Sharing good news of great joy to all people.
Elation Church. Good morning. If you're joining
us for the first time, we're in a series called
Faith Act. Everybody say faith. Everybody say
act. Fact. So, faith is incomplete unless it
is carried through, right? Faith, our actions
in faith, or what we do by our faith, are important.
And if you come to Alation Church a lot, you'll
realize we talk about faith a lot. We've preached
a lot of messages on faith. Faith is important
for every believer. Amen? Amen. All right. Well,
what do we mean by faith? But before we go too
much farther, I know Dad, you know, he had asked
me, like, to preach a little while back, and
I kept going back and forth. I said, well, do
I want to do it now? Do I want to do, you know,
like just one message? Do I want to do a series
or something like that? We went back and forth
with it, and finally Dad looked at me just a
little while ago. He was like, let's tag team.
Let's tag team a series. And I said, sure, let's
do it. It'll be fun. So he kind of tagged me
in. We're going to do it. Here we go. Boom! Woo!
So we're, and Siri's talking to me now, that's
okay. But yeah, this has been something that's
kind of been on our hearts. We've been talking
about this for a while, talking about the faith
that does. Faith has action. It's not just faith
in itself. It goes beyond that. And that's what
we're talking about. But as I was trying to figure
out, because I do all the visuals, Dad and I
work on that, I saw this picture of this little
baby holding this barbell. And I said, wow, that's
perfect for what we're talking about. As a Christian,
sometimes we, just in life, like if I walked
over my natural mind, if I saw a barbell like
that, I saw all that weight on it, I'm at the
point in my life I don't have to impress anybody.
I don't have anything to prove. I'm not even
going to touch it, right? I'm just going to look
at it and I'll be like, okay, I can't do that.
There's no way, right? But what I love about
this and this baby, he's just over there. He
has his hands on the barbell and he's just sitting
there like, okay. What are we going to do? What's
going to happen? He's just holding on to it.
Something that in my natural mind I would never
do, this baby just walks over to it and just
puts her hands to it. Puts her hands to it. And
then when I saw that, I kind of thought, I was
like, what are the things that maybe God's called
me to do, right, that look too big for me? He's
called me to put my hands to it, to do the work,
but yet I'm just going, I can't do it on my own
ability because I always want to think about
my natural self, right? I want to think about
my abilities on whether or not God can do something
through me. Are we tracking? Are we understanding?
This means yes. This means yes. Okay. Faith act.
Let's talk about faith. The Bible's full of verses
about faith. We're going to hit some of the highlights.
Ephesians 2 .8. It says this, for by grace you
have been saved through faith. Everybody say
by grace. Through faith. Through faith. What
is grace? Grace is God's acts of kindness and
favor towards you and towards me. It's grace.
It's by grace. It's what God has done. Not in
my ability. Right? And salvation is what God
has done on the cross. His finished work on the
cross is then applied to my life. And how is
God's finished work on the cross applied to my
life? Through faith. Everybody say, through faith.
Through faith. Galatians 3 .11, that no one is
justified by the law in the sight of God is evident.
For the just shall live by faith. Everybody say,
live by faith. 2 Corinthians 5, 7 says this,
For we walk by faith, not by sight. We walk by
faith. 1 John 5, 4 says, Every child of God.
Does it say some children of God? No, it says
every child of God defeats this evil world. And
we achieve this victory through our faith. Amen.
Do you have victory this morning, church? Do
you have victory in Christ and what he's done
for you? Say, yeah. We do have victory. Sometimes,
though, we feel a little beat up. The world beats
us up. The world beats us down sometimes. But
according to the Word, and that's where I'm going
to stand, is that every child of God defeats
this evil world, and we achieve this not because
we just avoid all the trouble in the world, right?
No, trouble comes. It rains on the just and the
unjust, the Bible says. No, we're all going to
face trouble. But we have victory through our
faith. Everybody say faith. Hebrews 11, 6. And
it is impossible to please God without faith.
