John 6:1-15 “Bread of Life”

[0:00] You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama. Our passion is to experience and express grace. Join us.

[0:12] All right, if you would just fast forward to the benediction in your bulletin, we'll just kind of go on and get out of here. Thank you. That was great.

[0:24] Wow. What a blessing. Let me say a prayer for us before we look at the word together today. Father Jesus, thank you so much for this morning.

[0:35] Thank you for your word. Thank you for miracles. The greatest of all being you. And I thank you for your Holy Spirit, which you promise will be here and ask you to be here now and work in our hearts, work in our lives.

[0:49] Now I pray in the name of Christ Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. So it's good to be with you again. Remember, Will is in India. He is slated to come back this Saturday.

[1:02] And he's going to be teaching at the Bible College this week, so we can keep praying for him. And he's doing really well. So, but I'm privileged to be able to preach again today from the book of John.

[1:15] As we get started, one of the things you may not know about me is that I love to write songs. And I'm always, the way God's wired me, I'm always thinking about melodies in my head.

[1:28] And in fact, lyrics, ideas. In my phone, there's like just countless blurbs of little melodies, ideas that are like the seeds of, you know, I wake up with it in my head and I'll record it.

[1:40] And then one day maybe that'll turn into a song or something. And then I also love to talk to people. I love people. And I also love to talk to people, especially about God.

[1:52] And I've always existed though in this little bit of tension, not knowing how all of those worlds combine. And one day, many years ago, I asked God, why do I have all of these desires?

[2:06] To love people, to play music, and I'm working in full-time ministry. And so I committed to doing nothing but just listening to him. And so I asked him and said, listen, tomorrow, I just want to listen.

[2:18] Would you just tell me about more about who I am? Because I needed clarity about the mystery of me. And maybe some of you have dealt with that, the mystery of yourself.

[2:32] And why have you made me the way that you've made me, God? Help me understand the me, the shell you've put me in, and the way that I think. What am I supposed to do with all that?

[2:43] Can you just help me understand that mystery? Well, maybe that resonates with you, but today the world that we live in is also fascinated with mystery.

[2:54] And they're always looking to find answers. Last week I mentioned a TV show that follows a lucrative real estate businessman. He's purchased a large ranch in Utah.

[3:06] It's a 500-acre site, previously owned by the government, and the site of purported paranormal and UFO-related activities. And the series follows this team of scientists and investigators and skeptics, and they've been brought to this ranch to investigate the reports by testing them scientifically.

[3:28] And one of the things that they've observed recently now are objects that seem to multiply and appear out of nothing. They're there one second, and they're gone the next.

[3:38] And then one object morphs into another one, and then it disappears. And they theorize that they might be watching something shift between dimensions. And the mystery drives them to look for more answers, and that's what makes the TV show great, too.

[3:55] There's another popular TV show that you may watch. It's called Loki, and it's part of the Marvel comic book universe. And the TV show follows a guy named Loki who's considered a trickster god.

[4:09] And he's known for being neither fully good nor fully evil. And his main aim is to do nothing but create chaos. So in the show, he's lost his powers for a while, and he's caught in these different time dimensions.

[4:25] And he's constantly slipping in and out of them. And he's trying to find the answers to make it all stop. The mystery. Now, what's interesting to me is that our culture loves to look into things like that, like the TV show and the Loki show.

[4:41] But if you bring up a biblical miracle, it is a showstopper, okay? Conversation killer many times. And take, for example, Moses parting the Red Seas.

[4:56] God coming down and living in a golden ark that provides powers to win battles. Later dwelling in a temple, God himself that's constructed by man.

[5:10] Then men led by God who predict the future. Jesus being born of a virgin, resurrection from the dead. And don't forget that after that, Jesus just flew into the clouds after giving us what's known as the Great Commission.

[5:29] Our God taking a human body to himself, yet entering into our time from eternity. And that same God does miracles, just like the one that we will read about today.

[5:45] We're okay with that stuff, talking about it, being on TV, keeping it in a place where I can control it. But when it spills over into reality, it gets a little bit harder to talk about. Well, hopefully today we can discuss this, at least one of these miracles and bring it into our practical reality.

[6:02] So we're going to be looking at John 6, verses 1 through 15. And we'll start just by reading, setting the scene. And let's read verses 1 through 7 first.

