JOHN 6:22-27 CORRECT YOUR COURSE WHILE SEEKING JESUS2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: John 6:22-27 Correct Your Course While Seeking Jesus

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2017.

Well, this morning as we look at John chapter 6, I'm going to be asking you to think about some subtle differences in the motives that are taking place in your heart and in your life. And so I'm going to ask you to really, you know, be paying more attention than maybe usual. I hope you pay full attention all the time. But

but to be thinking a little bit beyond the exact things that I'm sharing and allowing the Lord to search your heart.

allowing the Lord to bring forth and to manifest what is happening within. Because so many times, the things that are happening on the outside, and when I say outside, I even mean to our own eyes and to our own perception, the things that are happening on the outside look good and look right, but beneath the surface, there's issues that the Lord wants to deal with and needs to deal with. And

And it comes down many times to some very subtle differences, but although they're subtle, they are very important. And God wants us to evaluate these things and our hearts before him this morning. I've titled the message this morning, Correcting Your Course While Seeking Jesus.

correcting your course, recognizing when there are things in your hearts and in your life that are off course. Now, looking at this, I think it would be easy for us to say, hey, I'm seeking Jesus.

How could I be off course? My course doesn't need to be corrected because I'm seeking Jesus. And you might even think to yourself, I'm at church on a Sunday morning. I'm on course. Of course I'm on course. There's no doubt about it because I'm here on Sunday morning. But I would call your attention to verse 24. It tells us there that there's this multitude of people,

And they were seeking Jesus. They were on one side of the Sea of Galilee and they were thinking that Jesus was still there. They didn't know that he had walked across the Sea of Galilee and met the disciples in the boat on the way across. And so they didn't see Jesus get in the boat. They thought he was still on that side. So they were waiting around. But after a while, they realized, hey, Jesus isn't here.

And so they get into boats and they head across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and finally find him in Capernaum. And they show up there where Jesus is at in Capernaum. And it tells us in verse 24 that they were seeking Jesus. But Jesus is going to go on in the next couple verses and correct them because although they are seeking Jesus, they're still off course.

And there is correction that needs to be brought. And so again, I want to encourage you this morning to be open, to allow the Lord to bring forth and to reveal and to pay attention to perhaps some very subtle differences in your motives and within your heart that the Lord wants to highlight because although those differences might be subtle, they're

They are hugely important. I would ask you to consider as we get started here in John chapter 6, something Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7. There Jesus is talking about the day that we will stand before him, entering into eternity. And in Matthew chapter 7 verse 22, Jesus says, Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,

Have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? Jesus says on that day, there's going to be a crowd of people, many people, he says, who stand before him, call him Lord, and say, look, Lord, we've served you. And we've done miracles in your name. We've done what you wanted us to do. We've honored you. And this crowd of people is expecting now to be entering into Jesus.

everlasting life. But then Jesus says in verse 23, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Now this is a pretty heavy passage to consider because here you have a group of people, Jesus calls them many. So this isn't, you know, of course there's occasional delusional people, right? We all expect that. But Jesus is saying there's a lot of people

who are absolutely convinced they're entering into everlasting life and will be fully surprised on that day when Jesus says, I never knew you. And as you look at this passage, you might wonder, how could someone be so far off course expecting to arrive at this destination? And well, when they land, when they arrive, they realize they're somewhere entirely different. An Air Force pilot once described this,

being off course this way. He says, for every single degree you fly off course, you will miss your target landing spot by 92 feet for every mile you fly. So if you fly 500 miles, you're going to be way off course. You're going to land at a completely different destination than

than where you were intending because you were off course one degree. Now, if you're on this side of it, you see the plane taking off, the perception of one degree off would be difficult to discern.

You wouldn't recognize, oh, that's taking off one degree, you know, in the wrong direction. It's plain, you know, anybody can see that. Well, you know, truth be told, I couldn't tell if it was one direction or the other direction. No degrees would matter to me. I wouldn't know. But you get the point that starting out, it would look exactly the same. Early on into the flight, it would look exactly the same. There would be no perceptible difference. But then the destination...

