Why Now?

Amen, amen, man, somebody told me, somebody told me I joke around too much and, I don't know, I'm, I'm, I'm a joke, I can't help it. You know, I don't want to be stubborn, I, I, I want, I want to be helpful. We're going to be in a passage today that you guys are all all pretty familiar with, and by pretty familiar, I don't know that you know this specific passage, but it's one everybody uses when they're like it's okay for me to drink as much as I want, cuz Jesus turned water into wine when they were already drunk. That's, that's the passage you, you might know it that way, you might know it as that your defensive stance passage, but I, I think today is going to be really helpful because when we open God's word and we allow it to read us before we allow ourselves to interpret it, we start to find that God actually wants to speak something to us that that might, it might change us a little bit.

I, I am tempted regularly to, not to, to water down God's word.

I don't want to, I want you to hear me the wrong way, but I am tempted regularly to pull back on intense statements or intense, ways of communicating Scripture, because I don't want to unnecessarily offend somebody, but sometimes look at your neighbor, say: sometimes you need a real word. A real word, yeah, y'all liked it, the rest of y'all. I guess you don't want that real word, you want that feel-good word. I got triggered.

Anyone ever get been triggered?

You Liars, you Liars. I know when you came home and the house wasn't as clean as you wanted it to be. I know when your spouse got home and they said something you didn't want them to say, you immediately started responding to them with, with, with, triggered. Or when you opened up the news, whether you're Democrat or rep, like this one's triggered over here.

You hear it.

When, whether you're a democrat or a republican, you turn on the news, it's the opposite of what your personal stance is and all of a sudden you get triggered. I got triggered the other day and, it's because someone posted something on Instagram that a lot of people follow and I remember thinking, yo, it sounds good, but this is not what Scripture says. In fact, it's the exact opposite of what Scripture says. But because you, a lot of people wanted to hear that, even though Scripture doesn't say it, they felt good about it and I just remember thinking when Jesus came to the world.

He came and it says he was full of grace, amen, somebody.

He was full of grace, he was full of goodness and love and compassion. The woman who was bleeding for 12 years. When she came up to him and touched the Hem of His Garment, he felt power leave from him and he looked at her and he says: your faith has made you clean. He is compassionate in a way that we can't even comprehend.

He came full of grace.

You know that time where you were supposed to have Grace on somebody but you didn't, because they triggered you one too many times and while you felt like inside your spirit that you really needed to forgive them, and you didn't. See, we're not full of grace. Jesus is full of grace, but he also came not just full of grace but, anyone know, full of truth. I think a lot of times we like the gracious statements of Jesus, but we don't all like the truthful words of Jesus.

Sometimes, when I'm reading Scripture, I feel encouraged.

Sometimes, when I'm reading Scripture, I feel uncomfortable, I feel frustrated. I get frustrated at God and I'm like God. The interpretation to this passage has to be different than it seems, because surely I wouldn't feel this way after I read this Scripture and the Lord reveals to me almost every time: hey, if you let it read, you, you'll realize you're the one that's living in sin still, and so you need to make an adjustment, and Jesus communicates that, while he is gracious and loving, rich in compassion, slow to anger, he is kind to me so much that he would die on the cross to offer us forgiveness of sins and raised to walk so that I can have an abundant and eternal life. He is so gracious he also has a plan for me that entails that I start living in a way that is in alignment with him.

And to get someone in alignment, sometimes you got to give them the truth, and so, anyways, I think this passage has the capacity today to speak truth and grace to you.

I want to encourage you to lean into it, and whether it's your first time, or whether you've been coming for a long time, whether, you have issues that you would see as insignificant, or whether you have very significant struggles, God can speak directly to you and start changing you from the inside out if you lean in today. That's why I quoted that passage from Jeremiah 29:13: seek him where he will be found, where he can be found, and he will be found by you. The Bible tells us clearly, that his word, the Bible, is a place to find him, and so we have been reading through the Bible. We finished up John chapter 1 last week and today we'll be in John Chapter 2.