[6:14] After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.

[6:26] Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?

[6:42] And he said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.

[6:54] So Jesus has gone to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. It's also known as the Sea of Tiberias. And there's a large crowd following him.

[7:06] Okay? And why are they following him? Mostly because of the miracles that he's been performing on people who were sick. So Jesus goes up to the top of the mountain with his disciples, and he looks out.

[7:17] Now this is important. Hold on to this. It's Passover time. Okay? John, the author, is hoping that we're going to make a connection here. Because at Passover, if you remember, the Jews would celebrate that God had set his people Israel free from slavery in Egypt through various different things they would do.

[7:36] And then he led them through the wilderness to the promised land. Now how did he feed them when they were in the wilderness? Anybody remember? Just yell it out. Manna.

[7:47] Manna. Okay. Yes. Bread from heaven. All right? Now hold on to that thought. Okay? So Jesus looks up, and he sees this huge crowd coming towards him.

[8:02] And he looks over at one of his disciples, Philip, and he asks, where are we going to be buying bread to feed all these people? And do you think that Jesus really didn't know? No.

[8:12] It says it. It tells us that he said this to test him. And what's he doing here? He's giving Philip and the disciples a chance to work out their faith.

[8:25] Right? Maybe you feel like that sometimes. So Philip responds, well, it would take 200 days worth of paychecks to buy enough bread for all these people to eat. Now what I love here is that Jesus sees all these people, and he's thinking about taking care of them.

[8:43] He doesn't say, what are we going to do with this nuisance? Look at all of these snotty-nosed, germ-bearing people. He says, no. What are we going to do to feed these people?

[8:55] And you better believe that they weren't all Christians. They were not saying the right things. They did not know their Bible verses. They did not go to church or Bible studies.

[9:08] They were people who were wanting answers about mysteries. And they were wanting clarity. And they were wanting facts. And Jesus didn't turn them away. And if he didn't turn them away, he's not going to turn you away or me away.

[9:24] They were just trying to figure out who they are. So we go on to the miracle. It's in verses 8 through 13.

[9:34] Let's read this. One of his disciples, Andrew Simon, Peter's brother, said to him. One of his disciples, Andrew Simon, Peter's brother, said to him, There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.

[9:50] But what are they for so many? Jesus said, have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down about 5,000 in number.

[10:01] And Jesus then took the loaves. And when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost.

[10:17] So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. Okay, so after Philip answers, then Peter's brother, Andrew, speaks up.

[10:30] And he says, well, there's a boy in the crowd who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that's nothing. Now, I don't know about you, but when I think about bread, typically my brain goes to this.

[10:44] Side note, if you've not eaten at the baking test in Huntsville off Holmes Avenue, it is incredible. And that's where that picture is from. She's a former scientist. She looks a lot like Heather Morris, by the way.

[10:57] They could be sisters. And she's just started a bakery. And it's incredible. Has nothing to do with the passage. But that's what I think of when I think of bread. But the boy that Andrew is talking about here, he would have been a poor child.

[11:13] And barley was associated as the bread. It was the bread of the poor. Okay. And the fish would have probably been like two little dried up sardines preserved.

[11:23] Remember, they didn't have refrigerators, so everything had to be treated like beef jerky. All right. And it probably would have been more like little biscuit cookies of the five. And so this is the best I could find online.

[11:35] I don't, you know, whatever. But trying to give you the idea. So what does Jesus do? Well, let's be honest. It sounds like the only person who had any lunch was a little kid.

[11:48] And the idea is let's steal his lunch. Okay. That's really what went down. That's what the disciples came up with. We don't have any money. Let's take this kid's lunch. So Andrew says, let's take his lunch.

[12:02] And then Jesus goes along with it. Imagine the look on their faces, right? Especially Andrew's when Jesus agrees to this. Okay. And then verse 10 tells you that he has them all sit down.

[12:16] But wait, there's more from the book of Mark. Okay. We get more information about the sit down. He commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass.

[12:28] So they sat down in groups by hundreds and by fifties. You see what's going on here? Jesus is starting a grace group ministry. Okay. You see this?

