Adrian Rogers - Jesus is God's Answer to Man's Desires
Would you take your Bibles and turn to John chapter 6? We're in a series of messages talking about the miracles of Jesus Christ. And we believe in a miracle-working God, and if you believe the Bible, you'll have no difficulty believing in miracles. If you can get past Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth," you'll have no problem with miracles. Now the miracle that we're studying today is the feeding of the 5,000; actually many more than 5,000, because the Bible says in John 6:10, "The number of the men was 5,000". We didn't even count the women and the children; just the men! 5,000. It's not to say that women and children don't count, but John said there were 5,000 men there; then there were the women and the children.
There could've been as many as 15,000 or more people that Jesus fed with a little lad's lunch. You remember the story; it's one of the best known stories in all of the Bible. Jesus had been healing many people, and the crowds now are following Him because of the miracles that He did, and now they've outrun Him. And when Jesus comes to the place, there are the multitudes, thousands and thousands and thousands. They're tired. They're hot. They're hungry. And there's not a McDonald's in sight, and so what are they going to do? And Jesus asked His disciples, "What are we going to do? How are we going to feed them"?
Now Jesus was not asking for information He already knew, as we're going to see in just a moment. And then the Lord took a little boy's lunch, five loaves and a few fishes, and He fed the multitude with a little lad's lunch. We're going to see all of that as we look into the sixth chapter here in just a moment. Jesus performed a miracle, and it was a miracle of feeding physical bodies. But now listen to me, ladies and gentlemen, what we need to do today is to look beyond the miracle and on to Jesus. Jesus did not come to feed you physically. Jesus did not come to heal you physically. Jesus did not come to solve all of your physical, material problems. He is a Savior. He came to save you from sin, and you need to look beyond these miracles and on to Jesus.
"Pastor, do you believe in miracles"? With all my heart I do. I believe in miracles, but I trust in Jesus. Now that's what this theme is all about. Down in your heart, down in the deepest most part of your being there is a hunger that God alone can satisfy. Pascal was a great philosopher and a physicist. He said, "In every man's heart there is a God shaped vacuum that God alone can fill through His Son, Jesus Christ". And that is the hunger that I want to talk to you about today. When I was in Israel, I've been there many times, when I was there traveling in Israel upon a time, I had some friends traveling with me, and I knew that we were going to go to this spot where there was the feeding of the 5,000.
So I thought I would do something to make it memorable. So I asked my guide and friend, I said, "Would you do me a favor? I want you to get me some loaves of bread and some fish, and just put it in a paper sack and bring it with you. When we get to this spot, I'm going to let everybody have a taste of the fish, and everybody a taste of the bread, and it'll just remind us of the miracle that Jesus performed right at that spot". Now, folks, we'd taken the trip over the Sea of Galilee, and it was a sultry day, a hot day. The water was a little rough, and there was sort of a mist there, and the heat, that Middle Eastern heat, was so much, it was like we were wearing a lead coat. And the people the night before had had a big Arabic meal with many things they had never eaten before.
Then early in the morning we got up and we went across the sea on that boat, then we got out. It was oppressively hot. But I said, "Now it's time for the loaves and the fish". And I had a particular man with me, a dear friend of mine, and he saw what I was doing. I had put that fish on a stone table there, and I'd unwrapped the bread. And there happened to be a fly who landed on that fish, and he was walking around on that fish, and it was so hot, and that man had just come off that rough water. He looked at those loaves and those fish, and he said something to me I will never forget. He said, "If everybody feels like I do, you can feed 5,000 with that".
And you know I thought about that. There comes a time in our lives where the things of this world do not satisfy. We want something more. And sometimes we just get fed up with the things of this world. And why is that? Because there is a deeper hunger, and that's what we're going to be talking about today.
Now let's look in God's Word here in John chapter 6, as we read verses 1 through 14, "And after these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His miracle which He did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus then lifted up His eyes and saw a great company come to Him, He saith unto Philip, 'Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?' This He said to prove him," that is, to test Philip, "for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, 'Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.'"
