SPEAKER_01: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Before you sit down, uh, let's just all say that name together out loud.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just speak the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just say it together.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says a lot about the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, in the Psalms, he says, God, you've exalted above all things your name and your word.
SPEAKER_00: In Proverbs, he says, the name of the Lord is a strong tower, and the righteous run in and they find strength, they find shelter, they find security.
SPEAKER_00: So we've come to the strong name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Acts says there's no name given under heaven whereby which men should be saved except the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can't be saved.
SPEAKER_00: You can't find forgiveness in any other name but Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Religion will not change you.
SPEAKER_00: Only a relationship with Jesus will change you.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're visiting today, just relax.
SPEAKER_00: No one's gonna beat you up, make you feel guilty.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't come to give a religious lecture.
SPEAKER_00: I could stay home and get my queso ready for the Astros tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We fell off the wagon last night.
SPEAKER_00: We had a bad night, but we'll be back tonight.
SPEAKER_00: We got the bearded wonder on the mound.
SPEAKER_00: But they've also got a really tall left-handed picture, so it could be, you know, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: No?
SPEAKER_00: Clayton Kershaw might have heard of him.
SPEAKER_00: No?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, worried about hard astros.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Back to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing, okay?
SPEAKER_00: This is not a religious experience.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a religious person.
SPEAKER_00: You're thinking like, you're the pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: This is not about it's about a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: It's what you and I were created for, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna pray.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read out of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We're going through the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're in chapter 2, uh, where Jesus turns water into wine.
SPEAKER_00: And if you grew up in the Baptist church, you probably heard a lot of lectures about wine and grape juice and drinking and not drinking, and that has nothing to do with what the Bible's talking about in John 2.
SPEAKER_00: All the wine drinkers are like, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not feeling guilty today.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, Jesus didn't come to make you feel guilty, He came to forgive you and set you free.
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: So let me pray and we're gonna jump in.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, the Bible says that the truth, your name is a strong tower, God, and the righteous run in and find strength.
SPEAKER_00: And so we've come, Lord, to your sufficiency so we don't live at the mercy of our insufficiency.
SPEAKER_00: So we don't beat ourselves up for all that we didn't get done, for stuff we should have done and didn't, stuff that we shouldn't have done and did, God.
SPEAKER_00: We've come to just baptize our insufficiency and your sufficiency and stand in the shadow of your name and say, God, say something today that hasn't my name on it.
SPEAKER_00: God, speak a word that shapes the way I think about myself.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about this versus that, it's about you.
SPEAKER_00: And look, so Lord, give us eyes to see what you're really talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, we're gonna consume the Bible upon our preferences, and that's a horrible thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, say something and say it plain like you always do.
SPEAKER_00: We ask for this as your sons and daughters, and we ask for this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got a Bible, open it up to John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have a Bible, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: There's one on your row there.
SPEAKER_00: And you may think, hey, I want to sip my coffee and just check this out.
SPEAKER_00: But what I'm gonna read, what I'm gonna say, will come up on the screen today.
SPEAKER_00: So as you're finding John chapter 2, let me just give you a little bit of background so you can understand the story that they tell.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read a story where Jesus and his disciples get invited to a wedding.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know you've been to weddings, I've been to weddings.
SPEAKER_00: Usually a wedding, if it starts at 6:30 or 6 or 5 o'clock, it's done by 9.30, 10, 11:30.
SPEAKER_00: If they have open bar, which are free bar, as I call it, um, that's great.
SPEAKER_00: I usually leave shortly after dinner because that's when people have been hitting the bar for like an hour or two, and that's when people get on the dance floor that have no business on the dance floor.
SPEAKER_00: And it's one thing to have had too many glasses of wine.
SPEAKER_00: It's another thing for your pastor to see you on the dance floor doing things like this.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, come on, honey, we're going.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: It look, it's one of the elders out there doing the white man overbite.
SPEAKER_00: So I just slip out so they don't go, oh, that's my preacher over there.
SPEAKER_00: And so, but that's not the kind of wedding they're talking about in here because you may think, because the women are kind of like, isn't this awesome?
SPEAKER_00: Your husband doesn't think it's awesome, okay?
SPEAKER_00: As soon as he's done eating, your husband's ready to go.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I gave you this night, okay.
SPEAKER_00: I've been here, let's done, let's go.
SPEAKER_00: And like, no, I want to stay until they depart so we can throw bird seed or rice or something on them or blow bubbles.
SPEAKER_00: Weddings nowadays are a competition.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a worship service, it is a competition.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta get it on.
SPEAKER_00: And so, uh, but but weddings today pell in comparison to weddings in the Bible, because here's what would happen in the Bible just a little backdrop so we can understand what's being said.
SPEAKER_00: In the Bible, this is crazy, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh a man and woman would get betrothed, not engaged.
SPEAKER_00: Betrothal, it was so serious.
SPEAKER_00: In order to get out of a betrothal, you had you had to divorce that person.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Mary and Joseph in the Bible, uh, when they were betrothed, and Mary says, I'm pregnant and I'm a virgin, and Joseph's like, Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm gonna put her away quietly.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna just I'm not gonna embarrass her.
SPEAKER_00: Because he was saying, well, they were betrothed, they weren't even married yet.
SPEAKER_00: During betrothal, this is nutty.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: During betrothal, the the woman would live with her parents, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And the man had to go and build a house and get a job.