And just so I know you're awake, can you just say out loud: his word is good, his word is good, all right, cool.

Participation is key sometimes and you'll see this in the passage. If you're not participating, you may not see the miraculous things God wants to do. So, chapter 2: I won't make you stand because it's 11 whole verses, guys, okay, but I'm. I want to enourage you to listen.

Verse one: on the third day, a wedding took place at canaa in Galilee.

Jesus's mother, also known as Mary, was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, they jump right into it. Jesus's mother said to him: they have no more wine, no questions, it's just a statement from his mother to him. They don't have any more wine.

If you didn't know this already, ancient Israel is what we call a high, High context Society, meaning there are a lot of social things that are assumed in the passages of Scripture that we read.

That means that they assumed the person reading understood their culture. You and I live in a radically different culture than these people. She didn't have to ask him a question. Jesus knew what this meant in the ancient world, verse four, and he says woman.

Why do you involve me?

Again, culturally, that is different than you hear it right now. You hear it in light of, you know different cultures. When someone says woman to you, they're being chauvinistic, right, . Or when you say woman to someone else, woman, no, that's not what he's saying, it's just, it's just kind of an address, all right.

So Jesus is not being chauvinistic here, he is just talking and they understood it as normal woman.

Why do you involve me? Jesus replied: my hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants: this is so funny from his mom. That's what my mom would do.

Do whatever I mean.

Do what he tells you. Nearby stood six Stone water jars used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants: fill the jars with water. So they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them: now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said: everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink. But you have saved the best until now.

What Jesus did here in canaa of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory and his disciples believed him.

Now let me tell you, guys in the back, don't even toss out my points. I did it in the last sermon. I feel the Lord taking me in a different direction today. I want to take you straight through this passage and I hope to communicate something to you that will be helpful.

What my sermon title was going to be- and I think I'll still call it that, because I think it's helpful for us to understand the sermon title- is why?

Now? Because when I was reading this text, I told someone that I was really struggling with how to communicate this passage, because when I read the Bible. I read it first for me and I just I want to understand more about who God is, what he's trying to do. I've read this passage before, I've heard it preached, and so when I'm looking at this passage, I'm like, Lord, like, help me understand how this applies to my life and, as God reveals that.

That's when I then start to prep a message, and I was struggling with it this week because what the Lord kept giving me was something that is very clearly in the text.

But it's not what I've heard another preacher do, because at the end of the passage, you see the head of the banquet brings the bridegroom in and he tells them. He says: typically people bring out the good wine first and then they bring out the cheaper or the diluted wine later, after people have already drunk too much, and then they give them the cheap stuff and he says: but you have saved the best until now. And what clicked to me when I was reading this passage was I had always interpreted that part of the passage as the head of the banquet telling the bridegroom something. That was a compliment, and I think most Scholars would agree with that statement, and I think it's it's fairly true.

But I asked the question- and I'm telling you this because this is helpful when you're reading your Bible- to ask questions of the text- and I said what if?

What if his statement is not necessarily a good thing? And I went in a New Direction. I said what if he's saying: yo, most people, bring out the good wine first and then they bring out the bad stuff once everybody's drunk and they don't really care. But you brought it out later.

You brought it out, you waited to serve the good stuff until now, and I don't know that that's necessarily bad.

But asking that question in the opposite way helped me a lot, because it helped me recognize that this is not a value statement about whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. It might actually be a neutral thing. This statement is actually a curious statement. It's a statement from this man of confusion that says, typically, this is how it works, but you chose to do it this way.

You waited until now to bring it out.

And when I read this passage, I think what the Lord gave me was this overarching concept that many of us are living our lives in a certain way. We've been maybe asking God for the deepest desires of our heart to be fulfilled. Maybe you've been interacting with people that have been frustrating you and you're just wishing to be out of that relational situation, ation, you might not be accomplishing God's purpose for your life in your life and you might be living in mediocrity, and you're frustrated about that, and you were just wishing that that something better would occur for you. I've lived in this place many times over the years where I wish I was farther ahead than I am, and I don't quite understand why some people get one thing.

