You Do Not Want to Leave Too, Do You?

My junior year at Baylor was memorable for a number of reasons, but one of them was that one of the former Baylor basketball players at the time, he had made it to the NBA and he was grateful for his experience at Baylor, so he decided to donate back to the school, and specifically, he wanted to make a donation to the student section. So he decided to donate an iPad for every single home game that year. Shout out Ebke Udo, this was like what he wanted to do. So, it was announced that the fan of the game, every single game, back at the Ferrell Center, would win an iPad. So whenever my roommates and I heard that, like in college, we would show up for free pizza anywhere, let alone a free iPad. So we're like, we gotta do whatever it takes to get this. So we did whatever it took to get this. This is what we dressed up as every single game. So I was flava-flav. I don't even know if you know who that is at this point, but I wore that bear clock that was on our wall, I just took it down, put a rope around it, tied it around my neck, and then I'm rockin' the Baylor bucket hat, whatever that coat is that we found at Goodwill. We'd all show up 90 minutes early, as soon as the doors opened, so we could get in the front row and we wore that.

Now, if you would've seen us then, you would've thought, they really, really want Baylor to win. Like, they are here because they are super fans. Like, they'd give anything for Baylor to win. Now, obviously, I'm a Baylor fan, but the reality is, I didn't do that because I wanted Baylor to win, I did that because I wanted to win. I showed up early because I wanted to win an iPad. I wore that because I wanted to win an iPad, and eight games in, guess who was fan of the game? That's right, yeah, I won the iPad. Thank you very much. Guess what I wore the next game? Not that! I didn't show up 90 minutes early. I showed up right on time, if not a little bit late, because everything had changed. Like, I was there before for me, not for them, and in all honesty, I was simply there for the wrong reasons. I start there this morning because I think the reality is, for many of us in this room, we may be here this morning for the wrong reasons. Maybe you look like you are here for the right reasons, you've got your Sunday best on, maybe you even showed up early to get a seat. Like, it looks like you're here for the right reasons,

but if we're honest, like, we are imperfect people with imperfect motives, and all of us, even just subconsciously, sometimes we show up to church not to celebrate Jesus's victory, but to try to get victories for ourself. And in worship, maybe even just right now, you're worshiping him thinking, God, I'm here this morning. I'm here proving to you that I love you, I'm worshiping you, so would you say yes to that thing I've been praying about? God, I'm here this morning proving to you that I love you. Would you give me a healthy life? Would you give me a comfortable life? God, I'm here this morning raising my hands in worship, so would you raise my salary at work? Like, that's kind of how I want this thing to go. Sure, it looks like I'm here for you, but really, a lot of the times, I'm pursuing you for me and what I can get out of it. And when that becomes where our heart is, we will end up sorely disappointed. Because the reality of following Jesus is this, he's not always gonna do what you want him to do. He has not promised you an easy life, he has not promised you a healthy life, he has not promised you a wealthy life. And when you don't get those things, if your following Jesus is about those things,

what will happen is you will turn and leave him. Now, I just don't want that to be you. As one of the pastors here on staff, like, my goal is to do whatever I can to make sure you get to the end of your life more in love with Jesus then than you are today. I don't want you to be found leaving him because you didn't get what you wanted. And to make sure that that's not you, we need to make sure that we are in this for the right reasons. And to look at that this morning, we are gonna be in John chapter six. So if you have your Bibles, you can open them up or turn them on to John chapter six. As we are continuing in on this sermon series called Answering Jesus, we are looking at the questions that Jesus asked during his time in ministry. And he asked a lot of them. He asked over 300 questions in the Gospels. That's a lot of questions. That does not mean he didn't know the answers. It meant that he was asking these questions so that his listeners would wrestle with what those answers might. B, we've been looking through them one by one, and we're gonna look at another one this morning that I believe occurs in one of the saddest moments in all the Gospels. Because in John chapter six,

