AUG 20 2023 | The Gospel of John S2E2 | Jesus Changes Water Into Wine

Sea Change Church · The Gospel of John S2E2 · "Jesus Changes Water Into Wine" · August 20, 2023
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

The gospel of John chapter two verses one through 12. On the third day, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, they have no more wine. Dear woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied, my time has not yet come.

His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind 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 brimm. 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 till. Now. This the first of his miraculous signs. Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee.

He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. This is the word of the Lord. Right On. If you have your Bibles open up to John two, one through 12. And uh, by the way, if you're brand new here, you usually won't get, um, such, uh, so much of me on a Sunday morning. But, uh, we had some call outs today, so I did announcements, swept the floor, made the coffee.

Know I didn't do all that, but it is good. I usually just like to kind of focus on the preaching as best I can. Um, we're in a, this is an awesome passage, this pa I'm just, I dunno about you. I'm just in love with the word of God. I just love God's word. And, um, been preparing all week to preach this. We're in, in, in episode three now of, um, the Gospel of John. We started in the summer, then we took a break and went into the, the third journey of acts.

We usually wait till the following year to get back in another episode. We kind of run this here like Netflix episodes, you know, we kind of drop 'em all at once. And, uh, but we are in the, uh, episode three of season two of John the Gospel. And Jesus' public ministry is beginning, uh, here in this. And as it's beginning, there's, there's a lot of ways to kick off a new, you know, startup.

Jesus has got a little startup going. And um, what's interesting is he doesn't start it up with a motivational speech. He doesn't start it up with a marketing meeting. He doesn't start it up with getting investors, uh, except kingdom investors that he had gathered. He starts it up in a few things. And, and, and I want to frame this passage around something we can frame our lives around, because the scripture is speaking to us in so many nuanced ways, and the introduction of Jesus, uh, actually formal ministry.

We know that he was introduced when he was on the, um, when he was at the Jordan. He was baptized and he'd gone into the wilderness. And so he was, he was pointed to, but this is like the opening inaugural event. And here's a few things that, that we see. First of all, he's surrounded by family. Uh, there's the family of the wedding that he's at, right? So there's this, this, this familial thing happening, and family is incredibly important, uh, to the kingdom of God and to society as a whole.

And the strength of family marriages strengthen family bonds. And so you see, he's surrounded by family and it also notices that his mother's there, right? So not only is the other family there, um, his family is there, and his family was part of his life. And oftentimes it mentions Jesus' mother and his, um, brothers and and family were there as well. So it was there, and it was based in community and the community of a small group go to in verse one, it, uh, as it goes, Jesus, mu mother was there and Jesus and his disciples.

So at this point, Jesus had a, um, a group of disciples. And before Jesus actually went and did transformational kingdom ministry in his community and around it, he got in a small group, uh, which was really convicting to me. And it was also like a, I felt like this was a not one of those God coincidences where God's like, Hey, you're on the right track with this. You know, kind of leaning more into small groups.

But Jesus could have done this on his own. Jesus didn't need people. He definitely didn't need someone who was gonna betray him. Um, but yet in the midst of all that, he began with family and he began with community and a small group. And then the thing we don't wanna miss didn't begin with a speech. He began with power. And power is important. And I, I do believe that God is moving the church, uh, the churches that are willing to follow him with all their heart, mind, and soul into a season of power, into a season of, of miracles. And those could be relational miracles, could be the miracle of salvation, could be the miracle of healing, which we are beginning to see here at this church. This, this message is gonna end with a, with a pretty powerful little testimony from our church.

And we wanna begin to tell the testimony of people that are being healed and, uh, how God, we need God's power. The world is not gonna be won over with, with great arguments anymore, because I don't feel that the world is accepting logical arguments anymore. It's gonna be won over with power. Power and the testimony. It says even the devil himself was overcome, uh, by, by, by their power, by their power, their community, their love, but the word of what?

