How Do You View Christ — Colossians 3

0:00 Morning. Morning. Great singing. We're gonna have a pop quiz. Who spoke last week?

0:17 Easy. Somebody other than Andy then. What did he speak about? Mary Kay puts her hand up. I heard somebody say it, I don't know who said it.

0:37 Millennial reign. Yes. No, that's father and son. Third question, a little bit harder. I'm not looking for somebody to shout out an answer, just a thought provoking question.

0:55 How many of you went home after last week and studied more about the millennial reign? Because it certainly, in my opinion, would require further look to appreciate the amount of work that our brother did to bring that to your attention. The millennial reign. I would like to offer one verse today. And our brother, wow, he...

1:28 I mean, he covered a lot of the book in a short amount of time, and I appreciate that he said I'm gonna take a few extra minutes. That's always good when somebody else says that. He sets precedence. But I have one verse that his study... I mean, I looked up a number of issues that he brought to my attention being refreshed with the magnitude of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

2:10 It made me search numerous passages. Because it's a controversial issue for many. Is it for me? Certainly not for him. I don't know if it is for you, but there are, I believe, a number of people who don't see it the way it's presented in scripture.

2:33 They have their own personal view. That's great thing that we have in America, your own personal view. Alright. Everybody's entitled to their own personal view even though scripture itself says the bible is of no private interpretation. Right?

2:53 It's of no private interpretation which means that you don't have from God the privilege to interpret it any way you want. That's a hard concept. I get that. It's hard to accept that. But needs to be interpreted in light of everything else that God said and that God is doing.

3:15 So at any given moment you can't take something from God's word and interpret it by yourself without the light that shed on it by all the other issues in scripture. That's what we call the law of complimentary mention. The seven laws of bible interpretation. It has to be interpreted in light of... Now you take a topic like the millennial, you can't use one passage.

3:42 You use a lot of passages. My brother did great work. I applaud him. It's... It it'd be wonderful if I could go back in time and have his young mind combined with mine.

4:01 You see? I just don't want his mind. I want his mind and mine at his age. Right? Because I'm old.

4:13 I think slowly. And I process even slower, especially verbal issues where I have to hear because I'm deaf. And so I have to... What did... What word did he say?

4:27 There are certain consonants I can never hear. So Mary Kay always laughs because I heard the word wrong. Even reading their lips, they say increases my hearing by up to 90%, but I still can look at you and I didn't hear that word right. But these are spiritual issues. It's not just a matter of the physical ability we have to hear words or our brain to understand.

5:32 We can't get them with our fleshly minds. It takes the work of the spirit of God. And having said that, we open in prayer because it's that same spirit of God that we trust is at work not only in us, in our midst as we open his work together. So let's pray. Father, we thank you for your son.

5:55 And we've had this wonderful opportunity this morning to show his death here on the first day of this week. And we're thankful that you've given us that emblems as a way to proclaim his death. And now we have your word to open, and we can explain, Lord, by the power of your spirit, the truths connected for us and all who believe to the intent that you're building your church and building every member of your church up. So we commit our times thus into your hands. In Christ's name, amen.

6:33 So I have one verse, and, that's gonna be found in Colossians in the third chapter. And I'll... I will probably make reference to other verses. And I I have a tendency to quote verses sometimes without giving the reference because I assume that everybody knows where the verse is at. Or at least I can identify that what I just quoted was in fact a verse from God's word and not a verse of mine.

7:16 Alright? So I try to be more careful with that quoting scripture. So I will probably quote other scripture whether you turn to it or not, it's up to you because I know it can be tedious back and forth, back and forth. My fingers are slow. So it's up to you.

7:34 Alright? I could use overhead, but I find that people jump ahead. You know? And I also appreciate the fact that everybody has their own translation, which is another interesting point. The bible's of no private interpretation.

7:56 It's also of no private translation. Alright. So when you ask yourself why you prefer your translation, you should have a good reason. Other than I just like it better. Right?

8:09 I just like that word better than that word when I compare the two. Why would you like it better if it's not more accurate? And how would you know it's not accurate unless you study it? And how would you study Greek language? And how would you even get a copy of the originals?

