Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Chroma Charge podcast.
[00:00:07] We. We had a busy and fun week this week. We got to marry off Emma, our daughter, which was great fun.
[00:00:16] And, and I was. Lots of people asked me a question. They. They said, did you feel emotional? And that might be because I don't have many emotions. And they just wanted to know what would happen when I gave my daughter away. And yes, I did feel emotional, but the overwhelming emotion, I think, was gratitude, because you never know what you're going to feel. But I think the overwhelming emotion for me was gratitude. Gratitude to the Lord because he's been faithful to our family through our life, walking with him.
[00:00:51] Gratitude towards this church because you are faithful and are hungry after Jesus. And I would say, don't underestimate the community in which you raise your children. When we moved here to start and plant this church, Emma was seven years old. And I'm grateful for the people who have constantly pointed her towards Jesus. You know, there's parents, have a job, but so do the church. When we dedicate children, we make a promise as the church, and that's what this church has done. I'm grateful to this church that we host, the presence of God that you love to worship, that you love his presence coming amongst us. I'm grateful that there is an anticipation here for the miraculous.
[00:01:42] You know, I'm grateful for Joel and Rachel, who were Emma's youth leaders and are now part of pastors and back in the day when she was a teenager, and that they had the opportunity to marry them. And all I had to do was, you know, who gives this woman to be married to this man? Me.
[00:02:01] That's it. And I handed her over. You know, it's so good to be in a place of celebration. And there are milestones in all of our lives that we love to celebrate, but there are also miracles that happen along the way that get us to the places of celebration.
[00:02:23] And this is why I'm so grateful to Jesus. He is faithful. When we seek first the kingdom, everything else is added unto you. But to get to the celebrations, you will all go through the I've run out moments or the I don't have enough moments.
[00:02:43] And if you don't go through those moments of I feel like I've run out, or I feel like I don't have enough, you will never see a miracle.
[00:02:52] Okay, so this morning, what I want to do is read you a story of I've run out while staying on the theme. And if you're looking at the backdrop, you might get a Clue. So find your Bibles to John chapter two.
[00:03:06] And we're going to read the wedding at Canaan. So why don't you all stand as we read?
[00:03:12] On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. And the mother of Jesus was there. Now, both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. Jesus said to her, woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, whatever he says to you, do it.
[00:03:38] That's really good advice.
[00:03:40] Now, there were six water pots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing 20 or 30 gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, fill the water pots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, draw some out now and take it to the master of the feast. And they took it. And when the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, he did not know where it came from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. The master of the feast called the bridegroom. He said to him, every man at the beginning sets out the good wine. And when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.
[00:04:21] You have kept the good wine until now.
[00:04:25] This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory and. And his disciples believed in him. Amen. Take a seat.
[00:04:41] Before I say anything else, I need to say the obvious.
[00:04:45] Jesus attends this wedding because marriage has been God's plan from the beginning. It was God who ordained marriage. It's between a man and a woman, and. And it should be honored by all. Jesus says this in Matthew 19. Have you not read? He who made them in the beginning made them male and female. And he said, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate. The apostle Paul calls this a divine mystery. But he says it's a window. Marriage is a window into understanding the relationship between Jesus Christ and his church. But marriage is holy unto the Lord. And in a church like this, there's lots of people giving their lives to Jesus. And people come from all sorts of different backgrounds. And you might go, well, what do I do where I'm in a relationship and we're living together? And the easy answer is, we'll get married.
[00:05:55] Get married.
[00:05:57] And you go, well, I don't Know, if we're, you know, if we're going to spend the rest of our life together, we'll separate.
[00:06:05] You know, either you're going to walk with Jesus together for the rest of your life or you're not.
[00:06:10] And sometimes people say, well, couldn't you just make it a bit more fluffy and nice? No, that's how it is. You either, you either want to walk the rest of your life with Jesus, and in that case, you get married and something beautiful happens.
[00:06:24] You become one. And the Holy Spirit, Ecclesiastes says, it's like a cord of three ropes. And so when we marry and, you know, when I gave Emma away, I took a hand and I gave it to Connor.