The word of their testimony. So we're gonna be giving testimony. So that's the framework here of what's happening. It's also incredibly symbolic. As I was digging into this. We're gonna, we're gonna do a, a deep dive into the symbolism here, because there's so much happening here. You can just see this as a wedding. And Jesus saves the couple from embarrassment. Uh, if you're in a shame culture, uh, which Israel at that time was in a shame culture. Um, this is a big deal.

You run outta food, you run outta wine at the wedding. You were shamed. I was speaking with our missionary Carmen this week about where she is positioned in the world, and she said, everything is shame. Everything is a shame or honor culture and where she is. And she just talked about that's, that's, that's the tip of the spear in that culture, honor and shame. And so you have, you know, you have to realize that Jesus was, he was not only saving their dignity, he was not only coming to their rescue in order to, to help them with their relationships, but there was a lot of things that were going on that were a lot deeper.

I've been doing a lot of weddings at our church recently. It's been awesome to have so many young couples. Uh, I'm doing Luke and Claudia's wedding. You don't, um, maybe you don't know them, but I'm, I'm doing that in October, up in, uh, uh, Reno. Uh, and I'm just excited about, we're seeing marriages in this church and we're seeing a lot of babies.

We had babies being born and baptized, which is awesome. So we have that familial thing happening, and I feel like God is setting us up at our church in this community to follow the pattern of Jesus here. One, we're seeing a strengthening of family. We're seeing marriages stay together in our renewal center. We're seeing people make it through difficult times. We're seeing biological, you know, growth of the church with babies coming out of amazing families.

And then we're also starting to see God's power and miracles, and we want you to be a part of that. The way that we get more cratos, which is that territorial power of Christ going and taking the kingdom, is by having more of us in unity with that thought. So, um, be thinking through how you're gonna join into that. And you can listen to the last two weeks of how to step into that. Let's begin, jump into the word here. Um, we're gonna look at the symbolism and we're go into verse one.

And verse one is about what? About 10 words there or something. And it's got a lot in it. Verse one on the third day circle, third day, a wedding circle wedding took place at Canaan Circle. Canaan in Galilee. So three things I wanted you to circle there. Third day wedding. Canaan, as we know, uh, this is a specific reference, and, and the beginning of Jesus' ministry, he often starts something and he ends with something.

You'll see this in in the scripture. Jesus starts, as I'll say, and I'm kind of pre preaching a point, I'm gonna say in a second. But Jesus starts with a, a wedding in the garden, a union of a couple, and we end with the wedding feast. He will oftentimes start with something, he'll also finish with it. And so here at the start of the ministry, this wedding happens on the third day. Well, third day is important.

If you've ever been to Easter, uh, maybe this, you haven't been back at church a while and you're, you're an Easter, you know, person who comes a lot on Easter, you're gonna remember that Jesus rose what on the third day. And so what we see is an homage to resurrection power. And you have access to that power. In my spiritual warfare class over the last few weeks, I talked a lot about just accessing the power we have, the power of God's word, the power of righteousness, the power of truth.

And so we see that there's a third day. So that's symbolic. And, uh, we're meant to live in in third day power. I want you to know we're meant, we're meant to live in that resurrection power. Paul talks about it on a regular basis, the resurrection, the power of the resurrection. Paul says in Philippians, I pray that I don't know the fellowship of your suffering and what the power of your resurrection wanna be. Third day people, right?

I wanna be those resurrection people and living into that. So the more you can access power through prayer and things like that, I wanna encourage you to do that. The next thing that we see, um, uh, here symbolically, is that, uh, it took place. Lemme skip over to the third one in Cana and Galilee, okay? This is the third one I had you circle in Cana and Galilee.

Now it's easy just to think, okay, great. That could have been Santi, California, you know what I mean? Just wherever it took place, it took place. Why is it symbolic? Well, there's a land that Abraham was called to go to, right? And it was the land of the Canaanites. It was the land of Canaan and Canaan. And so that land of Canaan, this place where it is happening, is the place of the promised land where they were called to go.