[12:39] And a connect hour luncheon. Right there in the Bible. So the text says then that they sat down and the men sat down about 5,000 in number according to verse 10.

[12:55] Now, realistically, it was about 15,000 to 20,000 people. It's easy to look at that and think 5,000. Now, why is that? You may not realize that in that time they counted the men of the families.

[13:07] And in reality, there are women and children too, which is, we know, because they're stealing the little boys' lunch. And then Jesus takes the barley loaves. He looks up into heaven. He gives thanks.

[13:18] And then he feeds all these grace groups. So what happened there? It's a miracle. It's an absolute miracle. Now, I'm going to give you a working, very long, wordy definition of miracle.

[13:32] And then we're going to look at something not so wordy. But this is from Louis Burkhoff. And he says this, a miracle is a supernatural work of God. That is a work which is accomplished without the mediation of secondary causes.

[13:46] If God sometimes apparently uses secondary causes in the production of miracles, he employs them in an unusual way. So that the work is, after all, supernatural. Some regard miracles as impossible because they involve a violation of the laws of nature.

[14:03] But this is a mistake. The so-called laws of nature merely represent God's usual method of working. And the fact that God generally works according to a definite order does not mean that he cannot depart from this order and cannot, without violating or disturbing it, bring about unusual results.

[14:22] Even man can lift up his hand, throw a ball into the air in spite of the law of gravitation and without in any way disturbing its operation. Surely this is not impossible for the omnipotent God.

[14:37] The miracles of the Bible are means of revelation. Okay, so some say that miracles are when God works outside of the way things are meant to be.

[14:51] But consider this. In reality, it could be that through miracles, God is temporarily pushing pause on this broken world to let us get a glimpse of the way things are meant to be and will be in the restored creation.

[15:08] So Jesus is showing you what heaven is like, where there's healing, there's restoration, there's abundance. Right? So maybe it's not, maybe it's that we're living in the unnatural and we see the natural.

[15:22] Because sin was not how this world was intended to be. We're just so used to living in it. When we see a non-sinful representation of life, it sticks out, doesn't it?

[15:34] Okay, if you, I'm going to go now with the lesser intellectual piece, Minecraft. Okay? Does anyone in here play Minecraft?

[15:44] Minecraft? Okay, Minecraft is a video game. And there's two modes. There's creative mode and there's survival mode. And if you're in survival mode like this, you've got to kind of get archaic and you've got to get like different stones and things.

[15:59] And you're trying to just survive from these people that try to come kill you at nighttime. Okay? And that's what's going on there. But there's also a mode called creative mode. In creative mode, you have everything at your disposal and you can fly around and create anything ever.

[16:15] And you have everything. You basically are endless. And you can fly and you'll see the guy here in just a second. There's this little, tiny little dot dude.

[16:27] See him? So that's what you look like. Now imagine if you are in survival mode and you see that happening in the game. That's what Jesus was like around here. We live in survival mode.

[16:39] He came into survival mode. But he's always in creative mode. He just chooses to live in survival mode with us, for us, to die for us, to go back to heaven, to make things wonderful again.

[16:54] So. If you see though, it's easier, hopefully it's a little easier way to understand miracles. So. So here though, in this, in this miracle, we're getting a glimpse of God's unfathomable power.

[17:12] Okay. Now consider this verse from Ephesians 119. Says right there that you may know what is the hope to which he's called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints?

[17:25] And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe? Which is all seen when he worked in Christ and raised him from the dead.

[17:37] So Paul is praying there that we would know the immeasurable greatness of God's power. The Greek phrase for that is huperbalo megathos dunameos.

[17:48] It's like saying hyper ballistic, megatonic dynamite of God. Okay. That's God's power. Consider this quote by Tim Keller.

[18:00] Think about this. A nuclear warhead is a thousandth of the power of a hurricane. And yet the Bible says the Lord sits enthroned over the hurricane. Psalm 29. A hurricane is just a billionth of the power of just an eruption on the surface of the sun.

[18:15] Which is just a small star. And the Bible says God scatters stars like sand. Then of course it's just a small sun. It's nothing compared to the power of a supernova.

[18:27] A millionth of the power of a supernova. And the supernova is just one of the infinite number of points of power in the universe. So what is the power of God? Is it a million universes?