8:26 There's only three left and they're not in Cleveland. And so we have this whole issue about personal preference, is I'm going to make a point of later. Personal preference, all right. You have a translation in your lap that you prefer. We just acknowledge that.

8:45 My question is, do you know why you prefer it? And if it's not a good reason that you prefer it, then ask yourself the second question. Alright. What am I trying to have God say to me? What would I like God to say?

9:07 Rather than I want to study what God said, we have a church full of people. I have this translation because this is what I want God to be saying. Alright? Again, personal preference. Personal preference.

9:24 The one thing you know about the millennium, if you're paying attention, Nobody was praying that it started. Nobody invited Christ down again. It wasn't by preference that he showed up. We live in a world of preference. We preach the gospel with invitation.

9:51 The millennium is not an invitation. You'll notice a drastic difference in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ during that rule. And let's just say for the past three thousand years. Alright, two thousand, whatever. He's different.

10:11 He's different. So we might as my bible school principal in England used to insist that all of us students had a Jesus that was by preference. How we wanted to see him. How we wanted him to be in a given situation. How we preferred him to respond to us in need.

10:36 Thank you, brother. Definite rewards in heaven for the cold water. Because we're people of preference, and we live in a society where choices is paramount to our experience. Choice. You have a choice.

10:52 Right? We get menus. Pick what you want, which we'll look at in a few minutes as well. The millennium isn't started by perfect. You can receive Christ this morning.

11:06 If you sit here and you don't know Christ, you have a choice to receive him this morning. And I would be happy to pray with you before you leave. That you would be saved forever. That's a choice. Millennium is not a choice.

11:27 Millennium is not the nation of Israel praying for the Messiah to come and save them. It's really not. It's something that Jesus Christ is doing on his own. Not by determination of a group of people. It won't be by the determination of the church.

11:47 There's no prayer meeting going on about please start the millennium today. Right? Because he is Jesus Christ. He's not a whim. He's not a myth.

12:00 He's not a ghost floating around. He has a body, and he's up there, and he's coming back. And he's gonna put his foot on his planet a second time. Alright? Colossians chapter three has a verse that I think I wanna use to sum up everything that our brother brought to my attention and that has subsequently come from my study of the scripture since I intently listen to his message.

13:03 You don't want a remotional response of seed that falls on the wayside and the birds come or seeds that fall in shallow soil where the grows up quick and there's a lot of emotion about the millennium, but since last week to this week has it impacted your life? Have you done anything different? Have you preached the gospel more? Have you prayed for your unsaved friends more? Have you met more Jewish people?

13:32 Have you considered what's going on in Gaza and Jerusalem? All the armories preparing? You see, truth has to impact us. If it doesn't impact us, we have to ask why. When you ask why to that question, why doesn't the truth of the millennium impact the way I live, then it has to be because either one, you don't believe it, number two, you don't care.

13:59 And you might not care. I mean, I know people who say when asked about where are you with the trib? Are you pre, post, or mid? And now the same questions I understand exist with the millennium. And so where are you positioning?

14:15 What's your personal preference for understanding these huge events of the future? And I heard people say, well, I'm a pan trib. What's a pan trib? It doesn't matter to me. Jesus Christ is in control.

14:28 Everything will pan out alright. That might be you, but that should not be you with regard to your unsaved family and friends or neighbors, especially if they're Jewish. I don't know if you know a lot of Jews. I went to a high school that was like 23% Jewish. So the impact that truth has on us is critical.

14:58 How do you measure? By asking yourself these questions. You don't need me to ask them. You should be asking yourself. Did any of you do any research into what Mason said last week?

15:10 I'm not looking for you to raise your hand. Even if you did, I probably wouldn't believe you. No, I would. Because you're Christians. And we're told twice in the New Testament, no lie anymore.

15:27 You get one lie a week, I used to tell my campers. Where's Justin, by the way? Justin, how many lies a week do you get? One. And I used to say that to them as my campers, and I'd say, you've already used yours.