Yet I'm sitting here in the background.

I don't quite understand why some people were born with an established, stable life, whereas maybe some aspects of my life were not optimal. And I'm just waiting, wondering, Lord, when are you going to step in and do something? I think that's why some of you showed up to church today, because you were frustrated with where you were in Life. Or maybe you're not frustrated, you've just become content in something, and recently you woke up to the fact that you could be living at a higher capacity in life, and so you showed up here today thinking, Lord, what in the world?

And what I glean from this passage overall- and I'm gonna walk you through it in a second- was this idea that the Lord Works in his own timing and it's not necessarily up to me to decide how he works or when he works.

It's up for me to notice that he is working, and so my encouragement to you guys today is to begin noticing the work of God. The question overarching is: why now? Why now? Like, why did you show up today?

Like, why now?

I think there are a couple reasons and, some of them will be on the screen and some of them won't be. I think one of the reasons- and this one will be on the screen- is because you've reached the end of your own row, like you ran out. See, here's what happens in the passage. What happens in the passage is: there is a resource that has become scarce.

There's a resource that has become scarce.

Let me read it for you again, all right, starting in verse one, and if you have your Bibles, you can hop into those Bibles. I'm reading out of the NIV right now. On the third day, a wedding took place at canaa in Galilee. Jesus mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also, or had also been invited to the wedding.

When the wine was gone, Jesus's mother said to him they have no more wine.

This is a situation where there was a resource s that had become scarce. Now I need to give you some Clues into this High context Society for all of us and again, I don't know what kind of parties you've been having, but in this scenario we don't think it's that big of a deal. In their world and culture, it was a huge deal. Hospitality was a big deal.

Social scientists would call this society and honor, shame culture or Society.

What that means is there is an importance attached to your ability to host people, and what's Happening Here is there is a wedding in canaa at the time. Now, weddings back in the day, they would last about seven days. These celebrations, it's crazy, right? There's some cultures in the world that that there are some similarities to, but for us, most of us are like seven days, no, 3 hours on a Saturday and we're done and the people that show up are ready for it to be done.

As soon as that reception starts just about.

I remember my wedding. People are sitting there. I saw one dude look at his watch after I talked to about 30 people and it was time for me to end it. We see it differently, Mo.

A lot of people these days just they just want to go elope because it costs too much money.

Seven days, that's crazy, but that's what they would do. And when they would have these parties, they would invite a bunch of people to these Banquets and in that Society it was expected that you show up to these parties. It was expected. These days we don't live in that.

It's different for us.

We live in an individualist Society where we regularly choose Netflix binges over hanging out with people. I'm it's not like it's not a bad thing inherently. But back in that culture, if someone invited you to a big party, a wedding feast or something like that, you showed up. It was kind of expected.

And on the other side of it, when you invited someone to a party, you better have some Hospitality going.

There was one primary source that I was reading. Is this secular primary source? But it aligned being a bad host or not having enough resources to host someone at a party that you invited them to it. It aligned it with thievery or stealing.

Like it was so important in that day and age, in that culture, for you to be a good host and have all the resources necessary to host those people that you invited, that if you didn't have enough, it was aligned with stealing.

We do not comprehend that in this day and age- like when I don't have enough something I like, hey, just go to the gas station and get it, we're good. But back then it was different and one of the things that parties always included: they didn't have like soft drink, carbonation, whatever they call the machines, I don't even know what to call it. They didn't have all of the resources that we have. So there were a couple options: there was water, there was some other things that I'm unaware of, and then there was wine.

That's what they had, and so you always had wine at the party, and the way that you would do that is you would serve a little bit of the good wine first, and then you would prep ahead of time to dilute it properly, and what that means is typically it'd be, a cup of water for, or like a cup of wine for every like four cups of water.

