You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
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Well, thank you seems a little simple.
It is an absolute pleasure and an honor to be with all of you again.
Been here quite a few times, as a matter of fact, and so this feels a little bit like
coming to see old friends.
Apparently, older than I thought before I...
No, if you brought a Bible this morning, would you turn with me to John chapter 6?
John chapter 6, while you're turning or flipping through your various and sundry eye devices
to locate that.
I will say thank you to you for your support of Reformed University Fellowship.
RUF is, as we want to say in every conceivable context which we can,
is your ministry going to college campuses.
And one of the great things about being in, I'm going to go ahead and name the number,
my 22nd year with RUF, is you get a chance to sort of see the way in which God has moved.
When my wife, actually when I moved to Memphis in 1994 to start working with RUF,
RUF at Memphis was the 26th RUF in the entire country.
And this coming year, this fall, we opened our 140th campus across the country.
And so it's a joy to see how God has been at work on college campuses.
And you made that possible.
And so everywhere we go, we try to say thank you.
There's nothing better than coming to a church and being able to look up on the music.
And I believe our second song had a musician that was involved in it named Trevor Morgan.
I'm assuming that's Trevor Morgan from Nashville.
Is that who Trevor is that we're talking about?
Trevor was an RUF guy back from the University of Alabama with Billy Joseph.
And there's nothing better than seeing how RUF has sort of left some fingerprints
out across our denomination.
We like to say to people, we are tomorrow's PCA.
So come and be a part of what we're doing in RUF.
And they gave me that chance to give a shameless commercial.
So John chapter 6, beginning in verse 52.
What an insane passage we're getting ready to look at this morning.
The Jews then disputed 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 in 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, 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 our fathers ate and died.
Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.
The Bible says that grass withers and flowers fade away,
but the word of our God will go on forever.
I'm assuming in a town loaded with engineers,
it's the one thing that I get to ask anyone who says they're from Huntsville.
Oh, so are your parents engineers?
Why, they are. How did you know?
But I'm assuming in a place like this,
you found yourself in a context when you're trying to explain to someone something
that you actually know very well.
You have gained a measure of expertise over an area,
whether it be through time or effort or engagement in the topic.
You get it.
You understand this topic very well,
but there's someone you're speaking to who doesn't.
They don't have the knowledge that you have.
Maybe they're much younger than you, whatever.
You're searching for some way in which you can illustrate this thing well.
But oftentimes the topic is hard.
My wife and I were watching what I guarantee are in one of my wife's top five movies,
that great sort of modern classic Hoosiers.
Gene Hackman returns to the small town in Indiana to lead the small high school back to great glory
and great championships.
But there's a favorite scene there in the midst of one of the sort of semi-final games
where the coach is trying desperately to get one of these young guys to step up his game in terms of his defense.
You remember the scene where he walks in and goes,
look, that guy on the inside is killing us.
You've got to stick close to him.
But he looks at the kid, and you know what he's doing?
He's doing this.
He's chewing gum.
And so immediately Gene Hackman looks at him and says,
think about chewing gum.
He goes, I want you so close to this guy
that I want you to know exactly what kind of chewing gum he's chewing by the end of the game.
Well, of course, as they go through the game,
the guy actually finally, that's an image that works for him.
It clicks, and he suddenly defends him well.
But of course, in the midst of his defense, he fouls out.
And towards the end of the game, as he comes down and sits on the bench,
Gene Hackman sort of looks down at him,
and he looks back at him and says,
it was Dentine.
In other words, what Gene Hackman understood was,
I know the game of basketball so well
that I know what I've got to get out of you,
but I can't sit here and give you some sort of technical explanation for it.
Let me seize on something that you do know.
Okay, that's basketball.
What if you wanted to try to illustrate to someone
what it means to be connected intimately
in the way in which God wants to be connected to his people intimately
through the abiding spiritual presence of his son Jesus?
For those of you that are the budding theologians out there,
it's the topic of union with Christ.
We say this all the time.
We talk about having a personal relationship with Jesus.
We talk about sort of the meaningfulness and the depth of intimacy
that God's followers have with him through Jesus and with Jesus.
But how do you explain that?
How do you illustrate for someone something that profound,
something that sublime in practical ways,
what that really means?
And what you find in the New Testament is you don't get
what I'm guessing a bunch of engineers might like,
which is a technical manual.
I would like a philosophical paper that I can just sort of sit and look
and discern and pull apart and see.