15:44 Anyway, Colossians chapter three. And I would just use a portion of the... Of Hebrews chapter eight verse. Of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. That's Hebrews eight verse one.

16:00 I like summaries. This isn't a summary. This is of one verse that captures all that brother Mason shared with us as I went back and studied. Verse four of Colossians three, and I don't want to spend fifty minutes explaining the book of Colossians. Wouldn't be fair to you.

16:20 I could do it. I'm not interested in doing it. I just want you to focus on verse four. When Christ, who is your life, appears, you will also appear with him in glory. Now I know that you might have a translation that doesn't say yours, it says ours.

16:45 I understand that. Don't let that bother you. When Christ, who is our life, appears, we shall appear with him in glory. Alright, in glory. Now, want to...

17:05 I don't want you to memorize that verse, but I want you to take that verse as a huge issue for both preparation for the rapture and preparation for the millennium in your preaching of the gospel. Okay? Many people to take in. It's hard to preach the gospel without claim. Crisis coming back.

17:41 Crisis coming back. Alright? Because we're so focused on the details of his first appearing, which is correct. Think about these verses, these sequential truths of his appearing out of Hebrews nine. The ninth chapter of Hebrews, starting at verse 24 says, now Christ is appearing in the presence of God for us.

18:17 At the end of this age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So he is now appearing there for us because he once appeared at the end of the age, what age? What age? BCAD, that stuff? Well no, no.

18:38 End of that old covenant. Right? So he appeared at the end and he said in the upper room, this is a new covenant. It's a new covenant. A lot of people like to live in the old and like the old covenant God as well.

18:53 And that's probably why they like to live in the old because they like the old covenant God. Which means what? It means you have a central location. It means you have a place where God put his name. Don't forget what he told Moses.

19:08 You tell them to go where I'm gonna put my name. At Mount Moriah, I'm gonna put my name there. And there they shall gather. Right? And there will be a covenant, and there will be priests, and there will be a sacrifice, but it's central.

19:21 And that three times a year every man is required to go there if you live within so many miles. And so you have these festivals that the Jewish men were required to go to. John's gospel, in comparison to the other three, is a gospel full of festivals, where Christ is in Jerusalem for a festival. Other Jews, they are celebrating life that comes through the relationship that God's established in a covenant. Jesus Christ stood up at a Passover feast, a festival, the first of the year, and said, this is new.

20:00 That's old. Most people like the old. Why? Because they like to know where God lives. They like the central location mentality.

20:12 That he's there, I can go there, and guess what? When I go there, I can visit. And I can bring, and I can I can have somebody ex take away my sin? I can have somebody deal. I can have this sensation of joy because I walked out doing what you told me I should do in order to get the way I feel.

20:33 Yeah. That's what people want. They want a God in a location that they can attend to. The new is not that. You should know that.

20:41 You shouldn't need me to tell you that, but the point is people prefer the old. They want God in the central location. They don't want them moving about in their mind and soul, in the spirit. They don't want spiritualism at all. That would determine, that would demand that I pay attention.

21:00 That I'm alert spiritually. That I'm alive spiritually. I, it's easier for me to be dulled into just rote, method, habit, go three times a year on a certain day. It's on the calendar already for 2027. I know when to show up for Passover.

21:17 This is new, Jesus said. Did the disciples get it? Absolutely not. They didn't get it till the day of Pentecost. Because up till then, Jesus breathed on them the Holy Spirit to prevent them from getting real goofy from his resurrection until Pentecost.

21:37 But at Pentecost, the spirit of God filled them. And that's the covenant we live in. You live in and I live in and we don't have a choice. We don't have a choice. This isn't, oh, my preference is old covenant.

21:52 God's not offering that choice. It's new covenant. It's new. Alright? Christ did all this in his first appearing.

22:04 Now appearing there in his presence for me. And then verse 28 of Hebrews nine says, and he will appear a second time. He will appear a second time. And not to deal with sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. You see?