By the way, 200 pennyworth would be almost a year's wages of a laboring man. He said, "A man could work all year long and not earn enough money to feed these". "And one of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto Him, 'There's a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?' Jesus said, 'Make the men sit down.' Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, in number about 5,000. And Jesus took the loaves: and when He had given thanks, He distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would".
That is, eat until you are perfectly, totally satisfied. Now that's significant. He didn't say, "Eat a little". "Eat as much as you want". "And when they were filled," underscore that, "He said unto His disciples, 'Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.' Therefore they gathered them together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, 'This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.'"
Now, let me give you three propositions. And I pray God the Holy Spirit, that He will etch these upon your soul. And, oh, precious friend, precious friend, today, listen to me, you are hungry for more than fish and bread; you're hungry for Jesus. Whether you know it or not, Jesus is life's hidden hunger. Now I want you to get that into your heart and mind. What you really need, the only thing that will satisfy the deepest longing of your heart and your soul is Jesus Christ. Now here are three propositions I want to give you. Now I want you to listen to them.
Number one, there is never a problem too big for Jesus to solve. Did you hear that? There is never a problem too big for Jesus to solve. In John 6 verses 5 through 7, the Lord sees this multitude, and there is a problem, and He asked a man named Philip, He said, "Philip, what are you going to do? What are we going to do? How are we going to feed these people"? Now, folks, Jesus was not seeking advice, and the one who wrote this, the apostle John who wrote this down, made it very clear that Jesus was not seeking advice when He asked Philip, "How are we going to do this"? He already knew what He was going to do. One day I had lunch with Corrie Ten Boom. I just listened to her talk. I said, "Adrian, be quiet and listen". And one of the things that she said stuck in my soul like a barb, and I've never forgotten it. Corrie Ten Boom said, "There is no panic in Heaven, only plans".
Now remember that. God knows what He's going to do. This world is not out of control. Nothing takes God by surprise. God never says, "Oops"! or "Oh"! No, God's not that way. Jesus knew what He would do. Now I'll tell you another reason that Jesus did not ask Philip this question. He did not want to learn something about Philip. He already knew about Philip. The Bible says in John 2:24, "He knew all men". "He didn't need that any should testify to Him what was in man". Why did Jesus ask Philip this question? He wanted Philip to learn something about Philip. So He says to Philip, He said, "Philip, how are we going to feed all of these people"?
Now look in John 6 verse 7. Philip answered Him, "Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little". Now Jesus said, "Philip, what are we going to do"? Now Philip did not stumble. Evidently Philip was good with numbers and maybe had a, well, not in that day, but today he might've had a pocket calculator and taken it out and punched up and figured it out very quickly. He knew exactly how much it would take to feed these; a year's wages that everyone would have about a mouthful, and he was correct except for one thing. As he figured all of this out, he left Jesus out of the equation. And therefore, any good red-blooded American atheist could've given the same answer that Philip gave. Philip gave a good answer but a bad answer, because he left Jesus Christ out of the equation.
I've been around churches for a long time. I've been pastoring churches for years, and I've been in a lot of committee meetings. As a matter of fact, I'm kind of like that preacher who said he wanted to go to Heaven, not because there'd be no parting there, but because there'd be no meetings there. And, I've been in a lot of committee meetings, and I've found out that almost every committee meeting that you ever get to about the church is composed of three categories of people. There are the figurers, there are the feelers, and there are the faithers. The figurers are like Philip; they just figure it out and say, "Well Pastor, we can do this, and we can't do that". They leave God out of the equation!
And then there are the feelers. They just say, "Well, I feel we can do this, or I feel we can do that". And both of them are wrong. But the faithers are those who get a word from God and believe if God wants us to do it, then we can do it. There's no reason for us to send the multitudes away. Our commission from the Heavenly Father is to give them the bread of life, and if He has commanded us to do it, He will enable us to do it. And say, Amen. He will, my friend. Now you listen to me. We don't need the figurers. We don't need the feelers. We need the faithers. Nothing wrong with figuring. Nothing wrong with feeling. But, friend, there is much wrong if you leave out faith in this matter.