[18:38] No. Paul says he's beyond, beyond. He's greater than great. So Jesus lets us see his power in action.

[18:50] If he can do this with a poor boy's lunch, imagine what he can do with you. If you offer yourself to him in your weakness, in your insignificance.

[19:02] The same God who created the world out of nothing, ex nihilo, creates something here overflowing, okay, from what is brought to him in faith.

[19:15] So manna, you remember, was just enough for their daily needs and it would spoil after that. Here, verse 13 tells us that there's leftovers, right?

[19:25] Twelve baskets full. He's the Lord of the feast. He gives us even more than our daily bread. But we just don't need to be asking for all of our stuff to be filled up all the time.

[19:38] That's underneath all this, right? That's why the Lord's Prayer says, give us this day our daily bread. He gives you more. But we don't need to desire the consumption piece so much.

[19:50] It's about the Jesus, God, Lord of the feast piece, okay? So let's continue here with the response. It may be a little shocking at the end there.

[20:05] You may not expect this. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who's to come into the world, perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king.

[20:16] Jesus did the Jesus thing and he withdrew again to a mountain by himself. Right? When everybody wanted to make him king, they wanted to give him a book deal at this moment.

[20:27] They wanted to send him on tour to talk everywhere. And what did he do? He said, no, no, no. Bye-bye. He walked off. He pulled away.

[20:40] So why did they respond this way? Well, they had been looking for the king. You know, the Jews for a long time. And remember, this is around Passover.

[20:51] Told you how to do that. So they would have been celebrating God's deliverance of his people out of Egypt and his provision for them in the wilderness with that bread from heaven, okay? And those present would have been looking for this sign.

[21:04] And they would have found it fulfilled. There's an intertestament. It's not in your Bible. It's an intertestamentary text. So even outside the Bible, there's a text that said, in those days, the Messiah will appear and feed them with bread from on high.

[21:21] This would have been a historical document. They also would have been circulated and known about. And they would have seen this fulfilled in Jesus. So the Jews had been waiting for the Messiah, remember, and this is why they wanted to make him king.

[21:34] Yet Jesus withdraws. You remember the people wanting to make him king to go overtake the Roman authorities. All right? They misunderstood Jesus' kingship.

[21:46] First, it's spiritual. Before he's going to return to earth on the clouds, ruling in that megatonic dynamite power forever in the new heavens and the new earth.

[21:58] Remember, Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. So he's not going to let them make him king of this world until he brings his kingdom to this world and recreates everything.

[22:10] Okay? Now, why does all of this matter? Right? As we discussed last week, worship without witness is not worship.

[22:23] We don't bear witness about the things that God does in our lives. We're missing one of the big reasons that he's created us and put us on earth. To bear witness to his glory. Much like his creation does around us.

[22:36] We are that creation. Special creation. And when we witness the power of God, though, something like this miracle, and we don't worship God, yet we just come back for us.

[22:49] Oh, give me more of that thing. We aren't doing what he wants. We're missing that. So in the same way that worship without witness is not worship, witness without worship isn't witness.

[23:03] But this is how it all comes together. When we just come to him for bread, we miss the point. Okay? Remember the miracle. All miracles are meant to give revelation.

[23:14] And this was meant to give revelation of this is God to be worshiped. Do you have a relationship with the bread from heaven or do you just eat his bread?

[23:27] Do you go to him for life or just for things? It matters because when we bring our lives to Jesus, he gives us greater life to bring.

[23:37] And what is that life he gives us to bring? Him. When we worship God, he gives us the Holy Spirit. And then we go into the world and we take that life to others.

[23:49] We point to Jesus. Okay? And the miracles are meant to point to that truth that he is who he says he is. And we take it everywhere to everyone. Last week I challenged you, just start with three people.

[24:02] Who are three people you can pray for in your life where God has taken you where you live daily? That you can start trying to bear witness about God.

[24:14] Kids, this is you. Adults, this is you. Everywhere we go, we are in an orbit. He's put you in an orbit. He's put you there for a reason. To shine his glory. And one of the reasons we don't experience God the way that we want to is because so many times we just come to him for miracles.

[24:31] We just come to him as a means to our end. I need this. I'm going to pray. I'm going to go to church. I'm going to study. I'm going to do my Bible studies. Give me this.

