Wine For The Wounds of Waiting | Pastor Patrick Houston | John 2:1-11 | Fresh Life Church

And waiting is work. Waiting is work. There is something the Lord is asking you to put your hand to in the season of waiting. He never asks you to wait and sit on your hands. At the very least, our hand should be up here worshiping. But he also calls us to the plow.

He also calls us to the bucket to begin to fill over and over and over again. And that's my job as a believer. Just keep filling the bucket. I'm going to keep pouring the water of my life out until Jesus says, "Okay, it's full." And I'm going to keep pouring and pouring and pouring my worship, my obedience, my faith, my generosity, my kindness, my life.

It's going to be poured out because he's calling me to do something. I'm so excited for uh what's to come. We we're in a a beautiful season. We're just coming out of a series called Touch Grass. If you missed any of that, go back and listen to it.

It it was so incredible. Well, Pastor Levi walked us through the book of First John, and it was powerful. It was convicting. It was life-changing. And so, don't don't miss that. And but we're getting ready to step into another season uh in a series revolving around prayer. And uh last time I was here with you in Callispell, it was so awesome to be able to to talk about the the similar season that we were jumping into last spring that we're now going to be entering into this fall all around prayer and giving ourselves over to prayer and growing in that and leaning in and interceding and being a part of what God's going to be building through and and in our church.

And so this morning, I feel like I have kind of the the liinal space here. I have kind of like the the bridging moment to to bring us out of something that was so um foundational and getting us back into uh the the groove of understanding our doctrine and what we believe and why we believe it and now putting that into practice as we jump into this new series.

It's going to be so good. So, make sure that you're here for that. And today, I want to as we bridge that gap, talk around the topic of wine for the wounds of waiting. Wine for the wounds of waiting. And I'm going to read uh John chapter 2, not to be confused with 1 John.

We just got out of there. We're going over to John's gospel. Same author, but this is John's account of the life of Jesus and and what happened with with him and his disciples, lean all the way up to the crucifixion and his death, burial, and resurrection. But we're going to jump into to chapter 2.

We're going to read the first 11 verses today. And this is really where we're going to spend a lot of our all of our time is we're going to be walking through this passage together. But I want to start out by reading it here this morning. Uh John 2:1 says, "On the third day, a wedding took place at Canaa in Galilee.

Jesus's mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus's mother said to him, "They have no more wine." Woman, okay, let's pause, gentlemen. Unless your first name is Jesus, last name Christ, don't. Why do you involve me?

Jesus replied, "My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." And nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons. And Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water."

And so they filled them to the brim. Verse 8. And he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." So they did. And the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. And he did not realize where it had come from.

Though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called to the bridegroom. He said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink." If you've ever been to a wedding, you know exactly what he's talking about.

But you've saved the best until now. What Jesus did there in Canaa of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him. Let's pray. Holy Spirit, we thank you for this moment and we thank you Lord that you have brought us here to freely worship to to to stand shouldertosh shoulder in your presence.

We thank you for the freedom and the blessing that it is to do that. Lord, I pray God in this moment would you invade our hearts? Would we make room and space for you? Will we clear our minds? Would we would we put our phones down? Would we be distraction free?

Because we want to hear from you. We need to hear from you, Jesus. Would you move in our hearts as we are in the waiting in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Uh before we jump into the text, I just have a question. I think it'll probably be applicable especially on the male spectrum here.

Um anybody else hate going to the grocery store? >> You can see some hands. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I I hate it. I hate it with a passion. And I don't hate it for all the reasons you think. It's not because there's a long list. It's not the navigating.

It's not the aisles. It's not the canned goods. It's not the money being spent, although that is painful now. Um but it's really comes down to one thing, and this is a me thing. I have been cursed with the ability to pick the worst checkout line imaginable. I will I will scope it out for a good, you know, 20 seconds.

