Everyday Miracles | Jesus and the Party You Want | Judah Smith

Hey, welcome to church home. I'm Judah. I am so glad you're here. You're about to hear a 25inut story and message on the subject of Jesus and how wonderful he is. Uh sincerely your trust in opening up your mind, your heart and your soul to these stories and this message means the world to us.

Welcome to May. May, right? April showers brings May flowers. That's what they say here in the United States, here in the northern hemisphere, if you will. Uh, May flowers, happy May, springtime. I'm so excited. I love this time of year. And, you know, I say that every successive, you know, season, but I mean it.

And I am so excited to share this month with you. What if May was a miraculous month for you? What if May was a miraculous month for you? Let that kind of sink in for a moment. What if this month, miraculous May, miracle May, what if what if the miracle that you need in your life, small or great, small, medium, or large miracle, all miracles are miracles.

What if you experienced a miracle in May? I'd like to suggest that even the willingness to contemplate, meditate, consider, and sit in the possibility that you could see a miracle in your life this month is an extraordinary exercise in and of itself. So I'm going to ask you to do that for this month to consider that perhaps there is a God and perhaps his godness uh comes with a divine supernatural ability to work miracles in your life and mine.

Now I never met the man or the woman who couldn't use some kind of miracle. Now I can get cheeky and silly. I need a miracle in my golf game recently. Now, that might be somewhat insulting because you need a significant actual real miracle, but I want to be honest.

God can do miracles of all kinds. A miracle in your hobby life, a miracle in your work life, a miracle in your personal life, a miracle in your physical body, brain, or soul. God can do miracles. I've seen him do miracles. I've experienced miracles. And I got a sense that perhaps this month you could see one unfold for you.

So that's where I'm going to be at. That's my mindset. That's kind of uh the thought process I'm going to be working from for the next four weeks in the month of May. If you want kind of an overview, we're going to try something new. I'm going to sit down with my friend Wes Hallebertton and we're going to give kind of an introduction and an overview of the whole month of May and the collection of talks we're doing.

So, if you get a chance, check that out and we have a good time doing it. That brings me to the dinner table at the Smith family. The dinner table at the Smith family. My kids are at this present moment of this recording, they are 20, 18, and 16.

And um, wow, I am no longer wondering what kind of dad I am. I am confronted every day with the dad that I am. And it brings me back to not one dinner night, but so many I couldn't possibly count where we would be in a discussion, particularly when my children were younger, little babies, and they were starting to talk and think and process and understand ideas of of life and even God that oftent times we would bring up the subject of talking to God, asking God.

It usually went something like this. Dad, I really, really, really want this. And it was probably a toy or in the case of my sweet, beautiful daughter, it was makeup. She wanted makeup and jewelry and dresses very early in life, okay? She was ready for the full experience.

And they would say something during Smith family dinner that was like, I just, Dad, I I got to have this. for my two boys, it was like a hoodie or it was some piece of merchandise they had to have. And I think Chelse and I thought, well, best way to teach our kids about praying and talking to God is just encourage them.

Well, maybe talk to God about it. And I'll never forget the moments we would have where the fiveyear-old, sixyear-old, seven, eighty old offspring would look back with the thought of, "Can I ask God for a hoodie? Can I ask God?" I remember one time one of my boys, and I honestly can't remember which one it was.

By the way, parents, are you out there? Do the stories kind of all just kind of blend together and kind of a mesh in your mind? And so I can't sometimes figure out which kid said it and what year it was because we were all surviving. Come on.

But I remember specifically one of the boys essentially looking back at me when I said, "You should pray and ask God for the basketball you want." He said something to the effect, "Does does God do basketballs? Dad, does Does does God do hoodies? Dad, does does God do we would talk about maybe their football team they were on or the basketball team they were on.

Well, why don't we pray and ask God to help you play better? And it was like, does does God do football? Have you ever had that feeling? something you need in your life or something you even just simply want in your life and you ask yourself the question, does God do parking spots?

