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All right. All right. And those of you in church leadership looking for new and innovative ideas. There you go. Try that one out on your congregation next Sunday. Chris. My wife is sitting right over here. We started serving Ada Bible Church when we were 21 years old and handed off the senior pastor reins two and a half years ago, but still involved. And usually that's not good advice for the founder to stick around. But my successor, Aaron, we had worked together for 15 years and just can't believe how well it's going after shifting from the main leadership role into a secondary support role. So glad you're here. Glad I get to be here. And the first talks that I want to lead us in this week have to do with the topic of life. Life and where we find it, or life and where we try to find it. I'm extracting this from some teachings that I did some time ago at Ada Bible Church. And I want to begin with a picture. Some of you will have absolutely no idea who this guy is. And some of you know how many of you know who this dude is right here. Okay, what's his name? Anthony. Anthony Bourdain. So those of you who'd never set eyes on that guy before, let me give you a crash course in Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain was a chef in New York City, Les Hal restaurant. And in the year 2000, he was 43 years old, he wrote a book and this was a book, it's called Kitchen Confidential. Kind of the underbelly of the restaurant food industry. And suddenly Bourdain rocketed from this chef, always behind on his rent, to New York Times best selling author invited into late night show after late night show to inter interview. We're talking Oprah type interview type stuff. And his book just absolutely takes off. After the book takes off, he's invited to do some television shows. And so one of the shows that he did was no Reservations. And after that there was parts unknown with CNN and then the layover. And so the book is one thing, but when you start producing award winning television, you, your fame and recognizability reaches a new height. And so Tony tragically took his own life in 2018. So again, eight years ago in June, leaving a massive fan base, asking the question, how can the guy with the best job in the world want to end it? I mean, your job is to fly to countries, eat at amazing restaurants, talk to people. How in the world did this happen? And just understand, Tony had knocked off three of the big ones for the first time. In his life, he had money, he was wildly successful, not only producing television programs, but award winning television programs and fame, recognizability. Chef. Fellow chef David Chang talked about walking about two blocks with him in New York City and getting stopped like 18 times from people that wanted to shake his hand or take a picture. He had knocked off three of the big wealth, success and fame and yet ended it. And my. You need to know something. I was a fan of Anthony Bourdain. I know some of you didn't make it past the second program. He'd be crass, irreverent, could drink his way across, you know, copious amounts of alcohol. And yet I loved watching him not just when he was at a Michelin star restaurant, but like one of these scenes when he's sitting at a little plastic chair at a little plastic table as the scooters are going by in Vietnam. And he never felt like he had to wrap a program up with a neat ending. He had been places like Haiti or Lebanon and it's just like, this is a mess and we don't know what to do about the mess. So there was an honesty without the need for a happy landing with every show. And I mentioned Tony, not to criticize Tony, but to say that in Anthony Bourdain, I think we have a case study in hunger. And by that I mean this thing that we're chasing that we can never quite catch, this hunger, this need, this empty cavity space inside. And what I want to suggest is two just wanted two questions. What if our creator God through Jesus is the only one that can fill that empty space? I don't mean the only one. Who should. I mean, what if the empty space in us is so deep that we really have to have an infinite being to fill the infinite chasm that's in us? So I'm not saying it's a good idea to fill Jesus with that space. It's what if he's the only thing that really can fill that space? And the second question, which is it's quarterly, and what if we, dear friends, are in the process of stuffing our lives with every other conceivable thing trying to fill the empty that is us? And in the midst of today's conversation on hunger, we have the words of Jesus where he said, I am the bread of life. I am life. Bread. Now, a statement, I am the bread of life, almost put it on a bumper sticker. I mean, it's bumper sticker length. But that statement, I am the bread of life was made in this Lengthy back and forth conversation you would find in your Bible. In John chapter six, it's called the bread of life discourse. It's not a monologue. Jesus talks. The people listening ask questions. He talks. There's an accusation, he talks. Again, it's this back and forth conversation, and it is disruptive. By the end of his speech, by the end of the conversation, a lot of people previously in his fan base are going to bail. Go, we're done with you. It's a very disruptive conversation. The whole conversation in the aftermath. About 20, excuse me, about 45 verses long. Mercifully. Mercifully today. I'm not going to drag you through every verse. You're welcome. But I want you to get a sense of what's going on, a sense of what he said, so that when you see those words, I am the bread of life, you'll