No, what Jesus does is he goes into things
that he knows we know about every single day.
Simple things like the relationship of a branch to a vine.
He says that's a little bit like the union that I want to have with you,
the way in which a sort of branch hangs to the middle of the tree.
He'll go on to say that there's something about
this mysterious relationship of marriage
that in the midst of I want you to see
the kind of intimacy that I want to have with you.
In another place he'll say,
I want you to realize how a cornerstone
sort of fits in with the rest of the building.
In other words, he doesn't sit down and explain
and give us a technical manual
of what it means to be connected to him so deeply.
But what he gives us is an analogy.
And in our passage,
he gives us the analogy of food,
of the simplest of activities
and yet extraordinarily profound activities of food.
More specifically,
meal time.
Jesus says,
if you really want to know
what it's like to be deeply
and meaningfully connected to me,
I want you to watch what happens
when you as a human being
who are in need of regular sustenance and food
sit down to eat a meal together.
My guess is in a room like this,
you can probably look back and realize
amazing things happen over meals.
Do they not?
Friends are made.
News gets shared.
Stories get told.
Battles get fought.
Divorces announced.
Grievances aired.
Think about the adventures
that have happened in your life alone
surrounding the issue of a meal.
And yet Jesus says,
no, but here,
if you're going to know
what it means
to have the kind of connection
that I'm wanting to bring to you,
I want you to see
and think about the way you eat.
Ha ha!
He said nervously.
So I want to look at this passage
through three lenses.
Number one,
I want to consider the significance
of the meal in the Bible.
Number two,
I want to look at the problem
with our eating
and what it is that comes out of us
when we consider it.
And then thirdly and finally,
I want to look at what it means
to savor Jesus,
to savor Him
as the ultimate of meal.
So the first thing,
that there is a significance
in mealtime.
There was a number of years ago
when I was meeting
with a young person.
This was even before
I knew Will.
Can you imagine?
That far back.
I was meeting with a young man
who was in the youth group
that I was serving in
who had had a disastrous year.
In the year prior to that time,
he had lost his father
to a tragic and brief illness.
And in the wake of that illness,
he had had an older brother
attempt suicide
while he was trying to deal
with the grief of it all.
You didn't have to be
a professional counselor
to know that this kid
probably needed to talk to somebody.
And yet every time we spoke to him,
we always got the exact same thing.
Have you ever known people
that are sort of hyper okay?
Hey, how are things going?
Oh, it's great.
Everything's fine.
It's just good.
Everything's good.
When all the while,
we all knew,
well, okay,
we can say whatever's going on,
but I know fine
is probably not a very good
description of it.
And so one night
while giving this kid
a ride home after a youth group,
I decided in no sort of
pre-decided way
to stop off
at the little
Baskin Robbins.
Do we have Baskin Robbins here?
The ice cream places?
And so we got him.
It took me forever
to convince him
that I told him
to get whatever he wanted to get.
And he ended up
getting sort of a large
brownie sundae.
You know,
with the brownie at the bottom
and the three different ice cream
and the ice cream flavors on it
and the whipped cream
and he even got a cherry on top.
And so we climbed back
in our car
for about the 10 to 15 minute
ride home
while he went to work
on this sundae.
And I'm telling you,
the most amazing thing happened.
The kid cracked like a nut.
And with every spoonful,
with every spoonful
that went in,
more of what was going on
in his inner world
came out.
It was just like,
and then when Dad passed away,
I didn't understand
what was going on.
And then my brother
got all sad.
It was amazing.
Amazing to watch happen.
Well, years later,
I end up having
a professional therapist
explain to me
that there's actually
a principle of transference.
That when someone
has so much anxiety
and sort of restlessness
going on inside of them
that sometimes it helps
to have a focal point
of a thing
to transfer that stuff onto
in order to process
the things they're thinking of.
And I suddenly began
to realize that food
was kind of a big deal.
That it sort of came
with its own power.
And I also realized
that if you look
throughout the New Testament,
actually throughout
the entire Bible,
it's amazing
the big stuff
that happens around meals.
Have you ever thought
about this?
Our first parents
fall into sin
over a meal.
We find out later on
that God institutes
a very special meal
for his people
to remember their escape
from Egypt.
The Passover, right?
Later on,
we hit Jesus
sort of coming to earth.
God incarnate
coming to earth
where one commentator said
that you either have Jesus
coming on his way
to being at
or leaving from
a meal
in almost every scene
of his life
in his New Testament ministry.
