Latest / Chapter and First- Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church / Men's Luncheon - FBC Administrator Trey Overton - October 27, 2026

Transcript

Men's Luncheon - FBC Administrator Trey Overton - October 27, 2026 · Chapter and First- Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for this time.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for everything that you do.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: We just praise you, Father, for rain.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I just pray that it comes.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I pray for the rain, God.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: I pray for all of that and everything that it brings.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that you continue to lead and guide us.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I praise you for an awesome Sunday this past Sunday where we had an awesome service with good turnouts, but then we turned around and had a strong retreat with almost a thousand kids at it, which is just, or a thousand people, sorry, God.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And but it it was just an amazing time, an amazing time to connect with people, and the gospel got to be shared with over a hundred kids, Father, which is just an amazing thing.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I just pray that as we plant those seeds, Father, that you're the Lord of the harvest and that you draw their hearts to you.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that in Jesus' name.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so obviously you heard we had a great turnout at the trunk or treat on Sunday.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and of course we had, and I said, you know, the gospel was shared to over a hundred kids.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: So Beverly was there and she had these little balloons set up, and and she was sharing the gospel with these with these kids, and she said she had she had enough setups for a hundred kids because she was like me and thought, man, if we get 100 or 200 kids, that's gonna be great.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, turns out we had a lot more than that.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was way more than any of us could have ever imagined.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: But she was able to share the gospel with over 100 kids, which is just an amazing, an amazing thing.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then we were able obviously able to connect with, you know, there were so many families there.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like I said, our rough headcount was over 800 people, which is incredible.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I do want to say thank you.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mentioned to a few of you here, um, there was 87 bags of candy donated for this event on Sunday, which, you know, that's that's 15,000 pieces of candy that was donated from this church.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that is incredible.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't have to go buy candy for this event.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I had a trailer, I had a I had it piled.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you were there, you saw it.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: I had it piled on top of the trailer there for anybody to go get who had a trunk, and so um, and we didn't run out.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so the Lord provided through y'all, and it was just incredible.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to thank you for that and for your support.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So this last Sunday, Greg, he uh he preached a sermon that was revolved around the question, who do you think Jesus is?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um, it's a question that obviously we see prompted here in Mark 8 when he's talking to Peter, but um it's a question that all of us have to answer.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: We all have to come to this conclusion of who Jesus is.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um and obviously when when Jesus prompts the disciples of the questions, they have all kinds of answers.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh some say you're John the Baptist, some say you know Elijah.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then of course he goes to Peter, and who do you say that I am?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um and today I kind of want to do a follow-up message that points to who Jesus is as the bread of life.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm gonna be using a passage that sandwiched in between what Greg used on Sunday in Mark chapter 8.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: In Mark chapter 8, uh verse 14, actually.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um as I was reading our our weekly readings, and of course, Greg gave that sermon on Sunday, I thought it was a it was a good chance to bring this up and talk about Jesus as the bread of life.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: In verse 14, it says, Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they only had one loaf with them in the boat.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he cautioned them, saying, Watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: I want to stop right there and look in verse 14, right there.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Now they had forgotten to bring bread, but they only had one loaf with them in the boat.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know that most scholars are gonna point to this and say, and they're correct, by saying that this is probably an introductory statement to what's happening in this passage.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the disciples are gonna go on and argue about not having bread.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I can't pass this verse up without seeing the obvious, right?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: They had one loaf in the boat, but there's only one loaf that they ever need, right?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's Jesus Christ.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 6, Jesus calls himself and refers to himself as the bread of life, right?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: He calls himself the bread of life.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And what does that even mean?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean that Jesus is the bread of life?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna actually turn over real quick to John 6.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't remember the verse, but I think it's like 32 or something like that.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let me look real quick.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but in John 6, where Jesus refers to himself as the bread of life, it kind of explains it better than I can.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: If I can get my Bible to turn there, it wants to go straight to Luke.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's telling me something.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so John chapter 6.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yes, verse 32, it says, Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, Sir, give us this bread always.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then I read verse 35 here.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: So recognizing Jesus as the bread of life means that you are accepting him, you're eating the bread, that means that he is the source of eternal spiritual nutrition.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and I think that's I like the way that that is put because yes, once you accept Jesus as the bread of life, you have eternity with him in heaven.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he is going to fulfill you spiritually forever, right?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but he also fulfills us, gives us purpose here in our life on earth as well.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um has anybody, I mean, you you you see people on movies, I personally don't know anybody that's ever starved to death.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've never, you know, you just don't really hear of that nowadays in the U.S.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I've never personally experienced it, but you see it on TV and you hear stories.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And starving to death is not like dying of a heart attack or in a car accident, right?