And so Philip just simply said, "Well, it's an impossibility". I heard of a little boy who was trying to lift a rock. His dad was off there watching the little fellow try to move the rock. And the dad heard him, as little boys are wont to do, just grunting and straining trying to roll that rock over. And he asked the little boy, "Are you using all of your strength"? He said, "Yes, Daddy, I'm using all of my strength"! He said, "No, you're not". He said, "Yes, I am". He said, "No, you're not. You haven't asked me to help you". And what the dad was saying, "Son, I am part of your strength. I'm your father. Ask me".
And so many times we have a problem that we're trying to solve. We're using all of our strength, so we think, but there is a heavenly Father who is ready to help us and to move in and to help us with our problem. Now I want to ask you a question. I want to ask you a question. What is there about your life that is unexplainable? I could've explained Philip. Philip is working on the realm of the natural. What is there about my life that is unexplainable?
Now if you can explain Adrian Rogers apart from Jesus Christ, then I don't have any right to ask you to believe in the God that I serve. What is there about your life that is unexplainable? When the unexplainable is obvious in our lives, then people are going to be believing the Gospel that we preach. What makes you different from your neighbor? Philip just gave the answer that anybody could've given that day. He left Jesus Christ out of the calculation, out of the figuring. Here's the point I'm putting in your heart and in your mind by the aid of the Holy Spirit: there is no problem too big for Him to solve. And I hope you believe that. Do you believe it? Say, Amen.
Alright, now, here's the second thing. There's no problem too big for God to solve. Number two, there is no person too small for God to use. No problem too big for God to solve, no person too small for God to use. Now in John 6 verses 8 through 9 we read this, "One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto Him, 'There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes.'" Not even big fish! Sardines. Barley loaves, the coarsest, the poorest of bread. Sometimes they would feed the animals the barley loaves. Here's a little boy and a meager lunch, a little lad, a little lunch. It was meager! Meager in quality, meager in quantity, and yet when that little boy left home, he had in his little paper sack, or his knapsack or whatever he had, enough food to feed more than 10,000 people; 5,000 men, in a little lad's lunch!
Now listen, there's no problem too big for God to solve, and there's no person too small for God to use. What was the recipe of this miracle? Well, first of all, this little lad transferred his lunch to Christ. It was transferred to Christ; he simply gave all that he had to Jesus Christ. Now do you want God to use you? Have you given everything to Jesus Christ? You say, "That's absurd! I need some myself". Friend, may I tell you, you've got a real problem. You need to give everything, I mean everything, I mean totally, I mean 100%, all that you have, all that you are, your family, your friends, your reputation, I mean totally, totally to Jesus Christ, if you want Him to use you.
And you say, "Well now wait a minute. A man's gotta live". No, a man's gotta die. And he's gotta face the Lord. You say, "Well, I'd lose out if I gave it all to Him". No, that's the only way you'll gain. Matthew 16 verse 25, "He that will save his life shall lose it. He that will lose his life for My sake and the Gospel's, the same shall save it". You say, "Adrian, that sounds like fanaticism to me". You can call it whatever you want, but if He is Lord at all, He must be Lord of all. Is that right? You know it is right. He, this little lad, gave his total lunch to the Lord Jesus Christ. It was transferred to Jesus Christ.
Joyce and I have gotten on our knees. We did this shortly after our baby died, but we'd done it before that, and said, "Lord Jesus, we give You totally, 100%, all that we have and all that we are". And God has given us a few material possessions, but we do not call those our own, and if God wants them, they're there for Him to have, and we hold them lightly with an open hand. Here this little boy's lunch was transferred completely to Christ, and what was given to Christ not only was transferred to Christ, but it was taken by Christ. You offer it to Him; sincerely, completely, totally. He'll take it! He'll take it. Transferred to Christ, taken by Christ, and touched by Christ.
Listen, Jesus Christ will do far more with it than you could ever do with it. And not only was it touched by Christ, it was transformed by Christ, and a little lad's lunch fed everybody. It's amazing what Jesus Christ will do with little if you will simply give it to Him. Did this little boy lose his lunch? I will promise you he had more to eat than he would've had had he not given it to Jesus Christ; don't you know that? My friend, there was food leftover when the whole thing was over, and they all ate as much as they would.