Jesus attended
a lot of meals.
And a lot of stuff
happened around those meals.
Of course,
at the very end of his life,
he gets what we're going
to celebrate this morning.
He gives his people
a last supper
to remember him by.
And that's not enough.
We know that all human history
is going to culminate
in what?
The marriage
supper of the Lamb.
You start to get the sense
that the Bible
sees our eating,
our meal times,
as a whole lot more
than the mere
instinctual animal way
in which we put fuel in
and get energy out.
I don't know.
There's something spiritual
happening around our food
and around our meals.
Before we go to the next point,
why would Jesus choose this
just for a second?
Why would Jesus choose
mealtime to be one
of the places
where we see our relationship
with him so clearly?
I think,
interestingly enough,
I would guess to say
it's because in the midst
of eating,
it's one of the few
human activities
where you're actually
supposed to take something
inside of you.
You can get weirded out
if you think about this
too long,
about what it's like
to eat.
You eat.
I'm going to take this.
I'm going to stick it
inside of my body.
I'm going to chew on it.
I'm going to consume it.
I'm going to swallow it
so that when it finally
gets inside of me,
it'll unleash potential.
Power will come
once the food
makes it inside.
I think that's what
Jesus is saying.
He's saying,
I want to be
the kind of relationship
in your life
that crawls up
inside of you.
And once inside,
once in that key
life-giving place
of your soul,
I will release
power out from you
that you would not
have had
were you not
in relationship
with me.
Meaning,
for our purposes,
having a relationship
with Jesus
resists
superficiality.
There really is no way
to have a casual
relationship with Jesus.
There is no way
to sort of
have him
as an appendage,
a spoke on the wheel
of my life,
as it were.
He sort of muscles
his way in,
does he not?
Some of you are in the midst
of his muscling
his way in.
That the more that you
try to keep him
on the periphery
of your life,
the less he works
and the more difficult
he becomes.
But the further
that he gets in,
the more that he tends
to sort of
rearrange.
He dismantles.
He puts back together.
But it doesn't happen,
Jesus says,
until I get inside.
You know what it's like?
It's like your food.
So that's the first thing,
the significance
of mealtime.
Secondly, though,
that brings us
to the issue
of the problem
with food.
You know,
when Jesus has
this conversation
with these people
and he continues
to talk to them
about this
and the Pharisees,
of course,
don't get it at all.
They're looking at Jesus
and they're going,
how in the world
can this man
give us his flesh
to eat?
They don't understand
that he's making
a metaphor.
And to be honest
with you,
I don't really blame
the Pharisees
in the passage
we just read
because it's not
like Jesus
is making it easier.
The Pharisees
are like,
how can you give us
your flesh
and your blood
to eat?
Jesus doesn't look
and say,
guys,
it's a metaphor.
Duh.
He doesn't say that.
He looks and goes,
no, no, no.
As a matter of fact,
you're on the right track
unless you eat my flesh
and drink my blood.
I was telling some
of the elders before,
it's the Halloween season
so we'll talk about
drinking blood
here in October,
right?
Unless you drink my blood,
you don't understand
what I am.
And so what happens
in the passage
right after verse 58
is we find
that some of Jesus'
followers leave him
after this talk.
You ever read that?
Read it on this afternoon.
Go back and read
the rest of the chapter.
Some of Jesus'
followers are like,
okay,
and my guess is
that you would
sympathize with him.
You've been following
this leader.
He's a wonder-working
miracle worker
and suddenly he says,
if you really want to know
what it's like
to be around me,
eat my flesh
and drink my blood.
My guess is you would
have been like,
this has been great
but I've got something
else I want to do.
They leave Jesus.
Why?
I think for this reason,
I think that once
all of a sudden
Jesus begins to talk
about food,
he begins to sort of,
he opens up a window
for us.
And it's a window
of great discomfort.
It's a window
of great difficulty
that's often inside
of our souls
when we deal
with our food.
Well, honestly,
have you ever thought
about the question
of food in a way
that really felt
balanced and healthy
to you?
By the way,
I'm not saying,
do you eat healthy?
I know there's plenty
of people in our churches
and our world
who actually are very,
very careful about
the kinds of things
that they eat
and think about it,
which is actually
going to make my point
here in just a second.
But have you ever
noticed how hard
it is to even think
rightly about our food
and how easily
we fall off
either into the abuse
of it or the ignorance
of it when it comes
to it?