That's how they would dilute it, and they would prep weeks ahead of time sometimes to make sure that they had enough for people at the party. So something went, Ary, someone did not do the adequate prep work for this party and they ran out of wine. I'm trying to EMP ize the intensity of this scenario, because it is something that for us would be like: dude, just call somebody, you going to get it's. It's fine, you gonna figure it out.

So Mary comes to Jesus and she says they have no more wine.

Jesus knows what this means. It means they have run out or become scarce on a resource that was necessary to maintain the honor of this household. And you might be thinking this is an insignificant issue, but to Jesus, he knows that if this person does not find a solution, then the honor of their house is stained for a long period of time. I remember when I went to Indonesia, 10 years ago, and this, just, it's a different culture, it's a different culture.

When I went to Indonesia was actually more 14 years ago.

My gosh, I'm so old, I'm getting up there. I thought it was all right. So I went to Indonesia, visited some Nationals. We were right outside of Jakarta, in a little town called lipo, Karachi, and we went to what they called a fishing hole.

To us, or me in the South, a fishing hole was a pond.

That fish somehow arrived in at one point in all of history and we would go fishing and we'd catch bass and frog gig and all that other stuff, but for them it was a rectangular, swimming pool about the size of this pipe and drapes rectangle right here, and it was filled with catfish that were about that large and there was no running water into it. So when you looked into this pool it didn't look clear and though it was only about 4T High, you couldn't see the super dirty right. And this was a place for locals, meaning non-locals rarely went there, but because we were with Nationals, we could go and they accepted us. And so I walk in.

It was on day three.

I'm not trying to align that with the text, but hey, there's poetic for you and I. I walk into this place and they say, hey, don't stand out, you're already going to stand out, naturally, and people are going to call you a bule, Gila. You know what that means, crazy white boy, that's what it means. And so I walk in there and I go fishing.

There was a guy there who would put the bait on the hook and then I would throw it out and I would catch it.

He would take the fish off the hook and I caught one. It was about this large and I'm holding it up for a picture and it's a catfish. So it slips out of my hands and then it falls and I'm trying to grab it before it falls back in so I can get my picture. But the catfish was wet and when I was holding it had been dripping and it was concrete, it wasn't dirt, and so when I stepped to grab the fish, my foot slipped on the slippery catfish stuff that was on the ground and then I slipped into this 4-ft pool and I fell and I was wearing a white shirt and when I came out it was a black shirt.

That's how disgusting the water was, and I say all of that to say in a culture like that, when something significant happens out of the norm, remember them.

Running out of wine is out of the norm. It's remembered. Let me prove it to you: 10 years after I was- that was 10 years after I was there, it's been 14- I was talking to someone who was over there and they said: hey, Matt, how you doing yo? The guys at the, the fishing hole, they still talk about that bulle, Gila, who fell in the pond.

Picture what happens for this household in this small town of canaa, near Galilee, when this situation is not resolved.

It's an intense situation. I know it's insignificant, to us, but in that culture it is sign significant, and Jesus knows that. When his mom comes to him, but he responds with something that's very confusing, he says: woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied: my hour has not yet come.

And that's an interesting comment from Jesus.

I'm going to tell you honestly, I've done a lot of research on this and Scholars have a lot to say about these statements, but here's what we know. We know Jesus makes these statements, that John intends to clarify something through them and then, later in the passage, Jesus actually performed, performs The Miracle. So we have to interpret these statements in light of the fact that he intended the whole time to perform this miracle for his mother. Here's what I see in that.

What I see is that, though it was not Jesus's specific, articulated time to begin his ministry, he saw a need that, though to us may seem nuanced and insignificant, it was something that would have negatively impacted that household.

So, because of their honor and shame Society, Jesus decided to meet that need. Why now? Because they had reached the end of their rope, because they had run out. I'm convinced, based on all of my reading of Scripture, that the character of God is such that when we run out on our own, he is always there when we seek him to fill us up.

