03.04.2024
Brian & Jennifer Parke
Church of the Living God Galveston - 11AM Sunday Sermon, March 3, 2024.
Explore this week's collection of sermon notes, memes, and thought-provoking questions, perfect for sparking discussions with friends, family, and neighbors. Feel inspired? Share these insights on social media, or pass them along through text or email.
El Shaddai: our God who is more than enough.
God cares about the details in our lives. In Jesus’ time they lived in a “shame culture”. To run out of wine at the wedding at Cana would have been a shame that would have lasted for generations.
At that wedding, Jesus turned around 180 gallons worth of water in to wine! This was not just meeting a need-it was an abundance. When he fed the 5,000, why were there 12 donkey baskets of loaves and fishes left over? Because it speaks to the extravagant nature of God. God wants to work some “unnecessary” miracles in your life as well, to go from just meeting your need to being more than enough. El Shaddai-our God who is more than enough.
How is El Shaddai more than enough for you today?
God speaks your language
It was Jesus’ mother, Mary, who asked Jesus to perform what is considered to be his first public miracle. She simply said to Him, “We’re out of wine," and Jesus knew what she was talking about. She was requesting for him to miraculously fix it. Jesus understood her language.
The Huaorani tribesmen who murdered Jim Elliot and his companions believed that the ultimate test in death (that they spent their whole lives preparing for) was jumping over the great boa. God gave the tribesmen a vision of the martyred missionaries “jumping the snake”.
God will speak to you in your language, too.
How is God using your language to speak to you today?
Are your desires God's desires?
When Mary asked her son for a miracle, she was not stepping out in to a place of presumption, rather she was stepping out in to a place of expectation.
Expectation is built on relationship. When you develop an intimacy with God you can ask him to do things and he will. Why is that? The scriptures say that He gives you the desires of your heart, but what really happens is that when you get close to God, your desires become his desires. So, your request is really a desire of His. That is intimacy, that is relationship: desiring the same things, together.
Do you have expectations from God because you have a relationship with Him? Are your desires God’s desires?
What is God telling you to do today?
In John 2:5, Mary gives some of the most profound words of scripture: “Whatever He tells you to do, do it.”
When I am in prayer, it’s not what I tell God that makes a difference, it’s what he has told me. If you learn how to do the mundane things with excellence, God will give you excellent things to do.
What is God telling you to do today? Will you do it?
Are you willing, or simply obedient?
A lot of us have an attitude that is obedient, but not willing. Each of the 6 ceremonial stone water jars Jesus used to turn water to wine were huge and heavy, holding 20-30 gallons apiece. They were not carried to the well, and there certainly was no indoor plumbing. It was a mundane and monotonous process to fill them up, but they filled them up, to the brim.
God wants you to be passionate and to do things with excellence even when-especially when-others aren’t watching. That puts you in position for a miracle.
Are you willing to do all that God asks, or are you just obedient?
Joy should be seen!
Jesus took ceremonial washing pots to make the wine. Him filling up these specific pots illustrates the development of water into wine, religion in to relationship. In what used to just be symbolic cleansing, he now wants to bring joy. What used to be duty or requirement is now done out of devotion or passion.
Joy is a fruit of the spirit which means it should be seen. If you aren’t smiling, if you are not full of joy in the Lord, you need to ask how much (spiritual) wine you are drinking!
Do you have joy in the Lord today?
Jesus will return.
There is a promise that Jesus is coming again. The water to wine moment was connected to his resurrection and return. During the last supper, when Jesus is giving his communion to the disciples, He says that He will not drink of the fruit of the vine (wine) again until the kingdom of God comes. Luke 22:18
Though it has been illustrated in the earthly example of husbands and wives, true marriage is the union of Christ and the church. It is being one with the Lord.
Jesus is coming back for his bride the church.
Are you ready for that day?
Disclaimer: Sermon notes, memes, and ideas presented are curated, designed and repackaged by Jennifer Parke, and while the ideas, message, and notes resonate with the intent and meaning of the sermon, they may not fully reflect the speaker's underlying beliefs. Questions or Comments, email: info@colg.org
Recent Posts