"The God Who Feeds My Soul”

In Jesus Holy Name August 1, 2021

Text: John 6:35 Redeemer

“The God Who Feeds My Soul”

St. Augustine noted that every person has a God shaped hole in his or her soul. People attempt to fill that cavity with lots of things but nothing satisfies our desire for significance and assurance of redemption….except Jesus the true bread from heaven. Deep in every human soul is a search for “Harmony” with our Creator, that was lost in the Garden of Eden.

What are our most basic needs? 1) harmony and peace with our Creator

2) security regarding our eternal address beyond our limited time on earth.

Leonard Sweet, Christian professor and author writes: “There is an explosion of Americas seeking spiritual truth….he calls them, “day trippers asking for direction…..scouting the horizon for hope, wonder and a way out of their maze of aimless living.” People want purpose. Their soul is in search for “harmony” with their Creator.

Every year Americans spend about five million dollars on Twinkies. Yes, Twinkies, those golden cakes, tasty cream filled treats, that taste so good but have almost no nutritional value. Five hundred million dollars seems like a lot until you realize that we spend sixteen billion dollars on chocolate. 117 billion dollars spent on fast food every year. The result? A sugar high that requires another chocolate bar, fast food that only expands our waste line.

Maybe the shinny new car will satisfy what’s missing. It only leaves a monthly payment. The believed romantic affair to solve all my relationship problems. It too only leaves guilt and broken lives. The search to find happiness in new toys, will only end up filling a toy box, that displays a hundred other toys that did not bring happiness. Things are never enough.

When harmony with God is lost, the hole in the human heart still longs to be filled. Each spring, teens seek to find joy on the beaches of Florida, holding aluminum cans filed with the elixir of life, only to discover a new sunrise brings a bad headache. Almost 20 million Americans seek to bury the sadness of their life with illegal narcotics, robbing their family’s bank account, selling their body and soul for a few moments free from the pain of life.

The Apostle Paul found Athens full of idols. Corinth was known to have more than two dozen temples, each dedicated to a different deity. The world has not changed. In many countries the “government” has become the new “god” to be worshiped, to be depended on for all one’s needs, a basic income promised, to supply our needs, but it includes the cost ….new rules. Social cancellation is the new human attempt to replace the ten commandments as a way to monitor the selfishness of human behavior.

What are our most basic needs? 1) harmony and peace with our Creator 2) security regarding our eternal address beyond our death.

What drags my life away from the harmony my heart desires? It is broken commandments. Broken ethics which leave a mountain of regret and guilt. We need freedom from guilt. No one is free who is not forgiven. John Stott writes: “It was in the Garden of Eden, not at Watergate, that the device called “cover-up” was first invented.” (Contemporary Christianity p. 48) The head of a large English mental hospital has been quoted as saying, “I could dismiss half my patients tomorrow if they could be assured of forgiveness.”

(Contemporary Christianity, John Stott p. 81)

The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthian congregation this: God, (our Creator and eternal Judge) placed on Jesus all our sins, and (transferred) to each believer His righteousness. (II Corinthians 5:21) The fact that Jesus died as our substitute to free our soul from the wrath of God against broken ethics is opposed and mocked in our secular culture. We cannot surrender the uniqueness of the deity of Jesus Christ to the doctrine of “self-salvation”, which again leaves the soul unfulfilled.

“Once you were alienated from God, (That is the harmony and peace with God that leaves the soul searching) The reason? (Paul continues: “separated from him by your evil behavior, (broken ethics and broken commandments) but now God has brought us back as His friends, reconciled each of us through the blood of Christ, shed on the cross, to present us holy in His sight with out spot or blemish, free from accusation, “if” we continue in your faith….” (Col. 1:19-21)

Having “harmony” with God means that you feel acceptance and peace in your soul. Remember, your acceptance before God is not a question of your efforts, how well you did this week, how much you read the Bible or prayed or resisted temptation. Your acceptance is always a question of what Jesus Christ has done for you though His blood shed on the cross. (Jesus Speaks Leonard Sweet p102)