Everybody say faith is important. Faith is important.
It's impossible to please God. How many of you
want to please God? We want to please God. Anyone
who wants to come to him must believe that God
exists and that he rewards those who sincerely
seek him. So if we are saved through faith, if
we're called to live by faith, if we can only
experience victory through faith, if we can only
please God by our faith, we need to be men, women,
boys and girls of faith. Amen? Amen. We need
to be people of faith, actively living by faith,
actively standing in faith, and actively increasing
in our faith. A lot of people, we want to just
be passive. in our faith we just want to say
well i hear and i believe and i'm just and that's
it that's all the christian experience is well
i believe it well even the demons believe amen
even the demons believe that's what the bible
says so it's got to be more than just believing
it's got to be more than just hearing it we got
to be active in it That's why this series is
called Faith Acts. So we're looking at the faith
actions on how we live by faith, how we stand
by faith each and every day, how we increase
in our faith. So let's break it down. What is
faith? Where does faith come from? And how do
we have it? And how do we live it? Romans 10
.7 says this, So then faith... comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. That word of
God is divine utterance, meaning the word spoken
or written. So the Bible, right, we look at that,
we call that the written word of God. But the
Bible was first spoke. Right out the mouth, it
was written down. And so it's written for us
to speak it again, but we're not getting into
that. But it is the divine utterance is that
God is wanting to speak to you and to me each
and every day. If we're sensitive to his Holy
Spirit living on the inside of us, he's constantly
wanting to speak. He's constantly wanting to
show us and give us direction. He's wanting to
give us. He's wanting to just give us light to
our path, the Bible says. So it shows us where
we are, where we are at, so we can self -examine,
right? But then it also shows us where we're
going to go. It gives us direction into the things
in front of us. So if we are sensitive, and as
children of God, we should be sensitive to the
Spirit of God, right? But if we're sensitive
to his word, he'll give us direction. And that
comes through hearing, and that's by faith. So
the first step of faith is hearing a divine utterance
from God. Everyone say hearing. Hearing. Hebrews
11 .1, faith is the confidence that what we hope
for will actually happen. It gives us assurance
about things we cannot see. This hope here is
different from the world's definition of hope.
The world's definition of hope is like hope so.
Well, I hope it's not going to rain tomorrow.
I hope it's not, you know, I hope, you know,
whatever. I hope the hurricane don't hit us.
I hope something happens. We can't be assured
of these things that we just constantly use the
word hope for, right? But the word here, hope,
is different. The hope that the Bible talks about,
and when we see that, it's a confident expectation
in what? In ourselves? In the people around us?
No, it's a confident expectation that we will
see the goodness and promises of God fulfilled
in our life. We can expect that. We can expect
his good promises to be fulfilled. We can expect
God to do great and mighty things in this earth,
in and through each and every person here. How?
Because we can stand on God's word by faith.
And we'll see those things happen. So the second
step of faith is wholeheartedly believing and
having confidence in God's word. Believing, confidence,
not in ourselves, not in our own ability, but
in God. Faith is not the world's view of positive
confessions. It's different. You can't just manifest
things of your imagination into the reality around
you. That's not what this is talking about. That's
not the principle of faith. Now, you can think
on good things and apply biblical principles
outside, and a lot of people are just now catching
up to that. We have, you know, enrichment seminars
and things like that where you talk about just
thinking on good things does change your world.
Why? It's because God created everything that
way, and people and man is just now figuring
out, well, hey, if I just choose to laugh, It's
going to make me feel better. When the Bible
has said for a long time, laughter does us good
like a medicine. So we're just now catching up
and people are just now discovering the things.
But the sad part is we can do those things and
use the laws on how God created everything apart
from him. But it will change our life, but we're
not going to be connected to its power. We're
not going to see the full scope of how it can
really change your life. It's only going to be
a tip of the iceberg of all that what God has
in store for us. So it's not just the world's
view of positive confessions. We don't make up
what to do. Doing something without direction
is just presumption. We must act according to
God -given direction. Confessions are merely
words unless they are connected to the promise.