Does God do cavities? Oh, the amount of times I have asked God to be my divine dentist cuz I don't want to go to a normal one. Like God, just take all my cavities or just give me fillings. Just do the fillings for me. That would be amazing.

But does God do dental work? Does God do sports? Last night I was watching a basketball game and the camera pans to the the proverbial panning of the camera to the dedicated fan and how many people have this position just praying and you got both teams praying. So which team will God answer?

Does does God do sports? Does God do taxes? Does God do raises? Like, does God do the normal, natural, everyday, ordinary stuff? I just want to make this very clear. The answer is emphatically yes, of course. Now, how, when, in what way is so mysterious, but I want to do four messages this month.

And the first message is entitled Jesus and the party you want. Jesus does parties. I know it's wild. We'll talk about it. Next week, we will do Jesus and the money you want. The week after that, we're going to do Jesus and the food you want. And lastly, and my least favorite, but most excited to preach is Jesus and the taxes you owe.

Now, here's the good news. It's May, so tax season has well and truly passed. Unless you got an extension, then you're still thinking very much about your taxes. What we're going to do this month is we're going to talk about very normal in some cases necessities, desires, and wants that are ordinary everyday.

And some would say they lack a sacred nature, that they are in fact not sacred. A moment ago, before we turned on these cameras and we started shooting, one of my friends said to another friend who works on our crew here, "Hey, would you say a prayer?" He said, "Well, I don't know if it's going to be a good one."

But isn't that how we all feel? Like, well, if I got to like talk to God, I I mean, I hope I hope I make it a good one. Which is to say, often times we feel compelled like we we we better make it feel spiritual. You better like ask God for peace and joy and help me be happy and content with what I have.

All those things are wonderful, but what about the party you want, the fun you want to have? What about the good food you want? What about the money not only you need, but you want? And what about when your taxes are due? Does Jesus care about these things?

And of course the answer is incredibly yes. Now we are going to look at four miracles. Four miracles in four weeks where you're going to discover very soon. Some of you have heard these stories, but perhaps we're going to look at them from some new angles that will be provocative and inspiring and exciting.

And I'm hoping that in the matter of 20 minutes each week in the month of May, you can start anticipating, expecting, looking, and asking for God to help you have a good time, help you make money, help you eat good food, and certainly, and I pray, help you pay your taxes. is.

Now, some will argue even as these opening statements I'm being made, Judah, this stuff is arbitrary, it's not nearly as important. Well, then obviously you live on Mars and you don't have the same dayto-day that us ordinary normal people have. But the truth is these are things that are top of mind, prevalent in our thoughts.

And because it matters to you, it matters to Jesus. That brings us to John chapter 2. And oh, like I said, it's about every one of these stories, but this is definitely one of my favorite. Check this out. John chapter 2, I'm going to read 11 verses to you.

And here's the story. Now, on the third day, there was a wedding feast. That the third day Jewish calendar, it's a it's a Tuesday. It's actually Tuesday today when I'm shooting this, which is awesome. So, on the third day, a Tuesday, there was a wedding feast in the Galilean village of Canaa.

And the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples, his 12, nearly all teenagers were invited to the banquet. But with so many guests in attendance, they ran out of wine, which to a family in antiquity, that was an actual embarrassment and a shame. When Mary realized she came to Jesus and asked, now in case you needed permission to ask Jesus for ordinary, everyday normal, natural things, you now have biblical precedence from the mother of God.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, comes to her son and let's be clear, she asks him to make more alcohol. This is uh groundbreaking. This is revolutionary. This is uh I don't know. It's almost like it shatters a proverbial glass ceiling of religiosity and tradition and things that we think God would never.

We now have the mother of Jesus asking him to make alcohol for a party. Honestly, this passage really, really altered even my perspective of God. Now, what we're going to do every week, and I want to say this, I get so excited I'm almost going to jump off my stool here.

We're going to discover that every miracle is not about the miracle. It's about God telling us about himself. It's really always ever about him. He's going to work a miracle that's going in every one of these four stories. It's going to lead us to a very significant question and we will learn something about the nature of God.

