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That's the terminology there. And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. Then he began to teach them that the son of man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed. And after three days, rise again. He said all this quite openly, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

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But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me, Satan, for you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things. He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it. And those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life or their soul?

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Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of them, the Son of man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels. Lord, we thank you for this reading from your holy word. Would you now, O Holy Spirit, come and enlighten us and teach us? Just as Jesus taught these first disciples, we pray in your name.

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Amen. And you can be seated.

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Today's readings have a thread, and they often do. If you look through the Old Testament into the psalm and into the epistle reading or the New Testament reading, and then into the gospel, there's often a thread that will hold these four readings together. One of those threads is the idea of teaching. If you can remember, in the Isaiah reading, we're being taught about the suffering servant, as Derek pointed out, this suffering messiah. Okay, keep that in mind.

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The psalm reading also speaks of teaching and teaching us again with its understanding of how God is actually full of compassion, and that when we call upon him, that he hears us and that he's merciful, and we must call upon him as if we were the student and he the teacher, not vice versa. Never vice versa. In fact, he helps me. Okay. And then finally, in the James reading, of course, it begins with many of you shouldn't be teachers, because teachers are held at a stricter judgment than everyone else.

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It's a warning for teachers, and all teachers ought to heed that warning. And ultimately, we all are teachers to some degree, aren't we? We really are. Whether we're teaching our children by our actions, day in, day out, and day out, or we're teac

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According to Mark, chapter seven. The gospel according to Mark, chapter seven. And you may remember that last week we also were in mark seven. And we're actually picking up right where we left off from our reading from the previous week here. So notice these words.

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And let's see here. We're starting with verse 24. So, 724 of Mark. Go ahead and stand when you found that we always stand for our gospel reading out of honor to God's holy word. Hear these words this morning.

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Powerful, powerful story. I really can't wait to share this with you. This is one of my favorite ones right here. All right, you ready? Here we go.

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Jesus set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice. But a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now, the woman was a gentile of syrophoenician origin.

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She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs. But she answered him, sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. Then he said to her, for saying that, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.

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So she went home, found the child lying on the bed of and the demon gone. Then he entered from the region of Tyre and went by the way of Sidon towards the sea of Galilee. In the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech. And they begged him to lay his hand on him.

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He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears. And he spat and touched his tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Ephphatha, that is, be opened. And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then jesus ordered them to tell no one.

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But the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, he has done everything well. He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak. Lord Jesus, thank you for your holy word. Would you make it holy to us in this place today and apply it so that we might be those who not only are hearers of your word, but doers also?

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We pray in your most holy name. Amen. And you can be seated.

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Well, have you ever read that text? That's an interesting to come across, right? I mean, like, what in the world is going on in this text? What an odd sort of thing to read this morning. In both of these stories we kind of have, if you noticed here, part one that deals with the syrophoenician woman and then part two that deals with the deaf guy who obviously then has a speech impediment because of his deafness.

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And, man, it's kind of weird how both of these miracles happen, isn't it? I mean, what an odd thing for Jesus to say to this woman upon her request for her daughter to be exorcised from this demon, to say, well, actually it's not proper for the food. That's for the children to be given to the dogs. And because of what she says, then Jesus says, hey, that right there, that was it. Now your daughter is healed.

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We're thinking, I don't know what's going on. Okay. And then in the second story, of course, we kind of run into the same thing. Jesus takes this guy away from everybody, which normally he does the miracles publicly. If they ask publicly, he does them publicly.

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But now he takes him away in private and then he gives him a wet Willie. I don't know what to call it. I mean, right? I mean, that's what it sounds like to me. Upon my first reading was I was thinking, holy Harold, this guy, he's got his hand in his ear, he's spitting, an

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The gospel according to Mark, chapter seven. The gospel according to Mark, chapter seven.

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If you're new with us today, you may have noticed that we have several readings that we do together, and that happens each and every Sunday. And it's a good reminder for all of us that these are called, actually, lectionary readings, just kind of a fancy word, three year cycle of readings. The gospel will come from Matthew in year A, mark in year b, which is the year we're in now, and then Luke in year C, and then you have various Old Testament readings, acts readings, epistle readings, also psalm readings. Okay? So every time that we get together, we're gonna read from the Old Testament or acts, and then we're gonna read from a psalm, and we're also gonna hear a new testament reading and then a gospel reading.

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That's every Sunday. All right. And interestingly, that's every Sunday around the world, people are also doing this. So Catholics, Orthodox, Presbyterians, Lutherans, some of what we call more your high church churches and denominations, they use this as well as many, many different protestant groups. And so on any given Sunday, you could be worshiping in Los Angeles or in India.

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And it's the same readings for everybody, which is kind of neat as the church this huge, you know, two plus billion people somewhere, estimated 2.5 billion right now, 2.3 billion christians around the world that are meeting with these various readings. The church has given us these readings. And by the time you make, like, in other words, if you came all three years for every Sunday, 52 times three, whatever that is, I'll leave it to the. To the mathematicians. I can't do that in my head.

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If you were to make all of those, you would have read most of the Bible, like, out loud in church. Isn't that kind of cool? I think that's kind of cool. You know, like, we actually get most of the bulk of the Bible, the big stories, all of this, and some interesting stories, too, that we kind of skip over sometimes. And so if you would join with me, this is maybe one of those interesting stories here.