Well, then it becomes very clear. It's a radical difference. And so you have those who would say, Lord, Lord, and yet Jesus says, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And so that little degree of difference in takeoff, in the course, ends up making a huge difference. And again, that's why I ask you to consider some subtle differences in your heart and allow the Lord to bring forth and to make clear

Some of the things that need to be addressed so that you can correct your course while you're seeking Jesus. Don't think that because you're seeking Jesus, there is no course correction needed. No, but many times there is because we do get off course. And if we were going the opposite way and rebelling against Jesus and running from him and immersing ourselves into a life of sin, well, then it's an obvious thing and we recognize it quickly. But sometimes there's those subtle changes.

And we need to pay attention to them so that we can get back to where God wants us to be. And so this morning, I'd like to share with you three steps to correct your course. Three steps to help you get back aligned where you need to be that you would arrive at the destination that you intend. The first step is found in verse 26 and 27 here. Step number one is recognize when temporary needs become your first priority. Here's a clue.

to when you are off course. Here's a way to recognize or to understand that there is something that needs to be adjusted in your heart when you see temporary needs become your first priority. Verse 26 here in John chapter 6 again says, 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.

As this crowd catches up with Jesus and they arrive there in Capernaum,

seeking Jesus. They've gone to great lengths, really, to find Jesus. They've invested some time. They've spent some energy. They've crossed over the Sea of Galilee. They are trying to find Jesus. They are seeking Jesus. They're not just kind of casually like laying there. Well, if he walks by, I guess I'll see him. I mean, they're actually wanting to see Jesus. But as they show up, Jesus highlights some issues in their hearts.

And he reveals the motivations that are happening within. He says, you seek me not because you saw the signs. Jesus here is calling to attention that their motivation for seeking Jesus was not because of the signs.

That is, Jesus, as he was there ministering, he was working miracles and proving by the work that he did, as well as the word that he taught, that he was the Son of God, the Savior of the world. And Jesus here is calling to attention, their motivation is not that they believed in Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior.

They didn't recognize this is the fulfillment of the prophecies of the scripture. And that's why we're seeking Jesus. They didn't really understand who Jesus was. They were not seeking him because of who he was. Jesus reveals further in verse 26. He says, you seek me because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Jesus is referring to here the first part of John chapter 6.

If you look there at verses 1 through 14, you'll see that's the account where Jesus feeds 5,000, well, it's 5,000 men plus women and children. So a big crowd, at least 5,000, possibly 10,000, even possibly 15,000. We don't know exactly, but this large crowd of people are fed with a couple loaves of bread and a couple fish. And this miraculous thing takes place.

It tells us that they ate and they ate and they ate. They were completely filled. And then there was basketfuls of leftovers. A huge crowd of thousands of people ate from a small lunch, were filled. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet. And they ate. They had their fill. They were glutted, it would say. And then there was baskets left over. And Jesus refers back to that and says, you had your stomachs filled.

You had a really good meal. And that's what you're thinking about. That is why you are seeking me. Verse 22 here in John chapter 6 tells us it was the following day. So as this crowd catches up with Jesus, it was just the day before that they had been filled and had such a great meal. Now I can kind of relate to this because, well, Kim and I got to celebrate our anniversary this week. And as we celebrated our anniversary, we went out for a good meal.

And I had this ribeye steak that was just amazing. I mean, it was a nice solid 14 ounces. That's, you know, it's kind of a bare minimum as far as I'm concerned, but good solid 14 ounces, cooked perfectly. The fat marbled throughout was just like, oh my goodness. It was so tender. I didn't have to like apply pressure to my knife to cut it. I just kind of like, you know, just kind of did a gentle motion and it just went right. I mean, it was amazing, this meal.

So much so that I've thought about it every day. And I've thought, man, if only I could afford to spend $80 on dinner every day, that would be awesome. I would eat that all the time. But of course I can't. That's a once in a while, once a year type of an event, type of occasion. And so I've thought about a good meal every day all this week. And here's this people, they had a good meal yesterday.

And now they're seeking Jesus again. And Jesus is saying, it's because you still got the taste of that bread and that fish in your mouth. And you're like, oh man, that was so good. We want to do that again. In fact, in the verses that follow the passage we're looking at today, the people ask Jesus, hey, you know how Moses provided manna in the wilderness for 40 years every day?

