I AM the Bread of Life

[00:00:00] Ladies, today we get to hear from a special woman. She has inspired me and many others to seek truth and to live intentionally. Her counsel is solid and overflowing with grace.

[00:00:18] She is a godly woman and she is what I like to call the real deal. We are truly blessed at Calvary Monterey to have Christina Holdridge leading our women and we are in for a real treat today. So please

[00:00:31] join me and welcome Christina. Hi everybody! It's not so good to be together without time of worship. Whew, that was incredible. Honestly, thank you so much, Huziel and Whitney and the band. That was just...that was what I needed. Um...well let me open my book here.

[00:01:01] Yeah, it's really great to be here with you all. If you don't know who I am, my name is Christina. I'm married to Nate. That's the guy that's up here on Sunday morning's teaching.

[00:01:12] He's our lead pastor but I also have the privilege of leading the team of women who put on our women's events. So that's this gathering which is our first women's gathering of 2024. Yep. Woohoo!

[00:01:26] So, Harry it's a awesome job. If you have never met me, I'll be hanging out in the lobby and I really would love to meet you afterwards.

[00:01:34] So come say hi introduce yourself. Like Whitney said, we this is the first of four gatherings and our gatherings this year are going to be centered. We only get to do four but there are seven I am statements of Jesus and we're going to cover four of them.

[00:01:48] You know if Jesus really is who scripture says he is, which I believe he is. Meaning if Jesus is really God right the creator and sustainer of the entire universe wouldn't it be so good for us to

[00:02:04] study who he describes himself to be? That's that's what the I am statements are. Their Jesus' titles, his descriptions of himself. Maybe I could say it in another way. I don't actually need my glasses. I'm so glad. Maybe I could say it in another way.

[00:02:25] Would you ever marry someone you haven't met? I know there are some crazy TV shows about people that are doing that kind of thing but seriously if you are going to commit yourself to somebody in such a huge way,

[00:02:37] you're going to want to learn everything you can about them studying the I am statements. It's kind of one way that we can learn more about him and if you've surrendered yourself to following him,

[00:02:49] if you've committed yourself like I have then let's get to know our God deeper. And if you haven't given your life to him well this is your chance. Learn more about who he is.

[00:03:02] Okay so with that let's get started. Have you guys ever had the experience of spending time with someone that maybe you just met them or maybe some time later you realize that they are actually very important

[00:03:17] and you had no idea who they were when you were meeting them. Okay this happened to us a few weeks ago. We were at a family birthday party and right now my middle daughter, Violet. She's kind of in the

[00:03:26] throws of figuring out what college to go to next year. She's a senior and a few weeks ago we were at this birthday party where we ran into a guy that to the best of our memory worked at one of the

[00:03:38] schools that Violet had applied to. So we're in a casual conversation with him, we're just chatting and like kind of as a point of connection we mentioned oh yeah our daughter Violet she applied to the

[00:03:50] school that you work at and we know this guy kind of well-ish. He's a family member of one of our family members. So we've actually seen him at family gatherings over the years like for probably

[00:04:04] over 20 years now two or three times a year. So yeah two or three times a year catching up with him and we're casually chatting with him about the whole college process. So we mentioned she's applied

[00:04:17] to the school that he works at and we even kind of joke around and say yeah the thing that really made her want to go there was it has incredible food like the best food she's seen. Which is true.

[00:04:29] So anyway he answers back. It's just all super casually doesn't say too much he asks a few questions and then all of a sudden whenever other family members comes running up and like super loudly

[00:04:40] is like you guys do you know who you're talking to? He is the CEO of that entire university, the CEO and he just made that incredible food selection that you're talking about. He made that

[00:04:55] happen. He runs that entire school so literally we're talking to him like he's a teacher or a soccer coach and he is the CEO of the whole school I mean if there was ever a time for us to kind of

[00:05:07] like kiss up a little bit and make our daughter look pretty good it was in that moment but we missed it so probably a little bit to our own embarrassment but maybe for good right? For good maybe we had no

[00:05:22] idea who we were talking to. We didn't realize his power or position at the school so we did not in any way try to kind of take advantage of it. Well that's good for us to treat people that way

[00:05:37] kind of equally respecting them whether regardless of the position that they're in not using them for what we can get from them right? But I think it's different with God. This morning we're going

[00:05:51] to study from John chapter 6 and there we're going to see Jesus interacting with a lot of people but there's only one who understands who he really is and what he really offers. All the other

[00:06:07] characters in this episode of Jesus' life they minimize they don't see at all who he is and what he can do for them so much so that in the middle of the chapter Jesus just he just declares it

[00:06:24] in John 6 35 he defines himself so that everyone around and so that we too will know who he is will know what he's offering. He says right there in John 6 35 he says I am the bread of life

[00:06:44] he who comes to me will never hunger he who believes in me will never thirst our creator our savior this is one of the important things that he wants us to know about him

[00:06:59] so let's dig into what this definition of Jesus means so that we don't miss out on taking advantage of who he really is. This morning we're going to study the statement of Jesus

[00:07:11] in three points first I'm going to define for you what it means that Jesus is the bread of life then we're going to look at the ways that the people in our episode the story and us too

