So do you eat soup in the summer? I mean most of the time we think of soup. I mean we're we're thinking of this bowl of excitement, you know, that just just there for us during those chilly winter months. But there is a cold summer soup, Here's just a few options. There's Gazpacho, there is mango and ginger, There is sweet pea and mint. You can get some leek and potato, potato and some Hungarian sour cherry. I have no idea what any of those tastes like because I'm not a big cold soup guy. In fact, just reading through that list. No offense to those soups, it makes me want to create a meat lover's cold soup. Just somewhere we could put a meat lover's cold soup together. Speaking of cold soup is cereal soup. I mean, it's a good question, right? It's like breakfast soup, it's there for us. How about, let's take a step further. Our pop tarts ravioli. I mean, they're the same thing. Just these are the deep questions in life we need to consider. So why don't we gather together over a chilled bowl of cucumber, asparagus, uh, fennel soup and we'll talk it all out, you know? Or maybe soup is not your thing, No soup for you? Maybe you just would rather have those existential conversations over a couple of chili dogs from the hot dog King. So, y'all know, I've been saying the hot dog King now for like four weeks. It was an imaginary place in my mind a few weeks ago, but come to find out there's really a place in north Carolina called the Hot dog King. So we're going to get everybody we can on the church bus next week and we're going Hot dog King. So if you want to come come with us, it'll be fun. It'll be great supposedly. In 18 12, german composer Beethoven said this, anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart and cannot make a good soup. I don't know. I think we should run with that. It, it sounds like super advice. Yeah. By the way, I need to clear Bruce Lillian a few weeks ago, I said that someone said they were going to start bringing a flag every time that I told a terrible joke and they were going to throw a flag. It is not our retired official of high school football. Okay. I'll just, I'm going to just throw her under the bus. It was Cheryl promise. Yeah. Shell probes said that her dad used to take his handkerchief out in his sunday school class and throw it down when his sunday school teacher told a terrible joke. So yeah, So Cheryl maybe bringing her flag soon. So we'll, we'll see the reality is whether it's Hungarian sour cherry soup or whether it's chili dogs or whether it's french toast, cotton candy, whatever it may be. We all need food. We all need something to eat. But did you know that there is a type of food that can give you eternal life. Now. I know that sounds like a crazy lie, but it's not that's true. We continue our series maybe finish up our series called doors where we are looking at some of the most defining doors that we walk through in life. And today we'll be looking at kitchen doors. Our message today is kitchen doors, we'll be looking at John Chapter six, we're looking at versus 27 through 29 and then those passages, we're going to hear Jesus talk to us about food that lasts forever. Now again, I know that that sounds, you know, kind of crazy, but but before you begin to say that it's just some kind of crazy religious fiction. Let me just ask you a very serious question. Do you believe that you are going to die? I know. Have you questioned the beginning the sermon, but just just hang with me, do you really believe that you are going to die? And if so then you have every reason to listen to jesus. I mean really for these next few moments while we're here, there's there's no rational reason. You have nothing to lose by listening to the words of jesus that we're about to look at and in fact you have everything to gain the very potential of eternal life in the words of jesus. So John Chapter 6: verse 27, jesus says this, do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life. So what's happening in this moment? Well john chapter six, verses one through 26 we find the whole story, all of this is taking place around the sea of galilee and what's happened is there were at least 5000 people that they showed up one day and went and found jesus because they wanted to hear jesus teach, they thought he might have some good things to say, they were hoping maybe some amazing things will happen, maybe maybe they might even see a miracle. Well, lo and behold, they did see a miracle, jesus had a miracle buffet for him that day, he fed these thousands and thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. So there was a miracle buffet that day and this moment now is the next day when the next day after the miracle buffet we're with the same crowd of people, but we're in a different scene, hours after the miracle buffet, the disciples got in a boat and they launched out into sea to go to the other side and so the people now this is the next morning and they're thinking, hey, wouldn't it be great to see jesus again? I mean, why not? Right, I mean powerful talks amazing miracles and free food. Yeah, let's go find this guy again. So what happens is they begin to go looking for jesus and as they're looking lo and behold some CIA galley tour boats come along, so they hop on the tour boats and they say, hey take us to the other side where the disciples went and so they get to the other side, they get out of the boat and they look up bang, there's, there's jesus, hey jesus fancy seeing you here. Yeah, we were just tooling around these tour boats, thought we would stop here and just walk around for a bit, but hey, great to see you. By the way, lunch yesterday was fantastic, thank you so much. And since we kind of accidentally ran into each other, why don't we do the whole thing over again? What do you think, Jesus and jesus turned to them and said you're not here for God's truth, you're here for more wonder bread in other words, in a millisecond, jesus was reading their hearts, they didn't really want to see jesus, they just wanted the wonder bread, here's the thing, jesus is still reading hearts, he's good at it, it's his thing and he knows our hearts today, he knows if we're here to