[00:06:40] And what happens is when we say the vows, the Holy Spirit binds us together, makes us one. It is a divine mystery. And it's just. It's a picture of how Jesus is one and loves his church. So it's a really important thing. But if you're not going to spend the rest of your life together serving Jesus, then you need to go and find the person who you are going to spend the rest of your life.
[00:07:07] You know, what are you wasting your time doing that?
[00:07:12] So, you know, for me, it's a really simple thing.
[00:07:17] If you've come to Jesus now and you're gonna run together, then make your covenant before God. It's not about a covenant with each other. I mean, that's part of it. But it's also the covenant between you and God who binds you together.
[00:07:32] And that's what you need.
[00:07:35] Because marriage isn't always easy.
[00:07:38] And if you don't have that covenant, if you don't have that binding together, you're gonna find yourself in trouble anyway.
[00:07:46] Don't want to talk about that. Well, I did want to talk about that, but we're going to. We're going to talk about I've run out.
[00:07:54] Do you know the Feeding of the 5000 is a story of I don't have enough. You know, there are like two principles in life. You either have run out or you don't have enough.
[00:08:08] And when you don't have enough, the question Jesus asks you is, what do you have?
[00:08:13] He asked the disciples, you know, we've got 5,000 people. We haven't got enough to feed them. He says, what do you have? And they said, a few fish and loaves. And he said, give them here. He breaks them, blesses them and multiplies.
[00:08:25] So that's what. So he multiplies when you don't have enough. But when you Run out.
[00:08:33] The instruction Mary gives is, do whatever he says.
[00:08:37] Do what he says.
[00:08:39] And so in this wedding, the most important thing that releases the miracle is that Jesus had been invited.
[00:08:46] And so when we come to Jesus, we invite him into every area of your life. You see, if Jesus isn't invited, there's not going to be a miracle.
[00:08:56] He has to be there for the miracle.
[00:08:59] And we're not sure who this wedding was between something. People think it may have been John's wedding. It looks like a family's wedding. But the key is Jesus and his disciples were invited.
[00:09:12] And that's what paves the way for any miracle in your life. And that's why when we come to faith and we choose marriage, Jesus is invited into the center of your relationship. And that is what produces the miracle in your life. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these other things will be added unto you.
[00:09:36] So Jesus, we invite Jesus into our lives. But do you know, for us, it started way before a wedding. You know, it started before we were parents. It started at the point of meeting Jesus. But for us, with Emma, it was, you know, I remember when she was born premature and she spent three months in hospital. She died twice and they brought her back. You know, we were praying our hearts out. You see, it's when you don't, you know, you've run out, there's nothing you can do. You don't have anything to change the circumstance. You learn to pray and you go, yeah, but it was all right for you. You knew God would come through. No, we didn't. The last two children we buried, because they died, and we prayed the same prayers.
[00:10:28] And so you find yourself in these places of life where you have run out and you need Jesus to do a miracle in your life.
[00:10:40] And sometimes you see, you know, you'll see people speaking on the stage, you'll see people on, you know, great preachers on the Internet, whatever, and you see the miracles in their life, but you don't see the journey that took the them to be where they are.
[00:10:56] You see, it's the journey of life where you get your own miracles.
[00:11:02] See, we had to work through health issues, school issues.
[00:11:05] One of the blessings for us was when we moved here to plant the church and, you know, when we looked around the wedding, you know, there was the lady who was Emma's teacher in primary school. And, you know, Emma had arrived at school and they'd said, oh, why have you moved here? Because she had an Essex accent and she said, oh, because God told us.
[00:11:26] And the teacher Said, oh, that's wonderful. I'd like to know more. And that was the introduction to how we got to know them. And they're still in the church going through the teenage issues, you know, oh, my God. You know, I mean, or every teenage. I don't want to go to youth. It's boring. How can it be boring with Joel Banner in there or Amelia or something like that? You know, give me a break. If I'm in there, maybe, okay? But if they're in there, there's no way it's boring. So we just. You are going.
