Latest / Clay to Crown / What Are You Eating? — The Word of God as Daily, Sustaining, True Bread

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What Are You Eating? — The Word of God as Daily, Sustaining, True Bread · Clay to Crown

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  Speaker 1: You Hello, everybody. Welcome back for the next episode of
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: the Clay to Crown podcast. I'm having so much fun
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  Speaker 1: recording these. I'm going to have a couple other guests
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  Speaker 1: here soon. But even the ones that I'm recording by myself,
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  Speaker 1: I'm having, you know, fun. doing it. I'm talking with
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  Speaker 1: y'all as I'm sitting here in my home office, looking
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  Speaker 1: out the window. And I just, I don't know, it
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  Speaker 1: does something for my soul just to talk about the
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  Speaker 1: things that the Lord is laying on my heart. And
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  Speaker 1: this is something that, the thing that we're going to
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  Speaker 1: talk about today, it's something that has been ruminating around
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  Speaker 1: in my mind for a while. I've written, I sent
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  Speaker 1: a message about this many years ago to the ladies
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  Speaker 1: at my local church, and I've recently released a blog
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  Speaker 1: post about it. I think the reason why I'm doing
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  Speaker 1: it now, like recording this podcast episode now, is because just...
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  Speaker 1: It's about eating, right? I'll just tell you the thing
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  Speaker 1: that way it'll make my story that I'm about to
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  Speaker 1: tell you relevant. It says the title of today's podcast
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  Speaker 1: is What Are You Eating? I'm eating junk, y'all. I'm
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  Speaker 1: eating junk. I bought some Oreos about four days ago.
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  Speaker 1: Three packages because, you know, you have to have a variety, right?
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  Speaker 1: We were doing something for the church and I'm like, oh,
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  Speaker 1: let's get Oreos for the people who are working. Won't
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  Speaker 1: that be nice? And then I'm like, oh, well, some
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  Speaker 1: of them might like mint Oreos. And then some of
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  Speaker 1: them might like lemon Oreos. Like my husband, my husband
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  Speaker 1: loves anything lemon. Lemon desserts are like his favorite, right?
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  Speaker 1: And so I'm like, oh, let me get a pack
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  Speaker 1: of lemon Oreos. I ended up with three packs of
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  Speaker 1: Oreos in my cart. I bought them, double stuff, mint
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  Speaker 1: and lemon. And nobody ate them. Like some people ate them.
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  Speaker 1: But all of those came home with me. And every
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  Speaker 1: time I find myself going into the kitchen, I'm having
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  Speaker 1: an Oreo. And so I was like, Let's, let's record
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  Speaker 1: today about what are we eating? Is it good? Is
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  Speaker 1: it good for us? Like, what are we taking in?
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  Speaker 1: Is it good for us? Um, and a lot of
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  Speaker 1: times it's not right. A lot of times it's not,
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  Speaker 1: I'm oversimplifying it with the Oreo, but I think all
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  Speaker 1: of you understand what I'm saying, picking up what I'm
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  Speaker 1: throwing down and all of that. But I'm specifically talking
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  Speaker 1: today about the word of God. you know, the word
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  Speaker 1: of God as our daily sustaining and true bread. So
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  Speaker 1: that's the simple question, right? Because it's, what are we eating?
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  Speaker 1: You know, that's something that can affect every part of
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  Speaker 1: our spiritual lives, our emotional stability, our our clarity, our strength,
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  Speaker 1: our joy, you know, and I'm not talking in physical terms.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you guys understand that, although that's important too,
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  Speaker 1: but I'm talking in spiritual terms because scripture tells us
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  Speaker 1: that a time would come when the people, when people
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  Speaker 1: would experience a famine, and we'll get there in a
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  Speaker 1: second on where you can find that. Scripture tells us
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  Speaker 1: that a time would come when people would experience a famine.