I'm kind of going back and forth like a shark, just waiting for my opportunity, moving back and forth. I see, oh, he's got one canned item. Okay, there's no skew number to put in. There's nothing crazy happening. Beans is it. Let's go. This is the one, right? And inevitably, I will be stuck in that line for another five or 10 minutes.

Every single time, you can ask my wife. We'll be going together. If I pick the line, I have chosen poorly. Every single time. It doesn't matter where I'm at, what store it is. It could be incredibly busy. It could be incredibly slow. And I know that there are some folks among us today that are haters of the selfch checkout.

I know the robots are replacing us. It's all doom and gloom. You know, AI, whatever, Elon Musk. Okay. But the thing is is that it is my salvation because if I need to get in and out as quick as possible, it's all on me. I don't have to worry about anybody else.

I just zip in, do my thing. I I can like type in those skew numbers, you know, like that's the worst part doing produce at the selfch checkckout. But I'm like done out the door. I'm gone. Right. I have literally been at the grocery store, nobody else in the store, not a single other customer, right?

I walk up, this has happened multiple times, by the way. I walk up to the only cashier that is open because there's nobody else there. It's me and the cashier. I don't even know if there's a manager, a stalker, anybody else. It's just us hanging out. And I come in, I load all my things on the conveyor belt, and they go, "Sir, I'm so sorry.

Our systems just went down. It's going to take 15 minutes for the whole system to reboot. Can you do you mind just waiting? Like, oh yeah, what am I going to do? Drive home and then come back later and get my groceries? I'm stuck. Right. This is my cross to bear, not yours.

But I just wanted to trauma dump a little bit for a few moments this morning. But whatever your thing is, we all have the buttons that get pushed when it comes to patience, right? When it comes to waiting. And this morning, I don't want to spend so much time with the little things like getting cut off in traffic or being stuck bumper to bumper or um you know, the DMV.

We'll stay away from that ring of hell today. But I I want to talk about the waiting that lingers, the seasons that we find ourselves in that just don't seem to pass. And uh Pastor Jenny has said it so wonderfully that that we're all in seasons of waiting.

We we all find ourselves either coming out of a season of waiting where we finally have come through the other side or we're smack dab in the middle of it and we don't see the light at the end of the tunnel just yet or or we about to enter into a waiting season.

And so we're we're all waiting on something. We're all longing for something. And for many of us, it it it can be brutal. It can be hard. It can be painful. And I think if we began to pass the microphone around the room and begin to ask of your stories of waiting, we would hear stories of of cancer and waiting on healing.

We would hear stories of of infertility and waiting on a child. We would hear stories of loneliness and waiting on a spouse. We would hear stories of frustration and confusion and hurt and heartache and pain because we've all been there. We've we've all had to sit in these moments that were so hard and it felt like it was going to last into eternity, right?

And I think as something that is so shared by all of us, it's something that we can begin to ask, well, if I have to wait, I want to do it with God. So, what is waiting on God? And that's a very kind of churchy thing, right? That the the phrase to wait on God.

And and I think sometimes we just hear these things and we're like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just wait on God. Just wait on God." And we don't really know what we're saying, right? It it's like those prayers that you pray and if you've been in a relationship with Jesus for a while, you're like, I'm kind of careful about praying that prayer because I I really don't want to have to wait, right?

I really don't want to be refined. I really don't want to have to go through the the proving testing seasons, God. But we have to. And it's part of our journey in following Jesus. And so, what is waiting on God? Is is it biblical? Is this phrase that we use in in Christianom really something that happens?

I believe that it is and I think that we see it all throughout scripture and there's just a few examples I'll share quickly before we jump into our passage today. Um Noah for instance, he had to wait on the rain while building a boat. And then when the flood finally did come, the rains finally did fall, he had to wait for almost a year before the waters would subside and he could get out of the boat.

Abraham and Sarah, they waited for almost 25 years for God to fulfill his promise in bringing Isaac. Joseph endured 13 years, first as a slave and then in prison before he began to lead Egypt. The Israelites, they they waited in slavery for centuries and then 40 more years in the wilderness.