22:22 So three times, end of Hebrews nine, you have these three tenses of appearing, and they're very precious. I want you to jump over to first John. This one I do want you to look at. First John chapter three. You know, because our brother brought to our attention the wonderful truth of Jesus Christ in the revelation when he first appeared to John because John turned the...

23:07 And as our brother Ray read to us from the Revelation, and John's response to seeing Christ as Christ is, perhaps that he'd never seen Christ like that before he fell down. He used the word collapse. Collapse. Have you ever collapsed? No self control.

23:29 Can't stand up. Collapse. He fell down. And as much as I love that passage for worship, he didn't fall down to worship. He didn't fall down to worship.

23:43 Is that the beginning of worship? I would think that recognizing Christ in his majesty is always the beginning of worship. Always. Not a song, not an announcement, not a ringing of the bell. I worked in The Philippines.

24:07 The assembly that I worked with had a bell on the table where the elements were for the Lord's Supper. And one brother, same brother, got up every week at a time and rang the bell. That meant crisis here. And I'm young, I'm like Mason's age, I'm ready to go, get the swords out, let's fight, this isn't right. It's all about right and wrong, see, when I'm that age.

24:38 And so I asked the leading other brother, what's with the bell? It's harmless. No, what's with the bell? Because I know there's other groups, especially one in Rome, who likes a bell. So what do I do?

24:57 I take the clacker out of the bell. Because I'm a Justin. I find ways to be sneaky. And I'm a missionary, by the way. I'm not just a delinquent.

25:13 I'm a delinquent missionary. Anyway, I take the clacker out and put it back. How many weeks he rang it anyway? He got up and walked up there and rang that with no sound. No sound.

25:28 Representing time to be everybody to be quiet. Now it's about him walking up front and getting everybody's attention. I don't know what grabs your attention when when you come to show the Lord's death. I don't know how you see him. I don't know if you have a desire to be collapsed every week.

25:59 I don't know that. You may. You may come with a desire to collapse. I've walked in the world for the past so many hours and bumped shoulders without any people, drove powerful cars, did all this kind of stuff, but now I come to show the Lord's death and I want to be in a humble position. So Lord collapse me in your presence and we'll go from there.

26:22 Once I'm down in your presence, we'll go from there. And what did Christ do? He laid his right hand on him. That was the same right hand he was holding the seven stars with, by the way. And the description, he's holding in his right hand seven stars.

26:39 He must have let them go to make John feel better. Because we have a Christ who knows how to comfort those who are down in his presence. I don't know. That's up to you. I just suggest that.

26:53 But this verse in one John chapter three says this in verse two, You know that when Christ appears, future tense, we shall be like him. Why? For we shall see him as he is. Well, that transformation is based on how I see Christ. So that leads me to ask myself a hard question.

27:19 How do I see him now? How do I see him now? By preference. You see, we have this ability to prefer Christ to be a certain way and not a different way. And we get in a in a routine of how we want Christ to be.

27:42 How we... What we want him to say and with what tone we want to hear him. You know me, I go through the gospels, I listen for what tone did he say that in. It's all supposition, of course. It's I I don't know.

27:56 Trust me. I'm going to ask him. Can you repeat what you said? The way you said it back then? I just want to hear.

28:06 You see? I just want to hear. Because that's important to me. I know that my daughter and my wife especially, they respond to a tone, not just to words. I could use the wrong tone.

28:19 Where are you going? Wrong tone. Alright. We have a preference. Don't yell, Lord.

28:32 Can I just have the still small voice? We have a preference. I want to leave, John. I do want to spend time with that, but I I want to... I really want to get to forgive me for this.

29:15 And so, you know, I don't take away all those... No, I never... And here on the bottom, there's extra money for what they call spectrum on demand. What is it? Anybody know?

29:32 Do you pay spectrum bills? You know what it is? Okay, so there's a VCR function, that's part of the bill, but that's not on demand. On demand is that we have a whole bunch of shows you can watch anytime you want. It's called on demand.

30:00 You don't have to wait for the schedule. We don't have every channel or every show, but we do have a list of shows that are on demand. When you want them and what you wanna watch. I think we prefer a Christ on demand. That's the kind of Christ we preach and it isn't necessarily or entirely wrong.

