How To Know You Are In God's Will

See, here you are. Thanks for being here this morning. I want to invite our graduating seniors up. This is a cool moment for us. I know.

I've seen three of you. I know that Landon is out of town, and Isaiah texted he might come in in a moment. And if not, I want to introduce these friends to you church. Give them a hand. They're great accomplishments.

I need your help. You guys switch place so that I can. It'll help me a lot. All right. So you guys, y' all may or may not know Dylan Countryman.

Dylan is an awesome guy who I've watched on TV climbing boulders upside down, and I'm amazed at this guy and so excited, not just for what you're doing now, but the way that you take your faith and you take your character into that world. And I am trusting and believing that God's going to do amazing things for you in the future. Here's something that Dylan said in 11. He said, I'm thankful for my family for always supporting me in everything I do and for my church, for always supporting my family. And so, church, thank you for being a good testament of the Lord's care to the Countryman family.

He's looking forward to seeing where rock climbing will take him next season, and he'll be pursuing a career in rock climbing competitively. We're going to see in the Olympics at some point. I'm watching. I'm waiting. You guys give him a hand.

Patrick, give him a gift.

Get some gifts for you guys. Why don't you guys take that? I'm gonna slide through here. This is Jaden Coley. Some of you guys have known Jayden since he was little, little bitty.

I got to walk around with this guy for over 10 years now. Jaden said, I'm grateful for my family and church family, for their support, helping me grow into the man I've become. I'm excited. This is cool. Y' all don't know the context, necessarily.

I'm excited to be trained by the best in my job and to see how to grow as I become more independent. His job is going to be in the US Navy, so guys, give him a hand.

And Molly, among her many talents, I've watched her play a mean steel drum, and it's one of my favorite things about Molly. Molly's gonna be heading to Texas Tech University. One there. I knew that was coming. Molly's grateful for her dog, Reese, and for her family.

She's excited to continue her journey with animals and hopefully become a veterinarian. So we love that Going to Texas Tech to major in animal sciences. You guys give her a hand.

So can I get a bag, Patrick? Let me show you guys what's in here real quick. Can I have one of those, Patrick? I'm gonna take Isaiah's and open it. Since he's not here, I just wanted him.

So. I've got some gifts in here that I hope you guys will like. Two things. I'm not just gonna unwrap it for you. You can do it on your own later.

There's a cool book in here about what happens next called Starting Now. There is a gift to Audible.com a subscription, and I've recommended John Piper's Don't Waste youe Life. I think that should be your first download immediately. A first aid kit, because you never know, right? A toolkit again, because you may never know.

Those two things go together, by the way. The toolkit, then the first aid kit, and then finally, this is just something cool I wanted you to have. There's a company called Dwell Differently, and they do Bible scripture memory through either temporary tattoos or stickers. So you let me know which subscription that you want and I'll finalize that for you. And it's just a really cool way of memorizing Scripture.

And they've got awesome designs that I think that you'll enjoy. And it will be a blessing to you as you step into this next season. I want to invite families or if you are in a life group with one of these students, or if you were a small group leader or a teacher or just involved in their life at all, come up here real quick. And as a church, the whole church, just stand up and we'll make this a good moment for them as well. Show them your presence with them as we pray for them in this next season of their life.

All right, church, if you just bow your heads and look at these leaders. Thank you for coming up. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for these students. And we thank you that it is your legacy being handed down through them.

And knowing these students, I've watched their growth and I've watched their faithfulness. I watched them discover new things about you and celebrate those things. I'm watching them take adventures in this season of their life. And we pray this that not for one moment would they forget of your faithfulness to them. For not one moment would they forget that you have always been for them and you want greater things for them that they could ever imagine.

I pray that you would surround them in the way that you have here. With people in the places that they go to who would extend your compassion and extend your care, who would guide them when they don't know which way to go, who would love them well as they're building surrogate families. And I pray that you would stand with these families who are sending children off. Parenting never ends. That's the lesson that I keep getting told.

And so, Father, I pray that you would give them courage that their job isn't done, that they would pray faithfully for their students as they go out into this world and that all of this would be done in a way that would please you and glorify you. I pray that you would continue to bear fruit through this family, the legacy family, as we go out into the world. And so thank you for Jaden and thank you for, for Dylan and thank you for Molly and for Isaiah and Landon too. God, we pray your favor over them in the days ahead. In Jesus name, amen.

Awesome. Thank you, guys.