So I think you can experience a miracle in May and I think it's going to happen. Might be money, it might be food related, it might be jobreated, relational related, soul related, brain related, mind related, health related, all these. But remember the miracle is so that ultimately sure you enjoy the resources, the money, the pay raise, the food, whatever, uh the new romance.

Absolutely. but that in the process of receiving and experiencing the miracle, you see a dimension, an aspect of God you've never seen before. Back to our story, Mary, the mother of Jesus, says, "They're they're out of alcohol. They're out of wine. Can you do something about it?" Now, she knows the answer to that, but she's asking, "Can can you do something?"

Now listen to this in the Passion translation because it really captures the original language. My dear one, because it says mother in some translations or excuse me, it says woman in some translations and we're like, whoa, who what son calls their mom woman? You know, in uh uh my background in my family, that would insert my my dad killing me.

So, but it was actually an endearing term, woman. He said, "My my dear one, don't you understand that if I do this? It won't change anything for you, but it will change everything for me. My hour of unveiling my power is not yet." Furthermore, I'll just add he's kind of like, yo, like if I'm gonna if I'm going to kind of set precedents with what I do, with my power, making drinks at a party might not be like the ideal first miracle.

Like my like coming out party here as the Messiah and the antidote to all of humanity. Maybe we should make it something more significant. But in a moment, you're going to realize or maybe you already know this story that the first miracle the world famous superhero Jesus Christ from Nazareth does is he makes drinks at a party.

That's how his public miraculous ministry begins. And I love him for it. There are so many aspects of this that tell us about who our great grandd. I love this part because this is classic mom and son. Mary then went to the servers and told them whatever Jesus tells you, make sure you do that.

Now, there were six stone water pots standing nearby. They are meant to be used for the Jewish washing rituals. Each one of them held about 20 gallons or more. Jesus came to the servers and said, "Fill the pots with water right up to the very brim." Then he said, "Now fill your pictures and take them to the master of the ceremonies."

When they poured out their picture for the master of ceremonies to sample the water, the water became wine. He tasted the water that became wine and the master of the ceremonies was he was impressed. Although he didn't know where the wine had come from, but the servers knew.

He called the bridegroom over and said to him, "Every host serves his best wine first until everyone has had a cup or two. Then he serves the wine of poor quality. You, my friend, you have reserved the most exquisite wine until now." translation. You use the good wine to get people buzzed and then you insert the cheap wine because they're buzzed and maybe won't be too focused on the taste and the party will just go on.

It's kind of late in the party multiple days. Now, these ancient parties could go an entire week. And by the way, they were the social event of the calendar. They were the social event of the whole town and village. This is a moment. And he's just simply saying it's basic math.

It's basic social etiquette. Like why when people are feeling the alcohol they've already had, why give them like, you know, good stuff? Just, you know, give them the basic stuff. And this master of ceremonies, keep in mind, part of his job, he would have done a lot of these ceremonies.

He would have tasted a lot of wine. And by the way, it's also should be noted that this couple that's getting married, though we don't know their name and details, the fact that the bridegroom ran out of wine, probably tells you they're not a wealthy couple. They're probably a very average ordinary couple with maybe not a lot of resource.

And so they actually couldn't buy enough wine for the whole village to spend the week drinking together. So now they're out of the wine and they're probably embarrassed. They don't have enough money. Jesus feels compelled. Mom asks him and he's like, "All right, I'm going to take care of this family." and he fills up these massive six water pots and it turns into and should be noted, God makes good wine.

God makes exquisite wine. Now, if that doesn't resonate or matter to you, that's okay. But I like to have a good time. I like to have fun. I currently don't drink. I'm taking 10 years off, which it's been six years. I don't want to brag, okay? But but I I love wine.

I love good wine. And it should be noted Jesus makes exquisite wine. What does alcohol have to do with saving the world? Well, it's a metaphor of course of what Jesus can do in one's life. He can take ordinary water and turn it into wine. He can do the miraculous.