SPEAKER_00: I know that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: To get married, you had to have a house and a job.
SPEAKER_00: Shut up.
SPEAKER_00: You couldn't just move in with your parents and kind of go, we're gonna figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: The man would leave.
SPEAKER_00: And matter of fact, he didn't have to just have a house, he had to build the house.
SPEAKER_00: And he built the house as a demonstration of his resourcefulness and his work ethic.
SPEAKER_00: And so the man would build the house, and then he would come at a night when the woman did not know.
SPEAKER_00: She had to live with a sense of expectation, always being ready.
SPEAKER_00: And the man would come on a night that she didn't never knew, and he would come with friends and they'd have torches, and they would come in the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is why Jesus, later on in John's gospel, Jesus is getting ready to go back to heaven, and the disciples are like, What's up?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you leaving us?
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, I gotta go.
SPEAKER_00: It's necessary that I go.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, But if I go, I will come again and receive you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, In my father's house are many rooms.
SPEAKER_00: If it were not so, would I have told you?
SPEAKER_00: And I go, if I go, I go to prepare a place for you so that where I am, you may be also.
SPEAKER_00: It's that same, he's picking up on their understanding of what a wedding was like.
SPEAKER_00: And so the man would come with torches and his friends, and he would get his woman in the middle of the night, and they would go in a processional back to where the man's house.
SPEAKER_00: They would go inside and consummate the relationship while his friends were feasting, they'd come out and they would celebrate, and the celebration would last almost a week.
SPEAKER_00: And so when they that's why they ran out of wine here in John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if you ran out of wine, it was horribly embarrassing, and your friends could sue you.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, because you had been to their kids' wedding and they didn't run out of wine, and you were a poor party planner, and you ran out of wine.
SPEAKER_00: And so there was social and legal risks involved in what happens in John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you aren't gonna hear another word I say right now.
SPEAKER_00: You're just kind of saying, I'm gonna talk to my daughter's boyfriend right now, get a house and a job and come back.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for coming.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the deal: we have to understand the background of the Bible, otherwise, we miss what's being said.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a one-dimensional text.
SPEAKER_00: This thing is 3D and it's popping, okay?
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 2, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: On the third day, there was a wedding at Canaan and Gat.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, by the way, I brought you a picture so you can kind of see what it would look like.
SPEAKER_00: This is my friend Sarah's wedding.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Sarah got married.
SPEAKER_00: Sarah was a girl that just loved Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: She kind of had that crazy look in her eye, kind of like, I love Jesus a lot, or I'm a serial killer.
SPEAKER_00: So all through college, she never got asked out.
SPEAKER_00: She was, as the guys would say, she was hot.
SPEAKER_00: She was beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And young ladies, she was so lonely.
SPEAKER_00: She guys would not approach her, she was intimidating.
SPEAKER_00: She would meet guys and she would just say, she would look them in the eye and guy go, Hey, tell me about you and Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: How are y'all these days?
SPEAKER_00: And guys were like, I just want to kiss on the mouth and act irresponsibly.
SPEAKER_00: And so she went through high school and all of college and never had a serious boyfriend.
SPEAKER_00: Then finally she gets out of college, she's doing her thing, she meets this guy, and she and he's just kind of like, he's kind of quiet, and she's kind of like a live wire, like, oh man, let's go give out blankets and coats to the homeless.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Oh, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is their wedding.
SPEAKER_00: She got married out at their ranch.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, the guy she met, his family's loaded.
SPEAKER_00: Yes! And that's her and her friends.
SPEAKER_00: They came 25 women carrying torches.
SPEAKER_00: They got and they come over the hill, and all you can see was the ambient glow of the fire, and they're singing as they come.
SPEAKER_00: And she's surrounded by 25 women carrying fire.
SPEAKER_00: So your lame Pinterest wedding is already paled in comparison.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: Because this is kind of the picture of what it looked like in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Back to John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: On the third day, there was a wedding at Canaan in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus also was invited to the wedding with the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does this have to do with me?
SPEAKER_00: My hour's not yet come.
SPEAKER_00: His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you.
SPEAKER_00: Now there were six stone jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to the servants, Fill the jars with water.
SPEAKER_00: And they filled them up to the brim, and he said to them, Now, draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.
SPEAKER_00: And so they took it.
SPEAKER_00: And the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, and did not know where it came from.
SPEAKER_00: Though the servants who had drawn the water knew.
SPEAKER_00: The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, Everyone serves the good wine first, and then when the people have drunk freely and got a little buzz, then they break out the ten buck chuck, the box of wine that you have in your fridge right now.
SPEAKER_00: But you have kept the good wine until now.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the first of his signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
SPEAKER_00: After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you this morning about intentional glory.
SPEAKER_00: Intentional glory.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Intentional is the way you live, glory is what you live for.
SPEAKER_00: Intentional glory.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to give you four words to think about in relation to what we read this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The first word I want to give you this morning is the word purposeful.
SPEAKER_00: Purposeful.
SPEAKER_00: It's the first five verses of John chapter 2 where they run out of wine and Jesus' mother says to him, Hey, they don't have any wine.
SPEAKER_00: Can you do something about that?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does this have to do with me?
SPEAKER_00: Now, students, do not say that to your mom when she says, Clean your room.
SPEAKER_00: You know, don't say, Woman, what's this got to do with me?
SPEAKER_00: The emphasis is on the next sentence where Jesus says this crazy sounding thing.