David waited for 14 years from the point he was anointed king to the point that the crown was placed on his head. And then he had to fight for seven more years to gain rule over the rest of the nation. And in the New Testament, we see Elizabeth who had to wait in her old age and in barness for her son we know as John the Baptist to come.

The disciples, they had to wait in the upper room for the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon them on the day of Pentecost. And then still they waited in anticipation for the return of Christ. Even Jesus had to wait. Even Jesus had to wait. He He had to wait on the Lord.

And we see that from the moment of his birth to the time that he's 30, and we're going to pick up here in John 2 in just a moment when he his ministry kind of began, Jesus had to wait for 30 years for him to begin to actually step into his own glory and to step into and reveal himself to the rest of the world. and that he actually during that time progressed.

He actually grew. He actually matured. And it's like, well, okay, I if if I got to wait, if Jesus had to wait, so I got to wait, too. I I want to be able to grow. Like, what what did Jesus do? Is there a formula to figure this whole thing out?

We're going to walk through a lot of things that are going to help us today. But specifically just honing in on Jesus before we jump into the the scripture today. Jesus, we only saw him do a few things before he began his ministry. We see him in the temple in God's house.

We see him engaged in scripture. We see him fasting. We see him praying. We see him baptized. We see him make disciples. And all of this obedient to the father. Jesus used the waiting to prepare him for the season that the father was going to lead him into.

And so this morning, I think we can glean some of these practicalities from John chapter 2. I'm going to give seven way points of waiting. Seven way points. Things to kind of help us course correct and keep us on track and and being obedient and in God's will and people that that stay fresh in the waiting there.

There's nothing worse than opening up the the fridge and there's that there's that produce bin at the very bottom. I don't know if everybody knows about that, but it's down there and inevitably there's always something slimy in there, right? Because it's been in there too too long. I I don't want to be that way.

I want to be evergreen. I want to be able to be fresh. I want to be able to open the drawer up and get the slime off. I want to be refreshed in God's presence. So, let's jump back into our passages. This is John 2. We're going to go verse one.

And we're just going to walk through these 11 verses together and see what we can glean. Says, "On the third day, a wedding took place in Canaa in Galilee. And Jesus's mother was there. And Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding." This kind of like struck me a little bit funny.

To me, it feels like, and we we'll see a little bit more of this kind of expressed throughout the rest of the passage, but it kind of feels like Jesus is the plus one here. It it says that Mary had been invited to the wedding and Jesus also.

And Jesus being Jesus, he brought the whole posy with him. And so Jesus, even though he's the son of God, he's the savior of the world, he's the hope for humanity, he's just tacked on. that they just squeezed him into the seating chart and then had to find a few more for all his boys, right?

Mary seems like she's got some sort of authority in this event, some some position of leadership, but but not Jesus. And so, what I want to point out here in our first waypoint is that waiting does not equal worth. And what I what I don't mean is that waiting isn't worth it.

But what I do mean is that waiting does not mean that you get to step over somebody else. That Jesus, he showed up to celebrate somebody even though he wasn't given his rightful place. I mean, if if I had known that Jesus was showing up to my wedding, I'd be like, "Hey, like we're going to just like stop the whole wedding thing and we're just going to celebrate the fact that Jesus is here, right?"

And so Jesus, he actually steps into a position of humility. Waiting should never produce in us the the disdain for service, the disdain for humanity, the the the the pointing and judgment of other people, but it should actually produce in us exceptional humility. It it should produce in us the the the ability to serve people in a way that becomes personal because now I know that pain, too.

I'm stepping into your pain because I've experienced pain. That that's Jesus's entire point of coming that he was stepping into humanity to be with us. Not to say, "Hey, I've been up in heaven and eternity. I've been here since began since before time began, so I deserve the place of honor."