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  Speaker 1: Not a famine of bread or water, but of the
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  Speaker 1: hearing of the Word of God. You know, and right now,
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  Speaker 1: I believe that we are living in that time. So
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  Speaker 1: today we're going to talk about spiritual nourishment, spiritual hunger,
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  Speaker 1: and how the Word of God is our daily sustaining
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  Speaker 1: and true bread. So, so let's dive in. Let's dive in.
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  Speaker 1: Amos chapter eight, verse 11 says, a time is surely
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  Speaker 1: coming when I will send a famine on the land,
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  Speaker 1: not a famine of bread or water, but of hearing
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  Speaker 1: of the words of the Lord. That's, that's pretty, Powerful
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  Speaker 1: verse right there, right? A time is surely coming when
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  Speaker 1: I will send a famine on the land, not a
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  Speaker 1: famine of bread or water, but of hearing the words
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord. You know, and Amos is a minor prophet.
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  Speaker 1: He's actually, it's one of my favorite books of the Bible,
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  Speaker 1: if you can believe it. Not very many people would
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  Speaker 1: say that about a minor prophet. But I've studied this
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  Speaker 1: in formal settings, you know, with Bible studies at least
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  Speaker 1: two times. And then I consistently like reread it in
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  Speaker 1: my own time. It's such a powerful book to me
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  Speaker 1: because of, Because of the message that Amos is sending
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  Speaker 1: to the people of Israel. This is not talking about
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  Speaker 1: necessarily a physical famine. It's talking about a spiritual one.
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  Speaker 1: It goes on to say that people would stagger and
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  Speaker 1: wander and search for the word of the Lord, but
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  Speaker 1: they won't find it. They would grow faint with hunger
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  Speaker 1: and thirst for truth. The word of God is out there,
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  Speaker 1: but they couldn't find it. And now friends, I just
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  Speaker 1: want you to look around. People are starving. People are
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  Speaker 1: starving spiritually. They are searching everywhere for truth. They're everywhere. Podcasts, influencers, self-help, trends,
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  Speaker 1: different philosophies, but they are not satisfied. They're eating all
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  Speaker 1: of these things. They're taking all of these things into
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  Speaker 1: their psyche, into their mind, into their heart, but they
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  Speaker 1: aren't satisfied. Why? Because the nourishment they need is right
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  Speaker 1: in front of them, but they're not eating it. And
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  Speaker 1: that nourishment that I'm talking about, that spiritual nourishment is
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Bible, is God's word. The Bible is not
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  Speaker 1: just words on a page. It's nourishment for our souls.
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  Speaker 1: It's nourishment for our minds. It's our sustenance. It's life.
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  Speaker 1: Psalm 22, 26 says that the poor will eat and
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  Speaker 1: be satisfied, and all who seek the Lord will praise him.
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  Speaker 1: But today, even people who profess Christ, who profess belief today, Believers,
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  Speaker 1: many are not satisfied. Why? Because they're not eating. They're
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  Speaker 1: not opening up their word and eating from the truth
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  Speaker 1: on its pages. So we all know the miracle of
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  Speaker 1: the loaves and fishes, right? In Matthew 14. Let me
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  Speaker 1: just turn there. I don't want to take for granted.
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  Speaker 1: I wasn't going to do this, so bear with me.
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  Speaker 1: But in Matthew chapter 14, Jesus is... It's the feeding
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  Speaker 1: of the 5,000. So... His cousin, John the Baptist, was
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  Speaker 1: just murdered. And Jesus finds out, starting in verse 13,
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  Speaker 1: he says, as soon as Jesus heard the news, he
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  Speaker 1: left in a boat to a remote area to be alone, right?
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  Speaker 1: Because he's grieving his cousin. He wants to go and
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  Speaker 1: be alone. But the crowds heard where he was headed
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  Speaker 1: and followed on foot from many towns. And Jesus saw
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  Speaker 1: the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat and
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  Speaker 1: And he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
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  Speaker 1: Like he just wanted to be alone. But all these
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  Speaker 1: crowds came and he had compassion on them. And that
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  Speaker 1: evening the disciples came to him and said, this is
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  Speaker 1: a remote place and it's already getting late. Send the
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  Speaker 1: crowds away so that they can go in the villages
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  Speaker 1: and buy food for themselves. But Jesus said that isn't necessary.