Because in the promise holds the power, holds
the manifestation of God in what he wants to
do. We do not have just faith in faith. A lot
of Christians just be like, well, I have faith.
Well, what does that mean? What does that mean
to you? Does it mean that you have faith if you
just come to church and you just, you know, have
this Christian life? Maybe you... read your Bible
a little bit, or you even believed. Is that all
that faith is? Does that mean, okay, I have faith?
No. Some people, they just say, well, I have
faith in myself. Can we really have faith in
ourself? No, because you'll let yourself down
time and time again, right? You don't know what
your abilities are. Sometimes you wake up in
the morning. I know when I hit 30 years old.
I woke up in the morning, I felt like Superman,
and then I turned 30. I tried to step out of
bed one morning, and I threw my back out. And
I said, oh, gosh, if this is what 30 looks like,
I don't want any part of it. I couldn't count
on myself in that moment, right? I can't have
trust in myself always. And like I said in Children's
Church last week, you can't trust other people
either, right? We can't have faith in other people.
People will let you down. We'll let ourselves
down. The people in your life, they will let
you down. And if you have your faith in someone
other than God, your faith is in the wrong place.
It's in the wrong person. You can have faith
in the church, the establishment, the organization
of the church, and the church itself will let
you down. That's why there's so much church hurt
and church pain, right? Because their faith,
people's faith is in... The establishment of
the body, right, and not in the body of God.
It's establishment about a preacher, right, who
had some sort of moral failure. You had faith
in the preacher, but you didn't have faith in
God. If all of a sudden the preacher makes a
mistake and you walk away from him, walk away
from church and Christianity and say, I don't
want anything to do with God anymore. Why is
that? Because your faith was misplaced. Faith
was misplaced. We can't have faith in just faith.
We can't have faith in ourselves. The Bible says
in Mark 11, 22, Jesus said to his disciples,
have faith in God. Have faith in God. It seems
so simple. It is. The word of God is simple.
It's a simple truth because everyone can understand
it. Everyone can understand the truth of God's
word. Have faith. in god james 2 26 faith without
works is dead that's pretty strong so you're
what you're what this verse is saying is that
i can hear and i can believe and if i don't act
what is my faith if not just dead The third step
of faith is acting in obedience. It's acting
in obedience. The faith that believes in God
is a faith that responds. It's a faith that does.
It's a faith that acts. We're not just passive
Christians. We're active Christians. We're actively
standing on the word of God. We're living by
the word of God, by faith. We are doing and being
the hands and feet of Christ in the earth. The
connection to the manifestation of the power
is when we act upon what God has said. That's
the connection point. We want to see God move.
We want to see God do. And God be who he was
for the people in the Bible. We want to see those
things alive and happening in our world today.
What's going to take some men, women, boys and
girls standing up and doing the things that God
says and acting in faith. To the point, not just
believing, but believing it so wholeheartedly
that we're just, yeah, I'm going to do it. Yeah,
I'm going to do what you say, God. It changes
my words. It changes my actions. It changes how
I give, changes how I talk, changes everything
in my world around me because I understand it.
I understand it and I truly believe it. So faith
is gained by hearing. It's held by believing,
but then it's lived by acting, by the actions.
And as Christians, we're real good at hearing.