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Join with me as we stand for our gospel reading this morning, found here in the Gospel according to St. Mark, chapter seven. I'm reading from the NRSV here. And our pew bibles, by the way, are esv. Just to note that, notice these words here.

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When the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them for the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders. And they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it. And there are also many other traditions that they observe. The washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles. So the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?

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He said to them, Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites. As it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship me. Teaching human precepts as doctrines. You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.

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And then we're dropping down here to 14 and 15, and then drop down again to 21 and 23. Then he called the crowd again and said to them, listen to me, all of you, and understand there's nothing outside a person that by going in can defile. But the things that come out are what defile. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come. Fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.

00:04:28

All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. Lord Jesus,

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The gospel according to Mark, chapter seven. The gospel according to Mark, chapter seven.

00:00:12

If you're new with us today, you may have noticed that we have several readings that we do together, and that happens each and every Sunday. And it's a good reminder for all of us that these are called, actually, lectionary readings, just kind of a fancy word, three year cycle of readings. The gospel will come from Matthew in year A, mark in year b, which is the year we're in now, and then Luke in year C, and then you have various Old Testament readings, acts readings, epistle readings, also psalm readings. Okay? So every time that we get together, we're gonna read from the Old Testament or acts, and then we're gonna read from a psalm, and we're also gonna hear a new testament reading and then a gospel reading.

00:00:57

That's every Sunday. All right. And interestingly, that's every Sunday around the world, people are also doing this. So Catholics, Orthodox, Presbyterians, Lutherans, some of what we call more your high church churches and denominations, they use this as well as many, many different protestant groups. And so on any given Sunday, you could be worshiping in Los Angeles or in India.

00:01:24

And it's the same readings for everybody, which is kind of neat as the church this huge, you know, two plus billion people somewhere, estimated 2.5 billion right now, 2.3 billion christians around the world that are meeting with these various readings. The church has given us these readings. And by the time you make, like, in other words, if you came all three years for every Sunday, 52 times three, whatever that is, I'll leave it to the. To the mathematicians. I can't do that in my head.

00:01:53

If you were to make all of those, you would have read most of the Bible, like, out loud in church. Isn't that kind of cool? I think that's kind of cool. You know, like, we actually get most of the bulk of the Bible, the big stories, all of this, and some interesting stories, too, that we kind of skip over sometimes. And so if you would join with me, this is maybe one of those interesting stories here.

00:02:13

Join with me as we stand for our gospel reading this morning, found here in the Gospel according to St. Mark, chapter seven. I'm reading from the NRSV here. And our pew bibles, by the way, are esv. Just to note that, notice these words here.

00:02:30

When the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them for the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders. And they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it. And there are also many other traditions that they observe. The washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles. So the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?

00:03:17

He said to them, Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites. As it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship me. Teaching human precepts as doctrines. You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.

00:03:41

And then we're dropping down here to 14 and 15, and then drop down again to 21 and 23. Then he called the crowd again and said to them, listen to me, all of you, and understand there's nothing outside a person that by going in can defile. But the things that come out are what defile. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come. Fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.

00:04:28

All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. Lord Jesus,

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Pastor is gone. He will be here next week, and he will be finishing up John chapter six. We've been in John six for quite a while, and it is such a great passage, and it's very paramount to our faith. And so we're going to be diving into some deep stuff this morning. Not sure if I'm the guy qualified to do this, but the lectionary fell on this week, so here we are.

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So we will be wading through together as a church. All right? So turn with me to John chapter six. And when you get there, please stand for the gospel reading. We're gonna be going through 51 through 58.

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Get there myself here. This is the word of God, Jesus speaking. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

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The Jews then dispute it among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him, as the living father sent me.

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And I live because of the father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word.

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Some of the passages are pretty tough. It was pretty tough for the Jews back then, and it's tough for us today. Some of your passages, Lord. So I pray that you would give us ears to hear, eyes to see, Lord, and that then we would leave this place ready to act on your behalf. We ask this in the name of Jesus.

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Amen. You may be seated. Whew, man, did any that sort of rub you the wrong way a little bit? I mean, that's some strong language. What if somebody that we know said, hey, if you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood, you ain't got no part of it.

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You don't have life in you. You're like, that guy's crazy. And so let's dive into this. Now, the Bible talks a lot about bread, and we're going to sort of go through this a little insight into the dag family. We always like to play dag trivia at the house, where I'll bring up some historical thing and ask the kids, hey, what is this?

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Or whatever. Well, they all know that casts rates restaurants based off their bread. So it's not the quality of the steak. It doesn't matter the steak. It doesn't matter the salmon or the pork chop.

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She doesn't care about that. That isn't dessert we leave there. And she's like, man, that was a great restaurant. Was it? That bread was so good.

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And you're just like, I mean, the bread was free, you know, that steak was a lot of money, dude. And, like, you're focusing on that bread, like, wow. But that's just some insight into the dag family. So y'all get a part of dag trivia, and she rates restaurants by bread. Well, the Bible thinks a lot about bread as well.

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And so if you remember a youth in the nineties or you remember that, you remember these Bible drills. Does anybody remember this? The Bible drills? Yeah. Where you have a competition, they would say Ephesians, chapter four, verse one.

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And you'd have to. Or you had to go, you know, Hosea? And you're like, oh, boy, that was a tough one, you know? And so we're gonna do a little bit of a Bible drill this morning. So if you have your Bible and you want to follow along, let's do it.

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Cause we're gonna go a little bit of a tour of what the Bible says about bread. Now, interestingly, the&

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