Remember what you did yesterday? Could you do that again today? Just here's a couple loaves, like let's have a good meal again. And they are seeking Jesus, not because they know who he is, not because they believe that he is the savior of the world. They're seeking Jesus because they had a good meal. They want another good meal. Their stomachs were filled.

Now on the surface, we could look at verse 24 where it tells us, the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples. They also got into boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. And we could look at that and think, wow, this crowd is really, they're right on. I mean, crossing the Sea of Galilee and going out of their way to seek Jesus, to find Jesus right on. Yes, great job.

And on the surface, it looks awesome. It looks great. They are seeking Jesus. But Jesus reveals what's happening beneath the surface. He reveals what's happening within the hearts. And again, it can be a subtle difference because seeking Jesus because you believe in him as the Messiah and seeking Jesus because you want a good meal, on the surface, they look pretty much the same. But Jesus says they're not the same.

And it needs to be addressed. It needs to be revealed. It needs to be dealt with. The commentator Thomas Constable says, I would ask you to consider this morning, why are you interested in Jesus? What brings you here this morning?

Why do you show up for church on Sunday morning? What's going on within your heart? Are you seeking Jesus? And you would say, well, of course I am. I'm here at church on Sunday morning. I am seeking Jesus. But why? What's your motivation? Not just on the surface, we could look and we could see, hey, Jesus.

You're in church. Good job seeking Jesus. Hey, you're reading. You're praying. You're worshiping. Hey, you're serving. Hey, you know, we can see on the surface all these things. And in your own mind, your perception of yourself, you might have that same impression as well. I'm seeking Jesus. I'm here at church on a Sunday morning. I wish I was in bed, but it's important to me. I'm here. I'm seeking Jesus. But what's really happening beneath the surface, below that

upper level, which, well, it looks great. It looks good. Why are you interested in Jesus? What is it that is motivating you to be walking with him? Jesus calls to attention their motivation because, well, we need to recognize it's easy to pursue things for a temporary benefit. And if you've been around the church for a little bit,

you learn pretty quickly to even disguise those pursuits as spiritual. We learn to kind of trick ourselves and fool ourselves into thinking, hey, I'm doing this for Jesus, when in reality, there's something else happening completely differently within. You know, doing good things can feel good. And someone who doesn't want to have anything to do with God can do good things and feel good about the good things that they do.

And we as Christians can do good things and then have good feelings because we've done good things. But it becomes a real problem when those good feelings that we experience become the pursuit that we're after. And we're trying to get those good feelings back. If you're chasing after the good feeling, you're going to be led astray. It's a different course. It might look the same at the beginning. It might be hard to distinguish from the outside or even from your own perspective.

But the Lord sees what's happening beneath the surface. The scriptures tell us that the word of God is able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there's more happening within that needs to be dealt with. And we have to take a moment to step back and to ask God to show us what's happening within. To think about things from different perspectives and to look below the surface. There's a saying within the tech community. It goes something like this.

If you aren't paying for a product, you are the product. Now think about this for a second, okay? And I don't mean to freak anybody out and you don't have to be freaked out about this, but there is an important distinction to understand about what's happening when you're involved in services, especially online. When you are not paying for a product, you are the product. Let's take email, for example. You get email. Now, most likely, you don't pay anything.

to have email. You just log in and get it. But you know, to provide you email is not a free thing. Even though we might look at it and think, well, it doesn't probably cost very much. It's not free to run the service, to do the infrastructure, to host the things. It all costs money. So why would a company spend money to give you something for free?

Well, it's not because they're just benevolent, all loving companies, and they just want to bless you so much. It's because, well, there's an exchange going on and not everybody is aware of the exchange. And that's why I bring it up. It's not so much that it's a crisis and you have to panic. But here's what you need to understand. If you're getting email for free, it means that, well, you're the product. And so there's data being collected about you.

Now, not necessarily you by name, singularly. This is what Dave Burnt likes to wear, and this is what Dave Burnt does and searches for. No, no, but this is what people of this demographic...