We're real good at believing. We did a whole
message on even saying, and saying is a part
of that action, but we're real good at these
things, hearing and believing, but we often really
lack when it comes to doing, acting in obedience
to his word and to the things that he said. So
that's why this series is called Faith Act. That
was my little introduction there, and then we're
going to move into today's message. And we're
talking today, the title of today's message is
Trust and Obey. Trust and Obey. Real simple,
real easy to remember. Trust and Obey. We're
talking about childlike faith. We're going to
talk about miracles and how those two things
interact with one another. Okay, just so we're
all on the same page. But listen, anyone, everybody
say anyone. I need you to get this. I need you
to get this today. Anyone can experience a manifestation
of the power of God. Do you believe that? I say
it and you look like I just, you know. Do you
really believe anyone can experience a manifestation
of the power of God? Do you believe that God
wants everyone to experience that power? Do you
believe that? Anyone can have faith that pleases
God. Anyone. Romans 2 .11, for God does not show
favoritism. Amen. Aren't you glad God doesn't
show favoritism? Right? He's no respecter of
persons, another translation says. For God does
not show favoritism. Faith is simple. That's
why it's so simple. It's a simple concept. Anyone
can get a hold of it. And the truth of God is
simple. We can all take a hold of it. And it
can all change our lives. It can all impact everything
that we do, think, and say. Faith is simple.
So simple. A child can do it. A child can live
it. A child can stand in faith. And often, often
a child will just simply believe something that
an adult will not. When God's just really requiring
us to just trust and obey, often children will
trust and obey. But it's us adults that have
a hard time. Faith is simple. Matthew 18, 1 through
4. I love this. It says, about that time, the
disciples came to Jesus and asked, who is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Who's the
greatest, God? Tell us. Tell us who's the greatest.
Maybe they were looking at it going, which one
of us is the greatest, God? Look around. Is he
my greater? No, maybe not. And Jesus did this.
He called the little child to him. He said, come
here. He didn't answer their question. He just
said, he looked over, he was like, come here.
Put the child among them. And then he said, I
tell you the truth. Unless you turn from your
sins and become like little children, you will
never get into the kingdom of heaven. So anyone
who becomes as humble, I'm going to say humble.
Humble as this little child is the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven. Humble. Opposite of humility,
I would say, would be pride. When we get older,
that little stronghold of pride gets even more
and more in our lives. We think we know more.
A lot of times we say that word pride, we go,
ooh, I don't want to have pride. No, I'm not
prideful. But it's just that little bit of, well,
I know better. I know more. I have a little bit
more understanding about this. You know, let
me think about this for a little bit, right?
But there's a time when a child will just simply
believe and do whatever someone tells them. Especially
if they trust them, of course. It's not just
like a stranger. I'm not talking about anybody.
And I'm not talking about all children. But most
children, if like a parent or maybe a peer, something
like that, that they look up to, something, you
know, if they tell them, hey, let's go do this,
they'll just go do it. They don't think through
the process. They don't have to understand why
they're going to do it. They just sort of do
it. And the proof here is this phrase. How many
of you have been told this phrase before? I've
been told this phrase a few times. I remember
my blank here, you know, is Rush Darnell. There's
only one person in the room who knows who Rush
Darnell is, and I guarantee you he's not listening
today, so don't be afraid. I'm just throwing
out names here. If mine was, my mom looked at
me, she said, well, if Rush Darnell told you
to jump off a bridge, would you do it? The answer
was, yeah, probably, probably. I had no fear
as a little kid. Nothing scared me. I didn't,
I didn't, I don't know. It was just one of those
people. Now I would never do some of the things
that I would do when I was little. But I looked
up to Rush. I thought he was cool, you know,
because he was always doing all these crazy things.
And, you know, he had dirt bikes and he had all
this stuff that I didn't, wasn't accustomed to.
And, you know, we'd go over there and get in
a little bit of trouble or just happy to be alive
today, you know, because we made it. But I remember
after church, the kids, we were playing on the
playground and all of a sudden, hey, let's go
play hide and go seek, right? Let's go play hide
and go seek. Rush looks at me, taps me on the
shoulder, and says, come with me. I got the perfect
place. So what do I do? Yeah, okay. Let's go.
We go over here. He jumps on top of the AC unit
to the church. They were pretty big units out
back. Jumps on top of that, scales the gutter,
and gets to the roof of the church building.
Now, it wasn't sloped too much where it was like
too big of a thing, but it was pretty steep.