I?

I don't know what you're trying to trying to figure out, but I've heard story after story after Story. You can even look in the Scriptures. You can see the feeding of the 5,000 that these disciples. They want to send people back to the city to buy their own bread.

And Jesus says: now, I've got a task for you.

You feed them. And they're like: we don't have any bread. And they come back to Jesus and he says: how many loaves do you have? And they go find Five Loaves and two fish.

They had to search diligently to find the Five Loaves and two fish.

But guess what happened when they? They reached their limit. That's when Jesus stepped in. You see that in his ministry, when he performs Miracles, when we reach our limit, when we run out of what we think we have to accomplish our will in life, God is always there if we ask to provide us what we need in life.

My encouragement to you is this: you've got to get to the place- and maybe some of you are.

You've got to get to this place where it's not your mom, it's not your dad, it's not your grandparents, it's not your kids, it's not your retirement, it's not all of these things- things that the world would sell us in order to reach success- that provide ultimately for us. It is Jesus. It's when we stop relying and putting our faith and trust in these physical, material things and look to Jesus that he starts to fill us with what we actually need. God has a character such that when you run out, he's willing and able to meet your need, no matter.

No matter how un?

Ific it seems to other people. Some of you are thinking: man, I just, I just need to figure out a way to save gas money. He cares. Some of you like I.

Just, I need to work on my emotional intelligence so that I don't look dumb at parties anymore.

He cares, and it might be as serious, as I'm at the end of my rope and I have no clue what I'm going to do next week. I've got this illness and I don't know what's going to come down in the end, regardless of how insignificant or significant in the world's eyes, God cares about every bit of it. To us, this is so like it doesn't even matter. Bro, grow up.

You ran out of wine.

Drink some water. Get over it, bro. Who cares what other people think? I know they're going to talk about you as the guy who ran out of wine at this party for the next 10 years, but still, who cares?

Big whoop, that's.

That's us. We don't care. But God did, and I know you're scared to vocalize your issues to God or you're hesitant to because you think they're irrelevant. Man, God still cares, God cares.

God cares that you don't feel loved in your relationship as much as you want to feel Lov.

God cares that you don't feel respected in your relationship as much as, like you want to be respected. God cares about every detail of that. And when you, when you recognize that he's the one to meet your need, that's also when you do. My second Point, that's when you bring it to him, like you sought out help, is my second point.

This is what Mary did.

Not only did she recognized there was a need that needed to be fulfilled, she brought it where it could be fulfilled and many of us, like you're not seeking help in the right places. Okay, this is, this is a truth statement for you guys. You're you're not seeking help in the right places. I'm I'm trying to be very careful because what I'm not trying to do is downgrade, like real world, practical ways for you to get help, maybe psychologically or relation.

There's a lot of science, there's a lot of psychology out there that is extremely helpful.

It's helped me- but if you go to that and don't go to Jesus to help fulfill your needs, you're going to feel empty, because these things, they might give you some practical peace, but they don't give you Eternal peace. These things might help rid you of some of your apathy and give you good habits, but habits don't mean anything if you don't have a heart that's shifted. Ezekiel says that he come to give us a new heart, and so if you're doing good habits with an old heart, it's going to be pointless in the end. This is what Jesus can provide for, and so we need to bring our needs to him.

Paul actually tells us this.

He says: make your requests known to God and he will, in turn, give you peace that surpasses all understanding. This is what he'll. This is what Jesus can do. Your mom and your daddy can't do it like your boss can't provide it.

Your kids are definitely not going to give it to you.

I love my kids. They are beautiful human beings. My kids are probably better than yours, not behavior-wise, but in my eyes, you know, like behavior-wise they're probably way worse. But still, I love my kids.

But they will not provide me the deepest desires of my heart.