[24:42] You'll know when you're doing that when you get mad at him when he doesn't do the things that you want. That's one of the telltale signs. I had that happen like last week and I had to go repent of it.

[24:56] But every miracle has meaning. And here's where Jesus explains the meaning of this miracle. Here's where the gospel is. Okay. Jesus said to them, this is later.

[25:07] Right. So I'm jumping ahead. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

[25:18] But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

[25:29] For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me. That I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day.

[25:42] For this is the will of my Father. That everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day.

[25:54] So this miracle was meant to be a revelation of this truth here. That Christ would die, be raised again. And if you look to him he will raise you up on the last day. Until then we have bread to take into this world.

[26:07] To people. It's not about us going and saying give me, give me. It's about us becoming bakers. And taking that bread out to other people and saying hey. I want to share with you what's been given to me.

[26:20] Our purpose too is to do the will of the one who sends us. And bring all that we have to Jesus. Doesn't matter how small. And he will multiply it and use it to feed his sheep.

[26:30] If you love me, feed my sheep. But that problem is so many times we go to God only want the miracle. But he promises to take what we have and do so much more.

[26:43] There's an evangelist. I don't know a lot about him. But I came across his video. His name is Nick Vucicic. Vucicic. It's hard to say.

[26:54] He was born though with a condition called Tetra Amelia Syndrome. And that's a disorder characterized by the absence of arms and legs.

[27:05] I'm going to give you that heads up before I show this video. He was bullied at school his whole life for this. And at one point he attempted suicide.

[27:16] But was saved. And he became a believer. His family, his dad's actually a minister. And at age 17 he started giving inspirational talks at churches and schools.

[27:27] And listen to what he has to say about miracles. So many of us go to God and say, God if you're a God of love then why is there pain? And why don't you change my circumstance?

[27:39] Can God give me arms and legs? Sure. My dad died of cancer. Could God have healed my dad of cancer? There are so many stories about people who blessed God and they went through hell on earth.

[27:52] When you go through the ups and downs, you will cry. You will go through desperation and difficult times. It doesn't mean that when you believe in God everything's okay.

[28:03] But I'll tell you right now that God is with you and He doesn't always change your circumstance. But when He doesn't change your circumstance, He's still there to heal your heart and hold you and carry you when you cannot walk.

[28:15] And listen to me. If God doesn't give you a miracle, He has sent you a limbless man to tell you this. When you don't get a miracle, God can still use you to be a miracle for someone else.

[28:32] That's powerful. What's the greatest miracle of all? Jesus Christ. God on earth.

[28:43] Born of a virgin. Died on the cross. Raised three days later. If you believe in Him, you will be raised too. What are you doing with that bread?

[28:55] Where are you taking that bread? If He's not giving you the miracle you want, He might just be calling you to be the miracle. We are walking miracles of salvation.

[29:07] We are temples of the Holy Spirit. So, one day many years ago, I told you, I asked God, why do I have all of these desires in my head?

[29:17] To love people, to play music. I'm working in full-time ministry. I committed to do nothing but listen that next day. And I just did. I showed up and I just listened.

[29:28] I didn't tell anybody. And it was crazy. So, it started by checking my email. And I got an email from a guy in Florida named Ali Abasi. And he said, Derek, I'm in a Muslim family.

[29:42] Happened to be online. I came across your website. I listened to a sound clip of your song. God spoke to my heart. And I committed my life to Jesus.

[29:54] So, of course, I was completely skeptical. I reached out to him. And sure enough, he had become a Christian. So, I tried to help him find a church. That would have been enough.

[30:09] But shortly after that, one of the people I work with just walked by. And they came up to me and they said, hey, do you have a second? And I was with some, they said, I said, sure. I said, I was with some people eating the other day.

[30:21] And there was a guy there. And he found out that we worked together. And he made me promise to tell you something. And I don't know why I didn't remember to tell you until now. I go, I do. Carry on.

[30:32] They said, he made me promise to tell you that his dad was dying in the hospital. And your CD was the only thing that kept him going. Woo. Oh, Derek, there's something else.

[30:47] Somebody told me to. And I was meeting one of our junior high students from the group. That goes here. And did you know that she tried to kill herself? I said, no.