Now, listen to me. Don't you dare insult God by saying that God cannot use you. Don't say, "Well, God can use certain people". Listen, it was not Simon Peter that God used; it wasn't even Simon Peter brother, Andrew, that God used primarily; it was a little boy. God specializes in using just ordinary people in extraordinary ways. "You see your calling, brother, not many mighty, not many noble are called". First Corinthians 1:26. God hath taken the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and God will take you, me, people like us, and God will use us wonderfully if we will give all that we have to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not your ability; it is your availability. It is not your fame; it is your faith. It is not who you are; it is whose you are, that counts.
Do you know the Lord Jesus? Have you given it all to the Lord Jesus? Listen, God specializes in using the little people of this world. When I say little people, I don't mean that in a derogatory sense. Listen very carefully. You may be too big for God to use, but you'll never be too small for God to use. God took a little lad here! I think it's almost God's joke, and with a little lad's lunch, He fed the multitudes. Now you just study the history of the Bible. Just find those that made a mark on this world. There was Mary who had an alabaster box of ointment. There was a banquet, and all of the big shots were there after Lazarus had been raised from the dead. Mary came in with her alabaster box of ointment. She broke it and bathed the feet of the Lord Jesus and kissed His feet and bathed His feet with her tears and that ointment. And the perfume of what Mary did has filled the world to this day, the fragrance of that deed.
And in Matthew 26 verse 13, Jesus said, "Wherever the Gospel is preached, what Mary did will be spoken of as a memorial of her". A little lad's lunch. Mary's little box of ointment. I read in the Bible, in First Samuel 17, about a little boy whose name was David. He had a little peach fuzz on his chin, just a stripling of a lad. He went out that day, and there was a giant, Goliath, over nine feet tall. The NBA would like him! Here's Goliath, over nine feet tall. It was the original Bigfoot. And he's out there belching out blasphemies against the God of Israel. And I read where God took David, a little boy with a sling, and went out against that mighty Goliath.
Billy Sunday said that, "David hit him on the coco, and he went down for the count of ten". And that is true; he was gone, done for! Why? Because a little lad used what he had, and God used it to give victory that day to the Israelites. I read in the Bible, in Luke chapter 21 verses 1 through 4, about a woman, a widow, who came down and put her two cents worth, her widow's mite, actually less than two cents, in the offering plate, and Jesus who stood there was watching and saw what they all did. And the Bible says there were many rich people there that day. But the Bible says that this woman gave more than they all, not more than any of them, more than all of them.
And what she gave that day has been used to feed multitudes, because literally millions and billions of dollars have been given to the cause of Christ because of the influence of that little woman. Here's a little lad's lunch. Here's a little boy with five smooth stones. Here's a little woman with a box of perfume. Here is a widow with two mites. I want to say again. Don't you dare say that God cannot use you. God needs you. God wants you. He will use you. There is no problem too big for God to solve. There is no person too small for God to use. Do you believe that? I hope you believe it. I really do.
Now here's the third, and here's the major thing I want you to see. There's no problem too big for God to solve. There's no person too small for God to use. But the third and the most important thing I want you to see, there is no hunger too deep for Jesus to satisfy; there is no hunger too deep for Jesus to satisfy. Now don't get the idea that Jesus came to this Earth to feed people physical bread. He did not. He did not. He came to save souls and to give everlasting life, and you need to look beyond the miracle and on to Jesus, because this miracle is only an illustration of a much greater truth. The miracle literally happened. Believe in miracles, but trust in Jesus.
Now look if you will in John 6 verses 25 through 29, after all of this was over. "And when they had found Him on the other side of the sea, they said unto Him, 'Rabbi, when camest Thou hither?' Jesus answered them and said, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek Me, not because you saw the miracles,'" that is, because you understood them, "'but because you did eat the loaves, and were filled.'" Jesus said, "The only thing you're looking for is more bread. That's the only reason you seek Me". And then here's what Jesus said, listen to me, "'Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat,'" that food, "'which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give you: for Him hath the Father sealed.'"
