A Better Life

Key Verse

John 6:35 “35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

Intro:

Thornton Wilder in the Play “Our Town” tells a story of life as it is lived in the mundane and amid hassles of daily living.

The play starts by demonstrating all the monotony.

The milk arrives

Breakfast is eaten,

Working people go to their jobs

Homemakers tidy their homes

Handymen work in the yards each day reflecting the previous one.

In this play the turning point comes when the protagonist, Emily Gibbs , in her youthful prime, passes away and the routine is suddenly broken.

The play takes a spin when Emily was given a chance to return to earth for and choose a day of her choice and replay looking from the outside in.

Only now, from her otherworldly existence, she viewed it with nostalgic eyes.

She watched the harried activity and busyness in celebration of her twelfth birthday.

She also saw and remembered her household being preoccupied with presents, food and chatter.

But ooking back she noticed that there was a complete loss of personal attention

though that is what her heart craved the whole time.

The focus was on the things that needed to be done instead of the people for whom it was done.

The Message or statement at the end of the Play was this?

“Does any human realize life while they live it?”

“I heard a preacher once say this, I wish I knew the good ole days while I was in the good ole days.”

This play depicts the thought of being in the moment and cherishing life, but when Jesus enters in to the pictures he demonstrates another aspect.

Bread alone

In Luke, we read a story of Jesus going into the wilderness to fast for 40 days.

Jesus being fully God, but also fully MAN deals with the same ailments

Dealing with headaches, probably everything around is looking like food.

But in his humanity, there is a temptation, there’s a really desire there to be fed.

And Satan walks and states if you are the Son of God, why do you make this “Stone” bread.

But his response was “ it is written, men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of the Lord.”

It was this response that sheds some light

That even with all the hunger.

That even in the weariness of his body

Even with the temptation of starvation.

There was a hunger for something more, something further

With the real temptation of starving, having no food in the wilderness and the opportunity to satisfy that immediate hunger right then and there.

There was a deeper hunger for something spiritual.

Men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God”

It was a revolt against the constant desire of the flesh and our humanity.

It was a declaration being made against thinking all their is to life is meat and drink.

WE DO NOT LIVE SO WE CAN EAT, AND WE DO NOT EAT SO WE CAN LIVE.

Life is worth living in and of itself.

but Life cannot be lived out when it is merely a consuming entity.

However, when life is filled by that which satisfies a hunger that is both physical and spiritual, then life can be truly fulfilling.

Climax

The routine, the next thing, the next event, the next party is in search of what life has to offer.

The next laugh, the next celebration, the next game or the next show all in pursuit of what life has to offer, but In the book of John, Jesus makes it plain and clear “ I am the bread of life, and whoever believes in me shall never hunger and shall never thirst!

Jesus is making a declaration that I am the substance of what makes life LIFE, I am the essence of What make life worth living.

John 6:35 “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

Can I tell you that there is a bread that feeds your humanity/ your flesh.

But there’s still something that needs to fill the soul? Needs to fill the void, The meaning to life. That gives Life once again. That is what Jesus is offering here. I

In the beginning of the book of John we see Jesus surrounded by the multitude and he see there hunger,

he discusses with the disciples and asks can we feed them. The disciples did not believe that there was enough money to go around, but one of the disciples mentioned that there is this Kid, that has 5 loaves and two fishes.

And the people were fed and there were left overs and were amazed and the what Jesus did.

Jesus departs from them and the next day the people go looking for Jesus and find him and ask

John 6:25–27 ESV

25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

Jesus saw the physical need of the crowd and did a miracle in addressing them, but the next time he saw their heart and knew that they came back to get their stomachs fed again.

Can I tell that I am thankful that Jesus is a provider and he cares about our needs. So much so that he will do a miracle to meet your needs.

Financial

Healing

Restoration

Hurt

Brokeness

NOT JUST OUR PROVIDE BUT OUR EVERYTHING

There are seasons, and time where we need someone to Lean on. I.E. Sick

But He does only want to be your provider, He wants to be your “Everything”.

He is our heavenly father that we can come and cast our cares to, and he will hear us and meet our needs, But there is an invite that Jesus offers that goes far beyond the things and becomes all about HIM.

It’s an invite to a “Better life” .

It is an invite where you no longer have to put in man but put it in Him.

Peace

fulfillment

Love, Joy

Jesus is inviting us to a better life with him, to live an abundant life in Jesus

He invites us to a “better life” , there’s another layer to life that Jesus is trying to reveal to us and it goes the beyond the material world.

Samaritan Woman

We see Jesus on the scene again when he runs into a Samaritan woman at the Well at Sychar(sih-car)

The Scriptures says she was an immoral woman. She was given to fleshly desires. She was a Samaritan and Jesus was a Jew.

The normal customs at that time prohibited public conversation between men and woman, between jews and samaritans . Normal Jewish Rabbis would rather go thirsty than to violate these proprieties.

Jesus traveling from Judea in aims of going to Galilee goes through samaria and rests in Samaria sitting on a well.

Hear comes the Samaritan woman.

The Samaritan woman comes and Jesus

John 4:7–24 ESV

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”

Jesus is here working in our humanity trying to bring us a revelation.

Can I tell you that sometimes when God is trying to show us something, it might seem foreign and it might seem, different, but if you are willing to explore with Jesuse

then you will get the revelation

John 4:7–24 ESV

13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, (Speaking of the literal water) 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 7:37–39 “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”

have you received the Holy Ghost since you believe?

This is what Ezekiel prohphesied abut

Ezekiel 36:27-29 AMP

I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My ordinances and do them. [28] You will live in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you will be My people, and I will be your God. [29] I will also save you from all your uncleanness, and I will call for the grain and make it abundant, and I will not bring famine on you

-It is our help

-it is our power.

-it is our strength

Not only do we have to recieve His Spirt, but we have to surrender to it.

-You will either feed your flesh or feed your Spirit

Jesus at the way to the cross to be crucified was beaten, humiliated and tortured.

this signified a couple of things

The animosity between our flesh - rebellious nature and the Spirit

But even with the torture of the Flesh, Jesus still saw the necessity of that flesh to die.

John 4:7–24 ESV

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

To have a better life we need Address SIN TO BE FREED

God was addressing a concern he had for the samaritan, woman

There’s a void, and love that she has not been able to find, and she has been looking in the wrong places.

Jesus will comfront us not to condem us, but to free us.

CONCLUSION

Good only comes from God. 

I want to be a good person 

Get God to get good. 

Faucets but not connected to the main source

 I can want to be a good husband friend worker but if I’m not good to god none of that will work.