we see this massive crowd that's just simply there for the wrong reasons. They look like they're pursuing Jesus, but they're not pursuing Jesus for Jesus, they're pursuing Jesus so that he would give them what they wanted. I bet you might know the details around this story because it's right after the feeding of the 5,000. That's what this crowd is. They were with Jesus, Jesus was teaching them, they grew hungry, so Jesus took the loaves and the fish and he multiplied them so they could eat. So this crowd, they eat and have their fill, they fall asleep with their food coma, and then that night, as they have fallen asleep, the disciples take a boat to go to the other end of the lake. And then this is that moment when Jesus walks on water, he gets on the boat, they go to the other side. So that happens right after the feeding of the 5,000. The crowd then wakes up the next morning, they realize Jesus isn't here anymore. He's gone. So they scramble to try to find Jesus. They get on boats, they cross the lake, they find Jesus, they go to him and they say, Jesus, do that magical bread thing again. Give us more bread. And we're gonna see Jesus is gonna say, no, this time I will not give you what you're asking for.

And we see what I believe is one of the saddest verses in all of the scriptures, John 6, 66. It says this, from this time on, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him because they were there for the wrong reasons. Jesus didn't do what they asked him to do, so they left. And then this is the question we're gonna be looking at today. You do not wanna leave too, do you? Jesus asked the 12. He turns and looks at his 12 disciples and says, you don't wanna leave too, do you? They had to wrestle with that. We need to wrestle with that as well. My question to you this morning is, what makes you prone to leave Jesus? For some of you, maybe it's permanently. Like for some of you, maybe you feel like you're on the edge of following Jesus or not. You're trying to decide, am I in or am I out? But I think for many of us in this room, we are prone to leave Jesus in a moment of temptation or maybe in a season of passivity. What makes you prone to leave Jesus? Well, this morning as we look at this text, we're gonna see that there are two reasons why this crowd left Jesus. And I think these two reasons are gonna speak to our life today as well, because the two reasons they eventually left Jesus

were Jesus didn't do what they wanted him to do. And secondly, Jesus didn't say what they wanted him to say. So they left. So we're gonna look at what causes people to leave Jesus, but then ultimately, we're gonna look at what causes people to stick with him. So this is gonna be a large chunk of scripture. This story is in John chapter six, verses 22 through 71, nearly 50 verses. I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but I'm gonna do my best to teach the whole thing. So again, after the feeding of the 5,000, they wake up, Jesus isn't there, we gotta go find him. It says this next in verse 24. We're gonna read a large chunk here. It says this. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, Rabbi, when did you get here? I love this. Jesus doesn't even answer their question. Knowing their hearts, he doesn't say when he got there, but he says why they got there. Jesus replied, very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.

In other words, you just want me to feed you bread. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of God will give you. For on him, God the Father has placed his seal of approval. Then they asked him, what must we do to do the works God requires? Jesus answered, the work of God is this, to believe in the one he has sent. So they asked him, what sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. I love that part of the text because they just doubled down here. They go, okay, you want us to believe in you? Well, do a sign that would make us believe in you. I actually have a great idea. You know, our ancestors in the Old Testament, they had bread from God. How about you do that again? Give us bread and then we'll believe in you. They're just saying it again. We are here for bread. Jesus said to them, very truly, I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the bread. the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down

from heaven and gives life to the world. Sir, they said, always give us this bread. They're hungry. Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. In other words, you are following me but you are not believing in me. All those the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. For I've come down from heaven, not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my father's will is that everyone who looks to the son and believes in him shall have eternal life and I will raise them up at the last day. At this, the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. So again and again, they're going to Jesus and saying, give us something to eat. Really what they're saying is we did not come here for you, we came here for breakfast. And Jesus' response was, I'm not gonna be manipulated into giving you what you're asking me to give you. I'm not just gonna give you bread because you're asking for it.

But although I will not give you physical bread, I've got better news. I will give you spiritual bread. I am the bread that you should be searching for. And they respond with frustration because they're just like, we know that you can do what we're asking you to do. Like, we just saw you do it yesterday and it wasn't hard for you. Like, we know that you can give us bread. We're asking you to give us bread. Why won't you just do what we're asking you to do? Have you ever been there? Man, I know I have. That there've been many seasons of my life where I've just got like a deep frustration with Jesus, primarily because I know, like I know that he can do the thing that I'm asking him to do. It's like, I believe in you, Jesus. I know you can do this. So why don't you do it? I don't know if you've ever been there. I bet you have. You're going to God, asking him to move in your life. And it sounds like he's saying no. And you're like, why won't you just do what I want? Here's what you gotta understand. First thing that we can learn from this text is this. Jesus won't always do what you want.