get a sense of the context and you'll get a sense of the conversation and the flow. So I am the bread of life. I am life. Bread. Listen. Listen. Our hunger is real and our hunger is deep. And we try to fill that empty spot with dozens of different things that seem to work for a while. What if God, through Christ, is the infinite being to fill the infinite chasm? And what if we are in the process of searching for every other thing to cram in there instead? A story in four conversations, four part conversation today. And part number one is just called Looking for Jesus. Part one is just called Looking for Jesus. And John, chapter six, verse 26 is where this discourse, the bread of life discourse begins. And I just want to tell you, these look like really interesting ways to start a sermon. It says, jesus answered very truly. I tell you, you're looking for me not because you saw the sign I performed, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Now that's a way to warm up a crowd. Jesus goes, you're looking for me. You've been looking for me. Not because you saw a sign, a miracle that I did, but because you ate the loaves and were filled by the loaves. You go, what in the world is going on? What's going on is something that happened the day before and on the other side of the lake. So X factor, I skipped over a map there, just if we could go back to that. Jesus is in Capernaum, northern Israel. It was his headquarters. Jesus, raised in Nazareth, moves to Capernaum on a main road, sets up his headquarters there. And it's not only in Capernaum, we actually know the building that he's in. So if life ever takes you to Israel and you end up in Capernaum, this image of the synagogue. So it's. It's probable that on that same chunk of real estate is where Jesus looks at a crowd of people in the synagogue in his headquarters in Capernaum and says, you're looking for me. You're not looking for me because I did a miracle yesterday. You're looking for me because you ate the loaves and had your fill. What he's talking about is what happened on the other side of the lake the day before. What happened on the other side of the lake the day before was the feeding of the 5,000. The feeding of the 5,000. Large, large, large crowd is there. Jesus looks at Philip, one of his disciples, and says, we got to get something for these people to eat. And Philip goes, you got to be kidding me. It'd take the better part of someone's salary for a year to give these people something to eat. Then Andrew, one of his other disciples, goes, well, I found a kid's lunch bag, you know, five loaves and two fishes. And Jesus begins to break the bread and break the bread, and break the bread, and break the bread. It is the feeding of the 5000s that happened the day before on the other side of the leg. And what happens in that moment is that people experience what Jesus just did, and they want to. The word that John uses is they wanted to make him king by force. They want to hoist him on their shoulders and make Jesus their king. And something in us goes, yes, yes, King Jesus. He says, no, no, no, no. The king that they're looking for is not the kind of king he came to be. Jesus will have no part of it. He literally goes up on a hillside, gets away from the crowd. Next day he's in Capernaum, and the people are looking for him. So where have you been? How did you get here? Easy. I walked. It's the story in between. And Jesus looks at him and says, you're not here because you saw the miracle yesterday, the feeding of the 5,000. You're here because you ate the loaves and had your fill. And what's gonna happen in this conversation is that Jesus is gonna say something more or less like this. I didn't come to make bread. I came to be bread. And what you want, I'm not offering. And what I'm offering, I don't think you want. So there's this little back and forth that takes place where verse 27. He goes. He goes, do not Work for food that spoils, but for food that endures. Something that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. And then they're going like, hey, what kind of miracle are you going to do so we can know we put our confidence in you? He says, well, how about the one I did yesterday? That's not good enough. And he said, well, do you have something in mind? And they do have something in mind. Because when Jesus broke the bread and fed the people, they are having a, like, national flashback to something that had happened hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before. Hundreds of years before. When the children of Israel leave Egypt and go out into the desert space on their way to the land of promise, God fed them this daily food substance that would, like, appear on the ground in the morning. Anyone know what the name of that stuff was called? Samana? No. Moses, their leader at the time. God uses the leadership of Moses. God provides manna. But it was day after day after day after day after day after day after day. And what's going to unfold here is fed us once. Moses fed them every day. You want to be our king, you need to seriously elevate your game. That's what's going on in this conversation. Check out verse 31. Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness. As it is written. He gave them bread to eat from heaven. And they're saying, that's what happened under Moses. If you're the new Moses, you know, what can you do to feed us every day? And Jesus going, okay, first of all, that wasn't Moses that brought you bread. That was God that gave you bread. And the point wasn't the bread. The point was the giver. It's the point that you rely on him for everything, to sustain you, to feed you, to keep you alive, to lead you. The point wasn't the bread. The point was the giver. And God the Father deserved your devotion and your allegiance and you coming to him day after day after day. The point wasn't the bread. The point was the giver. Jesus said to them, truly, very truly, I tell you, it wasn't Moses, it wasn't Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, the manna, but it is your Father who, present tense, gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. He's talking here about himself. And in case they miss, the point in verse 35 is where he drops the bomb. Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry. Whoever believes in me will never go thirsty. What you're wanting, I'm not offering. You want breakfast? I'm offering me to come to me, to learn of me, to be nurtured by me. I didn't come to make bread. I came to to be bread. I am the bread of life. So let's talk about life bread. That's all I'm going to. Oh, see, bread, it's not just the calories. It's not just that it gives you enough calories to survive. It's the aroma, it's the texture. Does it not touch something deeply in you? That Jesus likened himself to bread, that this here he had other images for himself, but this here is the images he uses. I am life bread. Bread is a reminder that I need something outside myself to feed me and to give me life. Do you remember your first memory of bread? Any of you? I'll tell you mine. Mine may be wildly different than yours, but mine was my mom's homemade bread. So let's go a couple pictures. Oh, I see a picture like that. I can almost smell our kitchen when I was a kid, when my mom would make these several, several pans of homemade bread at the same time. And I absolutely loved the bread when it came out of the oven, when it was hot and I could slather butter all over it. I'm telling you, I would have been 10 years old. I could eat half a loaf of her homemade bread. Loved it when it came out of the oven, Hated it three days later when it was my school lunch bread and a kitchen knife could never slice it thinly. And so there were these hunks of bread filled with either peanut butter and jelly or ham from leftover Sunday dinner. And I would look down the lunchroom table and I had wonder bread envy. Here were these kids with these thin, thin, delicate slices of bread with deli ham, shaved deli ham. I said, what animal is that? I'd never seen deli ham. When I had ham, it was hunk. So my lunch was hunks of ham in hunks of bread. So did anyone else have my childhood? I'm just asking here, Anyone else have my childhood? Right, right. But when it first came out of the oven, just the flavor, the texture, the warmth, the aroma. I think something in us should be touched deeply that Jesus likened himself to Brett. He gave us something physical, something tangible, something nurturing, something filling, and said, this is me. This is me. I am the bread of life. Now, I don't know what it is for you, whether it's that toasted everything bagel in the morning with cream cheese or whether it's that buttery, fluffy croissant. I know right now some of you are going, I'm gluten free. Work with me here, okay? That fluffy, buttery, gluten free croissant or being at an Italian restaurant where they bring out the warm baguette and you dip it in olive oil bread. It's not just, we're talking soul food here. It's not only food for the stomach, it's food for the soul. And Jesus said, listen, you're starving for something, you're hungry for something. I am the life bread that comes to sustain you and to nurture you and to fill you. And while Jesus came as the bread of life, we have to confess that I mean each and every single one of us, that empty space inside, we do try to fill that with other stuff that is not him. So part three, part one of our conversation, looking for Jesus, part two, light bread, Part three of our conversation is just called food that spoils. Now, that was the term Jesus used up in verse 26 where he said, do not work for what does he say? For what? For food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, he says, which the Son of Man will give you. He's calling himself the Son of Man. Here I am, I'm offering this food that is enduring food. Now, technical term, eternal life. Eternal life isn't just life after death, heaven, the new heaven and new earth, eternal life. It's a life that we get now, an infusion of life now that continues after that point where your heart stops beating. But eternal life is something that we get to experience. Now he says, I'm offering eternal life. It's life that the Son of Man gives you. But he warns the crowd and there in the synagogue, don't spend all your effort working on food that spoils, but food that endures to eternal life. So I'm going to use a term that I haven't used yet. And it is going to be a critical term for our first four conversations this week. And the critical term four letter word, an idol. And by idol, I simply mean this. An idol is a God substitute, an idol, a substitute God. In fact, author Steve Cuss, in his book on leadership anxiety, Anxiety in leadership, he defined idol this way. He said an idol is anything other than Jesus that you must have in order to be okay. So what would that be for you? Your answer might be wildly Different. The person sitting, you know, three people down the road or row or two people in back of you was. I can only be okay if I must have this in order to be okay. How would you end this sentence? I would be okay if I only had. I have a list. I would be okay if I were only loved by the right person. I would only be okay if I was known and