He can do the supernatural. He can take, you know, six is the number of man. Water pots are made out of concrete. It's a picture of man. Six ordinary average stone water pots. But with the work of Jesus and the ways of Jesus, he can take your ordinary water pot life and turn it into a vessel for beautiful exquisite wine.

He can transform you. He can save you. He can give you purpose. He can give you meaning. Furthermore, he can help you have a good time at a party. Do you know a big reason you exist is to have a good time is to enjoy life to enjoy God enjoying you.

One of the great mystics philosophers I I'm quoting there and I can't remember his name but he said the whole of life the whole purpose of life is enjoy God enjoying you. Enjoyment is a massive aspect of your existence. I'm pleading with you if I could grab the camera and shake it and say, "Are you enjoying life?"

And maybe you would grab back and shake and say, "Well, I want to, but I can't." Let's ask God this month in May. I need my joy back. I need my enjoyment back. I want to have a good time. And God wants you to have a good time, wants you to have joy, laughter.

I mean, a big part of King Solomon at the end of his life, he said the whole of life is to eat, drink, and be merry. Think of God, remember God, honor him, follow him, and just have a good time with friends and family, new friends, old fans, o old friends, old friends, and live in community.

Couple observations from this story. This is very simple. Number one, Jesus is at a party. He wants you to party. I'll say it this way. He wants you to commemorate this life. He wants you to celebrate this life. Some of us, the best thing I can say to you this May of 2025 is this.

You You got to stop taking things so seriously. Oh yeah, life is serious. I I hear you. There is pain and trauma and drama and loss and difficulty. But man, we need to laugh more. Man, we need to smile even when we don't feel like smiling. Jesus is at your party.

Jesus wants to extend your party. Jesus wants to add to your joy. Second observation, he makes wine worth talking about. He makes wine worth talking about. What do I mean? Here's a theme you're going to see the whole month of May. At the conclusion of these four miracles we're going to look at, something very extraordinary and phenomenal unfolds in all four stories.

When the miracle manifests in all four of these stories, you're going to notice there is a circling back. There's an awe that's inserted in the story. And the awe is not so much the wine, the fish, the gold, the lunch, all these miracles we'll look at, but it's the source of it.

What I love about the story is that the wine is so good for a reason. The wine is so good so that you remember God is so good. The bridegroom and the MC are like, "This is so good." And the servers know and eventually they'll know. It's so good because it's a miracle made possible by a man named Jesus who is so good.

He's so good. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. God is so good and he loves you so much and he has so much to gift you and grant you and bring into your life. I'll make one last observation from our first story and that is it becomes incredibly evident to me.

The wine is an attention grabber so that your focus goes somewhere. I want to say this about miracles. Miracles are never about miracles. Could be said miracles are rarely if ever even about the shift change of body, money, resource, whatever it might be. It's always to get us to that place where we go, wait, what?

You did this for me? It's so that after you sip this miraculous wine, you start asking around, "Where is this from? Where is this from? Is this from Portugal? Is this Aussie wine? Is this where is this Napo Valley? Where is this Soma? Like where is this from?"

God wants to manifest miracles in your life. But miracles are never about miracles. Miracles are always about the man, the miracle man, Jesus, so that you want him more and so that you see him more. Something begins to emerge in this story that is so wonderful and so beautiful and so meaning to me.

And we see it in the exchange between Jesus and his mother. He expresses pain. He says to his mom, "If I do this, I can never go back." People will begin to realize who I am. Nothing will change for you, Mom. But you know, mom, everything will change for me.

And that is both wonderful and it's full of painful pressure. and he shares that pain that he felt. And like a good mom, she's like, "I hear you, but we still need that wine." And so he makes the wine. He manifests the miracle. Why? Oh, I hope you hear this one statement.

Because Jesus delights in being asked. He wants you to ask him. Guess what? Mom and dad were right. Dad, does God do basketballs? Yeah. Does God do dental work? Yeah. Does God help my dating life? Yeah. Does God do teeth whitening? Yeah. Thinking about teeth a lot today.