Jesus won't always do what you want. He doesn't work on demand or on our timelines, which is hard. And here, this is what their frustration boiled down to. They just want Jesus to do what they're asking him to do. And for them, they had internally made an agreement with Jesus. I've heard JP say something like this before, that they had made a deal with Jesus that Jesus didn't even sign off on. Like their deal with him was, we will follow you anywhere. We'll go wherever you lead us, if you give us bread. We'll go wherever you want us to go, as long as you feed our bellies. We'll follow you. But they signed off on this deal that Jesus never agreed to. So when Jesus says, I'm not gonna give you bread this time, they're like, well, then we're out, because that's not the agreement. The reality is, I think for many of us here, we have made an agreement with Jesus that he just simply did not agree to. We have said, Jesus, I will follow you if I don't know what you'd fill in that blank with. Jesus, I will follow you if you keep me healthy. But the moment things start to go awry with my health, then maybe I'm out. Jesus, I will follow you if you give me a husband

by the time I'm 30. Jesus, I will follow you if my kids fit in in school. Jesus, I will follow you if you give me financial security. But the moment you don't give me what I ask for, I start questioning you and your character, because this agreement is, I will follow you as long as I get what I want. But the teaching of Scripture is that Jesus will not always give us what we want. And again, I bet the same is true for you, that you have had seasons of deep frustration with Jesus. I know I have, where I'm going to him again and again and again, asking him for something. I'm like, Jesus, this is what I want, and I believe that you can do it. Why won't you just do it? Some of you right now, I mean, you're going to him with real things, with heavy things. You're going to him asking that he'd heal your mom of cancer. You're going to him asking that he'd give you and your wife a baby. You're going to him asking that your marriage would not end in divorce. And you're just welling up with frustration because it's like, Jesus, why won't you just do what I'm asking you to do? My answer is, I don't know. I don't know why Jesus does what he does and doesn't do what he doesn't do.

I don't know. But I do know this, in those seasons of disappointment with Jesus, we need to watch our heart because whenever he doesn't do what we want to do, we can start to get angry with him, frustrated with him, and start to think, if you're not giving me what I'm asking for, then you just simply don't care about me. And if we're not careful, I think we can start to look a little bit like this. Back in March, my wife and I, we took our two oldest girls to Disney World, and Disney World has perfected the art of taking your money. They have just found out every single possible way, how can we get more money from people? And one of those ways is that they have stores all over the park, but specifically, they have stores at the end of these rides. So we went on the Winnie the Pooh ride, and it just spits you out to the Winnie the Pooh store. There's Winnie the Pooh stuff, Tigger stuff, Piglet stuff, it's just endless. You go on the Frozen ride, oh my goodness, the Frozen ride, you get off, and there's Anna stuff, Elsa stuff, Olaf stuff, all over the place. Whenever we'd go in any of these stores, my two oldest, they would just find everything in there. I mean, everything, and say, dad, can we have this? Dad, can we have this? Dad, can we have this?

Dad, can we have this? And I just had to tell them, hey, I'm not getting anything. So you can keep asking, I'm not giving you anything. But here's what I will do, we can take a picture of anything that you want, and we can reevaluate it around Christmas or your birthday. So here's a few of them that we took. My phone is full of this. Here's one thing, here's another, we got another, and there's another. I could keep going, because again and again, dad, can I have this? Dad, can I have this? Dad, can I have this? I just had to tell JC, I had to say, hey, JC, I'm not gonna give you those things, not because I don't love you, but because this trip has been wildly expensive. Like, in my mind, I'm just like, if only you knew! If only you knew how costly this has been. Like, I had to pay for the gas it took to get from Waco to DFW. Then once we got to DFW, I had to pay for parking. And since I got kids, I paid for terminal parking, not remote like I'm used to, I paid for terminal for you. And then I had to pay for your ticket from the airport in DFW to Orlando, Florida. Then I had to pay for the rental car, then I had to pay for the hotel, and I had to pay for parking at the hotel.