All right, you guys can grab a seat. We're up and down a lot this morning. If you see Isaiah or Landon in the weeks ahead, make sure you give them your care as well. All right, so how many of you know that there are some big decision moments in life? Like big decisions that change everything in your life.

Like you probably pretty quickly can think of some of those. There's career decisions that you made, college, like major in college, decisions that you had to decide what's next, Those kinds of things, how you'll deal with adversity. Sometimes those decisions come your way and you got to go, which way am I going to go? How am I going to handle it? And it changes life forever.

In some ways. I personally think about in 2013, my family picked up and moved across the metroplex here to come and replant our lives with you guys. It changed us forever. And it's change our kids lives. And for so many of you and those of you who brought us here, it changed so many things.

There are relationship decision moments where everything changes. I can remember very clearly when that cute little blonde walked into the youth group. I was in eighth grade, she was in seventh grade, right? And she walked into the room and I just was blindsided. She came in, her and her best friend walked in and I grabbed the donut box.

I was so smooth and I just slid her up and I looked at her best friend and I looked at her and I offered her a donut and my undying eternal love.

Lindsey was the best friend and I was hitting on the other blonde. It was a Decision. In my defense though. Listen, in my defense, I saw Lindsay and I knew she was too smart for me. And I knew that there's no chance a box of donuts would be win her, that it was going to take the long game.

So it was a decision. And it was the decision when she finally gave me a chance to be more than a donut guy. So it's a decision. I remember when we got engaged in our church that we grew up in, Hampshire Baptist Church in DeSoto. I got down on one knee and I popped the question.

It was a decision that changed our lives forever. I couldn't imagine what our life would look like. Who would have known? When you get to that moment where all that would take you throughout your life, you never would imagine those things. Remember we had two girls and then we decided to adopt and then we adopted again.

And it changed our lives in ways we never would have imagined and still don't know what all it's going to look like. And it's changed those girls lives, Jess and Kate, it's changed Elizabeth and Claire's lives. And it's changed your life too. So many of you, it's affected you in ways. And when we make choices in these decision moments, it takes us in a direction.

And for you guys who have just graduated and a lot of you, if you've moved into a next season, you come to a decision moment and you go, what's next? And when you say what's next? You're saying no to a bunch of other things that won't be next, right? For one, yes is a bunch of no's for Jaden, for example, you said what's next? And you said the Navy means you're not eligible for the NBA draft this summer.

Which was a decision, right? That's how it works. You have to say yes to one thing and no to a whole other thing. And we have these decisions throughout our lives and the decisions we make write our story. You realize that every choice we make is making a choice about which way our life goes.

And I know we put a lot of pressure on ourselves in the decision moments of our lives because we know that decisions matter, that they have results, that they are writing a story. And sometimes we love the choices that we make and sometimes we go, maybe I should have gone a different way. And we try to divert or find a new way to start over. But we realize in these moments that these moments really, really matter. This morning I want to propose to you that there are some decisions that you need to make before the decision moments that will make all the difference.

There are some decisions that if you'll make them once and then you'll make them again and again every day, you'll begin to experience the power of God in your life, no matter what other choices come your way. And I want to show you this in a story in the Bible in the Gospel of John chapter 2. So grab your Bible, turn to John chapter 2. This is one of my absolute favorite stories in the Bible confession. If you have been to a wedding that I have led, you may have heard some observations I have about this passage before.

There's a one in three chance, because I've got like three wedding sermons that I kind of rotate. This is one of my favorite stories to share with couples when they're in that decision moment saying, I do. There's some cool things happening in here that I want them to hear. And as I was moving towards Senior Sunday and thinking about you students, this story just kept coming to the front of my mind and I just got excited. I said, this is what I want to share with you guys and what's on my heart that you would hear this morning as you're looking into what's next in your life.

And in this story in John 2, it happens at a wedding. It's not a wedding where Jesus is the officiant. He's not up front, he's there. He's not getting married. It's not about marriage.

It's not anything about love. But it's a story and a context and a community in the middle of real life. And there are a few things that are happening that I think are really important for all of us when we think about how we face life and all the decision moments ahead for us. So John chapter two, starting in verse one, it says, on the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding.

When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come. And his mother said to the servants, whatever he says to you, you do it. That's pretty good advice from Mary.

Am I right? Mark that down. There were six stone water pots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing 20 or 30 gallons each. And Jesus said to the servants, fill the water pots with water. So they filled them up to the brim, and he said to them, draw some out now and take it to the head waiter.