And then verse 28, "Then said they unto Him, 'What should we do, that we might work the works of God?' Jesus answered and said unto them, 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.'" Now what Jesus is saying is, "I am spiritual bread. You're looking for food that will perish. You'll eat it. In a few more hours, you will be hungry again". He is saying, "I am to your spirit what bread is to your body. You need to see beyond the miracle!"
Now these people were following Him because He fed them. What buttered their bread determined their devotion. This is what we call today the social gospel. You know, we'll build a building like this, and always inevitable somebody will say, "Why did you build that building? Why didn't you just take that money and feed the poor"? They miss the whole point. If you had five billion dollars and could spend a dollar to give everybody on Earth a portion of food, in several more hours they'd all be hungry again. You see, what we're talking about; we are not talking about a social gospel. A social gospel is soup, soap, but man needs salvation.
Now I'm not saying that we ought not to feed the hungry. I'm not saying that we ought not to care for the poor; we ought to. But what difference does it make if you feed a man and he dies and goes to Hell? That's what it's all about. Most people today are just interested in making the world a better place to go to Hell from. And what our Lord Jesus Christ is talking about here is everlasting life, getting a person saved. What a shame that some that day missed the significance, and Jesus said, "The only reason that you're following Me is for the bread". And later on, when Jesus Christ began to talk to these people about spiritual reality, when Jesus Christ began to talk to these people about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, that is, partaking of Himself, they left Him.
And I've seen it happen so many times. You can have programs at church that will get people down to the church, and you can get them with fun and games and suppers and dinners and plays and programs and all of this, but if that's all you give them and you don't give them Jesus, friend, you have missed the whole thing. What you keep them with is what you catch them with. What you catch them with is what you have to keep them with. I am in favor of using any method as a platform for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but there is no substitute for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And Christ came as the Bread of life, that people must be saved. They must be born again. And so many churches are missing this today. Jesus is spiritual bread. Do you have that? He is spiritual bread.
Now here's the second thing. Jesus is supernatural bread. Look if you will now verse 30 of this same chapter. "They said wherefore unto him, 'What signs shewest Thou then, that we may see and we may believe Thee? What dost Thou work?'" Well, good night, He's just fed 5,000, now they're asking for another sign. You see, this is the problem with miracles. Miracles never satisfy. They never meet the deepest need of a man's life. He is saying, "Well, you need to believe on Me. You need Me"! They say, "Well, give us a sign". You see, an evil and an adulterous generation seeks a sign, and Jesus goes on to speak of His heavenly origin.
In John 6 verses 30 through 36, they said, "What sign shewest Thou, that we may see and believe Thee? What dost thou work"? Now again, here are these miracle mongers wanting signs and miracles. And they said, "Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from Heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from Heaven.'" He's saying, "In that day, it wasn't Moses that gave it to you; God gave it to you. And in this day God is giving you that true bread, He is giving you supernatural bread". "'For the bread of God is He which cometh down from Heaven, and giveth life unto the world.' Then said they unto Him, 'Lord, evermore give us this bread.' Jesus said unto them, 'I am the bread of life.'"
Now underscore that. Underscore that. This is the meaning of the miracle. This is the significance of the sign. Jesus said in verse 35, "I am the bread of life". Now look, look if you will at the corollary of that. "He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, that ye also have seen Me, and believe not". Jesus is supernatural bread. What they didn't understand was that He was the Messiah. He was the Son of God, and He was God the Son.
Nicodemus said in the third chapter of John verse 2, "We know that You're a teacher come from God". Yes, He was, but He was more than a teacher come from God; He was God come to teach. He was the One who came down from Heaven, and the manna in the Old Testament that Moses gave those people only pictured the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, all of the Bible is about Jesus. And they were saying, "Well, Moses gave us bread". Jesus said, "Look, Moses didn't give it to you; God gave it to you. And I have come from the Father. I am the true bread of life". All that manna in the Old Testament did was to picture, illustrate, and prophesy the Lord Jesus. It came down from Heaven like Jesus came down from Heaven. It lay upon the ground, which speaks of the humility and the humanity of the Lord Jesus.