It was a little uncomfortable for me. But if
Rush did it, right, I can do it. I can do it.
So I just jumped up there. We're on top of the
roof with our game of hide and go seek, which
turned into extreme parkour. And now we're on
top of the building. And, you know, is anything
going to go wrong? Nah. Absolutely not. Nothing's
going to happen. Everything was fine. That was
the longest game of hide and go seek I ever played
because no one ever found us. So was Rush correct?
Yes, he was correct. And we did really win, I
think, maybe. But we actually lost at the end
of the day because as I'm standing there, the
church let out. So guess who comes out into the
parking lot? And as you escape farther from the
building, you can see what? More of the roof.
And here's me and Russ standing on the roof going,
hey! Yeah, that was a lot. We won't go past that
point in our little story here. Huh? Yeah, we
went to the correction stage. Yeah, the correction
point. There was some repercussion for my actions.
And this phrase was definitely used. If Rush
Darnell told you to jump off a bridge, would
you do it? Come on, son. Oh, yeah, that's good.
That's good. God simply wants us to trust and
obey. Everybody say trust. Everybody say obey.
Obey. Anyone can act in faith and see a miracle
happen. Anyone can act in faith and see a miracle
happen. God is a miracle working God and still
performs miracles each and every day. When I
went to school for way too many years, There's
a camp of people that would say something like
this, well, miracles happened during the times
of the Bible, when the Bible was being written,
but miracles are not happening today. We just
don't see them in the same capacity. We don't
see them in the same extravagance as we do written
in the Bible. And they would just discredit miracles.
They would talk about things and we would look
at different examples and all that kind of stuff.
But I'm here to tell you this morning, we're
not going to dig into all that. But I'm here
to tell you this morning, God is a miracle working
God. And if you don't believe miracles are going
to happen, you don't have to worry because you're
not going to see any. You're not going to see
God do things for you unless you believe that
he can do something for you. God is a gentleman.
He's not going to force things on you in the
same way that he's not just going to zap miracles
on you. Some people just sit around and they're
just like, well, I'm just going to let go and
let God. Jesus, take the wheel. That's not the
way God works. And I would go so far to say that
those things are just a lie from the enemy. We're
just eating it up as the body of Christ. We're
just eating it up. And we get to that point where
we just beg God for things that he's already
promised for us. And God's already given us solutions
to the things that he wants in our lives. He's
given us solutions in his word, but yet we just
don't read it. We don't care. And then the big
thing is we're not willing to do. We're not willing
to do what he tells us to do. We want his hand,
we want his manifestation, we want his miracle,
but yet we're not willing to do. God has not
changed. Everybody say, God has not changed.
Jesus Christ, in Hebrews 13, 8, Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What
God has done back then, He is still doing today.
Amen? Amen? I'm glad He's the same. He's the
same God who died on the cross for my sins. And
what He did and His finished work on the cross
can be applied to what I've done today, what
I've done, what I will do in the future, right?
And if I can believe that, I know that God's
the same at every time in my life. When I was
a child, right now, and when I grow old, he's
the same God. Amen. And today, our main passage
is going to be Jesus' first miracle. This is
something that, like, recently I've always just
read over. I've not went into much detail. I
just kind of, like, I read it. I said, oh, that's
fun, and just kind of moved on. You know, I was
like, wow, that's a weird thing to include, but
we'll just keep going. I've never really gave
it much thought until just recently one day it
just sort of came alive. Dad and I, we were talking
about it. We've been talking about this series.
And as we're studying and we were just talking
with one another, it came alive to me. And I
saw something that I'd never quite seen before.
But we're talking about Jesus' first miracle,
and that's sort of the way these things work,
right? We don't always recognize the spiritual
things happening in our world enough. They are
not always as big, as flashy as we think they
should be. And if we're not walking in the Spirit,
if we're not living by the Spirit of God, I believe
we can just miss some things, not be thankful
for some of the small things that God does in
our life each and every day. But there's miracles
constantly happening. Do you not say it's a miracle
that if I cut my finger this afternoon, next
week it'll be healed? That's amazing, right?