I got two verses to show you that, but this is symbolic. In Genesis 9 25. It's, he said, and this is Canaan comes from, um, Noah's son who sinned against Noah, remember? And this was a curse that was put upon him. And the Canaanites come from Canaan. The Canaanites come from Canaan. And Jesus is going to this place. That was a cursed in Genesis nine.

So look at it in Genesis 9 25, he said, cursed be Canaan. That's Noah speaking the lowest of slaves he will be to his brothers. It's redemptive, right? This is, this is the renewal of a cursed place. Some of us feel cursed. Some of us feel like certain places are cursed and beyond redemption, beyond what God can do. There's no mistake that this wedding is mentioned to be in Cana.

Jesus does his first ministry, a ministry of power, a ministry that looks towards the resurrection because it's on the third day, right? It's on the third day. He goes to the place of death. We need to be willing to go to the place of death sometimes in order to bring the power of life. And so we see, and it's not a mistake that where this was and where it happened. Uh, I also have one more verse when you took it where, um, Abraham was called to go three chapters later in Genesis, Genesis 12, five, these are not in your notes. Um, he took his wife, Sarah, his nephew lot, and all their possessions they had accumulated and the people that they had acquired in Herron, and they sent out for what? The land of Canaan.

And they arrived there. So this was an, a cursed place, cursed B Canaan. And that was Canaan, that was his son. But that whole land was part, was inhabited by the Occured people. And so, three chapters later, and I love how quickly God starts his redemptive story, how quickly three chapters later, he's sending Abraham, you know, it was, it was a long time, you know, but in regard to the chronological order of the, of the Bible, that's important. So first word for you, are there some dead places that need to be revived? You gotta get that, that fallow ground. You need to do the fertilization work of that.

Begin to sow the seed and to harvest. This is a powerful word for us today. Next thing is, I said a moment ago, I pre preached this. Um, it's at a wedding. I think that's really important because the Bible begins and ends with a wedding. And the biblical understanding, the traditional biblical understanding of a wedding is crucial to, um, understanding the gospel message. Jesus, we are the bride of Christ.

He is the groom and we are meant to be in relationship with him. And that whole, the intimacy of that, the, the metaphor of actually the, the physicality and the sex act that you see in, in scripture and that God created is meant to be a metaphor of how close he wants us to be with him and in, in his life, and have relationship with him. And even deeper.

It says that they will become one flesh, but they will be bound together. It says in the scripture, and lemme just show how it begins and ends in Revelations 19 seven. It also has an homage to this. It says, let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory for the wedding of the lamb has come, and the bride has made herself ready and the bride has made herself ready.

And then we skipped to verse nine, nine, in that, if you have your bibles, I know you'll have to be flipping with me. 'cause I did not put that in your notes. Uh, two verses later, it says, then the angels said to me, write this. Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the lamb. And he edit added that these are the true words of God.

And so I love that the Bible, that the metaphor of the Bible, of the wedding, of matrimony, of relationship, of commitment, of intimacy is just rich in the scripture. And it's at the beginning, and it's the end and it's central to the gospel. So all that is happening in 10 words there, right? The Bible is rich, and it takes a little bit of time to be studying and diving into that when we came to a problem. So here we have this problem.

All the great stuff is happening in, in verse one. And then we get to the problem. Here's the problem. You can write problem above the, the second point. The wine was gone. The wine was, that's problem. Now, when I, when I was drinking, that was a big problem. You know what I'm saying? Big problem. Um, it says the wine was gone. Verse three, when the wine was gone, Jesus' mothers said to him, they have no more wine. Uh, who brings this to Jesus attention, which is interesting. It's Jesus' mother.