It was round; that spoke of His eternality. It was white; that spoke of His purity. It had the taste of honey; that spoke of the sweetness of His life. It had in it the taste of oil; that spoke of the Holy Spirit that was upon Him. It had to be reached down and taken up, and that shows that Jesus must be appropriated and fed upon. It sustained them physically, and Jesus sustains us spiritually. All of that in the Old Testament was an illustration of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is supernatural bread. Remember this, folks: It's Jesus that you need. You've got a hunger in your heart. I'm telling you it is Jesus that you need. He is Heaven's bread. He was bruised for us. He was baked for us. He was broken for us. You need to feed upon Jesus, who is the bread of life.
Now here's the third thing I want to say about it. Listen, Jesus is spiritual bread. Jesus is supernatural bread. He is the Son of God. And Jesus is satisfying bread. Look if you will again in John 6 verse 35. Look at it. Jesus says here, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst". Well, now, what's He talking about? Is He talking about physical hunger? If He is, this is a lie. How many Christians have ever been hungry and thirsty? You see. He's not talking, He's not saying if you get saved that you will never have another hunger pain. He's not saying if you get saved when you cut the grass on an August day, that you'll not want to go in and get a drink of water.
What's He saying? Use your heads. Use your hearts. Understand what He is saying! "I am supernatural bread! And I am satisfying bread". Jesus is what you need. "Friends all around me are trying to find what their heart yearns for, by sin undermined. I have the secret. I know where 'tis found. Only true pleasures in Jesus abound". Jesus is all this world needs today. "Blindly they strive, for sin darkens their way. Oh, to pull back the grim curtains of night. One look at Jesus, and all will be light".
Listen, my beloved friend, you need Jesus Christ. The thing that you're hungering for, that your soul desires, whether you know it or not, is Jesus. You need the Lord Jesus Christ. He and He alone can satisfy the deepest longing of your heart. Men are searching everywhere for satisfaction. They'll never find it 'til they find it in the Lord Jesus! What did God create you for? Well, you say, "God created me to serve Him". Well, that's ridiculous. If He wanted someone to serve Him, He'd get somebody a lot better than us. He could get angels. They have abilities, and they obey in ways that you and I don't.
God made you to love Him. God is love, and what good is love if it is not shown, if it is not received. And God made us that He might have fellowship with us, that He might love us, and God doesn't love us because we're valuable; we're valuable because God loved us. That's what you were made for! That's what you were created for; to know Him and to love Him. God made a bird to fly in the sky. God made a fish to swim in the sea. And God made you to know Him, to love Him, and to worship Him. And until you do, you'll be like a bird in the sea and like a fish in the air, you'll be out of your element. Your element is Jesus.
In Him we live and move and have our being. You were made to know Him, to love Him, to worship Him. Do you understand that? Until you do, until you do you will have what Pascal was talking about in our introduction, you will have that vacuum; you will have that emptiness. You'll say, "Why doesn't anything work out"? I'll tell you why. You're thirsty and you're hungry for Jesus! You need to be saved. You need the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord. So, listen, what did Jesus say? What did Jesus say?
Let me give you another Scripture here that you might put in your margin. Put down there Matthew chapter 5 and verse 6. Jesus said in the Beatitudes, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled". That is, they shall be satisfied. You are to seek the Lord. You are to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Now what did our Lord say in John 6 verse 27? "Don't labor for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life".
So what should you do? You are to labor for, or you are to seek food that endures to everlasting life. Now how should you seek the Lord? Listen carefully. You need to seek the Lord preeminently. Write that down, preeminently. Now you know what the natural man wants? Do you know what many people in this building want? You want fame, you want fortune, you want friends, you want fashion, and you want fitness. Jesus said in Matthew 6:32, "After all these things the Gentiles seek". That's what you want! You're looking for satisfaction in the wrong places. Now none of these are wrong in themselves. Fame and food and fashion and fitness and friends; they're all fine, in their place, but their place must be second place.