truly worship and he knows if we're here just to be seen, He knows if we're here to intensify our relationship with him and he knows if we're here just to be a little more religious than we were last week. He knows if we're here with humility desiring to learn and grow and change and be more like him and he also knows if we're here with pride and arrogance and he knows we're still full of, of stubbornness and we have no desire to change. And he also knows that if you're here right now and your heart is broken and you feel lost and confused, as if you have nowhere else to go and nobody else to turn to, jesus knows your heart right now better than anyone and over and over again, day after day, always and always, he is tenderly, always calling us away from our pride, away from our arrogance, away from our Brokenness, away from our hurt, he's always calling and he's saying, come to me, come to me because there is something about jesus that changes everything, so it's not just come to church, it's not just coming here. The message of jesus is clearly go and tell, but it is definitely go and tell them to come to me, come to me the crowd, they they weren't really looking for jesus, they were looking for the free stuff that jesus was going to give away, they were focused on the gift, they were not focused on the giver and if we're honest, we can be the exact same way, we can, we can be fine with God, we can be fine with church, we can be fine with religion, as long as things are going the way we want them to go, as long as we're kind of getting what we want, we're we're fine, we're we're good, in other words, we find ourselves in this moment of only focusing on what God gives us or only getting frustrated when we're not getting what we think God should give us. And what we don't do is we don't focus on God himself, on his character, on his love, on his ever changing nature and on how he does things. One of the reasons Holy Holy Holy is one of my favorite hymns, along with with the that my vision is that those two hymns remind us that we are not God, that were never in charge of the church and were never in charge of our homes and were never in charge of our jobs and we're never in charge of our families, were never in charge of the state or the country or the world because we are not Holy Holy Holy, but he is and those songs that move us away from pronouns about us and put them on pronouns about him. It changes how we think it changes us to remind us that sometimes we're okay with putting on our church clothes and having our church language as long as it's convenient, as long as we don't have anything else going on, we we may do anything, we can to be involved in the church if we're hoping for someone to marry us. You know, we're going to start going to church because the, you know, the preacher, we want him to do our wedding that's happened to me for many years and and other people or, or maybe there's, there's tragedy in the family and you're looking for somebody to do the funeral, you're looking for somebody to come to your house and do something. So there's a lot of things that will keep us at church for a little bit. But then when it's not convenient or that immediate need is not being met, we'll find something else to do. These folks. We're not truly wanting to commit themselves to jesus. They just wanted the stuff and jesus called him out for it and we should not be fooled if the same can be said of us either today or tomorrow or on the last day. If our greatest affections are not for jesus, he will graciously, but clearly call us out for it. So that's the scene. That's that's the setting here where the sea of galilee, the people are looking for more free food. And how does jesus respond again? He says this do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life. So jesus tells them, hey, you guys need to quit your jobs. You know, you don't need to go to work anymore. Uh don't don't don't bring home the bread and the bacon anymore. You know, just you're fine. Don't don't do anything, you don't you don't need to work for your food. That's not what he's saying, work earn a wage, take care of your family, but don't neglect your soul. On another day, Jesus said this. What does it profit you? What will you gain if you gain the whole world? And yet you lose your soul. And the answer to that question is you you gain nothing. Nothing. See the greatest family can't save your soul. The greatest friendships can't save your soul. The greatest job cannot save your soul. The greatest home, the greatest car cannot save your soul. The greatest education, the greatest government cannot save your soul. The greatest hobby, the greatest sports team. There's nothing that we would enjoy greatly in life that can save our souls. Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with any of those things. It just means that we have to be sure that we heed the language of jesus throughout the new testament. And really the language we here in the old testament, and that is this. That whatever it is in this world that you hold up, and you say, this is gain, this is profit, the greatest profit. The greatest gain in this world is nothing but filthy rags. If you do not have eternal life, the greatest things lose all of their value. If you do not have eternal life. So where does this eternal life come from? Well, jesus says it comes from non perishable food. And where does that nonperishable food come from? Well, he tells us verse 27, This food of eternal life which the son of man will give you for on him. The father God has set his seal. The food of eternal life comes from jesus. You cannot earn it. You cannot work to buy it. You can't ride a tour boat somewhere to pick it up. It only comes from jesus. It is the gift from the giver. The gift of all gifts from the giver of all givers. It can only come from jesus. Why does jesus get to give this food? Well, he says here because God placed his seal on him. What does that mean? Well, I could go buy a tom brady jersey. Okay, Tom brady is an american football quarterback for the Tampa Bay buccaneers. He wears number 12. So I could go by number 12 Tom brady jersey and I could go to to