This passage, Mary gets a lot of grief for this passage, especially in which the way that, you know, um, that Jesus answers her. He doesn't say, Hey, come on mom, settle down mom. He's like, Hey, woman, what does this have to do with me? Now, if you were to study and look at the culture, um, actually it's, uh, in, in the, in the, um, theran, in certain translations, especially in the Greek, he actually says, dear woman, so in verse four, it's Dear woman, not just woman, some of your translations. And we use the n I v, the new international version, 1984 here. But I use many when I'm preaching.

'cause I like to get a full understanding of the scripture by not just being kind of tethered to one version. But it is true that he's saying, dear woman. And so that could actually be, imagine him saying it like some bibles just show the word woman. Like, woman, what does this have to do with me? Like, okay, that's tone. And I know with my wife in a discussion, doesn't matter what I said, it's the tonal, the tonal quality of what I said.

So usually I just prorate myself before I say anything on the ground. No, I'm just, I don't, I don't, um, or it could be like this dear woman, oh, what does that have to, what does that have to do with me? I mean, that way that those two way you look at it is different. And it's actually being said in the latter in this way.

So Jesus has great respect for his mother and care for his mother. And I've heard a lot of sermons, and I probably even preached it earlier in my life, like, Hey, this is just the overbearing mom and the whole thing. I don't, I don't see that. Now what I see is a woman who was spiritually and emotionally in tuned with the moment that that's how I see it.

That's how I want to preach it at the moment and how it comes out. Because let's go to verse two. Jesus, his disciples were there. And then verse three, when the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, they have no more wine. And that's the first thing is she understood a couple things. She would've understood the shame. She would've understand the emotional connection as a mom, you know, um, a Jewish mother. And that culture, marriage was everything. Um, being part of a familial marriage, being a matriarch of a home, I mean, it's still in Jewish culture today. It's so important. And as a mom, she would've been feeling, 'cause they were all about community, right?

She would've been feeling for that other mom of the shame and the embarrassment that the weddings just going wrong. I was at a wedding one time, and, uh, one of my closest friends and, um, on the morning of the wedding, they got there and the guy with the cake slipped and fell in the morning and landed on the cake. And it was, I, I'd never seen anything like it.

It was just like a home run. Pete, you know, Pete Rose in the home plate. And so they went and got a new, they went and got a new wedding cake, but it was too warm. And so during the wedding, the cake started doing this, and it was like, oh my goodness, I feel so bad. Um, and then they got the food wrong. This is not a lie.

They got the food wrong and they got the food for a sixth grade birthday party. And so they didn't know because they didn't pre-check. And everyone lined up and they opened up the food and it was like chicken fingers and peas and carrots. And these sixth graders are like eating steak somewhere in the world. It was bad. I actually, I went down to the intercontinental, is what it was called. I think it's the Marriott now in San Diego.

And I told them, and I said, Hey, can you help us? Can you just get us a good room? They said, we're gonna give you the top floor. The, the, the some salt saltan from, uh, Arabia or something had been in there. The entire top floor is a, is a huge place. And they gave it to them. And I was able to go back and say, Hey guys. I mean, it literally ruined their, I mean, yeah, it was a bummer, right? But then they got, and he said he just stood there like surveying his domain, like at the top, like, yes, they got one night in the presidential suite.

So God even redeemed that, which was so cool. But that emotional component of Mary is so awesome. I mean, that's so beautiful to know where people are. And not only that, she sensed something else, that there was lack. She sensed where there was lack and she wanted to fill, fulfill the need of lack. I, I think we have more lack in our society, emotional lack, physical care and needs, uh, lack of, of care for the poor, resources for the poor. I don't, you know, the homeless, there's so much lack in our society.

I think there's more lack than there's been probably since the 1930s. And if not since, you know, when, uh, you know, you think about the early boroughs in New York City and some of the lack when you had the Irish poor and the German poor living in ghettos and things of that nature. There's so much lack. And she recognized it.