Matthew 6 verse 33, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you". You see, Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness". Now what most people are doing is hungering and thirsting after blessedness. "Bless me, Lord. Bless me, Lord. I want a blessing". No, quit seeking a blessing, and start seeking righteousness. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness". Who is righteousness? Christ is our righteousness. You are to seek the Lord Jesus as a hungry man would seek bread, and you are to seek Him first. "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness".
Now what happens if you just simply try to be happy? If you just simply try to satisfy yourself? What happens? What is wrong with that? Well, you've got it backward. You see, a man, any man, any woman, who tries to be blessed, who tries to be happy, who tries to have joy and fulfillment, any person who sets out to do that will never find it. He's like a dog chasing his tail; he'll never catch it. The most miserable people on Earth are the people who are trying to be blessed. The most miserable people on Earth are the people who are trying to be satisfied.
Listen, you'll never find it. If you don't believe what I'm telling you, go to some of the resort cities, I mean where the high mucketymucks walk, those who have plenty of money in their billfold. They have gone to these resorts to try to be happy. Walk down the street and look at their faces; you'll see better faces on bottles of iodine. These people are miserable. They're absolutely, totally miserable, and you have to feel sorry for them, because they're the ones who finally reached the top of the ladder and found out there's nothing here. At least those who are down lower, at least they have some hope, "When I get up there, maybe it'll be there".
But these people are up there, and they know it is not there! And when a man is seeking to find satisfaction in the things of this world, he will never find them. Why? Because that dissatisfaction that you have is simply a symptom of a sickness which is sin, and the answer to that sickness is righteousness. Suppose you had a fever, and you went to the doctor, and the doctor gave you a palliative to ease the fever and to kill the pain, but he never dealt with the infection, what kind of a doctor would that be? What kind of a doctor would that be? That would be a mighty poor doctor, and yet most people today are simply trying to kill the pain. They never deal with the disease.
Jesus said, "You are to hunger and thirst after righteousness". He is Heaven's bread for your hunger. When you feed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to look behind, you're going to see you're blessed. Happiness, joy, blessing-ness, satisfaction is never something that you find by searching for; it's something you stumble over when you serve the Lord Jesus Christ. You are to seek Him preeminently. Jesus is what you need. Every now and then I'll preach and somebody'll say to me, "Adrian, have you got the second blessing"? I say, "Man, listen, I've got the third and the fourth and the fifth".
Listen, what is the second blessing? The second blessing is just discovering what you got blessed with in the first one. You'll never go beyond Jesus. You can go into Jesus. You need more of Jesus. But listen, Jesus is all, He is everything! "In Him is the fullness of the Godhead bodily". Colossians 2:9. And when you receive the Lord Jesus, you receive everything. The second blessing is discovering what you got in the first blessing, and the third blessing is discovering you didn't discover it all in the second blessing. I'm telling you there is more and more in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are to seek Jesus preeminently. I'll tell you something else about Him; you are to seek Him purposefully. He says, "Labour for this meat".
When a man is hungry physically, what is the thing that he seeks? It's bread! He's not interested in the playoffs, in a basketball game. He's not interested in politics: Republicans and Democrats and independents. This man is not interested in art. He's not interested in flower arrangements. If a man is a hungry man, he is interested in one thing; that is food. And if he's starving, he'll take food out of a garbage can. Is that not true? And you see a man who gets critical and complains and begins to find fault with a meal, you can understand that he's not a hungry man.
One woman decided she would satisfy her bickering, complaining husband. She said, "What do you want for breakfast"? He said, "I want eggs; I want two. I want one scrambled and one fried". "Well," she said, "alright, dear". And she scrambled one and fried one. He sat there with a pout. She said, "What's wrong"? He said, "You scrambled the wrong egg". Now, you'll find people like this who complain. You know what their problem is? They're not hungry. Did you know that you can come to church and find fault? You can go to any Sunday School class and find fault. If you want to look at any preacher, this one included, you can find fault. That's very easy to find. It'd be like a person sitting down at a banquet and saying, "Well, the china is chipped". Or, "The parsley is on the wrong side of the plate". Or, "The silverware is not polished".