[00:07:24] easily miss or minimize this part of who he is and then finally we're going to learn how we can take advantage of the life that Jesus offers us through himself so would you go with your bite with me

[00:07:38] in your bibles to the book of John chapter 6 we're going to read together and we're going to start in verse 24 it's also up there on the screen for you if you'd like but in this portion right now I'm

[00:07:49] going to read it from the new living translation so when the crowds saw that Jesus neither Jesus nor His disciples were there they got into the boats and went across to cappernum till look for him

[00:08:02] they found him on the other side of the lake and asked rabbi when did you get here Jesus replied I tell you the truth you want to be with me because I fed you not because you

[00:08:13] understood the miraculous signs but don't be so concerned about perishable things like food spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you for God the Father has given me His seal of approval then they replied we want to perform

[00:08:31] God's works too what should we do Jesus told them this is the only work God wants from you believe in the one he is sent they answered show us some miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you what can you do

[00:08:48] after all our ancestors ate man a while they journey through the wilderness the scripture says Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat Jesus said I tell you the truth Moses didn't give you bread from heaven my father did and now he offers you true bread from heaven

[00:09:07] the true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world sir they said give us that bread every day Jesus replied I am the bread of life

[00:09:23] whoever comes to me will never be hungry again whoever believes in me will never be thirsty but you haven't believed in me even though you've seen me well there's a lot in that passage but isn't that last first a little intense

[00:09:43] but you haven't believed in me even though you've seen me to give you some context let me recount the ways that this crowd saw Jesus it was more than just a glance with their eyes or a momentary encounter the second verse of chapter six it tells us that

[00:10:02] this same group of people saw Jesus perform miraculous healings and so they followed him then Jesus went up onto a mountain to be alone with his disciples and they followed him again then inverses five to fourteen of chapter six you can read this all yourself

[00:10:21] Jesus miraculously feeds the same crowd of like almost 5,000 or over 5,000 people until their stuffed with five loaves of bread and two fish so this time they don't just see him perform a miraculous healing they experience one themselves they see and experience a miracle then verses 22 to 25 say

[00:10:46] that because of all they've seen and all they've experienced the next day after he has fed them they go across an entire lake just to get to him but Jesus says after all that

[00:10:59] but you haven't believed in me even though you've seen me so there's something there's something about what this crowd believed about Jesus that was not enough that wasn't accurate that was in sufficient even though they're belief caused them to follow him all over the place up a mountain

[00:11:20] across a lake day after day Jesus knew that they still didn't really get who he was and what he could really do for them so what is it what was it that Jesus wanted them to understand about

[00:11:35] himself what were these crowds not getting the first thing we're going to look at is that they weren't getting that he is the bread of life so we're going to define I'm going

[00:11:45] to define for you what it means that Jesus called himself the bread of life that is what they were not understanding that is not what they were but that is what they were not believing okay in

[00:11:57] our passage this morning Jesus gives us two important insights as to what the bread of life actually means okay the first is inverse 35 look at verse 35 there in your bibles

[00:12:11] Jesus said to them I and the bread of life he who comes to me will never hunger and he who believes in me will never thirst we're going to hang out on those words never hunger and never thirst

[00:12:25] this colors in a lot for us about what the bread of life means based on that phrase we know that when Jesus calls himself the bread of life first of all just kind of got to get this out of the way

[00:12:37] he is speaking in a metaphor he's not talking literally but using the metaphor he being the bread of life it means he's the sustenance of our soul how do we know that okay first the crowd he was

[00:12:53] speaking to is coming to him because they want him to feed they want him to feed them again their hungry again right they followed Jesus all the way across the lake because they

[00:13:06] he fed them the day before and now they're hungry and they would like him to do it again so um and he says that right we read it in verse 26 he says I tell you the truth you want to be with

[00:13:18] me because I fed you so if coming to Jesus as the bread of life was literal and not a metaphor if it meant that a person would never experience physical hunger or thirst again well he's already been debunked because the crowd is talking to this hungry again

[00:13:36] secondly if Jesus was making such a bold and extreme promise about literal physical hunger if he wasn't using symbolism and metaphors here well wouldn't everyone else that followed him

[00:13:48] besides this crowd pretty quickly realize he is a liar I mean after after a day or so of coming to him they would be physically hungry too right we're just going to get out pretty quickly Jesus makes

[00:14:00] crazy promises that he cannot keep Jesus is not talking about literal physical hunger it was probably obvious to you but we just kind of got to get that out of the way he's using a metaphor okay

[00:14:10] and the metaphor is he is the food the sustenance for our souls our spiritual life okay another thing I need to make clear is that the phrase never hunger and never thirst it helps us understand something else about the bread of life that Jesus is talking about more

[00:14:29] than just life after death now if you read the entirety of John chapter six which is a really long chapter it's like 70 verses or something Jesus definitely definitely does promise life after death there is no denying that scripture here or all throughout scripture one result of coming to

[00:14:50] him and believing him is certainly life after death three times in this chapter alone Jesus says if a person believes in him he's going to raise them up on the last day that's life after death

[00:15:02] verses 51 and 58 they promise that a person who comes to him will live forever but the phrase never hunger and never thirst they help us understand that Jesus is meaning more than just life after death