A number of years ago,
I had one of these
experiences in life
where you think
to yourself,
okay,
I've got a problem,
I need to start exercising,
and food has become
an issue.
most specifically
with a little item
that we know
as the Little Debbie
snack cake.
In my home,
we were the chocolate chip
Little Debbie,
we're not one of those
Swiss cake roll people.
We were more about
the chocolate cake,
this wonderful little
dark chocolate
with the slight cream filling
and the white chocolate
on the top
and the sprinkles.
That was a weakness.
The minute that you try
to eat healthy
and there are
Little Debbie snack cakes
in the cupboard,
you're done
as far as I was concerned.
But what amazed me
were the kinds of things
that happened to me
psychologically
when I would go
to the cupboard
and see this food there.
I would stand literally
and have this thought
while looking at the cupboard.
I'd be like,
you know what,
I'm so tired
of there being
Little Debbie
staring me in the face
every time I look
inside this cupboard.
So you know
what I'm going to do?
I'm just going to go ahead
and eat it
so I can remove
the temptation from me.
You ever had that thought?
Well that's insanity
is what that is.
That's crazy
being applied
to the area of food.
And so what I suddenly
realized is that
my food exercises
a measure of tyranny
over me.
Does it not?
I worked at Old Miss
for,
I was on campus
at Old Miss
for about 12 years
as a campus minister
and I got to have
a lot of conversations
especially with women
about their relationship
to food.
No conversation
was more powerful
for me though
than the one
that I had
with a young lady
who was actually
wrestling with
a legitimate
eating disorder
and all of the
psychological things
that were going on
with her
were aside the point
from this illustration
but I remember
at one point
her saying to me
she said,
you know Les
what really kills me
about what I'm going
through
is that I don't
remember the last time
that I sat down
to enjoy a meal
when the meal
was about the meal
and not about the meal
that I was going
to eat
because of this meal.
Some of you know
exactly what I'm
talking about.
Have you ever sat
down to a meal
and not been able
to enjoy that food
because of what
this food means
about your next meal?
In other words
she said,
I would sit down
and say,
well,
tonight we're going
out,
we've got some
friends together
so I'll just
have a salad
or vice versa,
oh goodness,
I've eaten way
too much here
for lunch
and so tonight
I'll make sure
I don't eat
anything tonight.
She said,
what I suddenly
realized is that
even the enjoyment
of an individual
meal was lost
on me
because of what
it had to mean.
I think one of the
reasons why Jesus
chooses the image
of our food
is because he realizes
that our food
exercises a tyranny
over us.
In other words,
the things that we eat,
the habits that we
employ in dealing
with it,
open up a window.
Do they not?
Is there anything
that we often get
more self-conscious
about than our food?
We have a whole
television network
devoted to chefs
and food,
but statistically
speaking,
we cook less
than we ever have.
Americans spend
$50 billion a year
on dieting
and dieting methods.
At any given moment,
25% of men
and 45% of women
are dieting.
Look,
food is more
than fuel.
Jesus chooses food,
I think,
to talk about
the relationship
to him
because it's to do
with what only
an image of
following him
needs to do
which is to reveal
the fact that we
have a powerful
hurt inside.
That no matter
how much I eat
or how little
I eat
or how confused
I am about
my eating
or even how
so obsessed
I am
that I can't
have a conversation
with anyone else
without talking
about the things
that I eat.
There's something
going on.
There's a hurt
on the inside.
There's a pain.
There's a dysfunction
that comes up
out of the life
the minute
that you begin
to think
about how,
where,
when,
and what
I ought to eat.
You're not going
to sit down
to a plate of food
without realizing
that there's
something wrong
with me.
There's something
broken in me
and all the food
in the world
has not yet
satisfied.
Which brings me
to the third point.
This whole question
of satisfaction.
What does it mean
to have Jesus
satisfy me
not just in the area
of a spiritual
relationship
and not just in a way
in which he can redeem
my partaking of food
but to actually become
an overwhelming
all-encompassing
true food.
That's what Jesus says
in the passage,
doesn't he?
In other words,
he says,
look,
verse 55,
for my flesh
is true food
and my blood
is true drink.
He's not saying
that this food
that we eat
or any meal
that we eat
is somehow illusory
and spiritual
and foolish
but then one day
he's going to give us
the real spiritual kind.
That's not what he's saying.
He's saying
that all of the food
that you're eating
is actually pointing
away from itself.