30:28 Even Christ himself said to his disciple Peter, who is using the sword rather goofy, cutting the guy's ear off. I could call my father right now, and he would send immediately all these angels. There's an immediacy of being in God's presence that we can't deny, and we all appreciate, and we should. The immediacy of saying, our father. Our Father.

31:02 Alright? Doesn't say knock and then say, our Father. Can I come in? None of that. We're invited to come boldly into his presence, Hebrews chapter four.

31:14 Okay? But on on the whole, Christians prefer a Christ who's on demand. When we want you and what we want from you. What we want. Not just when, what.

31:28 And I'm not quite sure that's the relationship Christ intended us to have with them. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's not. Does it work that he's on demand for you? Hallelujah, what a savior we have. He is so gracious.

31:40 Peter sinking in water. Peter was having the greatest time of his life getting out of that boat, starting to go to Christ. Suddenly he's, how deep? Nobody knows. I asked the question at camp once, young adults.

31:52 How deep was Peter before he started crying out? Was he ankle deep, knee deep, waist? How deep? Didn't matter. He cried out.

32:06 Christ was on demand. Save me, Lord. And immediately, Jesus reached forth and saved him. It's Christ on demand is great. There's no doubt in my mind.

32:19 Turn back to John's gospel chapter six, if you would. You know, I I left Erie. I had a sport coat on and a tie. Mary Cake and a test. I got to Cleveland, I got out of my car in the parking lot and took my coat off because it was warm.

32:49 Sat down in my chair, listening to Sister beautifully playing music, and took my tie off. And it's unlike me to not have a tie on. I did it on purpose. It doesn't bother you, does it? It bothers me because it implies, in my mind, a casualness in appearance.

33:21 You think John saw any casualness in Christ in Revelation? Was there any casualness about Christ? You think when Christ comes here, he's casual? I mean, I'm not talking about appearance. We're past that.

33:36 I like the casual appearance. But do you think Jesus Christ ever has joined with you when you've gathered two or more wherever was a casual approach to you? Is that how you see him? That when you've been gathered to his name, that he comes in at his appointed time, whether it's the fourth person in the meeting or the fifth, and he's very casual. What are we going to do today?

34:15 There are times when I've come to the meeting and I've been very casual about it. I'm not speaking, I don't have to worry about it. Breaking a bread will go fine. We've got enough brothers, they're all and it's very casual. I'm very...

34:26 My approach, my spiritual approach to it is very casual. I can trust the Lord will do something. He's got enough people here to make it happen. He has never been casual, and I'm not sure it's right for me to ever be casual in my approach to why I'm here either. Because I've been made a member of the body for the purpose of functioning under his headship so that I can build all the other members up.

34:59 That's an intention. That's an intention. Christ is intentional. He's very intentional. He gathers with his people.

35:10 He's building a church, not only people adding people daily such that are being saved, every member of it. He is intended to build up every time you gather. And if you're not built up, you need to ask him why. You don't need to ask the elders why. You can if you want.

35:34 You need to ask Jesus Christ why he doesn't attend you to be built up and to hear him say, what? Of course I intend for you to be pulled up. Let's figure out why you're not. Because that takes introspection, and that is not the kind of Christ we want to gather with. We don't want to gather with a Christ who demands something.

36:21 When the disciples said, it's not right for us to quit praying and preaching, we're gonna focus on that. You assign seven men to wait on tables in the sixth chapter. Those seven men were intentionally went to work, two of which intended to do more than just wait on tables one day a week. And so they're out preaching. One of them gets killed immediately.

36:45 The other is sent off to gas. Why? Because those people, those early disciples were on demand. When Christ called them, I want you to do this, they went. I want you to go here.

37:00 They went. They went. They were on demand to the work of the Holy Spirit, to the headship of Jesus Christ, on demand. When you say it, Lord, we'll do it. When you say it, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do what I say?

37:19 Jesus asked in Luke's gospel chapter six. And us? Our workaround? Well, we won't call him lord anymore. Let's just refer to him as Jesus.