Only Jesus is meant to fill that. And so if I'm trying to bring this eternal Cosmic need to my kids, they're not going to fulfill it and then they're going to leave frustrated too. But many of us, we bringing the wrong need needs to. We're bringing needs, good needs, real needs- to the wrong people and they're not able to help us.

No wonder the divorce ratees so high.

No, no wonder people can't find a place to settle when it comes to church. No wonder these things are happening? Because we're trying to fulfill our needs with people and processes, but Jesus is the only one who can fulfill those needs. So I want to encourage you: bring your needs to him.

And there's something that I've realized over the years: because people over the years will try to bring their needs to me and ask me to solve them.

And I just want you to know I'm 36 years old. I am the wisest human being that ever. I'm just kidding, I'm not, I've got. I've got some stuff figured out.

But if you bring stuff to me, I can give you some practical advice, but I cannot change your heart.

I cannot put God's spirit within you. Only Jesus can do that, and so, ultimately, that is the need that only he can fill. And here's what Mary does, and I think is super cool. She brings it to him, says there's no more wine, which isn't like a request, it's more like a statement.

Which is so interesting, interesting and Jesus's interaction with his mother.

He replies to her: why do you involve me? It's not my hour. And his mother says this in verse 5. His mother said to the servants: do whatever.

He tells you my job.

I can give practical advice. I can pray for you, I can put you around some good people. Everyone in this room can actually do some of the same things that I'm capable of doing, so I'm not special. No one in this room can do the things we really need.

My job is simply this is to do what Mary did with the wine situation: she brings it to Jesus, makes her request known and she tells the servants: do whatever he tells you.

I know this is not what she's saying, but I think the Lord made it significant to me as I was prepping to preach this message. I want to give you this: do whatever he tells you. That's what I can give you. That's what I can give you.

Sometimes he'll tell you to relax when you've been overly stressed.

Sometimes he'll tell you to do something that you're uncomfortable with doing. My encouragement: do whatever he tells you. He's going to give you good advice. He's going to fill you to the brim, just like he did the wine in these jars.

He's going to get you to the place where you never expected.

What is it that Paul says that I quote all the time? He'll do exceedingly more than you can ask, think or imagine when we bring our needs to him and do what he says to do. Our lives are radically different. It was weird for me and- and this is why I struggle- because people will say: how do I operate as a Christian?

I want to make it very simple, because so often I make it complicated and I try to tell you: here's what Christians do, here's what you shouldn't do, and each person's in a different spot, and so then I leave and they're questioning, and then they become legalistic and focused on habits rather than overall heart and spiritual health, and then I've not done my job.

Here's how I can do my job best and I want you to listen to this. I want you to do, in whatever season, whatever he tells you to do now. Now, to be clear: what he's told you to do in the Bible is pretty good. It's pretty much our standard, and I say this a lot.

He'll never tell you to do what he told you not to do.

Yeah, and he'll. He'll never tell you to stop doing what he told you in the Bible to do. So the Bible gives us a very good compass on what the Lord wants us to do. When I encourage people who just trust in Jesus, they say: what do I do now?

I say whatever he tells you to do.

This is what Mary said. It's very simple In this passage. But if you can do whatever he tells you to do, man, you're going to save yourself a lot of like thought work throughout your life. That's why I got triggered right.

It's because someone over complicated something that Jesus made pretty clear in his words.

But they posted it because we, we would rather over complicate things, make them confusing so that we can fit our own interests, rather than listen to the Simplicity of what Jesus tells us to do, and. Just do it. Now I know we're supposed to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. I quote that Scripture all the time.

I love it because things are not as black and white as some people make them out to be is complicated.

This world is hard to live in, man. How should I respond to that stuff I joked about during welcome that I probably shouldn't have, that maybe someone's never going to come back, because I joked about the opening to the Olympics but like, how am I supposed to deal with that? How am I supposed to deal with these political scenarios? How am I supposed to deal with this person who is in a lifestyle that is not fitting with God's will, but they have done things legally and socially that sticks them in that scenario?