This is what people of this gender, this is what people of, you know, this or that. And there's data being collected. There's advertisement being sold to you. There's, you know, studies being done and reports being sold to different companies to, you know, you might have read this week, there was an unroll me service online that

unsubscribed you from, you know, all those newsletters and things that you get. What a great service, right? We'll just unsubscribe you for free. Well, actually what they were doing is then you gave them access to your email. They were selling that information to other companies like Uber, saying, Uber, you can learn a lot about Lyft customers from the data that we have. Now, again, not attaching it to the name, so there's no need for panic, but at the same time, you need to understand that

There's something happening beneath the surface. That's the whole point of this long tech dialogue that I went on, okay? So I just like to excuse myself and talk about tech for a little bit. Now we'll get back to the word. But you know, sometimes we got to think beyond what's just immediately apparent, beyond what's right in front of us. There's more happening beneath the surface. And we need to stop and think, why am I doing what I do? Why am I living the way that I live?

Why do I make the choices that I make? What are my priorities? What are my passions? And it is easy for me to answer, yes, I'm seeking Jesus. But is that truly the case? Jesus calls the crowd to pay attention to what's happening within their heart, their motivations, saying, recognize what it is that you are pursuing and pay attention to the details because those details matter.

Again, it might just look like one degree off. It might just be like, oh, that's such a little subtle thing. Like, why pay so much attention to that? But the destination is completely different. Recognize that path will take you somewhere you don't want to go. And so it's important that we consider our motivations. It's not enough just to do good things, just to show up for service, just to seek Jesus. But along with that needs to be a heart that

that is genuine and true in that pursuit of Jesus. Again, Jesus tells the crowd, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves. And they're paying attention to their immediate needs. It's a subtle difference. Now let me add something else. Here's another reason why we need to pay close attention because, well, we actually do have immediate needs, right?

Now, if we're only seeking Jesus for those immediate needs, there's a problem. But at the same time, we are to seek Jesus for our immediate needs. In fact, Jesus taught us in his prayer, when you pray, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And then what? Give us this day our daily bread. And so it makes things a

As we evaluate our hearts. And again, that's why we need to take our hearts to God and pay attention to some of the details here because it is appropriate to ask God for provision and to seek God for our meals and to seek God for our needs. Peter tells us, cast your cares upon him because he cares for you. But the key difference and the thing to focus on is what Jesus says in Matthew 6, verse 33.

I don't know if you've ever heard that verse before. Of course you have if you've been around Harvey, right? We all like to quote it and he loves to quote it. Matthew 6, 33, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. All those things that you need, those temporary needs, Jesus says those things will be added as you have your priorities straight and you're seeking first the kingdom of God. And so you can begin to notice and recognize that there is

a problem with your course, with your trajectory, when those temporary needs have become the first priority. When they've become what is driving you, what is most important to you, what is, well, if all your prayers are about your temporary needs, again, you need to let the Lord do some evaluation of your heart. If you are showing up for service because of temporary needs, now I'm not saying necessarily that, you know, you're hoping to get some food here, but

You know, we come to service and we experience some good emotions. We experience some good fellowship, some friendship. There's a variety of things that we get to experience. And sometimes we just keep coming back for that experience. And our temporary needs are kind of being met and somewhat being fulfilled and satisfied. And it can become the focus. It can become the why. It's a different course sometimes.

It looks like it's seeking Jesus, but it's not actually. Jesus says in verse 27, do not labor for the food which perishes. He calls to attention their motivation. He says, okay, now here's how to correct it. Here's what you need to do. Stop it. Stop pursuing the immediate fulfillment of your needs as your first priority. Chasing the immediate needs will leave you in a place where you're always chasing.

You're always pursuing those needs. You're always trying to fulfill yourself and you're never going to be satisfied. It's not the same course as following Jesus for who he is. From the outside and even from our own perspective, it can be hard to tell. It looked like they were seeking Jesus, but our hearts are so deceitful and we, well, we deceive ourselves. We confuse ourselves. And if you're thinking, I don't know, Jerry, this is maybe kind of like a little bit too far. You're stretching it quite a bit. Think about it this way.

Have you ever apologized? By the way, you don't need to raise your hand or anything, okay? Have you ever apologized to make yourself feel better, not the person you injured, hurt, or harmed? Now, you can learn a whole lot more about this on May 20th at the offenses class over at Dave and Jackie Burns' house, but we've all done it. We feel bad about what we did or said or however we hurt somebody, but we feel bad about what we did or said or however we hurt somebody.

