John K. Jenkins Sr - Reasons Why People Walk Away From Jesus

Plans** or Contact Us for a custom quote.
All right, I want to invite your attention to John chapter 6. This is going to be a short sermon, I think. John chapter 6 — here’s a startling verse to me, a shocking verse: verse 66. It says, «From that time, many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.» I want to talk about reasons why people walk away from Jesus. Go ahead, look at your neighbor and tell them to make sure they aren 't one of them. This is a troubling passage of Scripture for me. When I look back over my life and see all the tremendous things that the Lord has done on my behalf, I am shocked to believe that anyone who has had an encounter with Jesus would have the audacity or the nerve to walk away. Why could someone who has truly had an encounter with Jesus conclude within themselves that He was no longer worth following? I wonder about that. This is a perplexing question to me. There are reasons that people think are justifiable, and what I want to do is go through four that I mentioned in the sixth chapter of John. I want to make sure that none of them fall on your timeline. Look at your neighbor and tell them to make sure they don’t walk away for any reason at all, let alone any of these. This passage about them is a little weak right there, but that’s okay. I want to quickly give you these things. In fact, in this sixth chapter of John, Jesus has just performed an incredible miracle. He has fed 5,000 people. In the early chapters of this sixth chapter, He has taken five loaves of bread and two fish that a lad had and multiplied it to feed 5,000 people. It’s a miracle! How many of you know that God is in the business of performing miracles? He has not only fed 5,000; later on in the chapter, He walks on the water and performs a miracle as He meets the disciples walking on the water. Jesus is a miracle-working God. But by the time we get to verse 66, something has happened between His miracle- working power of feeding 5,000 and Him walking on the water. Something has occurred that has caused some of the saints to declare that they would no longer walk with Him. I guess we should not be surprised. Some of you know people who were once faithful in the kingdom of God, but they are nowhere to be found now. They were once singing in the choir. This choir right here — let me shout out the Young Adult Choir for a second. This is the remnant of a choir that once overflowed, but now it’s the truly saved ones that are here. Go ahead, smile and clap! I’m glad you’re here. You didn’t walk away. Pastor Chester Bellinger is in the house! Stand up, Pastor Chester! I didn’t even know you were here! And his wife Brenda, one of my children in the Lord. So glad to see you, buddy! God bless you. You snuck in on me; I didn’t even know you were here! Where was I? I was getting ready to say something profound. Yeah, they’re still here! I’m so glad! Look at your neighbor and say, «You 're still here!» You 've had enough disappointments in life; you could have walked away, but you’re still here. You 've had trials and tribulations, issues, and challenges, but you’re still here. But something has caused a number of these disciples-matter of fact, I think it’s interesting that the Scripture says that many of His disciples-these were not just people sitting in the crowd. The Scripture calls them disciples. Verse 66 says that from that time, many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. What 's the reason? I’m going to tell you. The first reason is in verses 26 and 27. If you just slide over to those verses, let me read them to you: «Jesus answered and said to them, '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. 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.'» Let me break that down for you. A lot of them stopped following Him because He was no longer giving them bread. Y’all missed it! Here 's what He’s saying: He is saying, «You are here because you want Me to do miracles for you.» There ought to come a time in a believer’s life when you follow Jesus not because you want anything from Him. I wish I had a praying crowd with me somewhere! I wish I had some people who understood that we’re not in this for fish, bread, and loaves. We have to be careful about how we present the gospel to people because we don’t want to present it to them as «Come to Jesus so He can fix all of your problems» or «so that He can give you a new car or a new job.» That 's not why we come to Jesus. We ought to present the gospel because we want people to know that we are sinners and need forgiveness for our sins. If the truth be told, the church is full of self-centered, selfish people who think that life centers around them .