[00:11:56] Well, I don't want to go. You're going. And I'm gonna fill my car with your friends.
[00:12:01] And, you know, we had a. We had one of those seven seaters, and we just fill it with kids. I don't know where they all came from. We just picked them up off the street. But it was again at the wedding, there was one of them, Amy, and she was just sitting in the wedding. She used to be in the back of my car. She's, you know, she's grown up in a young lady now, but she was just one of the kids we threw in the back of the car along with her brother.
[00:12:22] You see, when you invite Jesus in and you know he's there right in the center of your life, whatever you come up against, it's going to be okay.
[00:12:35] And that is the promise and that. And, you know, look, we look back on this now and we can see. We can see his faithfulness and we can see his goodness.
[00:12:46] You know, our kids probably complained about us, told stories. I know they did. You know, they go to kids, work, tell stories about our arguments. You know, nothing is hidden from the church, the shortcomings of our home life. But they could never say Jesus wasn't invited.
[00:13:03] The one thing, he was always at the center in amongst everything we did.
[00:13:10] Because time and time again, Julia and I have run out.
[00:13:14] We've run out of ourselves, and so will you.
[00:13:17] But if you don't go, if you don't have these times where you run out or you don't have enough, you won't see the miracles. And, you know, my miracles are for me. They're not for you. They're no good for you. I mean, it's good that we release testimony. That's good. But you need your own miracles. You need to see what God can do in your life. So when you come to these I've run out of me points, and it's there where you get on your knees and you see the miracle, when you know the bills are coming in, you don't know how to pay them, when you lose your job, when there's sickness, when there's relational breakdowns, when it feels like your world is crumbling around you, that's when you see the miracles you rarely see. I mean, this one, you did see a miracle in the midst of a celebration because they ran out of wine.
[00:14:09] But, you know, life, as you go through life, it's often those difficult points and where we have to do business with God for us.
[00:14:16] I can't do business for you.
[00:14:19] I can only do business for me. I can give you some pointers.
[00:14:24] You see how powerful is the blood of Jesus Christ in your life?
[00:14:28] Have you proved him faithful?
[00:14:31] And what I want to say to you is, as you go through these points of I don't have enough or I've run out, that's where you see the miracle. And that's where you see the faithfulness of God. And that is as you see him at work in your life, that's what sets you on the trajectory of walking with him. The second thing, do whatever he says. Mary was obviously a person of importance at this wedding because they go to her and go, we've run out of wine. And I'm grateful for the people that over our lifetime that we've been able to go out and go up to and say, I've run out. I run out. I can't do this. It's too hard. We don't have enough. You ever prayed those prayers?
[00:15:15] You see, only three of you have owned up, but I know all of you have, because that's where we pray, right? God help.
[00:15:23] Okay?
[00:15:25] We all pray them because we need the miracle. But I want you to notice something about Mary, okay? Mary is of importance, but she directs them to Jesus.
[00:15:35] You need people in your life that will direct you to Jesus, not to themselves.
[00:15:40] All right?
[00:15:41] I mean, that being said, God often uses people to direct us. That's fine.
[00:15:47] I'm not talking about people controlling you. See, the devil tries to control you. I'm talking about people in your life that will point you to Jesus.
[00:15:57] They'll allow him to do his work in your life.
[00:16:01] They are far more like cheerleaders that cheer you on than dictators.
[00:16:07] You see, you need people of faith around you, not people of pity.
[00:16:12] You don't want people stroking you when you've run out of yourself. Oh, there, there, there, there. You need people of faith.
[00:16:18] You want wisdom, not manipulation.
[00:16:21] So you want people that speak the wisdom of God. And you want Track record, not youthful enthusiasm.
[00:16:27] Okay, so you want somebody that's walked the path, not just someone that has good ideas. And Paul makes this statement to the Corinthians when he's talking about relationships. He says, I think I also have the spirit of God.