No, he came in humbly and he served people. He was the plus one, but he still created more space. We see that he he brought his boys with him, right? I mean, we get so angry when people cut us in line, right? Like especially if you're like at a theme park, if you ever been to Disney or amusement park, something like that, and like somebody like like jumps over the rail and you're like, "Hey, hey, hey, back of the line, dude.

Back of the line. I've been here for four hours. I don't care if you paid $25,000 for the fastpass. Get behind me right now." Like, we get angry about it, right? And and rightfully so. I I get it, right? Please don't wear a Fresh Life T-shirt when you're doing that.

But I I get it. the the practicality of it can can can be aggravating. But the kingdom of God is set up differently. >> It's set up so that way we can include more people. Like our our table should always have room for more. We show, hey, hey, right here, you got a spot in line right in front of me.

And when your prayer gets answered, when your miracle happens, when when your breakthrough comes and Jesus shows up in your life in a miraculous way, I'm going to celebrate. I'm not going to begrudge it. I'm not going to be mad. I'm not going to be rude. My waiting doesn't mean that I'm more worthy than you.

It just means that we're waiting. Verse three, when the wine was gone, Jesus's mother said to him, we have no more wine. Woman, guys, again, why do you involve me? Jesus replied, my hour has not yet come. Jesus isn't being disrespectful to his mother here. He he's reminding Mary that he's subject only to the will of his father.

That the power and the glory that is within him can only be revealed can only be manifest when the father says here and now. Waiting is about will. His will versus my will. Waiting will prove who is Lord in my life. And we got three options. Me. Am I going to run the show?

Am I going to make the thing that I desire and I've been waiting for my Lord? Or am I going to allow the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords to dictate who I am, what I do, how I live, what I say, how I'm a husband, how I'm a family man, how I work, all of the things.

Am I going to allow the season of waiting to dictate what's happening in my life? Or am I going to take the example of Jesus and say, "Okay, no matter what's going on around me, your will be done, Jesus. Your will be done, Lord. Father, have your way in me.

In verse five, his mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." And Mary still petitioned. She said, "Yeah, you got to be submitted to the father, Jesus. I know that." She didn't think that Jesus was a genie. She wasn't asking her son to conjure up some magical moment.

She knew that he was submitted to his will, but she still petitioned anyway because waiting reveals our want. It should reveal our want. Jesus is asking us. He's inviting us in in these seasons of waiting. Will we be willing to intercede on behalf of the thing that we desire on on behalf of the people that we love on behalf of the thing that's happening in our heart?

When we take it to him and say, "Jesus, this is all the junk that's happening. All the things that I've been waiting for and all the emotions and all the chaos that's happening on the inside and all the lack that I feel and all the trouble and pain.

I'm putting it on the table. Would you do something with it?" Mary still made the ask. Seasons of waiting are made for you and I to petition Jesus. Often we we just think that we've got to grit our way through this. I got to find a practical answer to my situation, right?

I I've got to get another job or I I've just got to make that phone call. I've got to confront them or we've got to find another doctor or we we have to try this thing and go this place and we got to move because this is not the right community for me anymore.

We we do all of these things all the time trying to figure out how can I get myself out of this season when in reality the best thing that we can do is just say Jesus this is what I'm facing. this is what I'm going through and it's up to him to determine the timeline.

But he Jesus himself, he said, "Ask, seek, knock, ask, seek, knock." Verse six, nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons. And Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water." So they filled them to the brim.

Now, I want to take just a moment here and pause for a second because this is the moment where like if you were reading this this morning by yourself and you're just like trying to wake up and you're sipping your coffee, you start seeing numbers and you just skip ahead, right?

At least that's what I do. Like I'm just like, "Okay, cool. 20 30 gallons. Great. Awesome. Six jars. Next. Let's get to the cool wine part." But if we pause and just take a moment, this was included for a reason. And I think one of the things is to show the context of how much work this actually was because waiting is work.

Waiting is work. Your season of waiting is not meant for you to sit on your hands. It's not meant for you to to to just be holding your hands in your pocket and like, I can't wait for this to be over, right? Like we've all been there. like just leaned up against the wall ready to just go home, right?

