August 11, 2024
Morning Service

Over the last two weeks we have seen two miracles through which Jesus is teaching us valuable lessons for our journey with Him.  We saw Jesus feed the five thousand with 5 loaves and 2 fish.  He took all that the disciples had and made it enough.  This showed us that we need to do all that we can and then trust that Jesus will do what we can’t.  We then saw Jesus walk on the water and call Peter to join Him.  It was only when Peter took his eyes off of Jesus that he began to sink.  Jesus pulled him from the water despite his lack of faith.  We learned to always keep our eyes on Jesus especially during the time of enduring a storm focusing on Him, not the storm.  We also were shown that even when we falter, Jesus does not abandon us, but is there for us in that failure using it to make us stronger.  Today we begin a unique time in Jesus’ ministry in which He purposely tries to weed out those who are following Him for the wrong reasons. We will see today that the “Why we seek Him;” the motivation behind our actions is foundation of our faith. 

Joh 6:22-27 NKJV  On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which His disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but His disciples had gone away alone—  (23)  however, other boats came from Tiberius, near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks—  (24)  when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.  (25)  And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, "Rabbi, when did You come here?"  (26)  Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.  (27)  Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."

 These people displayed their desire to see Jesus by exerting great effort in taking their boats across the sea to Capernaum looking for Jesus.  This was not an easy task, nor were they even sure Jesus was there, but they were doing whatever they had to do find Him.  This seems to be an admirable thing on the surface that they were “diligently seeking Him.”  Notice here first that Jesus knows their heart (their why) in their efforts. (read verse 26) They were not seeking Jesus for His teaching or who He is, but for the free food and Jesus knew this about them.  Their labors to find Him were driven for the wrong reasons.  They came to Him to fulfill their physical, worldly desires that would satisfy them in the moment.  Jesus tries to impress upon them to use the same diligence in seeking Him to fulfill their spiritual needs in which they would be satisfied for eternity.  In essence Jesus is telling them; “I wish you would put the same effort in pursuing Me as you do pursuing the pleasures of this life.”

This brought me to a very revealing moment on my lunch time at work this week.  Would Jesus tell me the same thing?  Often in production facilities they do what they call time studies.  They follow workers around and analyze if they are using their time to be the most productive or if there are things they are doing that can be cut out that are deemed unnecessary or repetitive.  The Spirit asked me to do a time/effort study on myself and also challenge you to do the same. Am I on course with Jesus’ call to “Follow Me?” (read verse 27)

Have you noticed the trend of the messages lately are all calling us to a closer walk?  The Spirit is preparing us for the road ahead and I believe there are some tough times there for us as time draws to an end.  Our world is changing very quickly and it is not for the better and we all see it and feel it in the Spirit within us.  We are all so crazy busy that it is easy to lose sight of what is most important.  Please clear your mind and listen to the Spirt speaking to you this morning.

  This brings us to the title of the message; “Why do you seek?”  Why are you here today?  Jesus knows and I would like each one of us to be honest with ourselves in answering this question.  You displayed diligence in getting up this morning and being here for the services, but why?  Were you motivated for the right reasons or by the wrong ones as these people Jesus is addressing in our scripture today?  Their efforts were for nothing as they were not truly seeking Jesus to fill them spiritually, but only physically.  My hope is that you came this morning for a filling of your Spirit, to be fed spiritually and to give freely of yourself to God and others through your praise, prayer requests, and fellowship (investing in your church family).  You came with a purpose in mind; to meet with your Lord.

 Here are some questions to help you to analyze your why.  Do you look forward to the services?  On Saturday night do you begin to pray and prepare yourself for the time you will spend in your Father’s house with your brothers and sisters?  Is attending services a priority for you and your family or is it something you do when nothing else more exciting is happening?  Does it bother you deeply when you have to miss or is that just something that makes your “to do” list smaller?  Two weeks ago I would bet there were more people at the Lehigh ball fields on Sunday morning than in all of the Mitchell churches combined.  What is wrong with that fact?  Jesus is asking us this morning; are we seeking the pleasures of this world more than we are seeking after God?

Let’s go back to the idea of a time study.  How much time did you spend this week pursuing the things of God compared to the things you wanted to do?  Think of the time and effort we spent this week in mowing our yard, landscaping, decorating and cleaning our house, working on our projects around the house, watching television, or just surfing our phone compared to the time and effort we spent pursuing God.  We can use the answers to these questions to answer the question our message title asks us; “Why do you seek?”  When we can honestly answer that question, then it will bring us to the same question these people in our scripture today asked:

 

Joh 6:28 Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"

          What do I need to change in my heart to make this right with God?  Jesus answers us as He did them.

 

Joh 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He sent."

            To believe in something means we accept that fact as truth and base our actions upon that truth.  If we believe and have faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God then our lives will reflect that.  Jesus becomes our why we do everything. (Col. 3:17)  He will come first and everything else will fall in behind Him.  John explained this in more depth in the letter of I John and remember when he mentions your heart that is your motivation or the why you do what you do.

 

1Jn 3:18-24 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.  (19)  And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.  (20)  For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.  (21)  Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.  (22)  And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.  (23)  And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.  (24)  Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit Whom He has given us.

            John commands us to not only go through the motions of loving God in word or deed, but in truth.  We love in truth when our basic motivation (our heart/our why) is focused on Him, not ourselves or things of this world.  We love in truth when our motivation matches our words and actions; our what we do matches our why we do it.  We are abiding in Christ and Christ is abiding in us.  Listen to the level of commitment Jesus is asking from us to follow Him:

 

Mat 10:37-39 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  (38)  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  (39)  He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

            CS Lewis said to accept the call to follow Jesus is to accept the call to come and die to yourself.  “He who loses his life for My sake will find it.”  To win the war we must surrender ourselves fully to God. To “let go and let God” is not burdensome, but freeing.  We can experience true freedom only when we begin to allow the Spirit to lead us instead of our desires. That is the point Jesus is making to the people in our scriptures today and to each one of us.  Salvation is free, but to grow and move towards perfection we must “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”  We must be seeking Him so that we can become like Him.  Our why simply summarized needs to be about Jesus, our love for Him, and our desire to faithfully follow Him.  I challenge you to define why you do what you do and if it does not revolve around Jesus, make the necessary changes.  Build your foundation upon Him so when the storms of life come we will be able to stand firm in Him.

 

Heavenly Father, thank You for calling us to a closer walk.  Stir the Spirit inside of us to be sure our heart is right with You.  Grant us the desire to be all You have called us to be as we imitate Jesus.