You see, what's wrong with a person like that? He's not a hungry person. He's not a hungry person. A hungry person is a humble person, and a humble person says, "My poor soul! It must be fed". And the problem with so many of us is we're stuffed full of the bread of this world that we have no appetite for the Lord Jesus Christ. But Jesus said in John 6 verses 26 and 27, "You are following Me for the fish and the loaves. Labour for that meat that endures to everlasting life". You are to seek Jesus preeminently. You are to seek Jesus purposefully. With all of your heart, with all of your soul, as much as in you is, seek the Lord Jesus Christ; you'll be glad you did. You'll be glad you did. I'm telling you one of these days, sooner than you realize, you're going to turn up your toes and die, and then you'll wish you'd sought Him.
But if you'll seek Him this life, you'll be glad that you did. Let me just say finally, you are to seek Him continually, perpetually, perpetually. Now listen, Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled". You know, when Jesus performed this miracle, when Jesus performed this miracle, they were filled! They had all they wanted. But I want to ask you a question: did they get hungry again? Yeah. Well! When you feed on the Lord Jesus Christ, does that mean you just eat one meal and stop? No. Do you know what God has done? God has given you perpetual appetite that you might be perpetually satisfied.
In the physical realm, in the physical realm, if you have no appetite, you're either dead, diseased, or sick, or something. If you have no appetite, it's just because you've already eaten, or because you're sick, or because you're dead. Now let's apply that to the spiritual realm. You ought to thank God for your appetite, because it's your appetite that shows you have health spiritually. When you feed on the Lord Jesus, how do you feed on Him? Continually.
You say, "Well, wait a minute. If you're satisfied, why would you want more"? Because God made you where you'd both be satisfied and then get hungry again and then get satisfied again. Have you ever, at a Thanksgiving meal, you eat and you sit about three inches from the table and eat 'til you touch the table? You get up and you say, "I don't care if I ever eat another thing the rest of my life. I mean, this is it. This is, I'm done". And that's about 2:00. And not evening about 7:30, you're back at the refrigerator, looking in there, you know, see what's in there. Well, why? That's just the way God made us. God made us perpetually, with an appetite that we might be continually satisfied. How do you, how do you stay happy in Jesus? Feed on Him, and keep on feeding on the Lord Jesus Christ. Feed on Him, and keep on feeding on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me tell you again, folks. Look beyond the miracle. Look beyond the physical bread and onto Jesus! What your heart yearns for, what you need, what you want, the only way you'll ever find satisfaction is to find satisfaction in the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is God's answer to your deepest hunger. Jesus alone can take the pain out of life, the sting out of sin, the gloom out of the grave, and give a hope that is steadfast and sure. I love Jesus. If I had a thousand lives, I'd give Him every one. Not only is Jesus necessary, He is enough. And not only is He enough, He is more than enough. There were twelve basketsful leftover. He will give you the deepest need of your heart. You will never be satisfied until you know Jesus, Heaven's bread.
Bow your heads and close your eyes. If you're not saved, I want to help you to get saved today. You can pray right where you are and believe on Him, trust Him. The Bible says: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
Lord, I'm hungry. The bread of this life doesn't satisfy me. I'm hungry. Oh, Lord, I have a need. I need Jesus. Lord Jesus, I receive You now as my Lord and Savior. Give me, Lord, of Yourself. By faith, Lord, I receive You, I feed upon You. Come into my heart, right now. Forgive my sin and save me, Lord Jesus.
Pray that prayer from your heart, "Save me, Lord Jesus". Did you pray it? Then pray this way:
Thank You for saving me. I don't ask for a sign, I don't look for a feeling, I stand on Your Word; You cannot lie. I trust You now as my Lord and Savior. You are mine; I am Yours. Begin now, Lord Jesus, to satisfy the deep longing of my heart and to make me the person You want me to be. In Your holy name I pray, Amen.