And because I feel bad and I want to stop feeling bad, I apologize because it helps me stop feeling bad about what I did. And all of that has nothing to do with you. It's all about me. Help me feel better. Help me not hurt so much. Help me not feel so guilty about what I did. And that's not what an apology is meant to be about. Now, again, on the surface, it looks fine. It looks the same, but it can be radically different. To apologize for the injury done is

not to help escape the things that I'm feeling. Sometimes we worship. We come to service and we're singing songs because of, well, the experience that we get to have, the emotions that we get to have, the feelings that we get to have. We worship sometimes for ourselves. And that's why sometimes the most important thing is whether or not this song that is currently being sung is one that I like or dislike.

You know the real important question about a song? Does the Lord like it? That's what really should matter to us. That's what's really important. Does the Lord like it? If the Lord likes it, I'll sing it to the Lord because it's about him and not about me. You see, it can look the same and we can worship side by side, but I might be worshiping me while you're worshiping Jesus. It's a subtle difference. It's beneath the surface, but listen, it's a completely different course.

And that's what Jesus is calling to our attention and saying, look, you need to pay attention to these details. They matter. What's going on within your heart is important and crucial for your final destination. Because you might be on a course that takes you somewhere radically different than you were expecting. As a teenager, I would pray, Lord, I need this car, you know, so I could take people to church.

That's why I need that Porsche, because, you know, people got to get to church, Lord. I can take them to really fast in a Porsche. Now, as a teenager growing up in the church, I had learned, well, if you want something, you know, you kind of got to make it spiritual. So that's what I did. We still do that. Maybe it's not so obvious to us. It's obvious to the Lord. Shrouding our temporary cravings and desires with spiritual language. So it looks like we're seeking Jesus.

but it really is nothing at all about Jesus. Recognize when temporary needs become your first priority, there is a course correction that is necessary. You need to change course. It's not a good destination to pursue Jesus for any other reason than the reality that he is God, your creator, who deserves all honor and all glory, your very breath. We need to check our hearts. If you're chasing after feeling good, it's going to lead you

astray. This past week, there was a hiker back east who got lost in the wilderness, got lost in the mountains. He was experienced, and yet he fell into a brook, got caught up in some very deep snow, got off course, and was completely lost. Now, this happened about two days into his planned four-day journey, and so nobody really knew that there was a problem.

Until finally he found a spot where he could get enough signal on his phone to dial 911. And he called 911 and it was a very short call. So they couldn't pinpoint his location, but they began the search. But I thought it was interesting as I was reading about this man and what he shared as he called 911. It says that

officials became aware that he was in trouble when he was able to contact 911 about 2 45 a.m. on Tuesday saying he was off trail in deep snow. And notice what it says, and feared he was becoming delusional. This guy was completely off course, lost already for a couple days, but he had enough awareness to recognize, I might be seeing things. I'm not really sure what's

which way I'm going, how long I've been here. I don't know which way is up or which way is down. Maybe I'm not having this conversation, 911. Hopefully you're there and hopefully you're listening, but I might be delusional. And you know, sometimes I think that, well, we need that same kind of awareness to be able to kind of recognize our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked and kind of, you know, maybe things aren't right. Maybe I am off course. I might think I'm fine. This guy knew he was in trouble, but it's just as often where I'm convinced I'm fine.

And I am completely somewhere else, different than where I think I am. And we need to have that kind of awareness to recognize I might be delusional. I might be deceiving myself. Lord, what is going on within my heart? Am I seeking Jesus on course? Moving on to point number two, step number two in correcting our course while seeking Jesus is remember that Jesus gives everlasting life.

Verse 27 says, 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. If you get off course, what you'll need to do to be able to get back on course is you'll need to get your bearings again.

You'll need to stop and reflect and consider and think about where am I? Where am I supposed to be? And begin to figure out, okay, where do I need to go? Or what do I need to do to get back on course? We got to get our bearings again. Now, for me in today's day, I love, absolutely love and don't know how I survived without the modern day technology of GPS and maps everywhere you go, every instant and every moment.