So they took it to him. When the head waiter tasted the water which had become wine, and he didn't know where it came from, servants who drew the water knew. The head waiter went to the bridegroom and he said to him, you know, every man serves the good wine first. And when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine. You have kept the good wine until now.

In other words, you know how a party goes when people have had a few, they've thrown them back, their senses are dulled. Then you pour out, you know, the cheap stuff, and they don't know the difference. Is what he says in verse 11. This is cool. Listen to this.

This beginning of his signs that Jesus did in Cana of Galilee. And he manifested his glory. And in this, his disciples believed in him. I want to show you there's some decisions that you need to make before the big decision. Moments that will change everything for you, that make all the difference.

And the first one is just. It's almost too simple to make this observation, but it's just there. Jesus was invited to the wedding. This is a massive thing. He wasn't invited because he was a celebrity.

He wasn't one yet. He didn't have a name that was going out in front of him. And people weren't chasing him down, trying to learn who he is and what he was about yet. He wasn't invited because he was a miracle worker. It wasn't like they said, if we invite that guy Jesus, maybe he'll do some fireworks or something and it'll be cool and be memorable.

He hadn't performed any miracles yet. Jesus wasn't invited for what he would bring to the wedding. They just wanted him to be there. He hadn't unveiled that he's the Son of God. He hadn't unveiled that he was the Messiah yet.

This implies there was some kind of a relationship to the couple or the family of the couple getting married. And they just wanted Jesus to be there with them, not as their Lord, not as their Savior, but just as someone who is in their life. Which I love this because, like, when you read a lot of the New Testament, it's written to Christians about what Christians are to do. But this is just a story. And it shows you that these people who just have some kind of a relationship with Jesus valued inviting Jesus into their life.

And this is the first really big decision that you must deal with before you face any other decision in life. You decide to invite Jesus into the center of your life. This couple invited them into their wedding. And Jesus was now in close proximity to them. Jesus proximity to these people really matters in their story.

And they made this decision to invite him to be a part of their wedding day. Now, I want to ask you a question, because I think a lot of us would probably in this room see that and go, I did that once. You know, I did invite Jesus into my life at one time. And maybe there was a moment. Maybe it was a moment in your home with a parent, or in a church service, or at a camp, or at some moment where you said, I invited Jesus into my life.

But the question I have is, how far into your life do you invite Jesus? Because some of us were like, you know, I want to invite Jesus into my church life. Because, you know, when I come here, I don't want to feel like I'm wasting my time. I want to feel like something big and spiritual, like this is something bigger than me is happening. So I want to invite Jesus into my church life, and I want to invite him into where I'm struggling with some things because I know that I need his help, But I don't know that I want to invite him into my career because it might affect some of my business decisions and it might affect my bottom line.

Or I might not want to invite him into my dating life, or I don't want to invite him into my social media accounts and have him bother with what I'm doing online, what I'm saying, or what I'm viewing online. I don't want to invite him into there. I want to invite him into my life enough to bless me. I want to invite him close enough to help me when I fall, to rise back up. But I don't know that I want to invite him into every area of my life because he may say some things.

He may have some ideas about how I should live and some decisions that I should make that are kind of radical, and maybe they will interrupt some of the things that I think I want to do in my life. He may say, I want you to do this. And I'm like, I don't really want to do that, Jesus. So I want to invite him in just enough, but not too much. But I want you to hear that proximity matters.

If Jesus had not been invited into this wedding, guess what? We wouldn't have had. We wouldn't have had water being turned into wine. We wouldn't have seen a miracle if Jesus hadn't been invited to this wedding. And even deeper, even bigger than that, verse 11 says, Jesus disciples were There with him, he had disciples, he called them.

At this point, they were following him as students of a rabbi and nothing more. They thought he was a teacher of the law, and they wanted to learn under him as students of a rabbi. But it says here, in this moment, when he opens up and does a miracle, when he begins to show manifest, it says his glory. It says now they began to believe in him. So this couple inviting Jesus into the everyday affairs of their life, into their wedding, led to Peter, James, and John and Andrew and Philip and all the disciples who would follow after them.

Even us coming to believe in him. Because Jesus was invited into this wedding. Proximity matters. And Jesus wants to be invited into every area of your life. Not just a little way in, but into the very center.

How many of you have been to, like, a concert or a sporting event in the last few years? Have you been to one? You think of one coolest concert I've ever been to. Two times, actually. I've seen U2 in concert.