The next morning we woke up, drove to Disney World, I had to pay for parking at Disney World. Then I had to pay for your ticket to get into Magic Kingdom. So, all in all, I'm like, JC, girl, if only you knew what I spent on you, you wouldn't be asking me for more. You wouldn't be questioning if I love you. Like, if only you knew the cost. I think God is going to us, saying, don't you know the cost I paid? Like, you're going to me, demanding for more and more and more. And then you're questioning if I'm good. Don't you know the price I paid to get you here? Like, to get you safe. Don't you know that I so loved you that I sent my one and only son to leave the comforts in heaven, to be born in a cradle in a manger amidst the animals. Then he was raised amidst a poor carpenter, and they lived a perfect life, following the law that you and I never could. Then he went into ministry to heal and serve and love and teach, only for his friends to betray him, turn their backs on him, for Jesus to be arrested, mocked, tortured. They put a crown of thorns upon his head. Then they took a rod and hit him in the head over and over again. Then they took a whip and tore the flesh from his back.

Then they got him up to Golgotha, the place called the Skull, where they nailed his hands and feet till two beams of wood. They raised him up on a cross to die, and they mocked him there until he took his last breath. And the reality is, if you and I were there that day, and we saw that man's dead body, we would not look at Jesus and say, why won't you give me more? Like, why don't you love me enough to give me what I'm asking you? The reality is, he's already given you everything. Like, if we knew, if we really knew what it cost him, we would not be so frustrated that he's not giving us what we wanted. Instead, we'd be so in awe that he gave us what we needed. He spilled his very. Last drop of blood for you. May we not be found looking at him going dad. Give me more Give me more. Give me more. Give me more. Just swipe that cosmic credit card. Give me more and yet so often We're in this for the wrong reasons We look just like the crowd in John chapter 6 and we go to him not for him, but we go to him for us Saying Jesus just give me what I want Now again, some of you I certainly certainly do not want to belittle any of those like deep Prayer requests that you're going to him with right now. Jesus is not frustrated that you're asking him In fact, scripture says may go to him in prayer again and again and again But what you need to know is if he says no to those things, it doesn't mean he doesn't love you Doesn't mean he doesn't care because isaiah 55 is true. It says this For my thoughts are not your thoughts For my thoughts are not your thoughts

Neither are your ways my ways declares the lord as the heavens are higher than the earth So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts So jesus will not always do what you want and praise god for that Like if he always did what I asked him to do my life would look very different in the negative way See his thoughts are better. His ways are higher and we can rest in that So point number one jesus doesn't always do what you want This crowd is grumbling because jesus is not doing what they're asking him to do and then It just it starts to get weird fast This is what it says next jesus replies I am the bread of life your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness yet. They died but in but this But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever This bread Is my flesh Which I will give for the life of the world then jesus began Then the jews began to argue sharply amongst themselves. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus said to them very truly I tell you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood You have no life in you Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise them up at the last day For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them just as the living father sent me and I live Because of the father so the one who feeds on me Will live because of me This is the bread that came down from heaven your ancestors ate manna and died But whoever feeds on this bread will live forever He said this while teaching in the synagogue in capernaum on hearing this many of his disciples said this is a hard teaching Yeah

Who can accept it? See jesus replies to this crowd. He says hey i'm not gonna give you bread, but I got something better You can eat my flesh And wash it down with my blood Well, I think if you were hearing that for the first time some of you are right now That's super weird No other way of getting around it It's just weird that jesus would say this like if you're hearing this for the first time you're like He wants to raise up a crowd of cannibals That that's gonna eat him Like this is very very odd Then he says that this is actually the key to living forever eating his flesh and blood verse verse 58 to read it again This is the bread that came down from heaven Your ancestors ate manna and died but whoever feeds on this bread my flesh will live forever And then the crowd just starts to back away because they're like this guy's looney tunes Like he really just might be crazy verse 60. It says They said this is a hard teaching who can accept it It's not just hard. It's just flat out weird The reality is we will be prone to leave jesus because one he won't always do what we want him to do But secondly jesus won't always say what we want him to say He just won't Here this is a teaching that they don't understand and they just end up leaving because they don't get it And I understand why they would like whenever I don't understand something like i'm i'm kind of out on that thing We had just amazing close friends. They invited us over a few weeks ago to their house to play mahjong And I never played it before we never researched it before we sit down i'm like this is gonna be so great And it was not because they start going okay, so there's there's uh Bricks and blocks and cracks and dots and and there's dragons and there's fire and you have to spell it all out to Spell something and and it just kept going on and on and on and eventually i'm like I don't get it