Raymond James Stadium where the buccaneers play and I could have my jersey on. But that jersey is not going to give me access through the players gate, It's not going to give me access into the locker room. It's not going to be access to to go out on the field and and run the offense for the team. Why? Because I'm not tom brady, but tom brady can put that jersey on and he can get through the players gate and he can get into the locker room and he can go out on the field because he doesn't just have the jersey jersey, He has the authority that goes with the Jersey. He's got the seal in a sense, that's what we're talking about with Jesus, Jesus has been given the authority by God to do all that he does, Jesus has been given authority by God for all the truth that we live in, he has been given authority by God to do all that he has done and all that he will do. It is divine authority, it is divine power. Jesus has the ultimate seal of approval from God. And if you're a christian, then you have a seal to there there is this sealed truth about your life. The apostle paul put it this way to the church at Ephesus Ephesians 1 13 in jesus, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him with the holy spirit of the promise, Jesus is sealed because he's jesus, he's he's God's son. But a christian is sealed because they have jesus because jesus has rescued and redeemed, Jesus has adopted them into the family of God. And only Jesus can do that. Only jesus can adopt us into the family of God. Only Jesus can give us the food of eternal life because only Jesus has been sealed with the authority to do that. That's why he said clearly that he is the way and the truth and the life, he is the only one with authority to give us the food, that gives eternal life. And again, we're not talking about chili dogs. Okay, alright, this is a different kind of food. This is a kind of food that's for your soul and it's the kind of food for your soul. And although you can't see it, you know, it's real. You've discovered it and you feel that it is real. What does that look like in real life? Well, let me give you one from my life. So a couple of days ago, I would say, sunday friday morning, I guess. Yeah, friday morning. I'm standing at the, at the gas pump. It's, it's early in the morning and uh, just, just having that moment where I'm just kind of thinking about all the things that have transpired in my life personally, and, and, and, and in the church and in the nation and in the world. Just, just kind of a rush of all those things kind of going through my mind while I'm standing at the pump and I just had this moment where this eternal life, food. It like, it immediately popped up in my mind and heart and, and here's how it did. I have a buddy of mine in, in texas that he texted me about the time, all this was happening and I texted him after I got back in the car, he goes how you doing? And I was like, well, here's how I'm doing right now and this was my fault. I'm standing there at the gas pump and I fought no matter what anybody walks up and does to me right now, It will not impact my joy 10,000 years from now. No one can do anything to me at this gas station That will impact my joy 10,000 years from now. That is truth from scripture. It's truth from the mouth of jesus. It is the eternal food of eternal life and it matters in real moments. It's not church, it's not religion, it's not baptist or methodist or anything else. It is the truth that came down from heaven, that if you know jesus, if you have jesus, you have everything and gas prices will not impact my salvation and the evil in the world will not impact my salvation. And when I'm having a moment where God seems dark, where it feels like he's hiding where he's not. In this moment, I can always look at Jesus Christ and the cross and the empty tomb and a lot of churches today are celebrating ascension sunday, I can look at the fact that jesus not only lived and died and rose again, but he ascended this moment where he is floating up into heaven going, all authority has been given to me and I'll be back, I'll be back. So yeah, take the name of jesus with you to the gas pump, this, this eternal life of eternal food, it's real and our souls, our souls know it, our minds might fight against it, the atheist agnostic, even the professing christian may may argue with God all the time about truth, but our souls have been created with this vacuumed this hole that only the glory of God can feel only holy holy Holy can fill. And jesus says this is eternal life, this is the food that you need to work for. So how do they respond? How do they respond to this new item on the menu of Life verse 28? Therefore they said to him, what are we to do? So that we may accomplish the works of God, That's great, Jesus says I have eternal life to give you, I have the food of eternal life to give you here, it's it's here. And they say that's great. And they pull out their checkbooks, they pull out their debit cards, they pull out Apple pay there like how much do we owe you? How much can we give you for that? They missed the conversation. See they heard jesus say work, hey this is the food you need to work for. And they went, oh okay, this is something that we can do, they were looking for a formula, they were looking for a program, we're not a whole lot different than them are. We sometimes we don't like to admit it, but but we're looking for the formula, we're looking for the program, we're looking for that one. Social media post or that one sermon to that one bible verse that we can use however we want. We're looking for the thing we we cling to our traditional list of rules and regulations. Or we cling to this insatiable desire to be a part of every religious fad that's out there. Or we rebel against every rule and every regulation in all religion, or we rebel even against anything that could possibly be new. People thought that they could get themselves right with God, that it was something they could work for, something they could do, but they couldn't and neither can we, we cannot work our way into heaven, We cannot buy our salvation. However, if we are saved, we can work out our salvation. We