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a quick death.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a death where you literally suffer for a long period of time and then you die.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um and understanding and accepting Jesus as the bread of life is understanding that if we don't accept that, we because everybody here on earth is literally starving to death.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: We are starving to death without Jesus.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: We are suffering because of our sin.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Our sin on here it leads to depression, anxiety.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's things on this here on this earth that you deal with on a daily basis that we suffer with without Jesus.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: But him being the source and being the loaf, he satisfies that here on earth, and then also for eternity, because we get to spend eternity with him.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it means, that he is the bread of life.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in this passage, the reason I wanted to use this passage here to point to Jesus as the bread of life.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Really, what I wanted to point to is things that prevent us from seeing him as the bread of life, things that distract us and things that this world teaches us that we should chase after instead of Jesus.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and we'll see here.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna go back to Mark chapter 8, verse 14, and I'll read it here.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they only had one loaf with them in the boat, and he cautioned them, saying, Watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so he's he talks about two leavens here.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in the other gospels, this passage is seen, and in the other gospels, it it uh talks about the leaven of the Pharisees.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is the only one that points out the leaven of Herod, if I'm not mistaken.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And um, but first we'll talk about the leaven of the Pharisees.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: The leaven of Pharisees is explained in the Gospel of Luke.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it says in 12, uh Luke 12, verse 1, it says, In the meantime, when so many thousands of people had gathered together, they were trampling one another, and he began to say to his disciples first, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um the first leaven that he refers to is the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And we actually can backtrack a little bit, and Jesus actually talks about this before this, um, and in chapter 11.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And chapter 11, verse 39, he's talking to this is the woes of the Pharisees.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: He said, And the And the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees, cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: You fools, did not he who make the outside make the inside also?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: But give as alms those things that are within, and behold everything is clean for you.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: But woe to you, Pharisees, for you tithe mint and roux and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Woe to you, Pharisees, for you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplace.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Woe to you, for you are like unmarked graves, and walk, and people walk over them without knowing it.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: So the unmarked graves deal there, I mean, that's a precursor, what he comes to later and says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, because essentially that's one and the same.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the unmarked graves, I mean, they didn't, if you walked over a grave as a Jew, you were then unclean, right?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: But because they're in unmarked graves, nobody knows that they're there.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: They don't recognize the danger that the Pharisee is.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then in the leaven, pointing to the Pharisee, it's this idea, and so you know, we're we gotta identify what the leaven is, and that's the hypocrisy.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's the idea that I can make all my outside appearance look like I've got my stuff together, look like I'm doing the right things.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: I go to church, I tithe, I do all those things, but if you don't have a relationship with Jesus and you haven't eaten of the bread of life, it means nothing.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it means nothing.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And and the world will try to tell you, and of course, you know, I'm I'm from the generation of social media, right?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: You go on social media and uh you see you see these families that come across, they're on vacation, or they've got this going on, and it just seems like that family has it all together.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what, man, if my family had it all put together like this family, then I would be able to, and so the world tries to teach you that that is what's gonna bring you satisfaction, and that's that's what's gonna make me happy, and that's what's gonna bring me fulfillment, right?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the same thing with with, you know, we deal with it every day here.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: There again, the the leaven of the Pharisees, if I do all the right things, if I go to the synagogue, I can, if I know the right people, and if I make the right connections, and if I do this, and if I'm a good person, then I will be okay and I'll make it to heaven.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: No, there's only one way to heaven, and it's through Jesus Christ.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: He is the bread of life.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: But and the thing about which, you know, Paul talks about it in one of his epistles, but he says a little leaven leavens the whole loaf, right?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't take much.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, oh yeah, Trey, that's a big rejection to say that I can work my way to heaven.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the thing about leaven is these little ideas they spark and they then all of a sudden they consume your life, right?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it may be not, it's not your life.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, well, I have a relationship with Jesus, Trey.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on a second, I'm not gonna be able to.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it may not be that, but there might be a little leaven that you're allowing in your life that other people are seeing and might take, and then their whole loaf is engulfed, right?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're working so hard as a Christian, and you're just not identifying your relationship with Christ as the most important thing, right?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know if I said that where that makes sense, but in my head it did.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: But then we look at the second leaven that Jesus identifies, and that's the leaven of Herod.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: The leaven of Herod, that could be a couple different things because we're not sure which Herod that he's referring to.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um but we know that there's a trend of Herod's.