Jesus is asking you to actually be engaged in this season. At the very least, our hands should be lifted in worship, right? But but he's actually calling us to more than that. He's calling us to put our hands to the plow and do something, right? So, there's six stone jars that hold 20 to 30 gallons each.

That's somewhere between 120 and 180 gallons of water. somewhere between 1,000 and500 lb. Now, we don't know the context of like how the filling process was taking place or where the water source was at, but it could have been as bad as, hey, the wells all the way down the street and now we have to carry buckets all the way back to the wedding venue and we've got to one by one fill these jars up.

At at at best the source was there, right? And they still have to go cup by cup, bucket by bucket, over and over and over 120 gallons. If you've ever picked up a 5 gallon bucket of water, you know that's a lot of water and it's not fun to have to move and manipulate, right?

It's because in the midst of a miracle getting ready to take place, Jesus invites us into the process to work along with him. He's given you something in this season. And you may not know what it is just yet, but if you say, "Father, what what would you have me do here and now?

I'm not where I want to be. I haven't laid hold of your promise just yet, but what is it that I can do here and now? He wants us to partner along with him in this work. He wants us to pour the water of our lives out. Our worship, our obedience, our faith, our generosity, our kindness, the way that we live our lives is water being poured into the vessel that he wants to use.

And that's my job. That's my job as a believer is to just keep on pouring the water. keep them. No matter the season, no matter the obstacle, no matter what's happening, I'm going to keep taking the cups. If that's all I can muster, the buckets, the tubs, the handfuls, whatever I've got, the the tears of my pain, if that's all I have, keep pouring the water.

Verse eight, then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." And they did so. Way point five is waiting. takes faith. Waiting takes faith. See, in in the context of of their culture, if you were to run out of wine at a wedding or an event like this that you were hosting, it would be a huge social embarrassment.

This family would pretty much be ruined in the eyes of the community for years to come, if not generations to come. They would be known as the family who wasn't willing to bless the community that was coming to bless them. And so in this moment, Jesus is asking the servants to actually step into a place that was probably going to lead to their judgment because everybody knows that blame goes downhill, right?

That we all say like if the servants had just rationed it better, if they had just done what they were told to do, right? So Jesus is asking them to step into a place where if this doesn't work out, they're probably going to get the blame. Their livelihood is at stake here because waiting takes faith.

For us to believe that Jesus will do what he said he will do. For us to receive the promise that we have not yet received. For us to believe that his word is true and infallible. That we would step into a relationship with a God that loves us and will take care of us.

For us to believe all of those things. It takes faith. We have to have some skin in the game. I want to read this because I I think there's another approach to this faith point that we need to see. This is Psalm 27. It says, 'I remain confident of this that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Sometimes Jesus asks us to take a leap of faith, right? The these scary moments where I I've I've got to just send it. And then there's other times where faith requires stillness. In Psalm 27, we see that one of the strongest motivators of our faith, one of the one of the greatest things that we can do in expressing faith sometimes is just to wait.

We also often think of of faith as being this this passive this waiting this this weak moment. But the word is telling us that when we wait on the Lord, we're actually positioning oursel in strength. And if you're you're a young person in this room, I I know that that like the the the jump is flashy, right?

The the the the big thing, the the the let me do the big thing for you, Jesus. Let me let me exercise my faith muscles for you. But I'm telling you that if he hasn't asked you to take the leap, the best thing you can do is be still.

And there will be moments where he asked you to get out of the boat, he asked you to walk on the water in the midst of the storm. There there's moments where it's scary and chaotic and crazy, but more often than not, he's just saying, "Will you wait for me?

Will you have the faith to wait?" Verse nine, "And the master of the banquet tasted the water, and when it turned that had been turned into wine, he did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew." Then he called the bridegroom aside and he said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first, the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink, but you have saved the best for last.