[00:15:19] think about it hunger and thirst those are cravings right they're not just our existence you can be hungry for a while and not die when Jesus says he's the bread of life here me here me now okay

[00:15:36] when Jesus says he's the bread of life this is our whole time together this morning he's saying I and the solution to your souls cravings that idea is honestly all throughout scripture just a few chapters before in John 4 Jesus tells the woman at the well

[00:15:58] that drinking the water that he can give her it will quench a person's thirst forever he says whoever drinks of the water I will give him will never thirst there's our word thirst craving never thirst again and listen to this from Isaiah 55 Isaiah 55 is talking about

[00:16:20] a coming Messiah and we know that to be Jesus okay listen to this it's up on the screen too oh everyone who thirst thirsts come to the waters and you who have no money come by wine and milk

[00:16:34] without money and without price why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy listen carefully to meet and eat what is good and let your soul

[00:16:48] delight itself in abundance in cleaner ear and come to me hear me and your soul will live thirst satisfy those are cravings they're talking about how about that verse let your soul delight in abundance man Jesus does promise us life after death but there is so much more

[00:17:11] with him than life after death Jesus is the sustenance our soul needs okay never hunger never thirst that's our first insight into what it means that Jesus calls himself the bread of life the

[00:17:26] second comes from verse 27 if you look at verse 27 Jesus is talking to the crowds and he says don't labor for the food which perishes but for food which indoors to everlasting life which the

[00:17:38] son and man will give you because God the son has set his seal upon him Jesus as the bread of life here it means that the nourishment he gives our soul indoors it doesn't rot like regular food it

[00:17:55] lasts forever it never runs out so the filling up of their soul the satisfaction of our longings and cravings the thing that Jesus can do it's not temporary it's long lasting it's actually eternal

[00:18:13] you guys there is nothing like this on earth I have had and maybe you too I have had so many thanksgiving nights where I swear I just I could never eat again that's it I ate too much I ate so

[00:18:27] much I'm never going to eat again and of course at some point the next day I get hungry and I need food I was so full the night before I couldn't even imagine being hungry but just a little bit of

[00:18:39] time passes and sure enough I am Jesus is saying here he's not like that he's saying the fulfillment he gives us it lasts let's think about soul cravings how many times how many times have I stuffed myself with

[00:19:00] something hoping to sue the craving in my soul maybe I didn't totally connect the dots in the moment thinking that I was trying to do that the how many times have I thought if I could just have this

[00:19:12] then I'll be happy if I could just look like this then I'll be good if I could just have that relationship then it'll be okay if I could just be free of this responsibility then I'll be settled happy

[00:19:32] content if I could just have this amount of money that's all I need then I'll be good and on and on we go chasing after the things that we think will settle the aches that are inside of us

[00:19:48] thinking surely surely if I just feel a little more valued a little more important little more desired little more safe secure purposeful little freer of this hard thing then surely I will be okay

[00:20:04] but you guys we know the truth right the end of chasing after all that stuff sometimes even getting hold of it for a little while at the end it's always more ache it's always more desire it's always

[00:20:22] more hunger but Jesus says as the bread of life with me you have a food that will never leave you hungry or thirsty again you will have nourishment for your soul that will not rot but leave

[00:20:39] you full and satisfied forever so that's our definition Jesus being the bread of life means that he is the food our souls need to be filled forever and he's telling us this about himself

[00:20:56] because he wants us to know him in this way he doesn't want us like I did at that party he doesn't want us to miss taking advantage of him in this way okay for our second point this morning we're

[00:21:09] going to look really quickly at how the characters in this chapter missed out on who Jesus was and how we can kind of fall into a lot of these same mistakes remember the crowds were physically

[00:21:22] coming to him because they believed something about him but there's a specific kind of coming and believing in Jesus that has to happen in order for us to get our souls filled so where did

[00:21:36] they go wrong I want to start this little section by giving you a brief synopsis of the entire chapter okay like really brief here's what happened to start a crowd of people follow Jesus because they saw him

[00:21:49] heal miraculously then versus five to four team Jesus miraculously feeds a whole bunch of people with just a little bit in that episode the disciples questioned him the crowds call him a prophet and

[00:22:04] the crowds even want to force him to be their king after that it's a dark and stormy night Jesus walks right on top of a lake and gets into the disciples boat the disciples are afraid of him

[00:22:18] but they welcome him into their book the next day the crowds look for Jesus cross a lake find him teaching in a synagogue and have a conversation within that we read about earlier about God and works

[00:22:31] and mana and Moses they call him teacher but ultimately Jesus says you don't get it after that Jesus has this really complex exchange of words with some Jews who complain about him they complain that he's saying he's from heaven they argue with him about his teaching and then

[00:22:51] some disciples stop following Jesus because they say his teaching is too difficult finally at the very end of the chapter Jesus and Peter have a very short conversation you can see it up there on the screen

[00:23:07] John chapter six starting in verse 67 after the disciples that say his teaching is too hard walk away Jesus says to the 12 do you also want to go away but Simon Peter answered in the Lord

[00:23:23] to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life also we have condono and believe that you are the Christ the living the son of the living God Peter Peter is the only one in this chapter that gets

[00:23:40] Jesus right let's look at three things that Peter got right that the rest of the people missed arguably the most important thing Peter recognized about Jesus is the very last thing that he says