Has anyone seen U2 in concert? Like, phenomenal 2005, 2009. But where I sit at a concert like that is in the cheap seats. And so Bono is, like, about this big, right? So I could, like, put him in my hand, and it's like, little Bono, because that's how far back I'm sitting.

The Mavs. Someone told me I had to mention it today. The Mavs won last night. Western Conference finals. Yep.

And the stars. Bruce, you too. No worries. Where I sit at a Mavs game, I look out at the players and I'm. I mean, honestly, I look at them, I go, I could do that.

They don't look that big, and they don't seem to be that fast from where I sit. But the couple of times I've sat up closer, I look at them and I go, oh, no, I can never. You know, they're huge, and the explosive power in them is just awestruck. It leaves me awestruck when I'm up close and I see that proximity matters. And it depends on how far.

If you sit far, far away from something, you end up just kind of sitting back and observing the thing. But the closer you get, it changes the experience. And can I tell you this? The closer you get to Jesus, it changes the experience. It just gets better and better and better.

The closer you get to him, how close will you invite Jesus into your life? How far into your life will you allow him to be? Proximity matters. If you're not close to the action, you might miss the miracle. You might not Experience the power of God unleashed in your life and the thousands upon thousands of decisions that you're going to make throughout your life.

You might miss it all if you never get to the point of saying, jesus, I want you to inhabit this space in my life. Then every decision that you make will be just you. The lid of what can happen will be what you know and what you can accomplish in your strength. But if you invite Jesus into the action, you might witness a miracle in your life. That's the first decision you should make.

And it's a decision you don't make once. It's a decision you get up every day and you recommit to it. You say, jesus, I want you all the way in. I want to invite you to every space in my life, every thought, every activity, every relationship. I want you in the middle of it and I want your hand and your power and your wisdom and your grace on all of it.

The first decision we gotta make, decide to invite him into the center of your life. Now when we think about a wedding, typically what we're thinking about is like a Friday night rehearsal and then a Saturday night wedding and then you send the couple off. We don't do rice anymore. It's something about blowing up birds. Birds.

It's like bubbles. Now is what you do. You send the couple off and then it's all over and everyone goes home and that's it. But in the first century, a Jewish wedding is something that might have lasted a week or even two weeks long as a party. Think about a two week party.

I have eight daughters and there is no way that I have the funds for eight weeks of parties. If all of them choose to get married, like there's no way that that is happening. In fact, if you come to one of my kids weddings, probably you're lucky if you get cheese and crackers. But here, like they are throwing a massive banquet and a feast that goes on for two weeks. And when they get to this party, they run into a problem.

And the problem is a major like social faux pas. This would be incredibly embarrassing for them and it would immediately end the party and everyone would go home kind of going, well, that was a real dude downer. And the problem is they run out of celebratory wine. And when this happens, Mary made a decision, the mother of Jesus, she decided to bring every need, every need to Jesus. And that's the second decision that we have to make before we get to decision moments that we are going to commit to bring every need of our life to Jesus.

And so Mary, Jesus, mom, she comes up to him and she says, jesus, they run out of celebratory wine. They run out of wine. And I don't think that she's saying it just to state a fact. She's not like, starting the gossip, starting the rumor that ends the party. She's saying this with some kind of expectation that Jesus cares and that Jesus will have a thought about it or he'll have something to say about it.

And this is also really good to see because there are so many things in our life where if you're like me, we tend to just ignore the issue or pretend like there's not a problem either. Because we go, ah, you know, problems. I don't want to deal with problems. Or we go, I don't care that much about this thing. Or this is something I shouldn't bother God with.

Like, what does God care about these little things happening in my life? Or we have a tendency to ignore an issue, or we have a tendency to try to solve it in our own strength. I'll just. I'll figure it out. I'll come up with a plan and I'll solve the problem.

But Mary didn't do either. Mary didn't ignore the issue, though. It wasn't her party. It wasn't a wedding that she was throwing. She wasn't the caterer.

This wasn't her problem. But she didn't ignore the problem. Neither did she try to run into action and solve the problem on her own. Instead, she turned to Jesus and said, jesus, we have a problem here. And what Jesus says is pretty amazing.

His first response, woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come. And let me be clear, Jesus is not being rude to his mom. If I said that today in English, in our culture, and I said, woman, what does that have to do with me? Like, I'm getting slapped immediately by my mom.