37:36 He's either lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ, the king, the one who's coming for the millennial reign, the one who when he appears, he who is our life. Not he who saved me. He my shepherd. He my savior.

37:55 No. He is my life. Can you say it? And when you do, do you mean it? Would somebody else say that about you?

38:06 When Christ, who is your life, appears, You appear also with him. But is he your life? Do you describe your life in terms of him? Not in terms of what, in terms of him. He is my life.

38:29 That's what the verse says. So you know in John six, as a passage in John's gospel, one of the only chapters where he's not in Jerusalem. He's up to sea at Galilee. And he feeds the 5,000. There are groups of Jews who are gathering for the purpose of forming a pilgrim train to go up to Jerusalem for the Passover.

39:00 He feeds them because they were like a sheep. They were as sheep without a shepherd, Mark records. But in John six and verse 15, after he fed them, Jesus, that they intended to come and make him a king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. I'm the kind of reader who stops there. What in the world is Jesus doing?

39:29 Even like his brother said in the seventh chapter, go up to the feast, show yourself off because if you want a gathering, you got to go show how great you are. John seven, before he went to the Feast of Tabernacles. And I'm saying, Lord, why would you go away? These people, all you gotta do is explain to them that the kingdom's not now. No, this, as one old commentator wrote, these people, if Christ described these people as sheep without a shepherd, the commentator said, they were more than that.

40:05 They were an army looking for a general. Let's make them a king by force. How do you make somebody a king by force? It's suddenly because now they tasted the bread and they were fed miraculously and Christ gave them what he knew they needed for that hour. Now they're going to make him their general.

40:27 They're going to start the army. Let's start the army right now because we can bring the kingdom ourselves if we have the right general, the right king, the right leader. Even in America, I'm ashamed to tell you that there are so many Christians who have decided to put their foot in political waters, thinking they understand what God's doing with America. Please be careful. Please be careful.

40:57 No president is gonna be our king. I don't care how extreme right or left he is, how he unites Americans or not. There's only one body that I understand from scripture is totally, totally without cultural impact, and that is the body of Jesus Christ. He's made of every nation, tribe and tongue, a body, a kingdom of priests. He is the only king we recognize.

41:44 And Jesus could look at a group of people coming to him, sheep without a shepherd, army without a general, understanding their intention. They didn't need to say, could you be our leader? Because if we got you, we could march to Jerusalem and kick Augustus out. Or at this time it was Tiberius, and kicked the Romans out. No, no, I can give you food but you, I'm not gonna be that kind of person to you.

42:34 You're not gonna find me. How many Christians just can't get their fingers around the reality that Christ isn't on demand to them? That they just can't get anything they want from them? That their prayers are filled with self, self, self, improvement, blessing, money, whatever. And that is not Jesus Christ's purpose.

42:57 This world is not our home. We go to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. He hid by himself. And I'm afraid that the many of Christians lives because they have the wrong preference of Christ, he's hiding from you. And I say that graciously, and I know that you can take these words and put them on the Internet and say, Doug Torrick believes that Christ is hiding.

43:34 I get that. I used to say no tape in anything I say because it gets taken out of context, but you've never done that yet. I'm So not really worried about it now. The point of it is, is that your preference of Christ might be wrong. What you want from him is wrong.

43:48 Not in his purpose. Not in his will. Not in his timing. And therefore, guess what? You come to get him.

43:59 He's on the other side of the mountain. You can't find him. And then the next day, same thing. Next day, pretty soon, I don't feel like a Christian. Christ has avoided me.

44:11 It's amazing Jesus Christ has the ability to avoid people. And you know also very clearly he resists the proud. He resists the proud. If there any pride in this arrogance attitude that you show up making demands on Christ, Stay out. Stay out.

44:33 Jesus Christ is our life. And you know that in that feeding of the 5,000, they ate as much as they wanted. So when you get to verse 57 of the same chapter, and I'll close with this, because I know I have, according to my iPad, I have one minute. That clock is three minutes fast. IPad is dead on right and it's 12:14.