[00:16:41] You know, if anyone has the right to give an order, it's the Apostle Paul. But he just goes, mmm, well, when it comes to things like this, I think I have the spirit of God. I think. I think I have an opinion, and I think you should listen to me.
[00:16:55] And, you know, often people, they'll come and tell me their problems, and, you know, I'll often just throw in, well, have you thought about doing this? Or go there or do that? And then sometimes I'll see them later and say, well, how's it going?
[00:17:09] Did you do it? Did you do it? But they didn't hear what I said.
[00:17:13] They just wanted to tell me that they'd run out.
[00:17:16] They just wanted. What did it say? I don't have anything else. But they didn't want the solution because they were not believing that God had a miracle for them.
[00:17:31] And I want you to hear this. Jesus has a miracle for you, but you've got to listen.
[00:17:40] You need to believe, and you need to obey what he says.
[00:17:48] Number three, who sees the miracle?
[00:17:50] There were six water pots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing 20 or 30 gallons apiece. That's quite a lot of water. Jesus said to them, fill the water pots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, draw out some now and take it to the master of the feast. These water pots, they weren't for, like any old water.
[00:18:15] They were for purifying and for washing. You would find them in the temple and in many homes.
[00:18:23] And they were designed to hold the good water. Okay, you want good wine, you have good water.
[00:18:30] And he says, fill them.
[00:18:35] And this would have taken a bit of effort.
[00:18:39] Maybe they were only half full or something. But he says, fill. Fill them all up. And I want you to see something. The servants did exactly what he told them to do.
[00:18:49] You know, if Jesus tells you to do something, do it 100%, not 50%, not 95%. Go 100%, do what he says. And then he says to them, draw the water out in a cup and serve it to the master of the feast. Now, I don't know about you, you may just read these stories and go, oh, that's amazing. I. I'm reading the story going, when did it become Wine.
[00:19:14] Okay. Did it become wine when they filled it up? Did it come wine when they put the cup in? I don't think so. I think it was still water when they drew the cup because they've got to go to the master of the feast.
[00:19:26] Okay. And they're walking to the master of the feast, seeing water in the cup. You see, for a long while, we've always spelt faith. R I S K, risk. If there's no risk, there can be no faith. You have to step out and take a risk. Jesus loves faith. You cannot have too much. The one thing I promise you, you're not going to get told off in heaven is for having too much faith. You know, when we stand in the, you know, before the great judgment seats and all the deeds are run read out, Jesus is not going to say, you wicked servant, you believed me for too much, is He? He goes, well done, good and faithful servant. And you know, I know they're the over the top people, but you know, Jesus loves the over the top people. Why? Because they have faith. Why do we not like them so much? They make us feel uncomfortable because we wish we had a bit more faith.
[00:20:24] He loves people of faith who believe Him.
[00:20:28] You see, miracles come from faith.
[00:20:31] Fear stop us obeying. You know, in this case, losing your job. The servants got going to the master of the beast with water.
[00:20:40] Fear will rob you of a miracle.
[00:20:43] The servants could have said, no way, we're not doing it. Remember Peter fishing? You know, Jesus said, just throw the net down. And he goes, but we've been fishing all night. But because youe say so, Lord, because you say we will do it. That's how faith works. Oh, we've tried this. We've done this many times. But because you say so, we're going to do it. And too many Christians live in the we don't have enough camp because they haven't yet experienced their own miracles.
[00:21:15] You see, once you start experiencing the miracles of heaven, you move into the abundance camp.
[00:21:24] Now look, I don't know if we were good parents or bad parents, probably a bit of both.
[00:21:29] But what I do know is we invited Jesus into every part of our life.
[00:21:35] And I can tell you, both of my children are tired of me saying it's going to be all right. Trust Jesus and they'll go, dad, it's okay for you, but if you walk with Jesus, it'll be okay for you.
[00:21:49] That's always been my message. The reason it's okay for me is because I've walked with Jesus. And if you will walk with Jesus. It'll be okay for you because you have to experience your own miracles. You cannot live on mine.