SPEAKER_00: He says, My hour has not yet come.
SPEAKER_00: My hour has not yet come.
SPEAKER_00: We are seven days into the public ministry of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, John chapter 2 says on the third day, but they started counting from the time Jesus gets his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's assembled his disciples, and now three days since then, it's that that took four days, three days.
SPEAKER_00: He's a week into his public ministry, and already he has this very, very concrete understanding that there's a fixed point in time where he is going to die, how he's going to die, the method which he's going to die, who he's going to die for, and what it's going to do to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: So all through John's gospel, Jesus lives with what I call this vertical reality, but he's surrounded by people who are stuck in the horizontal non-realities of their so-called life.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus lives with this keen awareness of this vertical reality, and he's surrounded by people that are stuck in these horizontal non-realities of their so-called life.
SPEAKER_00: And so, over and over, if you went home today and started reading to the Gospel of John, at least eight to ten times you would hear this phrase, My hour is not yet come.
SPEAKER_00: The hour has not yet come.
SPEAKER_00: Because he lives with this sense of, hey, I know why I came and I know what I came for.
SPEAKER_00: Intentional glory.
SPEAKER_00: I know the way I'm going to live.
SPEAKER_00: I'm very intentional.
SPEAKER_00: I asked the staff this morning in our prayer gathering, hey, if you could know the time when you were going to die, would you want to know?
SPEAKER_00: And they were like, You're morbid.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Wouldn't it change the way you lived?
SPEAKER_00: One of the guys says, I would quit school and spend more time with my kids.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Maybe you should quit school and spend more time with your kids.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Well, that sounds somehow tempting.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus left heaven and come to earth, he knew the exact hour he was going to die.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing catches him off guard.
SPEAKER_00: He'll say later in John's gospel, no one takes my life from me.
SPEAKER_00: I lay my life down.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I can take it up, I can lay it down.
SPEAKER_00: He knew nothing caught him off guard.
SPEAKER_00: There's two words you never find in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
SPEAKER_00: He lives with this very clear understanding.
SPEAKER_00: See, this vertical awareness is what's known as kairos.
SPEAKER_00: There's two Greek words for time.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is kairos.
SPEAKER_00: It's this opportunity, this moment, this opportune time.
SPEAKER_00: That's kairos.
SPEAKER_00: The other one is just marking off the days on this horizontal experience.
SPEAKER_00: That's chronos.
SPEAKER_00: C-H-R-O-N-O-S.
SPEAKER_00: Chronological.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Donald Trump is blowing up the stock market.
SPEAKER_00: Let me check my 401k and see if I can retire because I'm just tired of this.
SPEAKER_00: You're living horizontally.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, nothing wrong with having a big fat retirement.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing wrong with checking on it.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean you don't love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That means, but it may mean if that's all you think about, you're stuck in the horizontal.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus lived out of the vertical.
SPEAKER_00: Kairos.
SPEAKER_00: This is hey, for such a time as this.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says over and over in John's gospel, let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_00: John 4 21, he says, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Two verses later, but the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
SPEAKER_00: John 5 25, very very truly I tell you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
SPEAKER_00: John 5 28, do not be astonished, for this is for excuse me, do not be astonished at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice.
SPEAKER_00: John 7, Jesus said to them, My time is not yet come, but your time is always here.
SPEAKER_00: John 7, verse 8, go to the festival yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Because the disciples invited Jesus, said, Hey, we're going to the festival is not like a carnival with rides operated by meth monkeys and overpriced cattle corn.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: The festival is a Jewish worship, it's a Jewish feast.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's a big thing going on.
SPEAKER_00: And so they said, Hey Jesus, would you come?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Hey, go to the festival yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going for the festival.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: My time has not yet fully come.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he has a sense, hey, my time's kind of passing, but it hadn't fully come yet.
SPEAKER_00: We're getting closer, but we're not there yet.
SPEAKER_00: And John 7, verse 30, then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him because his hour had not yet come.
SPEAKER_00: John 8 20, he spoke these words while he was teaching in the in the treasury temple, but no one arrested him.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because his hour had not yet come.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally you get to John chapter 12, verse 23, and Jesus says, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: It's all of a sudden the plane has landed and Jesus is about to get off.
SPEAKER_00: What's fixing to happen?
SPEAKER_00: He's fixing to die on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, it's so vexing to him.
SPEAKER_00: He's known it's coming all along, and it's so real where he takes on the sins of the world, which means anybody in this room that has sinned or is sinning right now, Jesus died for that sin, so it doesn't have to have power over you.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he says in John 12, verse 27, now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say?
SPEAKER_00: Father, save me from this hour.
SPEAKER_00: No, it was for this very reason that I came to this hour.
SPEAKER_00: Father, glorify your name.
SPEAKER_00: See, here's what it comes down to.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I read all these verses.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh, dude, that's a lot of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I read all that to just point to the fact that Jesus lived a very purposeful life.
SPEAKER_00: He knew his hour was coming.
SPEAKER_00: He's a week in his public ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And his mom, his own mom, says, Hey, everyone out of wine.
SPEAKER_00: He says, What's that got to do with me?
SPEAKER_00: My hour is not yet come.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it isn't time yet.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, Okay, I can do something about that.
