CEF Devotion

John 6:66-68

My name is Ben Wofford.

My wife is Allison and we have 3 wonderful sons. Roman, Camden, and Declan.

I did CEF the summer of 2008 so before some of y'all were even born.

Our CEF office was demolished a year ago which was across the street from where the new dollar tree is.

Fun fact, I went and stole a few bricks from the old CEF house to keep.

When I did CEF I had been dating my now wife, Allison for about 6 months.

My goal was 2 fold:

I wanted to be with her and if I could get paid to hang out with my girlfriend, then that’s a huge win!

I also was planning to go into ministry at that point and I was accepted to go to NGU, so I thought this would be a cool ministry job to do before I started college in the fall.

From that, I was never on Allison’s team (which was smart of mama Pat and the team leaders at that time) so I didn’t get to spend that much time with her during the day.

But I learned so much about how to teach, how to work with others, and how to share the gospel that summer.

Now my motives were not 100% pure that summer.

I wasn’t working for CEF because I wanted to serve, I selfishly wanted to hang out more with my girlfriend.

You know what was awesome about that though?

God was incredibly gracious.

God changed that summer for me from selfish motives spending time with my girlfriend to a launching point for ministry.

Let me ask you though…

Why did you do CEF this summer?

How many of you feel undeserving to teach kids about Jesus this summer?

Why do you feel that way?

If you feel undeserving to teach kids, undeserving to be in a ministry, or anything similar, then how do you get out of that mindset?

How can you feel deserving of Jesus?

I want us to open to John 6:66-69 this morning.

We are going to go to camp in a month and discuss this with our teens at Awanita.

Vs. 66: many disciples no longer followed Him.

Why?

In vs. 53, Jesus tells those following Him “Hey if you don’t eat my flesh and drink my blood then you have no life in you. But if you do eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have life.”

So, I think we can all agree Jesus wasn’t a cannibal, nor was he inviting His listeners to a life of cannibalism.

I think we can all agree on that.

So what was Jesus saying?

I love music.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved making music.

I’ve played drums for 20 years and I taught myself guitar about 4 years ago during Covid.

I wish I had learned guitar 20 years ago too.

When I was a teenager though, I loved going to concerts.

When I was a teen, I loved going to concerts and not just hearing the music, but feeling the music through the speakers.

I still love that, I just rarely go to concerts now days cause I’m an old fart I guess and I just don’t have the time… or finances… can I get an amen to stuff is just too expensive?

I also loved playing shows.

But I digress, there’s a huge difference between playing music yourself and hearing music played by others at a concert.

Both are great.

However, for the sake of the illustration this morning hear this.

I think up until John 6, a lot of people were follow the show that was Jesus.

They enjoyed what He was doing and they found Him entertaining.

But… don’t miss this.

Jesus wasn’t their life.

He was entertainment, not life.

So when Jesus says this inflammatory statement that He is life, and that to have life, you’ve got to follow Him… a lot of people left the chat at that point.

In other words, what caused people to leave Jesus in John 6:66 was Jesus himself!

Jesus is either your life or He’s not.

For many, Jesus was the show, but he wasn’t their life.

What about you?

Jesus asks this very question to His disciples and I’ve always loved Peter’s answer.

“Lord, whom to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

It’s you Jesus. You are our life. You have the words of Life.

We believe you and we know you.

As you lead kids this summer, remember this.

You have the words of life.

You have life in Jesus.

When you are walking with a kid, sharing the gospel with Him, and you think He’s listening and then the kid turns to you.

And you think He’s about to accept Jesus and man you’re heart is pounding with joy and excitement.

Then the kids says, “yesterday, my brother pooped and threw a rock at my mom’s car, isn’t that cool!?”

you just smile and say, yeah buddy… that’s awesome.

Jesus loves you dude.

Pray for him. and move on.

You’re not a failure in that moment.

It’s not your job to save others, that’s God’s job, our job is to believe and know Jesus.

That’s what Peter said here in John 6.

If you are offering Jesus and His life to kids, then no matter how crazy the conversation gets with kids, you are showing them the life of Christ today.

What a blessing that you get to do that this summer.

Enjoy it.

But the lies will still come at you too…

You’re a failure.

You aren’t worthy to share Jesus with these kids.

You didn’t do CEF with the right motives.

You’ve got terrible sin in your life, who are you to share Jesus with these kids?

You should be ashamed of yourself.

Oh man listen to this guys.

Someone read John 6:37. for me this morning.

John 6:37 “37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”

Someone also read Romans 5:8 for me.

Romans 5:8 “8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

You could never out-sin God’s grace.

You can’t present a reason for Christ to close off His heart to you as long as you are still breathing this side of eternity.

You know what’s crazy.

It’s not your goodness or your good works that qualify you for Jesus’ grace.

You know what qualifies you?

Your sin!

Our sin and weaknesses are the prerequisites needed that qualify us for Jesus’ grace.

Romans 5:8 doesn’t say, “Once you cleaned yourself up and you seemed like you were going to be a good person, I decided to die for you then.”

Nah.

While we were sinners… the worst of us… God died for us there.

This is a wild, audacious verse.

All of those sinful thoughts swirling around in your head.

The things that would cause all of your friends and family to leave you if they found out about it…

It’s that stuff… It’s that awful, sinful, dark place in your mind...

That’s what Jesus looked at and says, “I’m going to redeem that.”

Jesus came to give us life.

That life overflows to others.

Jesus redeems us from the inside out because He came and died for the worst parts of who we are.

Jesus didn’t die on the cross for the best parts of you.

He literally died for the worst parts of who you are.

That should continually blow our minds.

When you don’t feel deserving of Jesus…

Just remember it was for the weakest parts of who you are.

It was for your worst sins.

It was for your biggest failures.

Your deepest oversights

Your most obvious sins and your most secret sins.

Jesus died for you in that place.

None of us deserve His grace.

But… grace He has given.

You have an opportunity to love on kids this summer and show them that grace.

Enjoy it.

You won’t have all the answers.

You won’t even have the right words sometimes.

But you can tell every kid this.

I believe and I know Jesus.

There’s no where else I can go to receive life.

So if you feel undeserving to teach kids this summer, just remember that.

I’ll leave you with this last verse

Philippians 3:7–9 “7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

You are righteous today because of Jesus.

You have life today because of Jesus.

You’re worth and worthiness to take Jesus to others isn’t based on how good you are.

It’s based on what He has done.

Carry that with you this summer in every conversation and in every opportunity you have with kids.

It’s Christ in you.

Let’s pray.