Dear Christian friends:

Rose, wrote a book named, "Who Killed the Church? In this book he writes about things in our society that are destroying the church. One thing he shows is the members themselves are destroying the church. Why? Some slowly, little by little, lose their faith in Jesus and stop coming. The pleasures and worries of this world take their time and interest. Some stay members of the church and come on Sunday and support a little bit, but they no longer believe and trust in God. They, too, think that earthly things are more important than spiritual things.

Jesus complained about the Jewish church when He lived on earth: "These people come near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me."

Are we helping to destroy our church? I think each one of us should think about that question today. We need to examine our hearts and see if we really believe in Jesus or not.

In our text we read how Jesus helped His disciples to examine their hearts. Some then quit and left Him; a few stayed and made a beautiful confession or their faith. Let us attend to our text and see if we really believe in Jesus or not. If we do, then we, too, like Peter, should confess our faith:

Jesus was preaching to many of His disciples, not only the 12, but many many more. He was telling them about the "bread of life." They should not worry about getting earthly bread, wheat bread. If a man only eats that bread he will die, not have everlasting life with God in heaven. Jesus said to them: "I am the Bread of Life; I came from heaven. If a man "eat" Me he will live forever."

When they heard it many of His disciples said, "This is hard to take (accept). Who can listen to Him?" So many of His disciples went back to their old life and refused to go with Him anymore.

Then Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you want to leave Me, too?" Then Peter made a beautiful confession of his faith. He said: "Lord, to whom should we go? You have words of everlasting life. And we believe and know You are God's Holy One."

Peter makes a perfect confession of his faith: Jesus is God's Son. He is the only Savior; if we leave Him there is none other to whom we can go. He only has words of everlasting life.

This must be our confession also. Do you believe that, too? Every Sunday we confess that faith in the Apostles Creed: "I believe in God the Father, almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord etc."

It is easy to say these words with our voice and with our hands in sign language. But do we really believe that in our hearts and minds? Anyone can say these words and sign these words here in church. That does not take much courage.

Here nobody will laugh at us or mock us if we confess our faith. Here we are among friends, other "believers". But when we are out in the world where we work and play do we confess our faith in Jesus. When others mock and laugh and say there is no god, what will we do? When we have troubles and problems do we show calm courage and faith in Jesus?

When you get sick and begin to die will you still confess your faith? Will you still have calm courage and cheerful hope in Jesus or will you complain and become bitter and give up hope in God?

We need to confess our faith daily, not only on Sunday here in Church. How you spend your money shows if you believe in Jesus or not. How you spend your time shows if you believe in Jesus or not. How you use your talents also shows if you believe or not.

Do you believe in Jesus? Are you daily confessing your faith? I'm sure we must all hang our heads in shame when we think of our weak faith and that we often fail to confess our faith to others.

Surely we must go to Jesus today and ask for forgiveness of our sins and failures and He will forgive us. Also we must hear His Words and promises more. That and that alone can help our faith to grow stronger. In our text Jesus says, "The Spirit makes alive .... The words I spoke to you are Spirit, and they are life .... a person can come to Me only if the Father gives him the power."

Daily we need Jesus, the Bread of Life. When I was a boy my father had a book called "Daily Bread", daily lessons from God's Word. Every morning after breakfast he read a lesson from that Book to our family. And every evening after supper he read a chapter from the Bible to us.

My father and mother helped us children to "eat" the Bread of Life daily. When they fed our bodies they also fed our souls. My father died in 1955. My mother is still living in Escondido, California and will be 86 years old on June 18. Today is Mother's Day and I want to honor my mother and father because they gave me Bread for my body and bread for my soul. Thank God today if you had a mother and father like that. Ask God to help you be a mother or father like that. Then you and your children will have a strong faith and you will have power of God's Holy Spirit to confess your faith daily before men.

Amen.