[00:23:55] we have come to believe and know that you're the Christ the son of the living God while all the other people in this book in this chapter see Jesus is a miracle worker or a profit or a

[00:24:07] teacher even a potential king no one else understood that he was Jesus has God Jesus told the crowds in verse 28 that believing in him as God was the only work God required of them

[00:24:25] and of course the question has to be asked of us today in order for us to take in that ever lasting soul satisfying life that Jesus offers we have to believe that he is God the son

[00:24:39] with all of the perfection and all of the authority that comes with that title and here's the crazy thing ladies we have a huge advantage over Peter in this belief

[00:24:50] I mean we have access to all of scripture right it shows us the whole redemptive story and we get to see how Jesus fits in there so clearly and we get to know what Peter didn't know till later in his life

[00:25:02] that Jesus did all these miracles made all these crazy promises then died and rose again rose himself from death his resurrection makes everything he said his claim to deity deity it makes

[00:25:18] his claim to be the bread of life it makes it all so much more true we have that advantage so Jesus is God if you're here this morning and you haven't made that confession yet

[00:25:31] I encourage you to do it read the gospels consider Jesus talk to people you know who believe in Jesus just don't easily accept that he's just a wise man from another time don't miss don't miss what he is offering soul satisfying everlasting life

[00:25:55] he's God Peter believed it and Jesus wants us to too okay the next thing I want you to notice about Peter's words are here at the beginning of his words Jesus asks the 12 if they want

[00:26:06] to go away go away from him like the others did and Peter said Lord to whom shall we go let's focus on that word go in this chapter we see people do two things either at the end

[00:26:22] they go away from him or they go to him but not for the life that he's offering this is what Peter understood that with Jesus and only with Jesus his life think about the definition of the bread of life that Jesus gives to himself when Jesus says I

[00:26:45] am the bread of life he's saying some very exclusive things don't you think he's saying he and he alone is the only source of life but Peter got that and nobody else did

[00:27:01] where else will we go for a life and what about us when we hunger and thirst in our souls do we go to Jesus or do we go to other things do we go to Jesus exclusively or do we go to Jesus and

[00:27:20] other things it is so easy to not even realize that we are trying to sue the aches in our heart by not going to Jesus and other things it's easy but in this episode the people missed it and we can

[00:27:37] too Jesus says though whoever comes to me will never hunger and never thirst okay and lastly notice what notice this about what Peter said he recognized Jesus is God he turned to him

[00:27:56] exclusively but also he declared that Jesus had the words of eternal life now a lot of people in our chapter today followed Jesus for physical life right they followed him because they saw him heal that's bringing physical life back they followed him because he fed them that's sustaining

[00:28:15] physical life but Jesus Peter said Jesus spoke words that would last forever I mean a healed person is eventually gonna die and a fed person is eventually gonna be hungry again because these

[00:28:27] were not the most important things that Jesus offered Peter knew that all Jesus said brought life and that life would never break down or die that life would fill a soul a soul to never be hungry

[00:28:46] or thirsty again and think about what the other people in this chapter did with Jesus' words some argued and complained about them some said his words were too hard to follow some minimize

[00:29:01] his words when they called him a teacher or a prophet like good words but kind of optional and don't we fall into this so so often as well we read the Bible but we complain about it

[00:29:17] or argue with it we hear a teaching and we decide that it's too hard so often we don't view Jesus' words as life we don't see Jesus's words as what we need to feel full and satisfied

[00:29:35] and life is good right do we see his words as good life I mean remember that passage we read in Isaiah he said let your souls delight in abundance that's good delight abundance

[00:29:51] Peter understood that Jesus's words brought good abundant delightful life and so as we wrap up this morning I would like us to conclude by considering this last point how can we take advantage of this

[00:30:09] life that Jesus is offering us how can we get it I have three simple encouragement for you let's identify our hunger evaluate our habits and feast on him identify our hunger okay I know

[00:30:28] for me personally this first step is really just so important I have come to learn that kind of easily numbed what I mean by that is just like by going through ordinary life or

[00:30:42] commitments or busyness or distractions good not so good things by going through life I become easily num to my spiritual hunger how many of you guys ever had that happen to you with physical

[00:30:56] hunger you get so caught up in a task let's say and maybe someone interrupts you and you're kind of cranky with them and then you kind of feel bad and you wonder why you're so cranky and you look

[00:31:04] up at the clock and you realize holy smokes it's been like eight hours since I ate you were so caught up in your circumstances that you kind of became a little numb to your body

[00:31:16] sending those hunger signals the same thing can happen with our spiritual appetites we can become numb to our needs sometimes until we make a bad decision so how can we better identify our spiritual

[00:31:33] hunger here are some helpful questions to ask okay this is what I'm going to give you homework we're not going to have time to do this today and I'm going to give you a few assignments and I really

[00:31:41] want you to take me seriously and I want you to write down the questions that are up there and then want you to do this this week or the next couple of weeks here are some helpful questions

[00:31:51] to ask yourself to start to identify to start to un-num that spiritual appetite what do I believe if I had fill in the blank then I could be happy where do I believe that where do I believe that