And my mom did slap me one time. It was when I got to be her height. Like, moms, when your kid gets to be your height, suddenly what happens? Like, there's a power struggle, right? I got to be my mom's height, and I stepped up close to bow up to her, and I never even saw the hand move.

I just felt it.

Woman poppin. You know, Jesus is not doing that at this moment. You don't get very far in life if you snap back at your mom. He says, woman, what does that have to do with us? And then he says, my time has not yet come.

Jesus eye was fixed on his greater purpose in this moment. And what he's saying is a couple of things. One, he's saying, it's not time for me to reveal all of who I am publicly to the world right now. It's not time for me. It's interesting that he goes there.

Think about that. She says, they've run out of wine. And he starts thinking about, I'm God, and I'm not ready to show everyone that I'm God yet. It's interesting where his mind is. It's the first thing he says.

And then maybe I'm speculating here, but it seems like what Jesus does in action is he begins to honor her faith in him more than really fixate on the practical need. Here's what I mean. Mary didn't know Jesus was going to perform a miracle, right? She didn't know he would turn water to wine. It's not like since childhood he's been doing this as a trick at home.

And every time they pour wine, you know, the guy we ran out of wine, he just goes, bring me some water. You know, this isn't something that he had done. And so Mary wasn't saying this with the expectation that Jesus was going to perform a miracle at this wedding. She just knew this Jesus character and his nature is, Jesus cares about everyone. He cares about those with whom he is invested, those with whom are part of his community.

He cares about people. He cares, and Jesus helps. And so I don't know what Mary's expectation was other than going to Jesus is a good idea. And so she says, son, they run out of wine. And it seems to me like what Jesus does is a sign of his honor, of her faith in him and his and his character, even more than it is meeting a practical need at the party.

Now, you and I, tell me, if you know this, how many of you know we will have a lot of trouble in life? Have you figured that out? Yeah. Jesus told it this would happen. John 16.

These things I've spoken to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation or troubles or many things to overcome throughout your life. But take courage or have heart. Jesus says, I have overcome all of the troubles that this world may bring into your life. I've overcome them all.

Take courage in me. Our tendency is to handle our troubles on our own, right? To try to devise some plan or some scheme to get through the problems that we face in life, or to just pretend that they're not there. We either ignore the issue or we try to solve the problem and if we ever do go for help, I don't know if you're like me in this. We are in control of the kind of help that we're willing to receive.

I will decide who I'm going to share my trouble with and how much information I'm going to give them and how much I'm willing to receive the advice that they have and what I'll actually do about it. I'm very much in control of the situation anytime I'm even asking for help. And maybe you're like me in that. I would like to encourage you in this, though. Take your every need to Jesus, throw all of it at his feet and be completely open and completely willing to receive whatever he has for you.

Trust that he cares for you. He really does that. He always has in mind what's best for you. Believe in that. Believe that he can meet every need that you have and even that he wants to surpass your need.

And he wants to bless your life in ways that you haven't yet imagined. So much so that Jesus said when he would ascend to the Father, he told the disciples, life is this. I'm going to be crucified, I'm going to resurrect, and I'm going to ascend to the Father. And when I do, you won't be left alone. The Father's going to send the Holy Spirit, who will come and he will be with you.

In fact, he says he's the helper. He will help you, the Holy Spirit, and the Father will send to My name. He will teach you all things. He will bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Because you and I can't look like Mary did at Jesus in the eyeballs and say, hey, I got a problem.

I need help. But we can. In prayer and the power and the presence of God is always dwelling in the life of the believer. He's the helper. And the Holy Spirit is a person.

It's not just a power. He's God. He's not just a person. And if you're a Christian, he is with you. If you have invited Jesus all the way to the center of your life, remember, students, when you learned in kids ministry, here, make Jesus the boss of your life.

Remember this. If you make Jesus the boss of your life, you receive the Holy Spirit to be your helper at all times. And he will help you and he will guide you and he will bring to your mind and to your heart those things that Jesus wants you to know. And that will give you life. In all of those decision moments, build that relationship with the Holy Spirit.

He's a person, there's a relationship to be built. And believe that he desires more for you and he yearns more for you than you could ever want for yourself. That's why in Romans 8 it says that he prays for you, he groans on your behalf when you don't know what you want or what you need in your life. He's praying God's best for you all the time. So dive into that relationship and build that relationship.

I think that sometimes we miss the power of God in our life simply because we don't take every need to Jesus. I think we miss the miracles that God would love to do in our life because we won't trust him with the problems of our life. So bring your every need to Jesus. It's a decision you make. Make it every day when you wake up.