SPEAKER_00: But he gets to John 12 and he says, Now the hour has come for the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: And hear this word, to be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say to be crucified, to be disrespected, to be spat upon, to have my beard plucked out, to be killed on a cross by a bunch of religious nitwits who have no idea what's happening, that I could call down angels and wipe these people off the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: No, he says the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I make a big deal out of that.
SPEAKER_00: The way you define glory determines the path your life will take.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: The way you and I define glory determines the path our life will take.
SPEAKER_00: If for you glory is getting everything you want, living where you want, driving what you want, spending what you want, a life of comfortable excess, then you will cobble together a definition of glory that makes all that stuff not just possible but necessary.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, for for for me to glorify God, I gotta get mine first.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, but you'll live and die with three dollars worth of God.
SPEAKER_00: However, if you get remotely close to this kind of definition of glory, there's no limit to what your life can be like.
SPEAKER_00: See, the reason most people live really small lives and die as spiritually inconsequential people is because they got it wrong when it came to defining glory.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the first thing I want you to do before you go to bed tonight.
SPEAKER_00: I want you, if you're married, to look at your spouse and say, Hey, how do we define glory?
SPEAKER_00: Not, hey, what'd you think of the church?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, we visited that church again, and that man is kind of crazy.
SPEAKER_00: I think he drinks too much coffee.
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: But let's just don't waste our words on that.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself this: hey, how do we define glory?
SPEAKER_00: Because the way you define glory determines the path your life will take.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus was able to talk about the cross and say, Oh, the hour is come for the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: Now's the time for the Son of Man to be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: Second word I want to point you to.
SPEAKER_00: See, number one, purposeful.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was very purposeful.
SPEAKER_00: Are you very purposeful in how you live your life?
SPEAKER_00: That's what intentional glory is about.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, it's just the word better.
SPEAKER_00: The word better.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse six.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where we, as I'm a Christian who pastors a Baptist church, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I do not find my identity in being a Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: I do not apologize for being a Baptist either.
SPEAKER_00: But this is where we historically get in the weeds.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: Now there were six stone jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to the servants, Fill the jars with water.
SPEAKER_00: And they filled them up to the brim.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.
SPEAKER_00: And so they took it.
SPEAKER_00: When the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, and did not know where it came from.
SPEAKER_00: Though the servants who had drawn the water knew.
SPEAKER_00: The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, Everyone serves the good wine first.
SPEAKER_00: And when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine.
SPEAKER_00: You have kept the good wine until now.
SPEAKER_00: Translation, this is top shelf.
SPEAKER_00: It's what you pay for on payday.
SPEAKER_00: It's what you do after you've closed a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: We killed it this quarter.
SPEAKER_00: Let me have something off the top shelf up there.
SPEAKER_00: It's two dollars extra.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, who are you talking to?
SPEAKER_00: I'm stacking paper up and I'm gonna make it rain and chilies.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I said chilies.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, well, not where I go to actually get my drink, but anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, you you so what's happening here?
SPEAKER_00: Just the word better.
SPEAKER_00: What is happening here is not, oh my goodness, is that wine or is it grape juice?
SPEAKER_00: I remember as a kid, I didn't go to church much, but I remember one time I heard a pastor talk for a long time saying, this is basically like fermented grape juice.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_00: This is like great wine.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if you're a scientific person and you're like, oh, the world the earth has to be 50 billion years old, I just want to point to you and say in this text, hey, this is evidence that God can create something that has the quality of age already upon it.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the reasons, that's one of the things that make wine good.
SPEAKER_00: The older it is, the better it is.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but I have friends that tell me I'm friends with sinners, okay?
SPEAKER_00: What can I say?
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're kind of like, well, I think the Bible, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: And I just say again, God has the capacity to create things that have the quality of age already in them.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the guy's like, man, this is great wine.
SPEAKER_00: This is better than the 10 buck chuck that we were drinking earlier.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is like, mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
SPEAKER_00: This is not about wine versus grape juice, drinking versus not drinking.
SPEAKER_00: Here, take your keys from the text.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse six.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons.
SPEAKER_00: If you take the smallest number, six times 20 gallons, that's 120 gallons of water.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it was for the Jewish rites of purification.
SPEAKER_00: Now, do not get down on the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: Jewish people are very devout, they're very religious, they're very scrupulous.
SPEAKER_00: They, the rites of purification, they always washed their hands before they ate meals.
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't just like your mom washed your hands.
SPEAKER_00: It was we're going to be clean and we're not going to touch anything unclean.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't just wash their hands, they washed their pots, their utensils.
SPEAKER_00: They would dine on these couches and they had to cleanse and purify.
SPEAKER_00: Those.
SPEAKER_00: They were meticulous.
SPEAKER_00: They were OCD before we knew what OCD was.
SPEAKER_00: But they were OCD for the glory of God because they thought this is how we make ourselves right with God doing all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: It's no accident what Jesus does here because he comes along and kind of basically what he's doing is winking at him and saying, Hey, aren't you tired of trying to make yourself right with me and keep all the rules?
SPEAKER_00: This is why it's better.
SPEAKER_00: To give you a sense of backdrop and understanding, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Let me read from Mark chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: This is where Jesus and his disciples, this is how meticulous the Jewish people were.
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Not to make fun of the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: They believed and they're earnest and they're sincere.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says it like this in Mark 7.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when the Pharisees gathered to him, some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of the disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.
SPEAKER_00: For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just enough to wash your hands, there's a certain way you have to wash your hands.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not sing happy birthday while you wash your hands.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: People say, oh, sing happy birthday, that's time to kill.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: There's a ritual.