So I don't care about this. Can we do something else? Like like let me leave like I just I don't understand It's I don't understand. I don't enjoy I don't enjoy it. So I want to get out of here This is what's going on here in john chapter 6. Jesus is saying eat my flesh drink my blood. They're like we don't get it We don't understand so we're out But here's what I find interesting Jesus just like let's him leave. He like lets him go without further explaining. I mean, he could have explained better. He could have explained more fully, but he didn't. You see, there's a number of times in the gospels when Jesus will intentionally say something that is not fully clear to give his listeners an opportunity. And that opportunity is, do you trust me or not? I'm going to say something that you don't fully understand, whether it's a parable or something else, you're not gonna fully get it. And you're gonna leave there thinking, okay, I don't understand this. I have to wrestle with, do I trust this man or not? Even if I don't understand, I'm gonna follow him or not. Here's a couple of other examples from the gospel of John. John chapter three, he goes to Nicodemus and says, Nicodemus, you must be born again. Nicodemus is like, what do you mean? I can't go back into my mother's womb, that's confusing. John chapter four, he goes to the Samaritan woman at the well, she's looking for water.

He goes, you must find living water. She goes, where is it? He's not being as clear as he could be. Then John chapter six, he goes to the crowd and says, you must eat my flesh. Again and again, he's not as clear as he could be because he's presenting them with an opportunity. Will you trust me or not? And many of the people in this crowd, in John chapter six, they turned away and left him. They decided, I'm not gonna trust him because it's not totally clear. What did they need for it to become clear? You know, they actually only needed one thing for this teaching from Jesus to become clear. Only one thing. They just needed to give Jesus time. They just had to give him time to explain it because he would. At the Last Supper, Matthew chapter 26, he clarifies what he's describing in John chapter six. As they're all gathered together, it says this. While they were eating, Jesus took the bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, take and eat, this is my body. Then he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

So in John chapter six, was he telling them to become cannibals? No. The teaching in John chapter six was clarified in Matthew chapter 26 with him saying, what I'm telling you is believe in my death and resurrection and if you do, then you will live forever. Like when you eat this bread and drink this cup, they're reminders for you of my body that was broken for you and my blood that was poured out for you and as you eat of it, you're reminded that I sacrificed myself on the cross for you and then three days later, I rose again so that you could live forever and your sins would be forgiven as far as the east is from the west. This is what he's teaching in John chapter six but they didn't fully get it so they left him. Listen, this still happens all the time today. People still leave Jesus all the time because they don't understand his teachings. I mean, I've been in ministry long enough to hear verse 60 oftentimes from people. If we could put it up again, it says this. This is a hard teaching, who can accept it? So people leave. I've been doing college ministry, young adult ministry here for a long time.

Talking to college students and young adults about the biblical guidelines for sex, that sex is between one man and one woman within the confines of marriage. I mean, you talk to a couple that's wildly in love as sophomores at Baylor and they go, this is a hard teaching, who could accept it? We want to sleep together, we want to live together. If this is the command from Jesus, then maybe we're out. If we could put that back on the screen again, that'd be helpful. Or you go up here, maybe you teach about money. Say Jesus said, we talk about money more than anything else and his call was to be generous with what you have and you could sit there and go, man, this is a hard teaching, who can accept it? Or we talk about confession, get together with your life group. The scripture talks about confessing your sins to one another and it could just be like, man, this is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? I mean, I could go down the list like over and over again. There are commands in scripture that we will not like and that we will not understand. All of those teachings, all of those commands are one thing. They're an opportunity. Do you trust him or not? Like when he says what you don't want to say,

will you follow him anyway? So point number two, second thing we must understand from this text is this, Jesus won't always say what we want him to say. So these people leave because Jesus doesn't do what they want him to do and he doesn't say what they want him to say. But the story wraps up here, it says this, verse 66. From this time on, many of his disciples turned back. and no longer followed him. You do not want to leave too, do you? Jesus asked the 12. Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God. You see, while most people left, Peter stayed. My question is, why? Like, what's the difference between him and everyone else? I bet Peter was hungry. I bet he wanted bread. I bet Peter didn't fully understand what Jesus was teaching here. Peter wasn't the smartest guy in the room. I bet he didn't understand what was going on. I bet Jesus wasn't doing what Peter wanted him to do, and I bet Jesus wasn't saying what Peter wanted him to say. And yet, Peter stayed unlike the rest. Why?