[00:22:06] And we get our own miracles by inviting him in and doing what he says.
[00:22:12] But let me just ask you a quick question. Who sees the miracle?
[00:22:16] Who sees the miracle? It's not the master of the feast.
[00:22:20] He just sees that they've served him some good stuff later on in the celebrations. Is it the bride and groom? They don't see the miracle.
[00:22:32] Who sees the miracle? The servants.
[00:22:35] The servants get to see the miracle. You want to see the greatest miracle? Become a servant of Jesus Christ.
[00:22:41] You want to see miracles in your life all the time? Become a follower of Jesus.
[00:22:46] You know, that's what we see every single week now, the miracles breaking out into people's lives. And the last thing I want to say is, he saves the best to the last. The master of the beast, called the bridegroom, he said to him, every man at the beginning sets out good wine. And when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept good wine until now.
[00:23:08] You see, the way of the world is to set out the best wine first and then to start to water it down so people don't notice. And what tends to happen is we celebrate youth, but try push back age.
[00:23:20] We don't like getting old.
[00:23:22] It's 100% statistic. All of us are going to get older.
[00:23:26] Me, I'm still 25, okay? It's just when I look in the mirror, I've got a problem, all right? I don't feel. But it just happens.
[00:23:36] But not so in the kingdom of God. You see, we don't need to push back age because it gets better. He saves the best till last. Yes, we go through the, oh, I've run out, or I don't have enough. But as we do what Jesus says, we see the miracles, the miracles of provision, multiplication, and they become our miracles along our journey of faith.
[00:24:00] And it's that that is the foundation of our lives.
[00:24:06] And sometimes you get to the end of yourself because you got it wrong. But you did it in faith. It's okay. He has you covered. There's still a miracle for you. Look, if you never get to the end of yourself, you're never going to get to the start of Jesus, okay? This is where we find Jesus.
[00:24:25] And sometimes we can get to the end of ourselves because things are going too well and we need people, you know, like Mary, to go just keep doing what he says because in all of the abundance and all of the blessing that sometimes comes upon our life, we can go astray.
[00:24:46] And so when you are listening to what he says, believing what he says, and obeying, and you have people that are pointing you to Jesus, you have a recipe for a miracle.
[00:25:05] The table is set to see a miracle. And look, I want to thank you, Chromer Church, for taking this journey of faith with our family.
[00:25:15] You know, it wasn't always like this. It wasn't always like that. The people would be healed or people would get saved.
[00:25:24] And whenever we've been through the run out or I don't have enough moments, you've allowed us to push through.
[00:25:33] And as we've invited him in, as we've listened to his voice, and as we obeyed what he said, we have all experienced miracles here, but he.
[00:25:45] But he wants you to have your own miracles.
[00:25:50] And in a minute we're going to pray for them. Because it's his miraculous in your life that sets you on that trajectory. Once you've had one or two miracles that God has broken in your life, part of your story, your testimony, no one will be able to stop you. So just stand before we pray.
[00:26:18] You see, the wedding of Cana is a precursor to the great wedding feast of the Lamb.
[00:26:29] And you're not all invited to every wedding.
[00:26:34] Okay, We've had that many weddings this year, and some we get invited to and some we don't.
[00:26:41] Okay, it's just who you know. But the wedding feast of the Lamb, everyone is invited to. And John starts his gospel off with the the wedding of Cana. And he finishes in Revelation 19 saying this. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering saying alleluia. For the Lord God omnipotent reigns, let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. And to her it has been granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
[00:27:32] The ministry of Jesus starts with a wedding and it finishes with a wedding.
[00:27:37] It starts with the wedding in Cana, but it finishes with the marriage of the Lamb.
[00:27:42] You are invited. We are all invited. But we get in by giving our lives to Jesus, inviting him in, hearing his voice for ourselves. It's great that our parents have heard his voice. It's great that our friends have heard his voice, but we need to hear his voice and then do what he says.
[00:28:03] Thanks for listening to the Coma Church podcast If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship and how to donate, visit our website at Cromer Church.