That your body constantly works towards healing
itself? One time I flipped a scooter and I had
some gravel in my knee. And my body, years later,
my body pushed out little gravel pieces out of
my knee. Like, that's incredible to think that
your body does those kind of things. Right? It's
constantly fighting. It's constantly working
towards healing. But yet, when we need healing
or we have something big, we go, well, that can't
happen. Can't happen. But anyways, we don't recognize
the spiritual things enough. And I think sometimes
that's why we need the Holy Spirit. All the times,
that's why we need the Holy Spirit. Because when
we're reading through this word, sometimes we
just read it, but we need God's word to come
alive. We need the Holy Spirit to lead us into
the truth of it. That's why it's important to
pray before you read your Bible. That's why it's
important to pray. Pray for understanding. The
Bible says to pray for certain things, and one
of those is to pray for discernment. And as Christians,
we need to be doing that. We need to pray for
the discernment, for the wisdom of God to be
revealed, to come alive, to impact our lives.
We need that more than ever. When I'm in a conversation
talking with someone and I just don't quite know
the answer, I need to be in the back of my head
going, God, give me the words to say. God, I'm
listening, but at the same time, help me. Speak
your word. Speak your truth for me. Give me understanding
in this issue because I'm not just going to stand
out here by myself on my own. But we need to
recognize the spiritual things. And so let's
turn in our Bibles to this story. It's John 2,
1 through 11. I have it on the screen, but let's
read together. We're going to dissect it a little
bit. So the next day. There was a wedding celebration
in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother
was there. And Jesus and his disciples were also
invited to the celebration. Everybody say there
wasn't strangers, right? There weren't strangers
in this place. You don't just show up to some
strange wedding, right? You know, we don't really
know what kind of connection. Maybe they were
just friends. Maybe they were kin. We don't know.
But they're there. They're at the wedding. And,
and here's the issue in verse three, the wine
supply ran out during the festivities. Jesus,
his mother told him, Jesus, they have no more
wine. They have no more wine. That's why I just,
I discredited this whole thing. Like I never
really looked at it because I'm looking at this
story and going, okay, so Jesus is doing, you
know, party tricks. Okay. You know, he's, he's,
just doing this simple little thing, but it's
just party supplies. It's just party supplies
is what this whole miracle is talking about.
It's just party supplies. They ran out of wine.
Maybe trying to save, you know, the people some
embarrassment maybe, but it'd be like if you
threw a dinner party and said, oh, the chips
ran out. Oh, excuse me, the chips ran out. You
know, you just continue on, right? It's not that
big a deal. It's just party supplies. And I like
this, John. 2 verse 4, Dear woman, that's not
our problem. That's not our problem. Jesus replied,
My time has not yet come. But right here is where
it gets interesting. Right here is when everything
changes. Because Jesus' mother says something
very profound. I know you're reading ahead of
me, but she says something really profound right
here. Very simple. But his mother told the servants,
do whatever he tells you. Do whatever he tells
you. This is the blueprint for miracles. This
is the blueprint for miracles, as we've seen
over and over again. You know, the faith with
action involved. But it's do whatever he tells
you. Do whatever he tells you. Faith gets ready.
When she said that to the servants, they immediately
were on call. There was a part of that. There
was a part of this is anticipation, going, okay,
well, what is Jesus going to say? We're all waiting
around. We're wondering what he's going to do,
if he's going to do anything. But all of a sudden,
they've just been told. They were just saying,
okay, do whatever he tells you to do. So they're
waiting around, waiting for the instruction.
And in that environment of anticipation is where
miracles happen. When we're expecting in hope
to see the goodness and promises of God fulfilled
in our lives. When we're not waiting, just passively
waiting, just like whatever will be will be,
whatever hits me, whatever thing comes my way.