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  Speaker 1: You feed them. The disciples, but we only have five
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  Speaker 1: loaves of bread and two fish, they answered. jesus said
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  Speaker 1: to bring them here verse 19 then he told the
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  Speaker 1: people to sit down on the grass and jesus took
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  Speaker 1: the five loaves and two fish looked up toward heaven
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  Speaker 1: and blessed them then breaking the loaves into pieces he
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  Speaker 1: gave the bread to the disciples who distributed it to
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  Speaker 1: the people they all ate as much as they wanted.
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  Speaker 1: And afterwards, the disciples picked up the 12 baskets of leftovers.
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  Speaker 1: About 5,000 men were fed all that day in addition
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  Speaker 1: to the women and children. My translation that I had
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  Speaker 1: in front of me didn't use this word, but other
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  Speaker 1: translations use the word they all ate as much as
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  Speaker 1: they wanted. Other translations say they all ate and were satisfied.
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  Speaker 1: You know, so that's the miracle of the loaves and fishes.
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  Speaker 1: But am I alone in wondering what exactly was the miracle?
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  Speaker 1: Did Jesus multiply the food? Or did he supernaturally ease
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  Speaker 1: their hunger? They all ate and were satisfied. So, yes,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus fed them physically. I believe it's probably a little
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  Speaker 1: bit of both. Jesus fed them physically, but he also
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  Speaker 1: fed them spiritually. He healed their sick. Remember, at the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of the story, it says he had compassion on
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  Speaker 1: them and healed their sick. So he fed them spiritually
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  Speaker 1: by doing that. He taught them. He sat them down.
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  Speaker 1: well into the night, right? Evening, the disciples came. It's
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  Speaker 1: getting late. Tell the people to go away. He didn't
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  Speaker 1: do that. He healed their sick. He taught them. He
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  Speaker 1: nourished them. And so today, people are spiritually starving. Not
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  Speaker 1: because bread isn't available. We're one of the most wealthiest
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  Speaker 1: countries in the world. So, Even the poor in our
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  Speaker 1: country aren't poor by the worldly standards, right? People are
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  Speaker 1: spiritually starving. Not because the word isn't available. Capital B bread,
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  Speaker 1: the bread of life, but because they aren't eating it.
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  Speaker 1: They aren't consuming it. They're not taking it in. So
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  Speaker 1: let's go back to the Garden of Eden. And if
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  Speaker 1: you've listened for a while or you know me in
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  Speaker 1: quote unquote real life, you know that if I can
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  Speaker 1: take it back to the garden, I'm gonna. You know,
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  Speaker 1: in Genesis chapter three, the first attack of Satan was
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  Speaker 1: against the word of God. He asked Eve, did God
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  Speaker 1: really say? He questioned the word. He got Eve to
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  Speaker 1: question the word. He sowed doubt. And today he hasn't
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  Speaker 1: changed his tactics. He is the same. He is a
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  Speaker 1: great deceiver, sowing doubt. So today he whispers, you don't
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  Speaker 1: need the Bible. It's not for today. It's not true.
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  Speaker 1: You don't have to read it. You don't have time.
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  Speaker 1: You already know enough. You're too busy. And in full transparency,
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  Speaker 1: I find myself kind of doing those, you know, falling
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  Speaker 1: victim to those same things sometimes. I don't have time.
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  Speaker 1: But in reality, I do. Just be honest with myself,
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  Speaker 1: I do. You know, so those whispers are deception, the
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  Speaker 1: same deception that he started in the very beginning. did
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  Speaker 1: God really say? The enemy wants you spiritually weak, spiritually distracted,
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  Speaker 1: spiritually malnourished, but God wants the opposite. God wants you
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  Speaker 1: to be spiritually strong, spiritually satisfied, spiritually nourished, not malnourished.