Because of one thing. He believed he was God. It's really that simple. He goes, where else would we go, Jesus? To look at verse 69 again. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God. Like, if you are God, if you are really the divine made flesh, then it doesn't matter what I want. It doesn't matter what I want you to say. It doesn't matter what I want to do or what I want you to do. Like, my opinions don't matter. I don't get to come to you with demands, but rather with submission, because if you are really God, then I'm not going anywhere. This is point number three. Third thing we must understand from this text, Jesus is always worth following. In every single season, he's worth following. Why? Because he's God, and if you truly believe that, you will not leave him. You just won't. A couple of years ago, I had a good buddy who had access to courtside seats to Dallas Mavericks games, and I'm a huge NBA fan, and he invited me to go to one of the games with him,

and they were actually playing the Lakers that night, and it was back when LeBron was on the team, and I got very close. In fact, here's a picture I took with LeBron, and, yeah, I mean, he was amazing. He actually got closer than that. Like, they would inbound, like, right in front of me. I'm sitting here like this. I could just reach out and touch his jersey whenever I wanted to. I just didn't want to get kicked out. Like, LeBron was that close, and, like, this was my dream. Like, as an NBA fan, to sit courtside, LeBron James is right here, it's unbelievable. If you would've come up to me at that game and said, Nate, I've got an offer for you. I've got a reservation for two at Chili's tonight. You wanna come? I'd look at you like you're crazy. If you came up to me and you said, hey, I've got a reservation for two at Reunion Tower, the spinny ball thing in Dallas, do you wanna come? I'd say, no. If you said, hey, I've got tickets up in 318. Do you wanna go? I'd say, that's a ridiculous offer. In fact, anything else is totally preposterous. Why? I'm exactly where I wanna be. I'm right next to LeBron.

Like, I'm getting to see LeBron. I could almost touch LeBron. Like, where else would I go? LeBron's here. To a much, much greater illustration, Peter's going, where else would I go? God's here. Like, I can touch him, I can walk with him. I can learn from him. God's here. I'm with him, so where else would I go? Like, any other offer is ridiculous. You want me to go to my phone for a distraction? That's awful. You want me to sleep in? No, I get to be with Jesus. You want me to look for my career for greater satisfaction? You want me to go to a social status or Amazon? You want me to go to money for more? Like, any other offer is totally preposterous because God made flesh is here. And if that's true, I'm not leaving. Yeah. So listen, what I hope you understand from this message is this. Jesus oftentimes will not do what you want him to do in your life. Oftentimes, he may not say what you want him to say. And yet, there's no one else like him. See, there's no one else

who will stick closer than a brother. There's no one else who will offer grace in the midst of your sin. There's no one else who will offer friendship in the midst of your loneliness. There is no one else who will offer satisfaction in the midst of your emptiness. There's no one who will offer joy in the midst of your depression. There's no one else who will offer acceptance in the midst of your failure. You see, there is no one else like him. There is no one else who will offer pleasures forevermore. So while he may not do what you want him to do, he may not say what you want him to say, you just gotta know, there's no one. one else like him, he's God made flesh. And if you believe that, then don't you dare leave because he's got something better in store for your life than you do. So why would you run to anything else? And my question is, is this what your life looks like? Does your schedule look like you wanna leave his side or not? Are you eager to get time in the word? Are you eager to spend time in prayer? Are you excited for church? Or are you just like the crowd? Is it easy for you to leave him? And if that's you this morning, you came in this morning