admired by the right people. I would only be okay if I finally got my parents approval, my spouse's affection. If only my kid would show some initiative, then I would be okay. I will only be okay when I'm more wealthy, more talented, more beautiful, more famous, more successful. And I wish I could tell you that those things will not fail you. Success, achievement, another person's affection, your kids, initiative, wealth, beauty. I wish I could tell you they will not fail you. They will for a limited time only. When we say money can't buy happiness, it really can. I mean, when you're in a store and buy something, literally there is a chemical reaction, dopamine, serotonin, that gets set off when you walk into a store and you purchase something in. It often dissipates by the time it's out of the bag and on the hanger. So it's not that it isn't fulfilling, it's just that it's fulfilling for an incredibly limited period of time. When Jesus said do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures till eternal life, I think he's talking there about the I had it and now it's gone. Nature of things, achievement, achievement, if you like, that would be your thing. I would be okay if only I had were recognized for my achievements. And you have this super achievement and I'm telling you it is deeply, deeply, deeply satisfying for about 22 minutes. And it's like, okay, do it again, do it again. You're only as good as your last game. Do it again, do it again. I'm amazed. Over the years, Ada Bible Church for 42 years started with a group of 20 some people. Now it is significantly larger. Would you trust me if I told you that I'm paid a little bit more than I was when we were 21 and had 20 some people. Over the course of time there's been various raises, often a cost of living increase. And so you work at a place for long enough, sooner or later you're probably going to get a cost of living increase. And in your car on the way home you're going, yes, even if it's like 3%, you're going, okay, 3% of that, what does that mean each year? But what does that mean? If you each pay period, and I'm telling you for a moment, you go, who could ever want more? And you find out and it's like after three to six pay periods, it just kind of wears off and is now not some huge blessing. Now it's just kind of normal, incredibly fulfilling for three to six pay periods. And so when Jesus says, do not work for food that spoils, I think he's acknowledging the honesty that there are a bunch of things, people, relationships that do fill us. But King Solomon in Ecclesiastes talked about chasing the wind, where you're like chasing the breeze and you catch it and you look into your hands and it's gone. I think that's what Jesus is talking about here. So what is it you're after? You say, jeff, you're right, I'm hungry. I'm starving for something. I have this huge chasm in my life. What am I after? In one word, I think you're after this. I think you're after life. I think you're starving for life. And we've surrounded that with a bunch of other words here to kind of give the idea a sense of belonging, to wholeness, home, beauty, tranquility, peace, connection, without a litany of broken relationships over time. Which one of those words resonate with you? I'll tell you two that just seemed to hit me. Or home. Just this sense of arrival, peace without the daily disruptions and the daily conflicts, the sense of belonging. I believe this is what we're after. When Jesus, he didn't say, I am the bread, he said, I am the bread of life. I am life. Bread. He's saying, find these in me. We had them once at the beginning of time, before sin entered into the world. When we walked with God before the fall, I think there was this total sense of home, of peace, of unbroken connection, of tranquility and belonging. Then sin enters into the world. And, my friends, it messes with everything. The effects of sin are thorough. Not always in their depth, but in their breadth. It messes with every family. It messes with every church. It messes with every form of government, every hospital, every school, every university. And it's not just the grime out there, it's the mess in here. The effects of sin are thorough. You ready? It's like we lost our bread and we don't know how to get it back. Something's wrong and we know it to the core of our being. And so it's like, I'll try that now. I'll try that now. I'll try that now. I'll try that now. We're looking for home. We're looking for peace. We're looking for life. We're looking for life apart from God and looking for life apart from Christ. And Jesus looks at this crowd in his synagogue and he says, I didn't come to make bread. I came to be bread. I am life. Bread. Back to Anthony Bourdain. After Anthony's suicide in 2018, within a couple years, different books and documentaries started to surface about his life. This one right here, Bourdain A definitive oral biography. Laurie Willever, the author, was a dear friend of his, a colleague, a co worker, and she literally interviewed like almost 100 different people talking about. And these were people that liked Tony, these were people that worked with Tony. It's kind of like what went wrong. And it's just their impressions of experiencing Anthony Bourdain over time. And then the documentary came out, I believe it was 2021. It's called Roadrunner. And again, all of these different people that experienced Anthony Bourdain interacted and kind of weighed in on the gift that he was and quite frankly, the liability that he was. So Tom Vitale, who was a director for Bourdain's programs for like 15 years, ended up saying, there was no person, there