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  Speaker 1: And so, Again, today we're talking about God as our
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  Speaker 1: daily sustaining and true bread. So how is that? The
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  Speaker 1: Bible is our daily bread. So let's talk about daily bread.
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  Speaker 1: Have you ever been so busy that you forget to eat?
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  Speaker 1: I have. Not often because I like my food. But yes,
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  Speaker 1: I have been so busy at times that I have
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  Speaker 1: forgotten to eat. And by the end of the day,
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  Speaker 1: what happens? You feel weak. You feel jittery. You're emotional.
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  Speaker 1: You're short-tempered. The same thing happens spiritually. In Exodus 16,
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  Speaker 1: the Israelites were hungry. And then just listen to what
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  Speaker 1: hunger says. but hunger made them say, we wish we
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  Speaker 1: had died in Egypt where we sat by the meat
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  Speaker 1: pots and ate bread until the full Israelites crack me up,
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  Speaker 1: but we're just like them. Sometimes, you know, they cried
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  Speaker 1: out to God, deliver us from this evil Pharaoh. God
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  Speaker 1: delivers them from evil Pharaoh. And then, um, the moment
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  Speaker 1: they don't have everything they want at a particular time,
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  Speaker 1: take us back to Pharaoh. We had meat there. But again,
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  Speaker 1: I'm an Israelite. I do the same thing, right? They
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  Speaker 1: were so hungry, so depleted, so spiritually empty that they
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  Speaker 1: preferred the bondage over their freedom. They preferred the bondage
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  Speaker 1: in Egypt over freedom. And God responded by giving them manna, right?
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  Speaker 1: So talking about daily bread, the Lord sent manna daily,
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  Speaker 1: not weekly, not occasionally, daily. Psalm 68, 19 says, blessed
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  Speaker 1: be the Lord who daily bears us up. Jesus taught
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  Speaker 1: us to pray, give us this day our daily bread, daily.
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  Speaker 1: And here's the truth. You cannot live on someone else's study.
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  Speaker 1: You cannot live on someone else's sermon, and you cannot
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  Speaker 1: live on someone else's podcast. Those things are wonderful. I
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  Speaker 1: listen to my fair share of podcasts. I listen to
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  Speaker 1: my fair share of sermons, right? But those are not
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  Speaker 1: your personal meal. It was that person who prepared that,
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  Speaker 1: their personal meal. You need to have your own personal meal.
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  Speaker 1: You must gather your own manna. You must open your
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  Speaker 1: own Bible. You must feed your own soul. And I
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  Speaker 1: hesitate to say this next verse, but it just popped
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  Speaker 1: into my spirit. And so I'm going to say it,
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  Speaker 1: but you know, the context isn't quite the same, but
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  Speaker 1: Paul says in one of the letters to the Thessalonians says,
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  Speaker 1: if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
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  Speaker 1: Right now that context was different because they were looking
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  Speaker 1: as unto the Lord, like they didn't want to do
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  Speaker 1: things because they thought Jesus was returning every moment. And
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  Speaker 1: so they didn't want to work. And so others were
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  Speaker 1: suffering because people weren't you know, doing their fair share
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  Speaker 1: of cultivating the ground and growing food, you know, and
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  Speaker 1: all that. But they were hungry and they wanted to
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  Speaker 1: beg it off of other people. And Paul was admonishing
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  Speaker 1: that behavior. He was discouraging, right? He says, if anyone
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  Speaker 1: is not willing to work, let him not eat. I
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  Speaker 1: can kind of see the leap, for lack of a
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  Speaker 1: better word, the connection with If you're not willing to
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  Speaker 1: put in the work to feed yourself of your daily
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  Speaker 1: bread of the word, maybe, you know, again, you must
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  Speaker 1: gather your own manna. In the wilderness, they couldn't gather
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  Speaker 1: it for other people. They had to gather it for
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  Speaker 1: their own household. Open your own Bible. Feed your own soul.
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  Speaker 1: It takes sacrifice. It takes intentionality and it takes time.