Waiting brings wine. Out of my pain and my exhaustion and my fear and my obedience and my sacrifice, out of the water of my life, he makes wine. And when when he moves, it brings the joy and the comfort and the healing and the nearness and the life and the miracle that I so desperately need.

It's it's him leading us through the waiting season that actually gets us to the place where we can begin to taste and see that he is good. Because a outside of the waiting season, if we never go through the process, if we never follow Jesus on this journey of waiting, we never make it to the point where we get to actually experience his goodness for ourselves.

We only heard about it in stories and scriptures and testimonies. But he's inviting us in to partake of this cup of wine with him. When he says, "If you will linger with me, if you'll stay in this process with me, I know it doesn't feel good. I know it doesn't make sense.

I know that it it's uncomfortable right now, but if you'll stay here, I'll have a cup for you. I have a cup for you. And it's not just a cup, it's the best. The master of the of the banquet, he says, "This is the the best wine." Like like you you totally flipped the script on everybody here.

Normally we bring out the good stuff first and then as the party goes and everybody's having a good time, we bring out the cheap stuff later. But but you saved the best till now. It just goes to show us that this process and this season of waiting and this lingering with him, it doesn't make sense to anybody else.

But he knows what he's doing and he's offering you a cup of the best. I don't want to miss the best for mediocre. I I don't want to miss the best for okay or pretty good. I want the best of the best. And if God's got something planned for me, I I don't want to miss it just by by forfeiting in the fourth quarter.

You might be in a place right here, right now, where you're like, I I'm ready to throw in the towel. I'm done waiting. I'm sick of this this this process. I'm sick of this season. I'm sick of of all of it. I just want to be done. I want to move on.

I want to get out of this. And that's why a lot of times we'll see ourselves fleeing, right? It's like, ah, I'll just get a new job. I'll just go to a new place. Uh maybe it's my marriage. Maybe it's this thing. Or we just try to get out of the discomfort.

But if you won't abandon your post, if you'll stay put long enough, if you'll linger in obedience, there will be new wine to fill your cup. And most importantly out of verse 11, what Jesus did here in Canaa of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him.

His waiting gives glory. If we can wait long enough for Jesus to unfold his plan, he'll be glorified. ((music playing)) I found it really beautiful that this first miracle that we see documented by Jesus takes place in this little town, Kaa. It's a nothing town. It's not on the map for any reason.

It's a small community and Jesus probably only went there because his mom invited him to some family friend event out in the obscurity. The Lord chose to reveal his glory through his son. Not on the temple step in Jerusalem. Not on the mountaintop with the multitude surrounded him as he preaches and is magnified and glorified and all these great things.

But small town, just a few people around. His glory is revealed. If we can allow the waiting to move us aside so that he can be revealed, then all of it's worth it. If Jesus's name can be lifted high, if he can be magnified above all things in my life, if if everything I desire and everything I want all bows its knee to the name of Jesus, then everything is worth it. and all of this, him including me in it and the faith journey and the healing process and all of that, those are things that he's doing for my benefit and my blessing so I can experience his best.

And when I get to experience his best, when I actually get to walk through this time and I get to receive the wine, all it does is it exposes Jesus for who he is glorious. And then something crazy happens right here at the tail end of verse 11 says and his disciples believed in him.

The glory of Jesus revealed through your life is contagious. And if we can allow the waiting to glorify Jesus, then your friends and your family and your co-workers and your community in this nation in this world will be turned upside down because they will not be able to turn away from the glory of Jesus.

When we represent him as he is, when he is magnified and lifted up through our lives, through our waiting, when he's poured out out of our lives, people will come along. They'll gather their flock because they need the wine that you've received. They need the blessing of the waiting.

So this morning, if you find yourself in that season of obscurity and waiting, it's been painful, it's been long, it's been tiring and grueling, I'm with you. I feel that deeply. ((music playing)) I believe this is our commission. If I could summarize our whole conversation today up in this one statement, it would be this is to worship while you wait and not what you're waiting on.