I think real recognizing lack, beginning with our own lack, first of all, and then stepping into that lack to fulfill that lack, letting Christ fulfill the lack within us understanding where it is. And then secondly, stepping into it to fulfill the need. And she knew where to go. I, I just, I like the fact that like, she didn't go try to go get some wine herself, run out to circle k Jerusalem or wherever it was, Cana, you know, or whatever.

Just try to fulfill it herself. What did she do? She went to Jesus. She went to who he was. And then when she says to him, um, you know, then he basically, he says to her, dear woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied, my time has not yet come. His mother then said to the servants, just do whatever he tells you. Now, a lot of people see that as like kind of a, a power move. I kind of think it is like her going over there and saying, look, if Jesus decides to make a move here, just do what he tells you.

Great advice, right? Great advice. I, myself included, and a lot of people will come to me and say, well, God's not moving in my life. I can't hear from the Lord. And I, and I, and I say, well, have you ever heard from the Lord about something he wants you to stop doing in your life? Oh yeah, lots of that. Why don't we start there? Like, just do what he tells you. Um, and so I, I just, I just think we really wanna highlight Mary, that she understood the emotional need, she understood lack and was willing her to step into that, to, to help, help solve people's lack, which many of us can do. And then, you know, also just going to Jesus immediately, um, and, and understanding that we do what he says.

So the wine was gone and it was a season of lack. And then the other thing that we see is go to verse, um, five, verse five. The next thing we see that is, um, ceremonial, or excuse me, symbolic is nearby stood six stone water jars. Uh, you wanna circle six stone water jars. And the number six important, because the number six is a, is a, um, number that means, um, uh, imperfection. So the, the in in numerology.

And you don't wanna run your whole life according to numer biblical numerology. But there are some numbers in the Bible that are important. Seven's a big number. And I'm gonna get back into revelation when I get back from Israel. And we're gonna be jumping back into the seven bowl judgments. So we did the seven trumpets before we're gonna be in the seven bowls.

Seven's a big number for God, it means perfection. And so six means that there was imperfection. The next thing that we see with this is that it was stone. Why did it mention stone? Well, remember that there were some tablets long ago with Moses, and those tablets were written upon, and that was the stone tablets. Uh, the Bible's clear that the, the law is, is perfect because it's God's law, but it's imperfect to save us. Why? Because we can't save it. So, and it also are stone, and they were ceremonial washing.

It was the cleansing of water. But Jesus now was going to wash us by his blood. And so the blood, it says, if we confess our sins in one John, one 90 is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And so that is by his blood. And so you see a big shift happening here with this first miracle.

The miracle points to the, the shed blood of Jesus on the third day, reclaiming the land, reclaiming the death that had happened. And to show you that the old system is passing away and a new system is coming. It'll be the blood, it'll be the wine of Christ and the wine of his blood that sets us free. So the stone jars represent the stone tablets and the law that was passing away.

We're gonna come to a conclusion here and with a couple practical takeaways for you. If you haven't been able to, um, define any yet. The first is Christ's miracles followed obedience. Verse five, his mother said to the servants, or do whatever he tells you. Um, already kind of leaned into that a bit. But if you can identify something you feel God telling you to do or not to do, uh, I want to, I wanna say, if it's, if it's safe and it's, uh, not unbiblical, do it. If you get a sense in your heart, hey, pull the car over and help that person, or say hello or give a thousand dollars to the Rotary Club. I don't know, whatever it is, you get this sense like, let's move away from skepticism and cynicism and just do it in God's name. Say, you know what? This might not be you, God.

And maybe I'm just throwing my money to the, to the, you know, my kids' little league baseball team to throw a party for the kids. But I feel like you're calling me to do it. And I might be wrong, but I'm doing it in faith. You know what God does when you do that? Even if you're wrong? He goes, yay, I love you. I love you. Anyways.