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  Speaker 1: But I promise you, it is so worth it. So
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  Speaker 1: not only is the Bible our daily bread, it is
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  Speaker 1: our sustaining bread. In Matthew chapter 4, Satan tempted Jesus
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  Speaker 1: to turn stones into bread. He had been fasting. Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: he being Jesus, had been fasting for 40 days and
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  Speaker 1: he was physically hungry. right? So Satan says, Hey, if
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  Speaker 1: you're the son of God, why don't you turn these
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  Speaker 1: stones into bread and eat? But Jesus responded that man
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  Speaker 1: shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
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  Speaker 1: that comes from the mouth of God. See, Jesus is
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  Speaker 1: quoting Deuteronomy chapter eight there. Reminding us that God allowed
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  Speaker 1: Israel to hunger so that they would learn that true
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  Speaker 1: life comes from his word. It's not just about physical bread.
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  Speaker 1: Many Christians today are spiritually malnourished. Why? Because life drains us.
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  Speaker 1: You know, work, home, family, responsibilities. You know, outside forces
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  Speaker 1: deplete us. Judges 6 says Israel was reduced to starvation
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  Speaker 1: by the Midianites. Then they cried out to the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Why would we wait until we're starving to turn back
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  Speaker 1: to God? Isaiah 55, 2 asks, why do you spend
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  Speaker 1: your money for that which is not bread? So why
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  Speaker 1: do we spend our time on things that do not
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  Speaker 1: nourish us spiritually? In the book of Job, it says,
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  Speaker 1: I have treasured the words of his mouth more than
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  Speaker 1: my portion of food. Joshua 1.8 encourages us to meditate
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  Speaker 1: on the word day and night. Then you will be prosperous.
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  Speaker 1: Then you will have success. If the word brings prosperity
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  Speaker 1: and success in whatever form that looks like, then what
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  Speaker 1: is the most important thing you should do every day?
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  Speaker 1: You should eat. Again, eat your daily bread, eat your
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  Speaker 1: sustaining bread, and then eat your true bread. John 6
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  Speaker 1: tells us that Jesus is the bread of life. He says,
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  Speaker 1: I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me
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  Speaker 1: shall not hunger. I am the living bread. If anyone
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  Speaker 1: eats of this bread, he will live forever. Backing up
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  Speaker 1: to John 1, it says that in the beginning was
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  Speaker 1: the word and the word was God. And then verse
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  Speaker 1: 14 of that chapter says the word became flesh and
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  Speaker 1: dwelt among us. Revelation 19 says Jesus's name is the
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  Speaker 1: word of God. So if we need to have our
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  Speaker 1: daily bread, we need to have our sustaining bread. What
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  Speaker 1: is that? The Bible is our true bread, the word
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  Speaker 1: of God. So what does this mean? It means that
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  Speaker 1: when you read the Bible, you are taking in Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: From Genesis to Revelation, you are taking in Jesus. You
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  Speaker 1: are feeding on Christ. You are nourishing your soul with
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  Speaker 1: the living word. John 6, 63 says, the words I
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  Speaker 1: have spoken to you are spirit and life. Spirit and life.
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  Speaker 1: Not empty calories. Not junk. Not leftover Oreos. Not spiritual
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  Speaker 1: fast food. Real nourishment. So let me ask you again.
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  Speaker 1: What are you eating? Are you feeding on the lasting, sustaining,
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  Speaker 1: true word of God? Or are you feeding on spiritual
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  Speaker 1: junk food? Are you spiritually nourished or spiritually starving? I
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  Speaker 1: want to encourage you, challenge you, invite you. Give God
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  Speaker 1: 30 days. Give him 30 days. 30 days of reading
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  Speaker 1: your Bible daily. 30 days of meditating on scripture. 30
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  Speaker 1: days of listening to the Holy Spirit. It will change
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  Speaker 1: your life. The word of God is nourishment. It's strength.
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  Speaker 1: It's satisfaction. It's Jesus himself. So eat daily. Eat deeply.
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  Speaker 1: Eat intentionally. Eat intentionally. Grace and peace. Thank you for
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  Speaker 1: joining me.