If we can worship while we're in this season, if we can continue to pour our water of our lives out, we'll see him glorified. I think sometimes we we get to this place where it's like, "Yeah, I understand that and I want all that to be true for me, but how am I supposed to do that?

How am I supposed to to worship when it hurts so badly, when it's been so long, when it's so uncomfortable?" This scripture is what started this process in my heart, and it's Lamentations 3:22. So because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed. For his compassions and mercies never fail.

They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. And I say to myself, the Lord is my portion. Therefore, I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him. It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

You know what worship looks like in the waiting? Just seeking him. Just seeking him. Just trying to find him in his word. Just trying to find him in prayer. Just trying to find him in the midst of his church. Just trying to find him. If you are constantly seeking and searching after him, if you're constantly looking for him, you will see the goodness of God.

He will be your portion forever. I'm going ask us just to stand to our feet together this morning. I believe in these next few weeks as we lean into prayer, he's posturing us in this moment to seek him in those moments. as we wake up early, as we as we jump into spending time with him first and foremost, as as a community, we're saying, God, we're going to seek your face.

We're going to worship your name. We're going to find hope for the season that we're in. We're going to find answers for the problems that we have. We're going to experience healing and restoration. And we're going to see new life come out of so many different households and so many different marriages and so many different people and places.

It's going to be radical and beautiful. But right now, if you're having a hard time believing that, if you're in in the waiting season and and your perspective is just so distorted, you can't see really what's going on, let me give you an anchor. Let me give you an assurance here.

We know that we will receive his compassion and his mercy. We know that we will receive the new wine because he said that he's coming back. And when he said that he's coming back, he also said that there will be another wedding. And at this wedding, there will be the feast of the lamb where he will have his bride, where he will have his new wine being poured out upon us.

We will have our savior, our king, our lord, and he will never be taken from us. We will never need or want or desire ever again because he promised it. We have hope and assurance for tomorrow. >> And so, I want to pray for us. If you're in a waiting season, if you've been lingering for a long time, if you feel hopeless and confused and disoriented in this moment, I want to pray, but I want us to step into this moment with faith from a place of victory because of that promise.

So, this is not a a soft prayer. This is this is bold and us stepping in saying, "We know the endgame. We know what happens at the end of this story, and he wins. Every time he wins." Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you. We thank you that you came down into the midst of our mess.

That you chose to be near to us. That you didn't put yourself up high and away and separate from us, but you came to us so that here and now in this moment, we could rely on the word of your gospel, that you are Lord, that you are Savior, that you beat death, sin, and the grave, that you have been resurrected in life forever more.

And because you live, we live. So would you pour out your wine upon us, God? God, would you heal the wounded places of our heart and of our lives and of our relationships, of our bodies. God, we need you desperately. And God, we we step into this moment with faith because you said that you will have your wedding day because you said that you will set a table before us and we will feast together.

And so Jesus, we step into that place in faith. Even though we don't see it, we don't feel it, we don't know how it's going to happen, we trust that water is being made to wine in us in Jesus name. If you're here today and you haven't stepped into a relationship with Jesus, I want to give you that opportunity right now.

If you like, it's felt like I've been waiting my whole life and I don't know what for. I I don't know why, it's been confusing, it's been hard, it's been a struggle, I'm offering you the the chance through Jesus to step in and say, "I need that new wine to cover my life.

I I want to live in a relationship with the Lord and Savior, the creator of the universe." And so, we're going to do that just by simply praying a prayer. You're just going to confess him with your mouth. You're going to mean it with your heart. And we're going to pray this together.

Okay? So, everybody all praying, nobody praying alone. Let's let's step into this moment believing that Jesus is going to come in and bring salvation into this house. Say, "Dear Jesus, I need you. Would you save me? Would you be my Lord? Would you cleanse me? Would you be the one that I follow all the days of my life?

Would you heal the places in my heart, in my soul, in my life? I give you all that I am today and every day in Jesus name. ((music playing))