we can live in our salvation. This is how Jesus responded them verse 29, Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God that you believe in him, whom he has sent, Jesus says work. Are you looking for some work? You want something to do? Okay. Here's the only work that matters. Believe in me. Here's the work above all other works. Believe in me the highest and greatest and most satisfying work that any person could ever do is to believe in and rely on and to trust in and cling to Jesus Christ, it is the greatest work in the universe. There is no greater work. The greatest profit. The greatest gain in the universe is to believe in Jesus and to keep believing in jesus. Now, just let's marinate on that one more time because of the overwhelming authority, the overwhelming evidence of his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection and his ascension. The greatest gain. The greatest profit in the universe is to believe in jesus. And to keep believing in jesus, that's the message Jesus gives them. If you're looking for the work. If you're looking for the answer, the answer is believe and keep believing. Anytime you see that word, faith or belief for believing, particularly in the new testament. Almost every single time, it means keep doing it. It's not just a one time thing. You, you keep doing it Officially. The military history of our country will celebrate its 247th birthday in just a couple of weeks, but unofficially Our armed forces and military and our country go back more than 400 years. And it's interesting if you take just a casual look at those centuries, you will see that over and over again, There have been men and women who gave their lives so that we could enjoy the profound liberty and even the simple daily freedoms that we have every day every week and many, if not most people in the world will never experience the things that we've had for a lifetime and every single one of those men and women in our armed forces. They have one thing in common. Yes. One thing that they did almost every single day of their lives and that's this. They walked through the kitchen doors and assure it it may have been cafeteria doors or or or mess hall doors or or the flap on a mess hall tent, you know, But but everybody in some way, shape or form made it to chow time, even if chow time was a can of beans on the side of a dirt road. Somewhere in southern France, everybody ate every everybody got a meal. This week. I was talking to my friend Alexis who is a very accomplished chef in Atlanta and he was telling me how he was formally trained by military chefs, by military cooks. And he was talking about the intensity of his training that he had to go through. And if you consider all of those centuries for more than 250 years, those military cooks have have been serving in times of war, and in times of peace they've been handing out the cornmeal mush or or the the salt pork or the heart attack, whatever it may be, they were giving food out to others. And one of those cooks was someone named Christopher Ludwick Ludwick was encamped with General George Washington at Valley forge. And it was a pretty desperate time. So he in essence started looking for anything that he could to feed the soldiers. So he would he would find some old potatoes or some old meat or or some vegetables, anything he could get his hands on it and he would put them in a pot and he would boil them to try to make them a little more healthy and and try to you know, boil away anything that might have been wrong with them and and then to take away from some of those old taste, he started throwing in some hot peppers and some black peppercorn and and that suit that. He made it reinvigorated those continental soldiers. And and his little recipe for Pepper Pot Soup made it into the Military Army Field Manual for the next 200 years because it was so useful and so effective. Somebody said this about Ludwig, they said because of his long history as a military cook, he knew how to work well in times of desperation and he knew how to make rations stretch. Listen, the lord Jesus Christ is perfect in times of desperation and he doesn't just know how to make food stretch. His food is eternal, the food he offers, it has no and it is his character, it is his nature. And so I bring us back to the question again, do you really believe? But you're going to die because if you do than the kitchen doors of God, they matter. And this food that jesus is offering it matters. Look, you may be able to make it a long time on pepper pot soup, you know, you may be able to make it a long time on on cheetos or pop tarts or or you know, cucumber avocado, fennel soup, whatever. But at the end of the day, none of those foods will help you make it forever. When you breathe your last, you'll need something besides bacon wrapped bacon, right? You'll need something that matters forever. And so jesus and this moment with this crowd, he doesn't waste, don't waste that moment. Doesn't waste that time. He's communicating to them this truth because he is fully aware, but not too long later He was going to become the one true ultimate final sacrifice for sin and death and evil. He was going to be the one he is the only sacrifice that gives eternal freedom. He's the only sacrifice that gives eternal liberty, liberty, and freedom in death and over death all comes through, Jesus, jesus has given the only sacrifice that will satisfy your soul. The only sacrifice that will help you when you're standing at the gas station go, yeah, there's there's more to this life than just living and dying. There's jesus, this is who jesus is, this is what jesus does, This is what Jesus offers. And so I would graciously plead with you this morning, believe in jesus and keep believing in jesus, for the sake of your family, for the sake of your friends, for the sake of this church, for the sake of this community, for the sake of our nation, for the sake of your funeral, for the sake of your freedom, for the sake of your faith, for the sake of your forever believe in jesus and keep believing in jesus, believe in jesus and keep believing and jesus, his hope, his love, his everything for you is forever.