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: They're kings or rulers or whatever.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I think that's probably identifying one of two things.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: This could be a trap that we could rely on worldly systems like governments or even the ability to climb a secular work ladder or something like that.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: That that's that's what we need in our life.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Or this could also be a leaven where one seeks worldly lifestyles that they're driven by um values, desires of the flesh, things like that.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: But in either scenario, we're we're placing our trust and everything we know into things and systems of this world and not in Christ.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it doesn't, you know, either way.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um so this leaven of Herod is this idea that, and there again, we this is this is nothing new other son.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus sitting here warning these disciples, literally to almost 2,000 years ago, this leaven of Herod, and this is no different than things we see 2,000 years later.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we try to find security in jobs.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: If I climb this work ladder, I can make enough to provide for my family, and I can make enough to make myself happy and how live a happy lifestyle.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's what our culture drives.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you can drive the work ladder all you want, but you're never gonna find peace, you're never gonna find joy, you're never gonna find true fulfillment until you eat of the bread of life, which is Jesus Christ.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: But this leaven of hair, there again, going back to leaven, let's think about this.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Going back to leaven, you might think, Trey, I get it.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: I've eaten of the bread of life, I get it.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we let a little leaven in our life, and then that passes on to people around us, and that's what they see as most important.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do they see work as being the most important thing in your life?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: And is that gonna leaven their whole loaf?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that can be easier.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm I'm bad about it, right?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: I get to talking to some of my family and some of my buddies from from you know high school or whatever, all of a sudden we get to talking about deer hunting.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, next thing you know, deer hunting is the most important thing in my life.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds crazy, but I mean, I I I've had a whole conversation for a week, and next thing I know, I haven't talked about Jesus once.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: But that becomes the most important thing.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: But that little bit of leaven all of a sudden influences somebody else.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, well, Jesus isn't that important to him, so and he works at a church.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: I want to read a little bit further in this passage here because I think you know Jesus warns the disciples here of the two leavens that kind of distract us and take us away from the truth that is, he is the bread of life.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I want to read a little bit further, and I think there's another example here of things that distract us from him being the bread of life.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm in Luke still, and I haven't gone back to Mark.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: So Mark chapter 8.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod, verse 16.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do you not perceive?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Do you not understand?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Are your hearts hardened?
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Have an eyes, do you not see?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Have an ears, do you not hear?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do you not remember?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, or the how many baskets of full of broken pieces did you take up?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, Twelve.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, seven.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, Do you not yet understand?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of picture this.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: I had this happening the other day, and maybe I'm the only one this happens to, but I kind of picture this conversation I had in my office the other day.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, this was leading up to the trunk retreat, and I can't remember who it was.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was, I think it was Eli maybe came into my office and he started talking about ideas that he had for the trunk of treat.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: He was working through something, and all of a sudden it popped him.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: He was talking about the trunk retreat, but all of a sudden it popped in my head, oh man, I forgot to do this.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so then I start writing notes down and figuring out how I'm gonna go back and do that.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm not even paying attention to what Eli is saying at this point, right?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: No idea.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's there and he's got something he's telling me, and that's probably important, but I'm focused on me now and my problem in that I forgot this, right?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: How many times, am I the only one that does that?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm I can't be the only one, right?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I picture in this conversation Jesus is having with the disciples.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the disciples are in the boat with them and and they're going across, and and he turns to me, or he's maybe you know, stand there and he says, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: And they hear leaven and they think, oh man, I forgot bread.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: But this points to something that we do, and and a lot of times we don't even mean to.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously, I would say almost, I would say every time we don't mean to.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: But we make our problems bigger than Jesus.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and or on the flip side of that, and I think this is where Jesus is addressing the disciples here, we think our problem is too small to bring it to his feet.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: That happens a lot too.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, these disciples, they just experienced Jesus feeding 4,000, they just experienced him feeding 5,000.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: He just fed all these people with basically essentially no bread and fish, right?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then they're on the boat going across and they're like, oh, I forgot bread.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm out of bread.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and they completely miss who is Jesus right in front of them, right?