SPEAKER_00: This is the way, it's an act of worship.
SPEAKER_00: This is the way I keep myself right with God.
SPEAKER_00: They had to wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders.
SPEAKER_00: And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.
SPEAKER_00: And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.
SPEAKER_00: And the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but they eat with defiled hands?
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you wish once in your life you were that honest with somebody?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Jesus is complimenting Isaiah and insulting them.
SPEAKER_00: Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
SPEAKER_00: In vain do they worship me.
SPEAKER_00: Teaching is doctrines the commandments of men.
SPEAKER_00: You leave the commandment of God and you hold to the tradition of men.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the characteristics that religion has versus relationship.
SPEAKER_00: I said earlier, I'm not a religious person.
SPEAKER_00: I have a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: Religions teach you the traditions of men.
SPEAKER_00: You have to do this, you have to say this, you have to pray this, you have to abstain from that, and you gotta partake of that.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Hey, you guys are just treating, you're hypocrites.
SPEAKER_00: You worship me with your lips, but your heart is far from me.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen, listen carefully.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not being mean.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Hey, I want your heart.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you just to know the prayers to pray.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you just to know the words to say.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the thing: you can come and you can be religious and your heart never be changed by God.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is like, hey, this is better.
SPEAKER_00: This is better.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't come for you just to follow some things you'd never really understand.
SPEAKER_00: It's external, not internal.
SPEAKER_00: This is why it's better.
SPEAKER_00: You say, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells them to fill the pots to the brim, he's signifying I'm bringing a whole lot of better to bear on you, rule keepers.
SPEAKER_00: And it's called relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, this doesn't mean that we don't have a responsibility as the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: It does mean that we're no longer trying to live up to this external standard.
SPEAKER_00: Hear me carefully.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that we don't, we can't become antinomian.
SPEAKER_00: Antinomian means anti is no.
SPEAKER_00: Nomian is based on the Latin word nomas, law.
SPEAKER_00: No law.
SPEAKER_00: You can't be that person that kind of says, oh, well, hey, Jesus came and it's all better, so it doesn't matter what I do.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what the gospel's about.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what the God, here's why it's better.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, hey, you're no longer, we have responsibility as Christians.
SPEAKER_00: But it's no longer I'm trying to live up to this external standard.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what do I got to do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I gotta wash my hands and my pots and my couch.
SPEAKER_00: And oh, I went to the marketplace.
SPEAKER_00: I went to H E B.
SPEAKER_00: I was around sinners.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta come back and cleanse myself again.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're never done trying to keep yourself clean.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, I don't want you going through these religious rituals.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to be in right relationship with me.
SPEAKER_00: So what he says is, hey, fill these six pots, that's 120 gallons of water.
SPEAKER_00: Fill these pots to the brim because you're not gonna need that anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And he turns water into wine.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he's saying: Let's celebrate all the better that I'm making possible.
SPEAKER_00: And the people are like, Jesus, is that great juice?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is like, Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: That's the best question you can come up with.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_00: It is hardcore vintage stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And the people are like, but here's why that offends us.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: There's a part of us that loves to earn it.
SPEAKER_00: We all have purification rituals.
SPEAKER_00: I have a friend that when he would sin, he would take his shirt off and lay on the coal tile floor to punish himself.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells me this one time when we're having lunch.
SPEAKER_00: I thought he was kidding, so I laughed.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, What are you laughing about?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, never mind.
SPEAKER_00: You he goes, What's wrong with that?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, here's what's wrong with that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it acts like that Jesus being punished to death on the cross wasn't enough payment for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: So you're gonna, he goes, Well, I want to feel bad when I sin.
SPEAKER_00: I said, That makes you feel better, but in a weird way, all it does is you set up this self-purification whereby which you can sin and then try to purify yourself by punishing yourself.
SPEAKER_00: All you're doing is ensuring you're gonna continue to sin.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you embrace the reality of the gospel that Jesus died for your sins once for all, and sin no longer has power over you, sin ceases to make sense in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, But here's the deal you grew up in church, you like punishing yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Because that just makes you feel better.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Well, what do you believe?
SPEAKER_00: I said, I believe Jesus was punished enough for my sin.
SPEAKER_00: And now it's much harder just to say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I I'm I'm gonna choose not to sin.
SPEAKER_00: Better.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself today, what are some things that I've done in the past or I currently do that makes me feel closer to God, right with God, or clean before God?
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because again, Jesus says, hey, all these little man-made, remember, he said you teach this rule some men.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You hypocrites, you worship me with your lips because you and I can go through a bunch of religious mumbo jumbo that we don't even understand.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, hey, we do this is what we do.
SPEAKER_00: That's what mom did, that's what grandma did, that's what great grandma did.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we're jumping through all the hoops, but your heart doesn't feel any more right with God.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you can get right with God by doing all these religious rituals, then why does Jesus have to die?
SPEAKER_00: It's the most pointless life and death ever in the history of humanity.
SPEAKER_00: So he says that's better.
SPEAKER_00: Third word he gives us this morning is just believe.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: He says, This is the first of his signs Jesus did at Canaan in Galilee and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
SPEAKER_00: Say, what?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: It says what you think it says.
SPEAKER_00: His disciples believed.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: His disciples now believe.
SPEAKER_00: Earlier they followed, but here they see his glory and they believe.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you gotta ask yourself, am I following Jesus or am I actually believing in him?