What do I do?

It is so complicated, but God's word tends to be very clear and if we do what he tells us to do, the vast majority of the time, we will find ourselves filled with more peace. At the end of the day, we will be filled to the brim. By the end of the day, we will be filled with this, this new wine that he wants to put in each one of us. He will give us a new heart, he will make us into a new creation and all you got to do is what tells you to do.

It's not hard, sometimes it's gracious, but sometimes it's discomforting and that's okay.

That's okay. It's a regular Pastime for me to feel good after, after I read the Bible. It's also a regular Pastime for me to feel terrible after the Bible. It's kind of like working out.

I feel good and sometimes bad at the same time.

Yeah, anyone work out here. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, just these two. You guys need to get on it.

I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding. I'm not going to tell you to work out, but it's like I know the benefits that come from making this uncomfortable adjustment, so I feel good about that. But I'm also like: but I got to make the adjustment. Just don't.

Don't just do what I tell you to do.

Don't just do what random people tell you what to do: open God's word and understand what he tells you to do. And these servants, they did what he told them to do. Here's what he says. Verse six.

Nearby stood six Stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons.

Now, a lot, that's a lot of wine. That's a lot of wine for this party. Must? It's day three, right?

So maybe there's four days left in the ceremony there, just a lot necessary, for the rest of the week, for all these people who are coming in, based on the invitation.

There's a lot of wine that he's got to create. So, anyways, it's interesting that that Jesus Takes something that is typically used for ceremonial washing or Purity rights in the Jewish world, and he decides he's going to fill them with something that technically, makes those vessels unclean. That's interesting, and I don't know what else to say about that other than I think God will take something that has been built up in a certain way and when he decides, whenever he decides, he can fill it with something, that rejuvenates, something that's beneficial, something that reveals God's glory. When we bring it to him, he can fill it with something, more potent and something better.

Not something that's traditional, filled with normal habits that people have done their entire life but never meant anything to them.

No, he can fill it with meaning, purpose and peace, . And in verse 8 he tells them this: oh, verse 7: Jesus said to the servants: fill the jars with water. So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them: now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.

Y mind, if I say something that's aside, it's not ADHD.

I planned on saying it, but it's just aside from the sermon. Is that cool? Just shake your head, is it cool? You got you with me all right, cool, I, I see this in Scripture all the time.

Would you rather be a servant or the head of the banquet in this story?

I'd rather be the servant. I'm just G to be real with you. I mean, some of youall like I don't know, I don't know, the servants got to drink the wine. I want to be like the head of the banquet who got to drink this cool wine and then tell the bridegroom and look really good in front of everybody.

I, I don't know, but I would rather be the servant.

You know why? Because the- the head of the banquet, it actually says- did not know what happened. It says this, ver. Finishing verse eight.

They did so- verse 9- and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.

He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Oh, I'd so much rather be the servant in that scenario, and so here's my aside. There's some of you who are contemplating what it looks like to serve at church or in Ministry or something like that. I want to encourage you.

When you participate in what God is doing, you get to see the stuff, the rest of the people, they get to benefit from it, and the both are great, .

But the first time I ever led a social here in the valley, I invited people to be a part of the crowd, which was great because they got to benefit from the work of God. But then I invited a select group of people to be a part of the crew, and those were the people who were serving God and thus getting to see the miraculous occur on a regular. So I want to encourage you. If you want to see the miraculous of God in life.

Hey, you might, you might jump in and consider serving.

That's an aside, I'm not trying to manipulate you into serving. I'm just trying to help you understand that something, something that Jesus helped me understand a long time ago. And so, getting to see the miraculous of God work out through me into somebody else's life, because I simply decided to, listen to what he said to do. And, you know, be a minister, that's pretty awesome.

So, anyways, just something to think about, just a little something for you to think about.