No, we're literally expecting to see. Miracles
happen every day. There's a big difference. And
miracles happen in this environment of expectation,
this willingness to be on this sensitivity to
his spirit to say, okay, what do you have to
say with this? Okay, I'm going to do it. Whatever
you say, God, I'm going to do it. I'm ready.
I'm listening. I'm waiting for you. We're waiting.
We're at a sense of... Just steadfast bulldog
tenacity waiting and knowing that God's going
to do something in each and every situation.
I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll say,
I'll go, I'll give whatever. We're ready. Continuing
on, verse 6. Standing nearby were six stone water
jars used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each
could hold 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told the servants,
fill the jars with water. That's his first instruction
here is to fill the jars with water. Now, as
I read this, you know, I've always read it. I
just never thought anything of it. But think
about it. Think about what their problem was,
right? Think about what their problem was. Jesus
says, fill the jars with water. What's their
need? Their greatest need is wine. They need
wine. So why are we messing with water, right?
Let's see how much they had to do. This was not
an easy task. One gallon is around roughly 8
.34 pounds. So one of these pots, if it weighed
at the maximum of like 30 gallons, would be around
250 pounds of water for each pot. They had six
pots, 180 gallons, 1 ,500 pounds. And all what?
That's going to require some effort on my part.
If I was one of the servants, I would have been
like, Jesus, I don't want to do this. This is
just way too much time. I'm thinking through
my head, why? And you know, as kids do that same
thing too, they get to that point where they
think they know better or know more. All of a
sudden they get to that, why? The dreaded why.
Why is this? You tell them to do something, why?
Why? Tie your shoe. Why? Then you fall over and
you're, that's why, you know? That's why. But
we get to that dreaded why stage. And as adults,
we just do that. And I think it's like when pride
sneaks in. We quit being humble. We quit just
trusting and obeying. We just, we fall into that.
But their need, their greatest need's one. Why
are we messing with water, Jesus? Did they say
that? No. Is it recorded anywhere? No. They were
just told to do whatever he told you to do. And
he says, go fill up these jars with water. And
what did they do? Like a child, they went, okay,
let's grab our jar, a smaller jar, and let's
go down. It's not like they could go to Walmart
or the nearest Publix on every corner. Good gracious,
how many more publics are we going to build in
Florida? It's ridiculous. Anyways, but, you know,
they grabbed their little jar probably and went
down to the stream, filled it up, came back,
poured it in the thing, and Jesus is going, yay,
good job. Do it again. I'll do it like 27 million
more times. You know, and they just keep going,
and they're just doing whatever he says, like
children. They're just. Going, okay, get the
bucket, okay, fill it up, fill it in the jar.
Maybe they did a little bucket brigade, did a
little thing, passing it, whatever, but it took
some effort. It took some effort. And, you know,
we look at that, and if I was a servant, I'd
definitely be asking why, and that's the biggest
enemy to a miracle right there. We saw that with
Naaman, too, last week. If you were here, we
saw that with Naaman. He was going, why do I
need to do this? It makes no sense to me. It's
illogical. It's irrational. Why do I need to
do that? It makes no sense. And that's the enemy
to the miracle. It's reasoning. It's analyzing.
It's logic. Because sometimes what God asks you
to do is not necessarily directly correlated
with what you're wanting to see. The servants
did not have to understand why. Why am I doing
this? Why am I doing this busy work? They simply
did whatever they were told to do when they were
told to do it. And that's why it just immediately
says in verse 6, when the jars had been filled,
he said, he said, now dip some out and take it
to the master of ceremonies. Everybody say second
instruction. Second instruction. Here, sometimes
we see by this that there can be multiple actions
required to see the miracle, to see things happen.
Sometimes we get complacent. We say, well, I
did this one thing. God, you told me to do this,
and now I want to see this. I want to see some
breakthrough in my life, whatever it is. But
sometimes there's multiple steps, right? When
we looked at Moses, it's like quit crying and
move. And then all of a sudden he has to raise
his staff, right? He's got to do something else.