[00:32:09] if I had this then I'd be okay is it beauty is it rest is it more money is it a personality trait is it a relationship is it being free from a trial is it good health is it a certain position or

[00:32:25] job what do I believe if I had this then I could be happy here's another way another helpful question to identify that spiritual hunger where do you often show or feel discontentment impatience complaining or unkindness these things are often a result of a spiritual

[00:32:54] are you always discontent in your marriage or you all often easily bothered by your co-workers do you complain all the time about money and how expensive things are remember these are just

[00:33:06] questions to un-num that's my goal in this moment is not to make you feel badly about being spiritually hungry it's just to show you that we all are so I encourage you take some time this week and think

[00:33:19] about these things okay the next thing identify your hunger now evaluate your habits here's what I mean over the next week or two take some time to write down all your regular habits i'm serious right

[00:33:35] them down make a list then look over that list think about it do you have habits that you things you regularly do that you don't love i'm sure you have some healthy habits healthy eating

[00:33:52] exercise calling your mom brushing your teeth i'm sure you have some good habits in your life but again are there habits you realize that you have that you don't love constant phone scrolling too often over eating eating food that doesn't nourishing nourish you too much over spending

[00:34:11] watching or reading something regularly that you're not proud of what habits do you notice i have that you just you don't love those now step three here's the heartwork prayerfully consider if the negative habits are connected to an area of spiritual hunger are you scrolling on your

[00:34:35] phone more than you'd like well consider if it might be connected to a desire to escape are you regularly spending more money than you should on close consider if it might be connected

[00:34:55] to making yourself feel better about how you look again please hear me my heart with these questions is not to make you feel guilty and it's also not behavior modification the last thing i'm

[00:35:09] hoping is for you to discover that you ever have it you don't like feel guilty about it and go and try and quit that behavior in fact just as easily as we can self-smooth our spiritual needs

[00:35:21] with other things just as easily we can become self-righteous we can fall into thinking here's the list if i do these things and i don't do these things then i'm good that is not what

[00:35:34] Jesus is after and that's not what i'm after my heart for us all is reorientation i just want you to see where you're spiritually hungry and then help you turn to Jesus for that real and that lasting nourishment

[00:35:52] Jesus is not upset with us for being hungry you guys it's why he came in the first place remember John 10 10 i have come that they might have life and that more abundantly Jesus came and died to give us life it's the realest most fulfilling life we can have

[00:36:16] and we can't give it to ourselves we can't fill our souls we need to believe that he God the Son is the only source of it and then go to him with our hunger okay our last point

[00:36:32] how do we feast on Jesus how do we do that how do we take advantage of it unfortunately i'm probably not going to provide you guys with a bunch of new information on this because the methods of taking Jesus in they're pretty much always the same

[00:36:49] read your Bible pray go to church all the time find Christian friends and stay invulnerable honest relationship with them listen to godly music godly podcasts read godly books read bloggers and articles that push you closer to Jesus as you become awakened to your

[00:37:11] spiritual appetites instead of ignoring them numbing them or trying to feed them yourself take them to Jesus now here's the thing about all of this i'm pretty practical and I know that these

[00:37:26] hungers and aches and us are not quickly gone one area for me personally that i am always discovering i'm hungry in again is a want to be wanted i have probably thought to myself

[00:37:42] a thousand times that my life really would be happier if i were just prettier i'm not kidding i know it's so shallow but i have thought that and truthfully it's not like reading my Bible

[00:37:56] makes me feel pretty right it's not like listening to worship music quenches my appetite for being wanted here's how i've discovered that this truth actually works because it is true the more i take in of Jesus thoughtfully genuinely through every means i can get my hands on

[00:38:22] the more my hunger for being wanted is quieted not because Jesus exactly makes me feel pretty but because my heart gets filled up with loving and wanting all of the things that he says

[00:38:40] actually will fill me to full because you guys know this even if i was the prettiest girl in every room for my whole life even if i was wanted by everyone my heart would still ache

[00:38:57] and my soul would still be hungry because that is not the stuff that actually satisfies us so feasting on Jesus and the life that he gives through the means he has given us over time it quenches our appetites with the stuff that actually nourishes us

[00:39:22] and lasts forever okay right now i'm going to invite a panel of ladies we're going to have four ladies come up on the stage and they're just going to share with us a little bit more they're

[00:39:37] going to color in or put flesh on is it saying put skin on what does this look like in other people's lives i gave you an example from my own life what does it look like what kinds of things are women hungry for

[00:39:51] and how are they finding Jesus to be their satisfaction so would you welcome with me my friends this is Helena Gile and Nicole Moore and Sarah Hoppy and Chelsea Zane and move this so you guys can

[00:40:14] see them aren't they lovely okay so we every girl won't get to answer every question and a little thing but let's just hear a little bit from them about what this day-to-day experiences of

[00:40:30] trying to get filled with Jesus and in our souls all right so ladies they did get these questions ahead of time so thanks to think i don't think i could answer this on the fly okay um here's question

[00:40:46] number one can you think of a season or a specific instance when you realize that you were turning to something besides Jesus to fill you up bring you delight satisfied you so can you think of a

[00:40:59] time like that what was it and how's it going for you now anybody want to share when you want to start Chelsea um good morning um so i was thinking about this a lot since we got the questions