Kim loves to poke fun at me a little bit because when I get in the car, whether I'm driving to Winco or to Florida, I have to push the button that says, okay, show me the map. And it's only a half a mile away. I know exactly where it is. I'm not going to get lost on the way, but I got to see the map. And I love that. And I don't know how I survived without that because, well, it wasn't that long ago that I got lost going to Knott's Berry Farm. And hey, I grew up in Southern California. I know where Knott's Berry Farm is. Absolutely, without question. I could...

Now, I didn't have GPS. I would have used it, and it would have helped me a lot, but I got lost. Kim and I were driving. We were meeting family there, so they're waiting for us to arrive, and I get off at the exact correct off-ramp, Knott Avenue. That's where you get off to go to Knott's Berry Farm, right? That's why they call it Knott Avenue, because that's where Knott's Berry Farm is. Duh, you know, it makes sense, right? Well, actually, it's not the proper exit. Um,

The exit right before Knott Avenue is Beach Boulevard. That's the correct exit. It has signs. It says Knott's Berry Farm exit here. But I saw the sign Knott Avenue two miles. That's it. That's why they call it Knott Avenue. So I get off at Knott Avenue, and we proceed to drive for, I don't know, 30, 45 minutes down Knott Avenue, trying to find Knott's Berry Farm and unable to find it. Now, it's only one exit difference, right?

It's a pretty subtle difference, actually. If you zoom out enough, it looks like the same exit. It looks exactly identical, but it takes you a completely different direction. Now, if only I had looked up, because there's the giant K in the sky, I could have got my bearings and known I was off course. For us spiritually, in a similar way, we got to get our bearings again when we get off course. And the way that we get our bearings is to look up and remember, Jesus gives you everlasting life.

As you look to eternity, it will help you to recognize those things that are temporary needs that you have placed in a greater priority than they should be and have pursued those things instead of pursuing the things of eternity. Remember that Jesus gives everlasting life. And Jesus says, don't labor for the food that perishes.

but labor 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. God the Father has set the seal on Jesus. That is, he has proven, he's authenticated that Jesus is the Savior, that he is the one who is capable, able, qualified, and will, guaranteed, give his followers everlasting life.

He has the seal of approval of the Father. It's going to happen. That's the promise. And as we begin to focus on eternity and begin to put eternity in perspective, it begins to set right and reveal the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Everlasting life is a big emphasis in the book of John. I would encourage you to pay attention to it as we continue reading through the gospel of John. Everlasting life. How long is that exactly? It's a long time.

I mean, sometimes life here on this earth feels like eternity, but it's not even close. Consider the song by John Newton, Amazing Grace. You've probably heard it. That's not it. Here it is. That last stanza of Amazing Grace. When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun.

Can you imagine being in the presence of God for 10,000 years? That's hard for us to imagine. Eternity is interesting because it's so hard for us to comprehend. We're so used to our time in these moments. Sometimes eternity even sounds a little bit boring, right? It's like the same thing over and over again for a long time, thousands and thousands of years. As you look to eternity, you recognize there's so much more that God has for us. As the Bible describes, this life is a vapor. And when I begin to place a

Too great of a priority on these temporary needs. I began to recognize as I put eternity into focus that I'm spending my whole life investing in these temporary things. It's just a vapor. It's not going to last. And well, the things of eternity are going to last forever and ever. They're much more valuable. And we get it backwards so many times because the things that are right in front of us are right in front of us. And we get distracted.

The things we can taste and touch and see, they're right in front of us. We get distracted and we forget the value of eternal things. But we can begin to grasp hold of that again, getting our bearings by looking to eternity. Paul said, set your mind on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. That is where our focus needs to be. Remember that Jesus gives everlasting life. When you get off course, you have to get your bearings again.

and get captivated by eternity. There was another person who got lost in the woods recently. This one was back a few months, about six months ago. It was a woman who got lost in the woods on a half marathon trail run. She says that she was about seven miles off course as she was on this run. She took a wrong turn.

Nobody knew that anything was wrong until later on when she, well, didn't show up at the finish line. The race finished at about 1230. Her husband's calling the race organizer at about four o'clock saying, something's wrong. My wife's not back. What's going on? And everybody had already left. The whole place was empty. The whole trail and the picnic area, it was just a couple people stranded, you know, here and there just hanging out. But everything was done. Everybody was gone. Everybody went home.