It's a signal flare
as it were
to something
much more profound
inside of you
that you need
and that is
to be satisfied
by me.
My good friend
Brian Habig
who's the pastor
of downtown Perez
in Greenville,
South Carolina
has a great illustration
that I shamelessly stole
but I asked him
if I could use it
so he said yes.
Habig came back
to the state
of Mississippi
for someone
who was doing
a great service
to their community
and that is
they were clearing
out their freezer
of all the meat
that they killed
that particular
hunting season.
They're going to
clear it all out
with a great big party
and they were just
going to cook everything.
And so Habig's friend
had him over that night
for this big feast
that they have
and he said
by the time
they got finished
with every conceivable
kind of food
that they could cook
and enjoy
they found themselves
sort of on the couch
and sort of in that zone
you know what I'm talking about
where you're sort of
back like this
and you know
you're trying to figure out
how you're going to get up
you know outside
and Habig said
his friend leaned over
to him and looked
and said
Brian I think I'm
meat drunk.
You ever been to that place
where there's almost
like a sublime
satisfaction
that's sort of
washed over you?
Well it's almost
as if Jesus is saying
I would like
for my people
to make an association
this is the big statement
of the sermon
Jesus wants his people
to make the association
between the physical sensation
of being deeply satisfied
by a good meal
and the spiritual sensation
of looking to Jesus
and saying
you are all
that I need
and whatever I have
in heaven and on earth
I found it all in you
this is what I've been
looking for
this is what I've been
lost to find
so how does that happen?
It'd be interesting
to end the sermon there
wouldn't it?
To say you know
and we should all be
more satisfied with Jesus
let us pray
but I'm not going to end it there
because that's not enough
because a sermon
is not a sermon
until we all of a sudden
ask the question
okay okay
I get you
Jesus would like to be to me
what a good meal is
okay I got it
but how does that happen?
Because I didn't have
a good eating week
this week
or
I didn't have a very good time
feeding on him
as a matter of fact
he was a distant memory
to me this week
Jesus was that appendage
you were talking about
he hasn't gotten inside
what does that mean for me?
Well I think what it means
for the soul
who looks and says
tell me again
what it is
that is satisfying
about Jesus
is to remind ourselves
of how Jesus
phrases this
notice what he says
there in verse 57
he says look
there is a keen
relationship
from the living
father
who sent me
that I live
because of him
and if you
are in me
you have the life
of the father
that those relationship
works together
in other words
there is a
there is a sense
in which
for me to stand
between you
on the one hand
and my father
on the other
creates something
as powerful
in your life
as food does
for a meal
you know what it means?
it means that
I will never find
my ultimate satisfaction
in Jesus
until I find out
in the gospel
that he
is satisfied
with me
because of the cross
there it is
our satisfaction
in Jesus
is not tied
to us
working harder
to being satisfied
with Jesus
rather
it is working harder
to discover
his satisfaction
with me
in the cross
it's where
it's headed
it's where this
meal is going to
Jesus is saying
so what does that mean?
well it means
that the expression
that the proof
of the pudding
is in the tasting
means that we
really don't get
a sense of
Jesus satisfaction
with me
until I begin
to taste it
so what does it
mean to savor
Jesus?
I think in one sense
it sort of gives
a new light
on the idea
of prayer
doesn't it?