Then he called the bridegroom aside and said: everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink, but you have saved the best until now. Verse 11: what Jesus did here in canaa of Galilee was the first of the Signs. Now hear this part- through which he revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him. My, my first point is: it was when you, when you reach the end of your row, when you run out, when your resources become scarce, that's when it's natural for you to seek God.

So why now?

That's why, when you bring yourself to God with a request like, God answers so. So that's why, because when you bring your requests, like Mary did, he responds. So that's why, now, but then there's a third reason, and it says it right here. What Jesus did in canaa of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory.

My, my final point is you.

You can be someone through which God Reveals His glory when you run out and bring it to him. You can reveal God's glory by allowing him to do a work in you. It there's so many layers to this passage, which is, you know partially, why I keep talking about some of these different things. I've skipped several layers, you know, like there's so many cool things, right, like: what do the jars mean?

What does that mean?

What about the servants? What about the head of the banquet? What about the bridegroom? There's so many different layers and this is just how John writes.

John writes in such a way that there is something that really happened in history, but there's spiritual meaning to all of it, because when John looks back on all that Jesus did, he is saying, man, here's how God works and this is why he did it ultimately, it's so that his glory would be revealed.

His glory is revealed to the head of the banquet. His glory is revealed to the bridegroom. His glory is revealed through what he did with the, the pots that were initially used for Purity rights. He's using them to fill with wine so that some host does not fall into shame in that Society.

He's utilizing the servants, and when the servants dip the cup and bring it to the head of the banquet, God is glorified Through It.

Ultimately, when we read this, God is glorified through the text itself. Everything that God does ultimately comes down to this purpose. He wants to reveal himself and how glorious and Powerful he is. So why now?

Why now in this text?

It's because his glory needed to be revealed to this group of people, and specifically to his disciples. Why, then? It's so that it would start this process. I think the reason Jesus responds is BEC to his mother.

That way is because he knows that when, when he starts with this first miracle, some people are going to be wondering positively, but some people are going to be bewildered in a negative way.

And it's not just going to start this route for God's glory to be revealed. It's going to start the path to the Cross, where he's going to be crucified for the Forgiveness of sins. It's going to lead to his death. I think that's where some of that hesitancy comes in.

But what does he do?

He says that, but he does the miracle, because his concern, ultimately, is the glory of God. And how is this relevant to you? Well, I think right now, now. God brought you here today because some of you are at the end of your rope, some of you need to know how to bring your requests to God, because, ultimately, God wants to reveal himself through you.

You- let me say it this way: you are the vessel that God wants to fill to the brim so that others would benefit from the glory of God.

You are, and so God wants to meet your needs so that he can fill you. God wants to fill you with his Holy Spirit so that you would live a life of abundance. God wants to save those of you who have never confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord or believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead. He wants to give you a new heart, fill you with new wine, help you live a as a new creation.

That's why God did it, and some of you are failing to realize, even as I say it, it's not your fault, it's just the world we live in that God can actually use you in the midst of all of your imperfections and weaknesses.

But no matter how significant or insignificant, the Bible still says what it says. It says when we are weak, he is strong. God doesn't care what you came from last year or even last night. He cares about the step that you can take right now to bring your life to him and do what he says so that the glory of God would happen.

Let's just say, Buckeye, in your household, in this Valley, in this world.

This is a much better opener into the Gospel of John than we see the world provide, and we can all be a part, part of restoring or lifting up God's glory in this world. So if everybody would bow their heads and close their eyes, I want to give two tasks today. First, for those of you who have never trusted in Jesus, I want to give you an opportunity to do so. You might pray a prayer that's specific, directly to God, like this.

You don't have to repeat out loud if you don't want to.

But God, I believe that Jesus is the son of God. I believe he died on the cross and Rose from the grave. Father, forgive me of my sin, make me a new creation. Help me do what you tell me to, and I will keep following you until you receive the glory.

It's in Jesus's name that I pray now, for those of you who just trusted in Jesus, for those of you who may not.