And they had to come back and begin the search. And they searched and searched and searched. Finally, they found her late at night. And she says, I was sitting there in the dark. I was face down. She said, I had my left arm out as a reminder to myself that was the direction I was going. I thought that was really smart. Now, you know, there's maybe some other things that she did that you could argue that maybe weren't so smart. I like, actually, later on in the article, the race coordinator says...

You know, next year we probably won't do anything differently. We'll market the same and everything. I mean, nobody else made that turn. Nobody else went the wrong way. It was only her, you know, so kind of saying she's not that bright. But anyways, here she is. She does something smart. She's exhausted. She's been out there in the wilderness for, you know, hours. It's not like days and days. So, you know, she's got that going for her. But she's tired. She lays down to rest. And she's got her head in her arms. But she leaves her left arm out. Why? Why?

She said, because I needed to remember what direction I was going. Now listen, if you're lost in the woods, that's a fairly smart thing to do. Because, well, you lay down to rest, you get up, you look around, everything looks the same. I don't know what direction I was going. I don't know what direction I came from. So that's pretty smart. She got her bearings that way. But she didn't have to because she got rescued at that point. But you get the point that sometimes we need to get our bearings. We need to get focused once again and know this is where I'm going.

And as we look to eternity, we recognize this is where I'm going. This is what really matters. This is what is most important. Well, then that brings me to step number three. For correcting our course while we're seeking Jesus, we need to refocus on things which endure. As we begin to look at eternity again,

Now we invest our hearts, our minds, our time, our energy, our focus on those things that will last for eternity. Again, in verse 27, Jesus says, "'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.'"

Jesus makes a contrast to this crowd that is seeking Jesus. He says, you're seeking me for the temporary needs, but you need to really invest yourselves in things that have eternal value. What is it that has eternal value? What is it that endures to everlasting life? Well, I would say, first of all, that Jesus is primarily speaking about himself. In just a few verses here in John chapter 6, Jesus will say, I am the bread of life in verse 35.

You're looking for bread. You got filled yesterday. You're showing up for a good meal today, but here's what you need to understand. I am the bread of life, not a physical bread, not talking about filling your, you know, physical hunger, satisfying your physical hunger, but your spiritual hunger. I'm the one who satisfies that. And Jesus says in John 6 35, he who comes to me shall never hunger. And he who believes in me shall never thirst. Are you hungry, unsatisfied in life?

Unsatisfied emotionally, unsatisfied within your soul. Listen, Jesus says, I am the bread of life. I'm the one who can satisfy you. And over and over, Jesus taught about how thoroughly fulfilling he is. He told the woman at the well, if you drink the water that I give you, you will never thirst again. And she thought he was talking about physical water, but he was not. He was talking about her spiritual thirst. Here in John 6, he says, I am the bread of life.

If you come to me, you'll never hunger again and you'll never thirst again. I'm enough to satisfy you in every situation, in every difficulty, whatever your need might be. I'm enough to satisfy you, Jesus says. And so you can focus, refocus on him. He will endure. Your relationship with him, your knowledge of him, your walk with him lasts for eternity. Believing in Jesus, knowing Jesus, and serving Jesus.

Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 that our works will be tested. And there's a lot of things that we do in the name of Jesus, but Paul says it's going to become clear whether or not that was for the Lord. Those subtle differences within your heart, those motivations that were not right, it's all going to be tested.

He says it'll be tested by fire in 1 Corinthians 3. And in verse 14, he says, if anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive reward. When you serve the Lord for his sake, for his glory, for his honor, there's reward. It has eternal value. There's great benefit for you in the life that is to come.

In verse 15, though, he says, if anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. So it's not talking about losing your salvation here, but he's saying, look, you can do a lot in the name of Jesus and have no actual value for it. Like the people we saw from Matthew chapter 7, where Jesus said, they'll say, hey, didn't we do this in your name and do that in your name and do that in your name? And Jesus will say, I never knew you.

The reality is doing it in the name of Jesus, just because it looks like it's serving Jesus, doesn't mean it's actually what you're doing. The motivations, what's happening within your heart actually matters. It's going to be tested and it's going to be made clear as you enter into eternity. Make sure that you invest and focus on the things that endure. Focus on the things that will last for forever.