SPEAKER_00: Because those are two different things, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: You can follow Jesus and never actually believe.
SPEAKER_00: What I mean is that nowadays in American culture, following Jesus means you can come to church sporadically or a lot, or every time the doors are open, you could do a lot of religious rituals and never actually believe.
SPEAKER_00: We've actually made it easy to follow Jesus and not believe.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Greek word believe is the in the text here, it's a Greek word bestuo, and it means this.
SPEAKER_00: It means the conviction and trust in which a man is impelled.
SPEAKER_00: A person is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of the soul.
SPEAKER_00: Impelled means a drive or force of urge to do something.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it again.
SPEAKER_00: It's the conviction and trust to which a person is impelled.
SPEAKER_00: They're driven, they have this urge to do something by this inner and higher prerogative and law of the soul.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself this morning, have you ever had this feeling in relation to God?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever felt this urge in you that just says, I want to believe.
SPEAKER_00: I can't help myself.
SPEAKER_00: I just, I got to believe in this God.
SPEAKER_00: Because, beloved, if you've never had that, I just suggest you mercifully this morning, you're just following.
SPEAKER_00: Or you're like the Jews, you're just engaging in rituals of self-purification where which you make yourself right with God.
SPEAKER_00: And I just say to you, on the authority of God's word, Jesus came because we can't make ourselves right with God.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot make myself right with God.
SPEAKER_00: I can't do good deeds to outweigh my bad deeds.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna live that long.
SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we say, believe.
SPEAKER_00: Fourth word I gave you this morning is just consequence.
SPEAKER_00: Consequence.
SPEAKER_00: There's no sentence in the Bible that is wasted.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: I'll demonstrate.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a sentence in the Bible that is wasted.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: He says, After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, okay.
SPEAKER_00: It's that word Capernaum.
SPEAKER_00: After this, he says, This is the first sign that Jesus performed in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first of his signs that Jesus did at Canaan in Galilee and manifested his glory.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, because this was the first of his signs, plural, this was one of many.
SPEAKER_00: There were many demonstrations of the fact that Jesus had the authority to do what only God can do.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, signs and miracles, signs and wonders, as we call them nowadays, are not for the entertainment of the already convinced.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for the already converted.
SPEAKER_00: It is to establish the authority and the reality of who God is.
SPEAKER_00: And so people that see signs and wonders like they did, they're now accountable.
SPEAKER_00: They can't say, well, we didn't know, but here's what they got addicted to: they got addicted to the show.
SPEAKER_00: They would follow Jesus and say, Hey, Jesus, do some stuff, heal some people, turn some bread and fish into a banquet.
SPEAKER_00: We're hungry.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I mean by consequence.
SPEAKER_00: Even in the Bible, people appreciated Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They followed Jesus, but they didn't believe.
SPEAKER_00: And not believing has dire consequences.
SPEAKER_00: I close this morning just reading from Matthew 11.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus talking.
SPEAKER_00: He says, then he began to denounce the cities where most of the mighty works had been done because they didn't repent.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to you, Corazine.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to you, Beth Seda, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
SPEAKER_00: Tyre and Sidon were two port cities where the common equivalent would be like, if you've ever been to New York during fleet week, anybody know what fleet week is?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are like, we live in Houston.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: All the sailors on the East Coast go to New York for a week and they have leave, their own furlough.
SPEAKER_00: You with me now?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Tyre and Sidden were like that.
SPEAKER_00: Sailors would come there to spend all their money on women and wine and whiskey.
SPEAKER_00: Pagan cities.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Hey, if I'd done in Tyre and Sidon what I've done in this your city, they would have repented a long time ago in sackcloth and ashes.
SPEAKER_00: But I tell you, it will be more bearable for them on the day of judgment than for you.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, This, and you, Capernaum, this place.
SPEAKER_00: Will you be exalted to heaven?
SPEAKER_00: You'll be brought down to Hades.
SPEAKER_00: For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
SPEAKER_00: But I tell you, there'll be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, Sodom is uh is close to another city called Gomorrah.
SPEAKER_00: And we think of Sodom and Gomorrah, we think, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities in the Bible that God wiped off the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: They were reduced to rubble and an ash heap.
SPEAKER_00: And look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: It's now because Sodom and Gomorrah is typically years ago, someone painted out here on the on the welcome to Houston, they painted over Houston with spray paint and wrote Sodom and Gomorrah.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to our city.
SPEAKER_00: But do you know that Sodom and Gomorrah were not just destroyed because of homosexuality?
SPEAKER_00: The cities were destroyed because they weren't generous.
SPEAKER_00: Read it in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you got an email from me a couple days ago about 60 days of generosity.
SPEAKER_00: If you're visiting today, we on Friday, whether you realize it or not, we are 60 days on Friday, 60 days away from Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are like, shut up.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you men are like, honey, he didn't mean that.
SPEAKER_00: Stop.
SPEAKER_00: Your wife's gonna go home today and go, before that baseball game comes on, you get up man at it and get those Christmas decorations down.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta get ready.
SPEAKER_00: You're welcome, men.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what we're doing as a church.
SPEAKER_00: We just want to unleash spirit-led generosity on our city, on our culture, on our neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: I did something for my neighbors because my big my big mouth, I sent you that email, and then I go out and start mowing my yard, and I got done, I'm pushing the mower in.