There's sometimes multiple steps, multiple stages.
But what did the servants do here? They followed
his instructions. They trusted, they obeyed.
They just simply did what was asked of them to
do. John 2, 1 through 11. When the master of
ceremonies tasted the water, that was now wine.
Get this. So they go, they go through all this
trouble to fill up the water, right? They get
all that done. Now Jesus is saying, now dip some
of this water out, put it in a cup, and now take
it to the master of ceremonies. That's pretty
gutsy, right? Hopefully he just needed water.
Hopefully he wasn't expecting wine. But still,
that's kind of a weird thing for a servant to
just like, okay, we're going to do this and I'm
going to take it. And the whole entire while
they're looking at this cup going, okay, this
is just water. It's just water. And when the
master of ceremonies tasted the water, that was
now wine. This is incredible. This is incredible.
When the master of ceremonies tasted the water
that was now wine, it turned to wine. He probably
looked at it and it was water and he puts it
to his mouth and it becomes wine. Not knowing
where it had came from, though of course the
servants knew, he called the bridegroom over.
A host always serves the best wine first, he
said. Then when everyone has had a lot to drink,
He gets the box wine at 7 -Eleven and brings
it out. No, he brings out the less expensive
wine. But you have kept the best until now. Jesus
and God wants to do the best in your life. When
something happens, he wants the best for you.
He's going to exceed your expectations. I talked
about that all week. It's not just what we expect
him to do always. Sometimes we pray for him to
like, oh, I just, you know, this is what I want.
This is what I need. God's going to exceed your
expectations abundantly more, right, than we
may ask or even think. He's in that kind of business,
amen? That's who God is. That's what he does.
And sometimes as Christians, I sit here and I
look at this and I go, sometimes as Christians,
we believe God can speak a word into the blank
void of the cosmos and see galaxies formed and
see stars shine. But then when we look at this
cup in my hand, I don't believe that he can turn
water into wine. The little things. The little
things God cares about. He cares about what you
have, what you don't have. He cares about you.
He cares about what's going on in your life.
But sometimes we go, well, God's not, he's not
concerned about this. This is not his party.
This is just party supplies. Just party supplies,
right? God don't care about this. Don't even
inquire for him to get involved about it. Like,
don't even ask. Like, but here we are. We believe
we can hold on to all these great and precious
promises, but then we don't believe that he can
do the simple things for us. When these things
happen, they go beyond what just immediately
we see. John 2. 11 says this, this miraculous
sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus
revealed his glory. It's the first time Jesus
revealed his glory. And his disciples believed
in him. They believed in him here. The result
was far greater than stopping the host from being
embarrassed from running out of party supplies,
right? The result goes way beyond that because
when we act in faith, when we are willing to
do what God tells us to do, we'll see things
change around us. And especially when the manifestation
of God is here, when it comes to be, it changes
everything. It reveals the glory of God, but
then it also increases the faith of everyone
around you. It increased the faith of the disciples.
It increases your faith and everyone around.
So, does God need your faith actions? I hope
at this point we would say yes. God needs us
to act in faith, to be believers who are not
just passive in what we believe and what we hear,
but believers who are willing to do whatever
he tells us to do. He needs those things. He
needs us to be men, women, boys, and girls who
stand, who actively fight the good fight of faith.
You know, that's the only thing that God tells
us to fight for, is to fight the good fight of
faith. You don't sit down and fight. You don't
just say whatever will be will be if you're in
a battle. You have to actively put on the armor,
right? You have to actively stand upon his word
to see the miraculous things happen, to see the
manifestation happen. To see the power of God
in your life, you have to stand on the word and
be willing and obedient to do what he tells you
to do. It's not all up to God, but he has chosen
to involve us. He's chosen to involve each one
of us. You can hear, you can believe, and you
speak and still not receive if you don't act.
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