was no place, there was no thing that was going to hold his attention for long. It's like he was absolutely obsessed about being a chef. And then the obsession shifted. He was absolutely obsessed about being a writer and became New York Times, you know, writer. But then it shifts to television and he's obsessed with television again, making award winning television. And then the obsession shifts. And in his 50s, he stopped smoking, got super fit, and was all in on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Coworkers were interviewed. Say he would talk your ear off. He would talk for hours about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Tony, enough, enough. And then toward the end of his life, absolutely obsessed with an Italian actress named Asia Argento when it was about to come out in a tabloid that she was seeing somebody else. And he was contacted by the European tabloids and the American tabloids. He said, yeah, it's over. But you're watching someone who is moving from one obsession to another obsession to another obsession to another obsession in an attempt to fill the empty space. That show, no Reservations, some of you watched a bunch of episodes in no Reservations. There was this tagline, the driving background music in the Background and then, I'm Anthony Bourdain. I write, I eat, I travel, and I'm hungry for more. I'm Anthony Bourdain. I write, I eat, I travel, and I'm hungry for more. And I realize, looking back, as I watch him go from country to country and from restaurant to restaurant to restaurant to restaurant, dining on some of the most amazing meals in the world, I'm watching a man who's starving to death. I'm watching a man with an incredible deep hunger just chasing one thing after another. And again, I don't say this to criticize Tony. I say this to identify with Tony and being able to go, our hunger is deep and it is real. Here this Jesus comes along and he goes, I, I am life. I didn't come to make bread. I came to be bread. I am the one outside of you that needs to meet you and to walk with you and to fill you. I am the bread of life. So what do you do? Thank you, Jeff. I'm drowning here. And you're describing the water. What do we do? So I'm going to do a hit and run here. I'm just going to hit with this. But if you're around for tomorrow morning, tomorrow night, I'm going to return to these with deeper level of conversation. There's just three habits I want to expose you to. Three. This is part four. Just the three habits. And the three habits are these. Identify, expose and replace. By three habits, I mean, this is not something you can do today that will see you through next week or next year. By three habits, I mean things you can do again and again and again and again and again and again and again. The identify is identify what might be on the list of your counterfeit gods. I will only be okay when I get that. Now. I used to be at a camp like this, right? Summer camp in high school, where often the. The pastor who was speaking that week would ask a very good question. He would ask, is there an idol in your life? While it was a great question when I was in high school, I think it's a ridiculous question standing here now. I think there are always like two or three lobbying for our attention at any given time. So instead of saying, is there an idol? I just go, what are they? Can you identify them? Are you still saying, if I can only get the approval of my parents, then I will be okay? Just a little more money, just a little more, Just a little more, A little more fame, 5,000 more Instagram followers, then I would be okay? Identify it Number two is expose it. You look at that potential idol and I need you to quote some bad grammar with me. So those of you who hate bad grammar, this is going to mess with you. You ready? I need you to say out loud, you ain't going to do it. Ready? You ain't going to do it. And it's just looking at your counterfeit God, your substitute God, you know you ain't going to do it. Ain't going to do it. A mountain of Amazon boxes waiting on my porch cannot fill the emptiness that is me. You ain't going to do it. You will not find long term fullness in your next party, your next pay raise, your next purchase, or your next person. And just to be able to identify it and look at it and go, can you bad grammar with me? Ready? You ain't. You ain't gonna do it. That's too exposed. The third thing though is you have to replace. You cannot remove an idol. You have to replace an idol. The heart is so empty and so cavernous and so hungry. If you remove an idol, another idol will simply take its place. You can't remove an idol. You have to replace an idol. So we'll be returning to these three expressions tomorrow morning and tomorrow night, I think Tuesday evening as well. Just identify it. What is it? We all have them. We all have them ones that lobby for our attention. Identify it, Expose it. You ain't going to do it for me. And replace it. And by replace it, I mean day after day walking with Jesus, day after day in inviting Jesus to know me, walking with him day after day in a way that I get to know him, enjoying him and letting him enjoy me even while I'm a mess. And my friends longing for the day when you get to be with him. Because it is not until you are in the presence of your Lord, in the new heaven and the new earth that that hunger will be totally satisfied and that longing totally met. And so a prayer that I leave you with and that I close with is the simple prayer. Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, bread of life, feed my empty heart. Lord Jesus, bread of life, fill my empty soul. Amen.