But nonetheless, that was awesome. And so leaning into that and that obedience, I've been trying to walk more in obedience. We tend to think obedience is more retractive. Meaning stop doing this, stop doing that, stop doing that. And I think that's important because when we, when we are obedient, it opens up the pipelines of God's voice to us.

The more we're obedient to him, it opens up that pipeline. But step in with your time, your talent and your treasure to, to, to give. And so we see the first thing is that Christ's miracle followed obedience. In verse seven, you see that obedience Jesus said to the servants, and which I like that too. Lemme just stop before I read.

Sorry to stop mid-sentence there. I got inspired. So a quick moment of inspiration. He, he's speaking to servants. He didn't say to, he didn't go to the rich people and which he could have. He had no problem with rich people. Nicodemus was rich and some of the others, Joseph Arimathea, they were close friends of Jesus. Wealth is, is not a curse.

Uh, and Jesus has no problem with prosperity and wealth, but he went to the lowest of those. He went to the servants. He could have gone to the highest people if he wanted, if he was trying to gain garner recognition, he could have done this miracle through the richest, you know, the most pharisaical. He could have done it through the, the power brokers, but he didn't. He went to the servants. He just tell you, do not discount yourself to be part of Christ's power in his miracles. Um, he's looking for servants.

And maybe some of us need to start qualifying our definition back as servants. We're trying not to be a servant, and Christ wants us to be. So he said to the servants in verse seven, fill the jars with water. I love fill 'em with water the old way. So Christ, remember, he fulfills the covenant. He said, I didn't come to destroy the old covenant.

I came to fulfill it. He fulfills, he fills the old covenant with the water of the washing. Okay? And then a miracle happens. So they fill them to the brimm. I like that. I like the faith of those servants, right? It's like, ah, Jesus, I'm always working here all the time, doing the, filling this water, you know, leave it this. No. It's like they, they looked excited about it.

They filled it to the brimm. That's a little extra work that's going the extra mile. I'm kind of, I'm kind of imagine one of the servants there, Hey, how much can you, you're putting drops in to get as much surface tension as possible? Had this game we used to play in youth group where they'd take a eye dropper and you had every kid tries to get one more drop in without it breaking the surface tension. These servants, they were, they fi they, they, when they were working as servants, they filled it to the brimm. You know, are you sometimes just kind of just doing things with half your heart?

It's all god's an all of our heart guy. You know, he's not really guy, but he's an all of our heart God, right? Um, and he's looking for people that want to fill things to the brimm that he touches. And so they fill them with the brimm. And if you are living a half full life, let's begin to live in hope. Hope fills things to the brimm, fills your spouses with blessing and encouragement.

It fills your children with blessing and your time. It's giving of yourself. You're filling things to the brim. And I would say if you are following the Holy Spirit, you will never burn out. If you're now, if we do it on our own, if we're doing it on our own power, you're gonna have burnout. And I know this, when I'm burned out, I have to tell myself I'm not following the spirit.

'cause the spirit will never lead me in a way to burn me out. And so be aware of that. So they filled it to the brimm. They were, they were obedient. Then he told them, now, draw some water out and take it to the master. And they did so, and I love that. Then they took it out and they took it to the master, the lowest and most humble among them, the servants were the first to recognize the miracle. Isn't that good?

Isn't that good? It wasn't, the bridegroom didn't even know before the servants knew. The, the, the, the, the bride didn't know, the master of the household, didn't know the Pharisees didn't know America. What happened. And the first people to see it were the servants. We know in Revelation, God says, go out and call everyone into the, into the wedding party.

And it says all the, the, you know, the important people wouldn't come. Oh, no one will come. He said, all right, well then let's go out to the broken. Let's go out to the lost. I, I'm, I'm getting tired of having arguments with people who just don't feel like they need anything and wanna just argue with me. You know, if you just start making a lot of the, your own personal ministry to people that are desperate and hungry and feel powerless and broken, you're gonna have a lot more success.