SPEAKER_00: I look over, and Friday, remember it was cold and windy?
SPEAKER_00: And clear as a bell, God just said, Hey, fat so, you think your neighbor wants to come home from work and mow her yard?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, her yard, a woman, mow her yard on this cold, windy day.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I hadn't thought about it.
SPEAKER_00: She comes over, I'm in my garage talking on long-distance phone with a friend of mine in Dallas, and she goes, What do I owe you?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, hang on a second, go sell crazy somewhere else, you loon.
SPEAKER_00: Get out of here.
SPEAKER_00: She had a nothing but cake from a chocolate cake from nothing but cakes.
SPEAKER_00: Would you nothing but cake?
SPEAKER_00: Would you like a chocolate cake?
SPEAKER_00: I would, but I need to practice what I preach.
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: None of your business.
SPEAKER_00: Get out of here.
SPEAKER_00: Get out of my garage.
SPEAKER_00: Hang on a second, Rick.
SPEAKER_00: There's a crazy homeless woman here.
SPEAKER_00: Go, we're not giving money today.
SPEAKER_00: And she walked out of my garage like this.
SPEAKER_00: And so for Friday and Saturday, she's like, our neighbor's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: So I had to send her the email and she's like, oh.
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, people don't have a real good response for generosity.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: They don't expect it.
SPEAKER_00: That's sad.
SPEAKER_00: We get to change and inform and influence what people expect.
SPEAKER_00: The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were stingy, they were selfish, they were prideful.
SPEAKER_00: And God gave them over because in their in their self-centeredness, they said, hey, we can do what we want.
SPEAKER_00: And so that affected their sexuality.
SPEAKER_00: And God says to Capernaum, hey, if I had done in Sodom what I'd done in you, they would have repented a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00: You people think you're going to heaven, you're going to hell.
SPEAKER_00: We don't talk about that, Jesus, very much in the church, do we?
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all are like, that's in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 11, verses 20 to 24.
SPEAKER_00: And look at me, and we're done.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not mad at these people.
SPEAKER_00: These people have wasted their life going through religious rituals, worshiping God with their lips, but their heart is far from him.
SPEAKER_00: And I would be remiss if I didn't tell you today there's a consequence for not believing.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a culture in America, a church culture, where we don't do much about unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: We let people just kind of come and attend.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if you're here and you don't believe, you're welcome every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: But I gotta love you enough to tell you you do not want to persist in unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Because there will come a day, the consequences of that will find you out.
SPEAKER_00: It will be very convenient in this life and very inconvenient in the next.
SPEAKER_00: And how much would I have to hate you not to stand up here every Sunday and talk to you and not say, oh, by the way, you need to believe the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You need to believe what God has done on your behalf in your place.
SPEAKER_00: And leave it at that.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible doesn't leave it at that.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says if you never come to that place of believing, it will have dire consequences for you.
SPEAKER_00: Intentional glory is being purposeful, it's embracing the batter that Jesus came to bear, and it's believing.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you something.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe today?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Just take a moment.
SPEAKER_00: If you're visiting today for the first time, we like to teach the Bible and give you some soul space to think about it, which is what we'll do right now.
SPEAKER_00: My friend Clyde will come, he'll play, sing a song over you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you'll be like, oh, I recognize that, but not in this area.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: We believe sometimes we have to recapture things and say, hey, this is more true about God than it is about men and women.
SPEAKER_00: So just take a moment.
SPEAKER_00: You may want to bow your head, you may want to just sit and sip your coffee and kind of go, okay, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it means: believing.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how you know you're being led to believe.
SPEAKER_00: You find this desire in you, something compelling you, saying, you know what, I want to believe in that God.
SPEAKER_00: And you can.
SPEAKER_00: Because this God stands ready to forgive you once and for all for everything.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to keep coming back and saying, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I'm gonna go do something good to cover up my bad.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did something sufficient to cover up all your insufficiency once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, you now have a God you can believe in.
SPEAKER_00: Let's think about this for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we understand today that you're sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: You came to rescue us from just being religious people who engage in rituals that we don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: And we just engage in them because they make us feel closer.
SPEAKER_00: But Christianity is not just feeling close, it's being right with God once and for all, and then living out of that reality.
SPEAKER_00: Not an external standard, but an internal reality we get to demonstrate to the world.
SPEAKER_00: And God, we're humbled by that.
SPEAKER_00: And so because we're humbled by that, sin appeals to us less and less.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean that we're perfect, we never sin.
SPEAKER_00: But even when we screw up, God, we're like, oh man, that's not the way I'm created to live.
SPEAKER_00: And we repent and we confess to people, hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: When I said that and did that, that was not right.
SPEAKER_00: Would you please forgive me?
SPEAKER_00: We're not trying to manage some impression that we know isn't true.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, God, we're living in what we know to be true.
SPEAKER_00: That's Christianity, and that's what everybody in this room was created for.
SPEAKER_00: So if there's any here today that don't believe, Lord, even in this moment, prompt them to a place of belief.
SPEAKER_00: But thanks for the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for saying things plain so we could understand it, so we could live it.
SPEAKER_00: We're grateful.
SPEAKER_00: So we say thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a guest, let me say thanks for being part of our service.
SPEAKER_00: When you came in, you're given a worship folder.
SPEAKER_00: On the far right side is a tear-off portion, it asks for personal information.