[00:41:18] and um previously my uh before my walk with the Lord um i used anything and everything you name it that is what i used to fill that hole that piece that was missing um after i

[00:41:33] came to know the Lord and um seven years of sobriety um i was surprised to find that the thing i had sort of placed at the top was my husband and i'm not talking about a biblical trust and faith

[00:41:51] and love that you are supposed to have in your husband i found that i was putting my trust and my happiness um on him and i looked at my uh blessings and favor from the Lord were determined by how my marriage was doing and that created just a

[00:42:15] a farther fall for my spouse when he inevitably um would fail me some way somehow whatever that looked like um today uh i have my order in in line and back with Jesus at the top

[00:42:36] my spouse's second and um the areas where my my husband maybe doesn't do a fantastic job i know that i can reach out to Jesus for those areas um including my marriage which has been a huge

[00:42:55] kind of turnaround so yeah i think i can relate to that too thanks Chelsea yeah it's so easy to put a relationship and not just in the place of God because sometimes i don't think we realize

[00:43:08] what we're doing but it's i think one thing you said that kind of isn't indicator of it is when they let us down how crushed we are whether it's a friend or a spouse or a boyfriend

[00:43:21] when we of course were human we're gonna get hurt that's normal and natural but when it's just such a major blow and maybe it's not even that big of a deal like anyway yeah thank you

[00:43:38] anybody else want to share oh actually Chelsea why we have you just um so what's a practical way that you pursue Jesus so then you can kind of be filled up with him yeah i mean all the ways

[00:43:52] that you said right so that's pretty standard but what i have started doing which is kind of fun is i've started studying my Bible and reading the chapters on the off chance that somebody

[00:44:07] is going to ask me specifically about that chapter so my notes now are geared towards maybe one day having to tell somebody about that specific chapter and it's made it a little bit

[00:44:20] more fun for me so I'm almost preparing a lesson on the off chance somebody's going to ask me about that one verse that i read four years ago you're gonna get a lot out of that i love it i love it

[00:44:35] okay anybody else want to share Sarah you got the mic i mean she passed it to me yeah I'm sure you're also here so gosh this is such a good question when Christine emailed it out I could immediately think of like 50 different things where i do that like

[00:44:52] there's the season where like well if i'm not like pretty and young then who am i or if i'm not you know my husband's married to me now he's stuck with me how do i know he still wants me like when

[00:45:04] we're dating he had to choose me over and over you know and like now so there's like been lots of seasons in my life where i have seen that but the one i'm currently going through i don't have figured

[00:45:16] out at all and it's the absence of something that i'm seeking so i have pretty bad anxiety from time to time it's like a clinical anxiety it's not anything in particular that i'm anxious about

[00:45:28] it's just this just this like dark cloud that kind of follows me around like a little buddy and it's like a pebble in your shoes sometimes it's rolling behind you you don't notice it's there

[00:45:38] another times you're like gosh darn it i can't take a step without feeling it and i just am convinced if i didn't have this i could do anything i could be anything i would be super adventurous

[00:45:51] i'd be super happy and kind because i wouldn't always have something rolling around in the back of my mind and um and so when i seek the lord it's lor please don't let me have any anxiety today or any panic attacks

[00:46:06] and and also i love you and tell me a review and blah blah blah blah but that i realized and it's just in the last few days where i realized that's an idol for me like the absence of that has been an

[00:46:18] idol for me and i have to confess that to the lord and um and so i just began asking myself questions or i think the Holy Spirit was kind of prompting me like what um what would happen if instead of

[00:46:33] pursuing the absence of something what if you instead pursued me and what the word says that i am in his true character and instead of like me me me me me me and this is how i need to feel

[00:46:49] you you you you you and i'll take however i feel and um because i think i think it is possible i really believe it's possible to have the peace and joy he promised while in the midst of a

[00:47:02] fliction because the word says it's true it doesn't make sense in my mind it really doesn't but i know that it's true and so that's my pursuit is um to just allow it to be to accept this from the

[00:47:16] lord and instead of spending my wheels to get rid of it um spend my wheels in um delighting in him and resting in him and um and his promises and his faithfulness because he has been with me through

[00:47:32] all of it i can't say that he's left me um or that i've been alone so just looking back on his promises looking forward to him keeping promises that he's made and i don't know ask me like six

[00:47:45] months or ten years and maybe i'll have a good solitude answer for you but it's gathering just kidding you don't have to figure yourself out oh thanks for sharing that Sarah do you have any kind of like

[00:47:58] i know the list i read it's like always that we can pursue Jesus is there one that is especially meaningful to you um right now um in this season i'm sorry Nicole was interrupting you when you were

[00:48:10] saying something so what was the list which one uh no i said i just said take one of her is there any like specific way of kind of getting filled up on Jesus that's especially

[00:48:24] meaningful to you like right now yeah a really practical way is um and this could just be my personality but i love listening to older women who are just like no nonsense like life is not

[00:48:38] about you get over yourself kind of thing and they say way more godly and sweetly than that but a Elizabeth Elliott is a big one for me um she's just very much like kind of has like a get over

[00:48:50] yourself like like isn't about being happy and feeling comfortable like it's about pursuing god and something about that and then like listening to other women of faith um like whether it's