I just reach out to those, you know. Um, I always say at, at at, you know, at work, you know, let's feed what chirps. If it chirps, let's feed it. You know? Um, and so we see that they're the first ones to see that miracle. And then the final point here would be Christ Miracle created an abundance with excellence where lack previously existed.

Verse nine B, then he called the bridegroom aside and he 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 till last. I love that excellence. Christ. He doesn't want to give you second best. We accept second best. He doesn't wanna give you second best. He wants the best for you.

He wants to give himself, if he will give himself for you, he wants to give you the best. He wants to give you the, the best thoughts. He wants to give you the, the best relationships, the best business. He wants to just bless you. He wants to take you in that direction. This doesn't mean that there isn't suffering and hard times and all these, but his hope is always to bring you the best.

And we want to do things for the best. One of the things I keep saying here is we want casual excellence at this church. Wanna be casual. Don't wanna make it fancy. I was talking to a friend from Texas this week. He goes, you know, I was watching your church and I just love it because he goes, your worship isn't fancy. He goes, I go to a big megachurch. He goes, nothing wrong with that, by the way, but this, but this is what he said to me.

He goes, it's just too fancy. He goes, I love that you guys are excellent, but it's casual. And that's just how he talked to me. And I was like, right on. You know, that's kinda what we go for. I mean, it is just excellence. And we are trying to do everything to show Christ excellence at this church in every way they do. And especially how we live our lives.

And so the first thing is that there was, there was excellence. And the final thing there was an abundance. Verse six, nearby stood six stone water jars. The kind used for ceremonial washing, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons, each holding 20 to 30 gallons. I heard some that it could be up to 50. So if it was 50, um, and oftentimes it was 50.

If it was 50 times six, uh, what do you got? 300 gallons of wine? Is that what it is? Yeah. 50 times six. Uh, Jesus was throwing a party. Um, you know, there was just more than you needed. We don't serve a God of lack. I, I want to, I wanna challenge you to begin to ask God where you feel lack in your life to ask for abundance. We're a church that believes in miracles.

I've been praying more for people that are sick. We're starting to see miracles. Somebody in our church who has a lot of faith, gave me this little, I told, showed you this little thing. It's a little, I anointing oil. I've been carrying it around. It's been cool because it's been anointing people with oil that are sick. One of the people I prayed for and I, um, believe we anointed was Mary Tran. And, uh, she's got a little story she's gonna share with you now from our church about how God did an amazing thing when we started praying for her.

Let's show that video. Hi, I'm Kim Tran. This is a story of my transformation. My symptoms started in around October, 2021. I couldn't get out of bed and dizziness as I tried to glean the house. I fall. That's when I tried to seek medical help from Kaiser. My primary care doctor ordered an M r I and found a fast growing invasive tumor around my brain. My surgeon tried to remove all the tumor, clean it out as much as he could during my radiation.

I was pushed in the, uh, machine and I just prayed to God to hug me and to, um, clean out every cancer cells in my body. My son and his fiance invited me to church last year. I was praying for lots of different people. A few months later, I had postop M R I and it showed clear. And months later, another m r i, it showed clear I now have a clean bill of help.

I am grateful for everyone who prayed for me and who continue to pray for me. Thank God that he's giving me a second chance or third chance of life. I look forward to travel and my son's wedding and, uh, grandkids Isn't that good? Um, uh, Kim, not Mary. That's awesome, Adam. I love when I do something like that. But nonetheless, Kim and her husband, Bick, and, uh, Alan and his fiance Mikayla will be here. Second service.

We've seen four or five things like this happen recently. And we believe in God's power. We wanna see that happen. And I was so, I mean, I get personally invested when I pray for someone to see them healed. And I want God to show up and I want it to happen. And, and I've been doing this for a very long time, but when God begins to move, it's awesome. Uh, God has abundance for you. God has care for you.

He wants to move you out of lack and into his fullness and into his grace if we wanna receive it.