44:54 And I go to 12:15, right? And I'm also gonna take what Mason said. I get a couple extra minutes. No. I won't take them.

45:00 I just wanna close with this first. Alright? The fifty seventh verse of John six. Christ makes us... Well, I'm gonna close with two actually.

45:11 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. The one who feeds on me. Now, I take that verse and I just put in different words that we use all the time. If you're preaching the gospel for the first time, it's clear that we could put in whoever receives me, whoever believes in me, whoever calls upon me. We can put all those words in.

45:42 They fit perfectly so. But he's talking to people who are disgruntled because he's talking about a spiritual life, not about eternal life. We think eternal life is the only thing Christ ever talked about. And that's like James says, your life is but a vapor. No, it's not.

46:03 My life is eternal. My life on Earth is a vapor. Yeah. Your life on this planet could be short. Some are shorter than others, obviously.

46:13 But you're going to live forever. And Christ right now gives you a choice where you prefer. You want to live with him forever? I trust you do. If not, please don't leave this room without putting that in place.

46:28 Or live in the lake of fire forever without him, with no chance to change your mind. No chance to change your mind. But this is a verse about life. If you feed on Christ, you live because of him. You feed on him.

46:46 Ingest, digest. Ingest, digest. Not memorize. Christ told him in the fifth chapter when he was up there for a festival, you think you have eternal life in the scriptures, so you search, you search, you search, you search. They talk about me, Jesus said, but you won't come to me.

47:08 You won't come to me to get the life. It's about communion. It's about ingesting Christ. It's not the bread. Please don't be misunderstanding.

47:19 It's not about taking communion. It's not about eating bread. It's not about a location. It's about a person. When Christ, our life, appears.

47:30 He's our very life. He's a sustainer of our life. He gives us life. We feed on Him, not just thoughts about Him, we feed on Him. Period.

47:41 Now, all according to what He describes in scripture, of course. We don't make it up. But I'll close with this verse. Later on in that chapter, and you know the passage well, because they get upset. They're convinced Christ is talking goofy, talking about eating my flesh, drinking my blood.

48:17 Now I've asked that question my whole entire Christian life. At what point am I gonna say to Christ, I can't take no more. I'm leaving. This is as far as I go. I ain't going no farther.

48:31 I ain't going no farther. Peter then says what? Many of you know it. Where would we go? You have the words of life.

48:44 And I answer that question and I say, listen, I'll be honest. When I think about my life sometimes, if you would say to me, do you have a favorite restaurant? Yeah. Why is it your favorite? Best kind of food I like.

48:58 What do you mean you like? Yeah, I like certain food. When you eat that food, happens? I feel better. Why do you feel better?

49:04 Because I like it. The point is, is I know what restaurant I need to go to if I want to enjoy for that brief moment of eating period or maybe that hour or two afterwards that I feel better. I've improved my life by eating at that restaurant for a short time. And I might have a favorite hobby, and I might have a favorite sport, and I might have a favorite activity, And I might have a favorite place to ride my bike. I might have all these things, but they're my favorites because when I do them, I enjoy them, and when I enjoy them, I realize I'm more alive than I want to be.

49:40 This is what my life is. All these things I enjoy. Where would I, where else would I go, Lord? Why go do all these things? The reality of it is, Lord, when you ask me, where would you go, Doug?

49:50 Well, if I was hungry, I'd go here. And that's sad. That after all these years, I still find so much pleasure in the things of this world. When I know, when he who is my life appears, I'm going to appear with him in glory. Yeah.

50:17 I say that convicting. Have a lot of places I go to improve, to better, to more enjoy what I'm doing in life on this planet, And I'm sorry to admit it. God forbid. God forbid. The streams on Earth I've tasted, the song says.

50:40 More deep I'll drink from above. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for your son. We thank you that we can be gathered to him. We can know him as our savior.

50:55 We can endeavor to increasingly say he and he alone is our life. And we do look forward to seeing him face to face, and we know when that day comes, it'll be a drastic sudden change. Work on us, Lord, to conform us now more and more to his image. We ask in his precious name, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.