There's a famous line that comes from a poem by C.T. Studd. The poem is called Only One Life. He says this,

I pray that that line would resonate in our hearts as well, that it wouldn't depart from our mind. As he says in the poem, there's only one life. We have a very temporary time here on this earth, and only what's done for Christ will last. I would ask you to consider what will last for you. What's going to be left? How much are you doing for Christ? What's really happening within your heart? Again, as we worship Christ,

Is it about how much you like the song or is it about how much he likes the song? As you parent, is it about what you want or is it about what he wants? As you work, is it about his direction or your direction? And on and on and on we go. Again, there's some subtle differences, but they're big deal. Being off one degree takes you a completely different destination. We need to check our hearts and recognize that sometimes we're off.

And we get distracted by the things of this life and they become our first priority. And we need to stop and catch that, recognize the issue that is at hand and refocus on the things which endure. One of the hardest times to stay on course for us is times of suffering. As we encounter times of suffering because of the pain, because we want such immediate relief, it can be easy for us to, well, to pursue the temporary things.

to lose sight of our bearings, to lose sight of eternity. But the apostle Paul says, no, hold on to eternity in those times. In 2 Corinthians chapter four, as he's talking about his own sufferings and being pressed and crushed and on every side and so much difficulty going on. But then in verse 17 of 2 Corinthians four, he says, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

He says, look, there's eternity that is being established here in the midst of this suffering. And so he's able then to describe it as a light affliction. He says, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. You have to get your bearings again. And in the midst of suffering, it's easy because, well, not only is there the distractions of this life, but there's the pain that we experience and the suffering that we endure.

And it's easy to take our eyes off of Christ. But Paul says, no, we need to fix our eyes on Christ and recognize there's great value, even though it hurts now. Even though there's suffering now, there's great value. There's eternal value. There's an eternal weight of glory. And we gotta stop looking at what's seen.

And making that the focus and the priority and looking at what's not seen because that lasts forever. Refocus on things which endure. One last example to share before we get into a time of communion together. It was a few years back while I was working for Paychex. I was catching a flight from New York back home, landing just down the road a bit here at the Ontario airport.

We got on the plane. Everybody boarded and seated. The door was closed to the plane. We backed away from the terminal. We began to make our way to the runway. And then suddenly there was an announcement. Captain came on. Ladies and gentlemen, terribly sorry. We have to go back to the terminal. I'm sure you could imagine, you know, there's lots of, oh, grumbling and whining questions. And I was kind of surprised that they shared what they shared after that, but they did. And they said, well, we have to go back to the terminal because there's somebody on board who's

who's going to Ontario, Canada, not Ontario, California. And I don't know how he got on board. This is me talking now. They announced that, and I'm like, how do you get on a plane? But you can understand, right? It looks like it's Ontario, CA, California. Ontario, CA, Canada. They look exactly the same, but they're completely different destinations. The details matter. You got to pay attention to the details. And Jesus...

As he looks at us this morning, he knows what's happening within our hearts. He knows why we're really here. He knows why we're doing what we're doing. He knows where our hearts are at and whether or not we are truly seeking Jesus or if there's something else actually going on. And Jesus wants to call attention to that this morning and say, look, that's a completely different destination. That's not really where you want to go. He brings it to our attention for our benefit, for our good, so that we end up experiencing the fullness of life and the blessings of

that he wants to provide for us, the promises he wants to give. And so as we enter into this time of worship, Lena's going to come up and lead us in a song. I want to encourage you. Let Jesus seek your heart this morning. Invite him. Just as he revealed the heart of the crowd to the crowd, this is a great opportunity for you to come before the Lord and say, Lord, my heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. I don't even know it most of the time, but you know it. Lord, would you show me what's really going on within? Am I off course?

I might go in a wrong direction, a different way. I might look, I might be convinced I'm on course, but that one degree off, boy, it makes a huge difference. And so I want to encourage you to take this time to ask God to show you, to ask God to reveal. And maybe he already has. And so you can take this time to begin to set the course aright and fix your eyes on eternity and begin again to focus on the things which endure and have eternal value.

Let's worship the Lord in this first song, and then I'll come back up and partake of communion in just a few moments. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.