[30:58] Yeah, it was the craziest story. But she said she cried out to God right before she did. And she saw a flyer from one of your shows on her wall. And remember that there are people who care for her, that God loves her.

[31:11] And she didn't do it. So she went and asked for help. Now she has a baby. And is married. Then another person came up to me. This is all the same day.

[31:22] And said, hey, I've been meaning to tell you something. But I just now remembered. Do you have a second? The same thing. And I said, yes. And I was just freaked out at this point.

[31:34] They said, did you know that? And I won't use their name. So-and-so was arrested for shoplifting a few weeks ago. And this was a child from the local Christian school. Sort of a poster child of Christianity.

[31:47] Pillar father in the church. And I said, no. They said, yeah. He was stealing adult DVDs from Best Buy. He was addicted to pornography.

[32:00] He was never told anybody. He was so ashamed after getting caught that he decided that he would just, the only way out is to take his life. So he wrote a note. And right before going through with it, he said, God, I just want to ask you to bring to mind anyone besides my parents, who loved me.

[32:23] And he says he brought to mind your music and the Bible study that you drove into every week for dinner. And then all these other people in ministry started coming to his mind.

[32:40] And he didn't do it. And he says that's the first night that he actually gave his life to Jesus now. So I later followed up with him too. It's like, hey, did you just kind of leave that out at Bible study?

[32:51] Like, can we talk about this, man? So the point is this. When we bring our lives to Jesus, he gives us greater life to bring.

[33:03] And the greatest miracle of all is the miracle of salvation, of God coming to earth and saving us. It's really Jesus. How might he use your life to bring the bread of heaven and the bread of life to a world full of mystery and chaos that is so very, very hungry?

[33:25] That's the question I want to leave you with. Because they're hungering for him. And that is where we find our meaning when we take that bread to those in our lives. Christian, non-Christian, human being.

[33:39] Okay? So, praise Jesus. Let's pray. Father, I love you. I thank you for the Holy Spirit and getting to remember all of these things.

[33:51] And I thank you that we now get to take bread together, Lord Jesus. The bread of heaven through this meal. It's in Jesus' name I pray.

[34:03] Amen. Amen. Well, we get an opportunity now to have this meal together. And as a minister in the name of Christ, I'm going to be helping serve that alongside our elders.

[34:18] But this table is for everybody who believes in Jesus, who are good standing members of church, who have been baptized.

[34:29] I don't know where you are with that, but if you believe in Jesus, this meal is for you. But if you don't, it's not. And here's why. This is a better time for you to contemplate.

[34:40] Contemplate through prayer. Contemplate through just in your own mind questions that you may have. This meal is reserved for believers. This is the bread of heaven giving food to those who believe that he is that bread of heaven.

[34:52] It says we would eat and drink judgment on ourself if we take this in vain. So if that's you, there's no shame. In fact, you're welcome. You're right where you need to be. But don't feel obligated to come up here out of peer pressure and take this meal.

[35:04] Think on these things. Talk about these things later. Watch. Even come up with us. You're welcome. We're going to take the meal together. Our ushers will come forward.

[35:15] I'll pray then for you ushers, and then you can come forward. But they're going to just escort you to the front and to the back. Now, there's gluten-free bread here in the back and on the sides.

[35:27] There's also wine and there's juice. The wine is in the purple cups. The juice is going to be in the clear cups. Okay? And so you can make your own decision on what you would take there.

[35:39] But the night, I'll read this. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed, he took bread, and then he broke it.

[35:52] And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And the same way he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

[36:05] Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat and drink, eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

[36:15] Let me pray for this meal. Lord Jesus, we need your bread from heaven. We need your life. Lord, and we come to you to do this in remembrance of you.

[36:28] And we know it's more than a memorial, Lord Jesus, because you work here. Your spirit is actually continuing to transform. And even through this meal, you minister to us. And you remind us of the tangible reminder that you're real.

[36:39] And that bread that you made that we read about today is real. And that bread ultimately is you. So thank you for that. I pray you bless these elements from their common use to their sacred purposes right now.

[36:53] Minister to our hearts and souls. We give this to you in faith and ask you to meet with us in Christ's holy name. Amen. For more information, visit us online at southwood.org.

[37:05] Thank you.