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, like I said, either A, we say our problem's too big, but I think sometimes in it, like in this situation, we think, my problem isn't big enough to bring it to him.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think we do that a lot of lives.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't a big deal, I can handle this.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't this isn't something that I need to bring before Jesus because this is an everyday issue that I can tackle myself.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: I can handle this myself.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I think this kind of this is just another piece that I think we got to bring back to the leaven, you know, idea.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, there's a lot there might be some of you in here thinking, yeah, I do that every day.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Or there may be some of you thinking, I've been working on that.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I want you to think about this in the leaven aspect that you know people obviously inside and outside the church are watching.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: These everybody here is in an influential position in some way, form, or fashion.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: And when we don't even bring the little stuff before Jesus, people notice that.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but also when we don't bring the little stuff before Jesus, we're not accepting Jesus as the true bread of life.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's the reality of it, and that's really the issue.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus is the bread of life, which means he is the eternal provider of spiritual nutrition.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Forever, now and for always.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And when we don't bring everything to him, little and big, we reject that.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and so I'm gonna close with that.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: I know I'm I'm probably a little earlier and did a little shorter message to Greg.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of you are like, yeah, some of you maybe not, but kind of this one was a little bit simpler.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to close with with you thinking about two questions this week and uh just kind of be thinking about it.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: There again, this is just a follow-up message to who do you think Jesus is?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the first question is Am I allowing leaven in my life?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we have the leaven of the Pharisees and the Herod that we just talked about, but are we allowing seeds of self-trust?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Are we allowing seeds of trust in worldly systems, whether it be government or work or whatever, are we trusting in ourselves or the things around us more than Christ?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a little bit of leaven that's introduced in your life?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the second question that I want you to think about this week am I influencing people around me to allow the leaven in their life?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and you may not even think that it matters.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: But a little leaven leavens the whole loaf.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's like we we run into people there again, Jesus, err uh, Jesus.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Greg on Sunday talked about you know identifying Jesus.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Who do you who do you say Jesus is?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um everybody has to come to an answer to that question.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody in this life has to come up with an answer.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: And depending on your answer, it depends on where you spend eternity.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's a that's just the fact of the matter.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: And there's people around you in your life right now that you're thinking, um, you you're you're buying time, you're building relationships with them, and some of that's okay.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like there again, you haven't shared the gospel with them yet, you're building that relationship, you're working up to it, and that's fine.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: But think about the things that you are talking about with them.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um if it's not about Jesus, what is it about?
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because if they don't see Jesus as the most important thing in your life, that's an issue.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Your loaf is getting leavened and theirs.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's a two-four, right?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: So those are the two questions I want you to think about this week and be praying about and and let the Lord lead you on it.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm just a messenger.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let's the Lord, let the Lord lead you on it.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh let's go to the Lord in prayer.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you and we praise you.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am for the spiritual nutrition that you've provided me as the bread of life.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh, just pray that as we seek you, Father, that you just continue to nourish us more and more and more.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Fill this church with peace, kindness, joy, all those things, Father.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then as we identify these things in our life, I pray that that we can be convicted about the matter, but also have boldness, Father.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: I pray for boldness in this church, Father, to not ignore the leaven, but to but to take reins of it, Father.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: I pray for that in Jesus' name.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for putting up with me, guys.