it's another sermon
for another day
but to learn
to think of
prayer time
as meal time
hmm
hold that thought
but I think
in the most vivid
place where we
get to taste
and see that
the Lord is good
is here
that he gave
us a meal
a tangible
meal
with something
that's got
texture to it
it's got liquid
to it
and so Jesus
says if you really
want to know
what it's like
before I leave
and plan
for my return
I want you
to remember
and to feed
on me
with this meal
there's a foodie
writer by the name
of Nigel Slater
who I had not
heard of
until I started
doing research
for this sermon
who talked
about the time
when he was
a teenager
when his mother
passed away
very dear
and very close
to his mother
but at one point
he says
the night after
my mother's funeral
I came into
my bedroom
and I looked
and saw
two little
white marshmallows
sitting on my
bedside table
I'd never been
allowed to eat
in bed
so when my
father came
upstairs
to tuck me
in
I asked
if they were
for me
of course
they are
he said
I know
they were
your favorites
you see
in a school
essay
that I had
written
shortly
before my
mother's
death
I had
described
marshmallows
as being
the nearest
food
to a kiss
soft
sweet
and tender
my father
made certain
that each
night
for the next
two years
I found
two
sometimes
three
fluffy
sugary
marshmallows
beside my
bedside table
because he
knew what I
missed most
of all
was my
mother's
good night
kiss
and somehow
in the
marshmallow
I saw
it
that's
actually
pretty
good
it's
as if
Jesus
is saying
I'm
going
away
I have
to go
to prepare
a place
for you
but I'm
going to
be very
spiritually
present
by my
Holy
Spirit
but I
also
know
that you
need
something
tangible
something
substantive
so he
leaves
the nearest
Christian
spiritual
analogy
to a
kiss
in the
table
we
come
to be
reminded
that he's
still
here
and that
in the
end
it's
not
a
fragile
truce
that he
has
between
us
that he
still
loves
us
he's
still
all
in
and
we're
still
acceptable
to
him
my
youngest
is a
picky
eater
I
actually
asked
him
for
permission
to
use
this
illustration
don't
ever
use
your
kids
as
illustrations
in
your
sermons
my
homiletics
professor
said
well
I
asked
for
this
one
and he
said
fine
my
11
year
old
is
a
picky
eater
and
if
you
don't
mind
if
you
don't
mind
I
know
that
some
of
you
out
there
are
like
oh
I've
got
a
perfect
cure
and
expand
his
palate
but
it
remains
very
narrow
but
if
any
of
you
have
ever
dealt
with
picky
eaters
you
know
that
it
can
turn
mealtime
into
just
it
can
be
a
battle
and
for
years
ever
since
my
son
was
very
small
mealtime
just
had
a
battle
and
I
noticed
up
until
about
two
or
three
years
ago
my
son
had
what
I
would
consider
to
be
a
normal
response
to
parental
pressure
to
clean
your
plate
and
that
was
just
anger
he
would
sit
sort
of
teeth
gritting
food
and
put
it
in
and
trying
to
chew
it
and
just
looking
at
me
sort
of
angry
and
irritated
it
was
appropriate
I
thought
until
about
three
years
ago
for
some
reason
I
began
to
notice
as
my
son
grew
that
the
anger
towards
me
sort
of
was
morphing
into
a
hopeful
compliance
in
other
words
he
began
to
realize
that
his
father
wanted
him
to
eat
and
so
he
was
constantly
looking
to
see
if
I
disapproved
of
how
he
was
eating
but
yet
utterly
in
conflict
by
the
foods
that
he
just
didn't
like
and
watching
him
all of a
sudden
try
not
to
sort
of
be
against
me
but
to
actually
please
me
it
just
broke
my
heart
and
one
night
I
decided
that
I
would
quit
talking
about
what
my
son
ate
over
mealtime
I
gave
up
which
is why
you
parents
out there
who
pulled
it
off
are
like
well
it
didn't
do
it
the
way
I
did
it
well
great
for
you
I
gave
up
talking
to
my
son
about
how
he
ate
you
want
to
know
why
because
it
suddenly
occurred
to
me
that
I
would
rather
my
son
grow
up
with
scurvy
or
something
rather
than
go
another
mealtime
wondering
whether
his
father
approves
of
him
my
satisfaction
in
Jesus
is
tied
to
his
satisfaction
in
me
and
when
I
come
to
this
place
it's
not
just
for
you
to
feed
it's
for
him
to
feed
you
on
the
knowledge
and
the
certainty
that
on
the
cross
he
has
taken
away
your
debt
he
has
taken
away
your
guilt
he
has
set
aside
all
of
the
other
emotional
and
psychological
hindrances
that
would
keep
God
as
a
periphery
to
my
life
and
says
take
me
in
yes
I'm
going to
renovate
everything
when I'm
there
but
take
me
in
because
once
there
I'll
release
a
power
into
your
life
that
you
couldn't
have
known
was
there
before
so
come
eat
let's
pray
Lord
Jesus
I'm
glad
that
you
don't
have
to
choose
between
my
good
health
and
your
children's
joy
but
that
you
supplied
both
in
your
body
and
your
blood
so
that
as
the
plate
comes
around
we
can
see
in
it
not
only
just
sustenance
spiritually
and
otherwise
but
that
we
have
the
kiss
that
you
leave
to
us
every
Sunday
and
as
often
as
we
take
it
we
see
your
love
for
us
so
would
you
pour
that
upon
us
at
this
moment
by
your
spirit
and
give
us
the
grace
to
see
you
more