[00:49:02] Cory ten booms the hiding place like people that were like in true stuff rain and how they sought the Lord um i don't know if it's misery loves company or what but i just i love hearing people struggle

[00:49:14] yeah and how they like just like got super deep in the Lord with it and so that inspires me and makes me feel the better about my day thank you i i know what you're talking about yeah

[00:49:27] how about you Helena yeah well during my my early years and walking with the Lord um it wasn't until later than I that it was brought to my attention by the Holy Spirit that my life was um a work-based gospel i wanted approval i wanted acceptance and then

[00:49:52] I put a lot of expectation on myself and what that would look like i was like a cumillian cumillian um i was i changed with everyone i was with or any situation i was in i would

[00:50:08] i would just for myself into those ways instead of god's way until one day well one time and my time with the Lord he got my attention and he brought um David and

[00:50:24] Saul to me when David had gone to Saul to let them know he's going to sleeve the dragon goliath and after much much convincing he was allowed but uh Saul dressed him with his armor

[00:50:41] and then when Saul when David put the armor on and then he put his sword on his tunic it didn't fit he couldn't walk and that story you know where that goes um he wasn't his to wear

[00:50:57] and i started looking at my life and everyone's armor i wanted to wear it became pretty heavy and um it wasn't god and it wasn't seeking the Holy Spirit it was trying to be everything

[00:51:12] to everyone because i wasn't enough it was attached to my self-worth and um then no i won't save them i'll save but god he um he gave me Psalms 139 and and that one part that i am

[00:51:35] fearfully and wonderfully made i couldn't comprehend that because the part of wonderfully and um i never thought that about myself i i didn't feel like i had any worth but when he

[00:51:51] said that i had to believe it and so i live on that i love that verse and it's such a blessed verse from beginning to end so there i am on that i love that journey today you know i mean we all

[00:52:10] been there at some to some degree or another i'm trying to be something that we're not sometimes with good intentions like sometimes not sometimes mix i don't know but

[00:52:25] the Lord just wants to free us from all of that and say the life that i have for you that soul feeling life it's gonna cleanse that need to be accepted by everybody you're going to become okay

[00:52:39] with just being who i made you to be you're not going to need to be who you think everybody else wants you to be that's so good i mean thank you how how do you find what's like a practical way for you

[00:52:52] maybe right now or maybe it was in that season um what's one of your favorite ways to pursue Jesus well i'm happy everyday um i first thing i do is i i have learned how to set my

[00:53:06] coffee pot because i don't know so i had to google it and so um i wake up and by the time i wake up my coffee's made so because that takes like 10 to 15 minutes of your soul right and that's

[00:53:20] time away from me from the Lord so i have that and then i just get into my word i have a reading I do i try to do the 7 times 7 7 for 7 but sometimes i you know i i don't but it's been such a

[00:53:37] a blessed thing i i read it's a book by Richard K. Thor and it's like challenging you to read every day but um and you know beginning people think it's uh you know tend to think it's a work

[00:53:52] base but what happens is that it becomes a habit yeah and and and the habit is good you know you don't always make it but what you do as you do it for the whole year and even though you

[00:54:05] miss a day you keep on going according to what the reading plan is she's talking about like a Bible reading plan i'm seven for seven that's okay just making sure everybody knew yeah and then

[00:54:15] um because eventually you're gonna go back again you know the Lord Terry's you're gonna go back again another year and you're gonna yeah um fill them the blank so i do that and then i listen to

[00:54:26] teaching i love Josh White i listen to him a lot and i listen to bills teaching still for the pastors but i still listen and um and i just i just listen to name you know i just listen yeah

[00:54:40] i just fill my my my my my like getting filled up yeah then you can't like i mean you could shove some other stuff in there but it's not gonna yeah um i love that seven for seven i don't

[00:54:55] know exactly how it works but it's kind of like you're getting a lot of the Bible so you're getting a really good big picture you're just getting so much of it um instead of there's lots of different

[00:55:06] ways to read the Bible there's not a wrong revival reading plan but that seven for seven it's gonna give you like scope and breath and you're gonna see God's story um and how it all fits together

[00:55:18] in a really cool way and so there's a kind of faith that builds from that kind of knowledge i love that and it takes you from the um old and into the new okay the same reading it's just a little too cool

[00:55:32] okay last at Nicole yeah i purposely had a few things that i've struggled with because i figure like chances are you had similar struggles which one will I share but nobody has really talked

[00:55:48] about uh for for me one of my struggles has been um finding the perfect pair of shoes or the perfect pair of jeans or perfect set of dishes and um every time i find the perfect set

[00:56:02] i am searching like the next day for like another perfect set right um so it's one of those that like they're it's never done um like my house is never perfect you know because there's always

[00:56:17] it's always changing there's always something better and with clothes my size changes so then i need perfect jeans in the next size or or or a different shade of denim is in now or a different whatever

[00:56:32] so that's that's one of the struggles that would be the one and i would say the other one for me is always um wanting to have fun um so for me it's like i love reading really light fluffy

[00:56:50] fiction books i love um eating candy i love watching movies like not deep ones again like the fluffy makes me just like happy um but it is it's another one of those like you can always be