Yeah. Nothing too small, insignificant. Nothing too large, and too insurmountable. The answer is he loves to be asked. What have you stopped asking God about? What have you concluded is bugging God? What have you thought about asking him but thought he's got a lot to do? He doesn't care about Oh, no.

He cares. He cares. He cares. talked to a friend recently who's trying to stop biting their nails and so they've tried to put things on their nails so it tastes bitter and bad. I am the guy in your life saying he'll help you stop biting your nails. But don't miss the magic.

Don't miss the meaning. Don't miss the moment. Don't miss the point. so that you see who he is. Who is Jesus? He's the king of the whole earth. But if he's at your party and you need more drinks, he can do that, too. He can do that, too.

And he enjoys it. I can see him smiling in the corner as people are a buzz over this magnificent, exquisite wine. I can see the beaming bridegroom and family who now are the talk of the town because no one ever at any wedding saved such extraordinary wine. Towards the end of the feast and the celebration, they undoubtedly became attached to exquisite wine for the rest of their life in that town.

And I can see Jesus at the table in this wedding beaming with joy that he did that seemingly insignificant, practical, ordinary thing for this family. I wonder what God wants to do for your family. I wonder what joy it will bring him. I simply invite you to ask because he delights in it and wants it.

God, thank you for you. You're the meaning. You're the point. You're the reason. You're the purpose. It's you. Thank you for the time we get to share here. Thank you for revealing your nature to us. Help us to remember this month. I'm asking for our community all over the world.

Remind us to ask you because it's obvious you want us to ask. Miracles we stopped asking for. I pray this month we would start asking for again. If you're watching this and you'd like to follow Jesus and receive the free gift of forgiveness that only Jesus offers, just say, "I do."

And it's done. You're forgiven forever. I'm really excited to share this month with you. Um, and please, if you get the chance, would you let us know about a miracle that has happened in your life in May so that we can celebrate with you? I can share it with our staff and our team and friends here in our community and all over the world.

Jump on pastor chat. Let us know either the miracle you're asking God for. We're going to pray with you. Not lying, not joking. I really mean this. And then we're going to anticipate this month miracles are going to pop up all over the place for so many people.

Love you church. See you next week as we talk about Jesus and the money you want. It's wild. I know. Love ((music playing)) you. This is the air I breathe. This is the air I breathe. Your holy ((music playing)) presence living in ((music playing)) me. This is my daily breath. ((music playing)) This is my daily breath.

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You have all my attention. I will linger. ((music playing)) Listen. I can't miss a thing. And Lord, I know my heart wants more of you. My heart wants something new. So I surrender all. And all I want is to live within your love. Be undone by who you are. My desire is to know you deeper.

Lord, I will open up again. Throw my fears into the wind. I am desperate for a touch of heaven. Woah. Woah. Woah. ((music playing)) Oh, you're the fire in the morning. You're the cool in the evening, the breath in my soul. You're the life in my bones. There is no hesitation in your love and affection.

It's the sweetest of all. ((music playing)) And what I know my heart wants more. My heart wants something new. So I I surrender and all I want is to live within you beyond by who you are. My desire is to know you deeper. I will open up again my fears into the wind.

I taste. ((music playing)) ((music playing)) I open up my heart to you. I open up my heart to you now. So do what only you can. Jesus, Jesus, have your way in me. Now open up. Open up my heart to you. Heat. Heat. Heat. ((music playing)) Yeah. ((music playing)) Heat. Heat. ((applause)) Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. ((music playing)) I'm desperate for a touch of you within your love beyond by who you are.

My desire is to know you deeper. I will open up again. Put my fears into the wind. I am desperate for the touch of ((music playing)) heaven. Desperate ((music playing)) for desperate ((music playing)) for will be. My heart burns feel my heart burns ((music playing)) fear In my heart only for you in my heart. It burns for ((music playing)) you.

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