feeling like the crowd, one foot in, one foot out, this morning's an amazing opportunity for you to come back because he wants you. So in summary, point number one, Jesus won't always do what we want him to do. Point number two, Jesus won't always say what we want him to say. And point number three, Jesus is always worth following. Well, I wanna end with this. Primarily, I don't want you leaving these doors. Primarily thinking, I'm not gonna leave his side. I'm not gonna leave his side. I'm not gonna leave his side. I'm not gonna leave his side. That's not the goal of this message because that's not the point of the gospel. See, the most amazing thing about the gospel is not that we didn't leave his side, but that he never left ours. You see, all of us have looked like the crowd many times in our life. All of us, just like the crowd, heard Jesus' teaching, saw that Jesus wasn't doing what we wanted him to do, so we left him. Whether it was just in a moment of temptation, maybe it was a season you weren't following him, or maybe for you, man, you've turned your back on him completely. You're like, I'm not gonna follow him. The most amazing thing is that while we looked at Jesus

and said, we don't want you, he looked back at us and said, but I want you. And even though we left him, he didn't leave us, and instead he pursued us, and he came to live a perfect life. He came to fulfill the law that you and I never could, and then he came to die our death upon the cross, paying our penalty, and then he rose again from death. Why? So that we could come back to God, so that we could have a relationship with God. Although we left him, he didn't leave us, so that we could be with him forever and ever and ever. And we celebrate that fact every single time we take communion. So on your way in, you should have received a communion cup, and what we're gonna do is we're gonna do what Jesus was teaching in John chapter six. We're gonna eat and drink from this bread and from this juice, and as we do, we will live forever, not because there's anything magical here. It's not because of the bread, it's not because of the juice. We will live forever, because as we eat and drink of this, we are reminding ourselves of the fact that we've chosen to place our full faith, hope, and trust, not in our performance, but his. We've chosen to believe that he really was God made flesh, that he really did die, he really did rise again, and because of that fact,

we can be with him forever and ever. So as we take communion, as you physically feel these elements, may that presence be a reminder to you of his presence, that although you left him, he didn't leave you. And before we do, I wanna say two more quick things. One, if you are not a believer in Jesus this morning, please do not take communion. This is for believers in Jesus. If you do not believe in him, do not take communion, but we've got something better for you. You have an opportunity to take Christ. You can believe in Jesus Christ today. We'd love to talk to you up front afterwards, but if you are a believer in Jesus this morning, we are gonna take communion. But before we do, just sit for a moment and think, what this week has caused you to leave him? What has caused you to leave him? Maybe it's been a frustration with him, maybe it's been an anxiety at work, maybe it's been that temptation on your phone. What has caused you, just like the crowd in John 6, to leave him? So get that on your mind, and as you do, as we take communion, just remember that you are forgiven for leaving him. You're forgiven for leaving his side because he never left yours. So on the night that he was betrayed,

he was gathered up with his disciples and Jesus took the bread and he got up and he said, this bread represents my flesh, which is about to be given for you. In a short time period, I'm gonna be handed over, I'm going to be crucified. My flesh is going to be torn from my body and it's going to be broken for you. So every time you eat of this bread, eat of it in remembrance of me. And then Jesus lifted the cup and he said, this cup is the blood of my covenant. It represents my blood that's about to be shed for you. I'm about to be lifted up upon a cross, bleeding out as I die, but I'm dying for you. I'm dying so that this blood could cover your sin. That while your sin was like scarlet, as it washes over you, it will now be white as snow. So every time you drink of this cup, drink of it in remembrance of me. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the forgiveness that is found in your shed blood and your broken body. Thank you. Thank you so much that as we eat of this, we can be confident that we shall live forever. Not because of this bread or this juice, but because of the fact that we have placed our trust in the fact that you really did die. Your flesh really was torn.

Your blood really was spilled, and it really was done for us. But you didn't just die upon that cross. Three days later, you rose again, showing victory over sin, showing victory over death, showing forgiveness of our sin. And because you did that, we can be forgiven now and forevermore. So Heavenly Father, would you, through the power of your Holy Spirit, keep us with you. May we not be tempted by anything this world has to offer, but instead, may the sound of our life be, Jesus, where else would we go? There's nowhere else that's better. There's no one else that's more fulfilling because in you are treasures and pleasures forevermore. So I'm not leaving because you are worth my very life. So Father, we love you so much. We're so grateful for the fact that Jesus is alive and with us and for us. It's in his name we pray, amen.