Text: Matthew 4:4

Theme: Bread will not feed our souls

Most of the human activity we see around us every day has to do with the first and most common kind of hunger. This hunger is the physical need to fill one's stomach to provide energy for our bodily needs.

How many of you have been really hungry ???

How long is the longest time you have gone without food?

Very few of us have ever gone without food for longer than 10 or twelve hours. Most of us know real hunger only second hand. Millions of people at this very moment are dying of physical hunger, so this is a very real problem which should concern all of us.

But this is not the hunger that we are going to discuss this morning.

The Second kind of hunger is the hunger to learn more facts about the world in which we live. One of the first words that young children learn is Why? (Right after NO!!) I am sure many of you children get very frustrated at times when a younger brother of sister constantly pesters you with Why? or Why Not? or How Come?

This stream of questions from young children has also caused us as parents at times to want to zipper the mouths of our youngsters to stop the stream of questions. But we have learned that this mental hunger is very important and must not be suppressed for our children to mature into responsible and intelligent adults.

We have developed excellent school systems to satisfy this hunger - and real need. Many of us also have walls in our homes filled with books to satisfy this need to know the answer to any question which may arise in our discussions.

Urged on by zealous salesmen many of us have at least one set of Encyclopedias lying around for our children - just to allay any sudden pangs of curiosity about any conceivable subject. This Mental Hunger is obviously very important, but - again - this is not the hunger we are most interested in this morning.

Even though we have bursting tummies, sets of encyclopedias, reference books, good schools and enlightened parents who answered and still answer all of our curious questioning, we are still strangely dissatisfied. There is this Third mysterious hunger which is inherent in all of us.

A small child can be happily occupied with an Aunt or an Uncle or even a stranger for short periods of time, if there are enough sweets, fun toys, etc. to occupy the child. He will soon, however, want to return to his mother because of this mysterious hunger. Only the child's mother can satisfy this spiritual hunger. If this spiritual hunger is not satisfied, the child's development can be very seriously impaired.

Studies of premature babies at Johns Hopkins University have shown that the sooner a new born child is placed into his mother's arms, the better his chances of survival.

We all experience this desire to love and to be loved. This desire to love and be loved. This third hunger is first satisfied by our mothers, then family, then friends and then by finding our own life partners and starting the cycle again. In the end, however, this spiritual hunger can only be satisfied by the experience of the love of God, which we can have through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We were created by God with this need for fellowship with God - to love and be loved by him - just as a child is born to be with his own parents. If this Spiritual Hunger is not satisfied by the freely given Love of God, our human relationships will also break down. We see this happening all around us in our family and national life. As a recent writer has said Our Society today bears all the marks of a God starved community and a deficiency of selfless love (not vitamins) is the root cause of nearly all of our problems.

As parents all of us must experience the love of God firsthand or we can in no way hope to love each other and our children in the completely unselfish way in which God loves us. We often look to the Sunday School to do this job of teaching God's love to our children. The Sunday School, however, cannot do this for us, but can only enhance and complement the work done in the home.

The term Sunday School Teacher may make us think that Sunday School is simply a place where children receive information about the Bible and the Church. We too, as a Sunday School and Church must always think of the three hungers which we mentioned earlier. How sad it will be for us and our children if we stop after satisfying only the first two and fail to recognize that our greatest task is to satisfy that Spiritual Hunger for the love and first hand knowledge of God which is possible through the fact that God himself came into our world in human form.

As teachers and as parents we cannot expect to teach our children about this miraculous love of God by teaching only facts from the Bible. This only satisfies the 2nd type of hunger. To teach the Love of God we must have experienced this Love by asking Christ to come into our hearts and lead our lives with his Love.

I am reminded of the story about a Mafia War Lord in America who made very specific plans for his own funeral. Sure enough they were soon required. The result was a Parade to the Cemetary led by Six white horses. They were followed by 16 marching trumpeters. Then came the casket of pure gold on a Horse drawn carriage. This was followed by another band of 16 marching trumpeters. A man on the side line was heard to say "Man, ain't that Livin'".

This story sounds very far fetched, but is it? How do we set up orders of importance in our lives. How many books in our homes are there to satisfy our hunger for facts and entertainment and how many contain stories about the love of God? How much of our time is spent explaining to our children how they must clean and build up their body and mind? And how much time is spent helping them fill their soul with the love of God?

A feature of our best modern-day schools is the planned working together of teachers and parents. Although we groan inwardly about the demands of the P.T.A., we recognize that each needs the other if the great task of educating a child is to be complete.

What about the task of building Christian Character? Is this less important? By our casual attitude, we often seem to indicate it is! As parents we are very concerned that our children succeed in life - to do well! To leave God out of our reckoning in the way in which we bring up our children is the greatest of foolishness!

But God works through people! One way of acknowledging him is to work with and encourage those whom he has specially called to care for our spiritual needs and the spiritual needs of our children. Perhaps we take our Minister, Elders, and Sunday School Teachers too much for granted! It is very true that Every Family Still Needs Sunday School, but it is equally true that Sunday School needs the Whole Family, not just the children, but Fathers and Mothers as well, doing their share of the great task of building a strong foundation for a Christ centered life.

Let us close this morning by reading from God's word in The Gospel of John, Chapter 21 verses 15 through 17. This discourse between Jesus and Peter occurs after Jesus' resurrection and according to John was the third appearance of Jesus to his disciples. The disciples had been fishing and when they came ashore they saw Jesus by a fire and after telling them how to catch some fish, he cooks them a breakfast of fish by the Sea.

John Chapter 21:15-17

15	When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, 
	do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love
	you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs."

16	A second time he said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him,
 	"Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." 

17	He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was 
	grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to 
	him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, 
	"Feed my sheep".  

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