SPEAKER_00: If you've had a chance to fill that out, if you would just tear it off and drop it on this little wooden boxes by the doors.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that's also where we receive our offering.
SPEAKER_00: Uh people say consistently, hey, you guys don't receive an offering.
SPEAKER_00: We just believe that uh that's part of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh we we don't try to guilt or shame people into that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so if today's the day you worship God through obedience, which is tithing, or just generosity.
SPEAKER_00: Man, God's been so good to me, I can't help myself.
SPEAKER_00: That's where you would do that as well, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh let me make you aware of some things that are some of them are in your worship folder, some of them may not be.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, uh Operation Christmas Child, that's what these Christmas, these shoeboxes are here on the stage.
SPEAKER_00: Last week they were covered.
SPEAKER_00: We have some flats over here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so if you would like to come take a box, it has a little brochure in there, it tells you you get specific toys for a boy or for a girl, put a label on it, bring it back.
SPEAKER_00: We're collecting them all on the November the 8th, I believe that Wednesday is our collection night.
SPEAKER_00: We'll get them to the distribution center.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you come and get a box, the literature's already in there.
SPEAKER_00: If you get a flat, you need to get one of these little tracks, one of these little pamphlets here.
SPEAKER_00: It tells you what exactly to do and everything involved.
SPEAKER_00: We just want to be a blessing to other people.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing I want to tell you is that our next man movie uh is coming up next Tuesday, I believe it is, November the 7th.
SPEAKER_00: Um not this Tuesday, but like nine days from now.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we try to find good movies, and as men, we want to go experience those together.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go see the price of fame, which is a documentary.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's actually about uh some professional wrestlers who basically sold their soul to get famous, and then they just talk about the price that they paid and how it affected them and their family.
SPEAKER_00: It's at 7 o'clock at the Regal 22 out here on the Grand Parkway, which used to be called the Palladium.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I have some tickets.
SPEAKER_00: I bought some tickets because it's a one-night only deal.
SPEAKER_00: I bought some tickets.
SPEAKER_00: I have about six or eight left.
SPEAKER_00: They're$13 because it's a one-night thing.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd like one, come up to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'll write your name down.
SPEAKER_00: You can just meet me there.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are probably gonna find a restaurant also out here on the Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_00: Like I think there's a Dickey's barbecue right over here.
SPEAKER_00: We may have to just eat some red meat and then go see a movie.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what men do.
SPEAKER_00: No?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, never mind.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, it is what we do.
SPEAKER_00: Third thing I want to remind you of is that we have a mission team in Brooklyn right now.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I sent you an email late last night telling you about this.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, when you give to this church, it doesn't stay here.
SPEAKER_00: When we practice generosity here in our city, uh, at the school across the street, the middle school there, the elementary school there, in our neighborhood, in our community, in our state, in our nation, in the other countries.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this week, that some of our folks are in uh church in Brooklyn.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful but neglected church.
SPEAKER_00: And then the pastor went there, there were seven people going to the church.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this morning, they'll have over 60.
SPEAKER_00: He's so excited.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it started off looking like this, and what they went to do is to give them a dedicated design space for their for their little babies and their children.
SPEAKER_00: And now it looks like that.
SPEAKER_00: You paid for that.
SPEAKER_00: We practice full disclosure here.
SPEAKER_00: So when you put money in that wooden box, one guy asked me, he goes, What do you do with the money in the box?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, I don't do anything with it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't count it, I don't touch it, I don't know who gives what.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I mean, where does it go?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, it goes to places like this.
SPEAKER_00: And so there will be parents showing up in Brooklyn uh this morning, Park Slope Community Church, which is very wealthy and liberal community.
SPEAKER_00: Great place to set the gospel down.
SPEAKER_00: They'll show up and hand their kids into this.
SPEAKER_00: And last week it looked like a dank basement.
SPEAKER_00: You did that.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just want you to know your generosity matters.
SPEAKER_00: Last thing I want to make you aware of is that we have ladies in the lobby this morning.
SPEAKER_00: They're registering people.
SPEAKER_00: We have a uh a Saturday brunch.
SPEAKER_00: Next Saturday, 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: right here in the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be brunch, and then there's a uh a lady who is uh she reenacts the life and ministry of Corey Tin Boom.
SPEAKER_00: Was a lady, if you read the book or heard of the book, The Hiding Place, uh it is that's Corey Tin Boom's life.
SPEAKER_00: And so there'll be an reenactment of that right here on the stage along with brunch.
SPEAKER_00: There's tickets in there registering.
SPEAKER_00: Today is the last day you can get tickets.
SPEAKER_00: So it's for women 50 and over, if you'd like to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're not 50 and you still want to go, just don't tell them, just go buy a ticket.
SPEAKER_00: What are they gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: Ask you your age?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, who does that?
SPEAKER_00: You don't look a day over 39.
SPEAKER_00: Just say, I'm coming.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if you have any questions about anything you heard, or it's your first, second, or third time to visit our church, myself and some of our staff will be available down front.
SPEAKER_00: We just want to meet you, okay?
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna hijack you.
SPEAKER_00: We just want to put a name with a face.
SPEAKER_00: Come introduce yourself, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_00: He is everything you want, and he is everything you need.
SPEAKER_00: He's everything inside of you that you wish you could be.
SPEAKER_00: And he says all the right things at exactly the right time.
SPEAKER_00: And he means everything to you.
SPEAKER_00: Depart now and let the world know why.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you, dismiss.