[00:57:09] looking for something fun to do um you can always be looking for the perfect buy the perfect deal but but it is it's one of those like it's never finished and i feel like i feel like this

[00:57:28] probably has started a little have for my whole life um but there's definitely seasons where i am hungering more for god and and i feel like it's when i'm most aware of what i'm doing

[00:57:52] that um that i can make the the intentional decision to stop yeah um that's a great example of like the habit that's connected to the hunger that we didn't even know we had it needed and why

[00:58:09] thinking about our habits kind of helped reveal sometimes where we're hungry not so that we can feel terrible for feeling hungry but so that we can realize i'm feeding myself on the wrong thing

[00:58:21] i'm never going to be filled i'm never going to be full but with Jesus absolutely absolutely and i love the fact that like even all of these things like none of them are wrong in it

[00:58:31] of themselves like it's great to read a good book you know it's great to have a treat once in a while but more that than i'm not going to that to be filled yep um yeah what's a practical way

[00:58:47] that you love to pursue Jesus or that you're experiencing a lot of filling from him right now or then yeah absolutely i think one of the things that um more recently i i feel like i have words for it

[00:59:04] so growing up my mom is just an amazing christian woman and when we first had the kids they were really little i would stress about not telling them enough about Jesus you know because

[00:59:20] i'm not the most organized person um so i definitely had friends you know my organized friends who would is there you're probably one of these people too like my home school mom friends

[00:59:33] who would have like set readings that they would do every day with their kids um or songs they would teach them or memory versus and um i am very much uh like today i am gonna start

[00:59:50] on memory first plan with my kids and it was last for like three days you know and then it would be like i hit now we are doing like whatever the thing was and my mom was always encouraging me

[01:00:03] to just bring Jesus into whatever we were doing and so she would she would demonstrate when she came to visit you know and she would be like remember like when we were just driving um and someone

[01:00:15] would like point out a cool cloud i would say is that cool Jesus made that cloud yeah um and so so that was when i started to be reminded of like i think i never noticed that's what my mom was doing

[01:00:32] um but that's something that that now i i think of it like little nuggets um i don't know how many of your tailors with fans and i'm not i'm not like a huge one but my daughters are pretty big

[01:00:46] and one of the things i've read is that she she has these little nuggets and because she was a fan girl so she has these little nuggets that she hides like in her lyrics or in her music videos or like

[01:01:00] when you're reading inside the album she'll have like little things that only like super fans can find it's like a treasure hunt um but i feel like that's that's what god has done for us

[01:01:15] and going through each of my days like looking for the nuggets that he's left um is just such a like such a fun way to live life like i feel like it's it's everything from like

[01:01:30] you know the times when like you've you've heated up your heated up lunch like just the right amount of time and you got to eat it right away and it's like hot and delicious

[01:01:40] and you didn't have to prepare it you know like all the all the little all the little nuggets are our dog is just like he gives me nuggets every day every day it'll be like it'll be just like his his half teeth missing smile you know and

[01:01:59] like oh my god got gave him to me as just this being that never has an attitude you know and and that really serves no purpose like right i i just i just think there's so many

[01:02:16] little things in our lives or like flowers that will see in the face yeah that is in the middle of nowhere nobody else is gonna see this flower or um or the sun sets or when i'm out kayaking it's like

[01:02:28] oh make a nest like here are just these sweet beings and here is this incredible water and and so many things that don't necessarily have like super practical purposes in our lives but

[01:02:42] are just like these little like this it's just something i have for you today yeah oh my love have you guys ever read that book by Anvost Camp um what is it called a thousand dred gifts or

[01:02:53] thousand gifts something like that it kind of goes along that line of like just noticing the hair bow inner daughters hair and and connecting that not only being not only noticing it and

[01:03:04] stopping but connecting it to like a little she doesn't use the word nugget but i like nugget way better it's a nugget from the Lord well i love that thank you guys so much for sharing with us

[01:03:16] would you guys give them a round of applause yeah thank you you didn't go all right wait we're going a little late so we'll cut this off yeah um thank you for being here um i'm just

[01:03:31] gonna wrap up yeah so that's our morning how do we feast on our bread of life he's there he's available to us he wants us to take him in and help he wants to help satisfy all the cravings

[01:03:51] that our soul has so i encourage you to do the homework this week one last thing there's a book i want to recommend for you for an article you can pop that book recommendation

[01:04:02] this is a book called the Holden Believe it's actually a study through the seven i am statements of Jesus it's a seven week study i use the first one of super helpful in helping me get ready for this

[01:04:13] and some of the questions that i had you ask yourself um we're from that so i haven't done all the other studies i've only done the first one which is the bread of life but i think it's going to be phenomenal

[01:04:24] i loved the first one um it was put out by the gospel coalition so if you know who they are they have really solid stuff um and this is my recommendation for you um if you do it as we're going

[01:04:36] through the women's gatherings this year you might come and we've already learned one and you've already studied it and and they're you'll get all the more from it or you can just do it on your

[01:04:45] own time but i think it's a fabulous resource and um this is one way you can feast on Jesus is by studying this so um we're a little bit over so we were gonna sing but we're not gonna sing and we're just

[01:04:57] gonna wrap it up really quick and pray for you all and encourage you to connect with each other and um thank you for me and here.