I'm going to do that. Now Mary, she brings this problem, the problem of the empty wine bottles to Jesus. And in verse five, his mother said to the servants, whatever he says to do, do it again. Great advice from Mary. Now there were six stone water pots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing 20 or 30 gallons.

This is something, I think that's really interesting. I don't know, maybe I'm nerding out on this, but Jesus does a miracle, but he does it using something that is very common and sitting right in front of them, right in this moment. He didn't manifest something, you know, out of thin air and go, pow, miracle, wine, water. He takes something that is right in front of them. And I was thinking about how a lot of times we are looking for answers from God, we're looking for solutions from God.

And he chooses to do things in our life with some of the most basic common things that are happening around us. But we're not looking for that, we're looking for something else. And sometimes we miss God's answer to our problem or to that issue in our life because we're looking for something over here when he's saying no, it's right here in front of you. We just don't have eyes to see it. And this is a habit of Jesus.

I want you to understand this, this isn't a one time thing. Jesus frequently is extending his power into people's lives to bring healing and restoration and miracles and his goodness and his grace through very common, basic things in life. Think about, there's the guy who's blind and Jesus comes up to him. And he spits in the ground, makes a little mud and puts it on his eyes. And that's the means by which he gives sight to a blind man or the guy who had leprosy.

And he takes him and he says, go take a bath in a river and do it again. Do, do it again. Come back to me. And he heals him from leprosy. Just go take a bath in the river is the instruction, right?

The disciples, he says, I want you to go out and see if anybody brought a lunchbox with them to this big party. And they go out and they look, come back, and they go, hey, we found a couple of fish and a few pieces of bread. Looks like we just should send them home. And Jesus goes, this is great. I can work with this.

Watch me work. You know, this is what Jesus often does. He takes some of the most basic, common things that are happening in our life, and he uses those things with his divine touch to unleash power and to make a miracle. Don't miss the thing that he's doing because you're looking for something else. Look at what he's giving you right in front of you and how he might use it to bless your life.

Verse 7. Jesus said to them, fill the water pots with water. So they fill them to the brim. And he said to them, draw out some now and take it to the head waiter. And so they took it to him.

And here's the third decision that you need to make before all the other decision moments. And go after this ruthlessly, like, like, with reckless abandon. Go after this with 100%. Adopt this as a habit. Whatever Jesus says to do, you decide I'm going to do it.

I will do whatever Jesus says to do. And in this story, it's not like they're. This is just a simple, logical thing. What Jesus tells them to do is return. Ridiculous.

It is. It's absurd. And if I'm one of these guys and Jesus has just called me over one. Who's Jesus, right? He's not their Lord.

He's not their savior. He. They don't know who he is. He's a party guest, right? Maybe they know him by relationship.

But Jesus says, hey, go to the purification water, right? Like, go to the wash water and take that and fill some pots with it and then pour it into a cup and take it to your boss and give it to him and say, here's the wine problem, you know, solve we got it, guy. Like, they're probably afraid that they're going to Lose their job. I don't know why they did it. Frankly, they don't know who Jesus is in terms of being the Son of God, in terms of being a miracle worker.

He hadn't done these things. He hasn't revealed anything like that about himself. And yet in this moment, maybe it's looking truly into the face of Jesus and listening to what he says. When the words come off of his lips, they do whatever he says. They do it.

And we don't know at what exact moment the water became wine. Think about it. Like, I don't know if it happened when they went to the big basins of water, began to draw it out, to put it in the pot. I don't know if it was in the pot or when they began to pour it into the cup or when they carried the cup to the head waiter. Maybe it didn't happen until it got to his lips and he was about to drink it.

And then it. I don't know when it out turned. Turned from water into wine. But the miracle happened somewhere in the middle of the couple inviting Jesus into their wedding and Mary taking every need to Jesus, nothing is too small. Trusting that he cares and trusting that he wants to do what's good and what's right for people.

And in these waiters, hearing something that seems absurd and saying, well, Jesus said it. I'm going to do it. The power of God was unleashed in their life. They, and not everyone at the party knew this, but these waiters and these disciples and Mary, they knew something incredible had taken place. God had unleashed his power in their life.

And it's the same thing for you and me.

The decision before, the decisions that will change everything will make all the difference. God's power will be unleashed in your life. If you will invite Jesus to be the very center of your life. Inhabit every space in every domain, in every relationship and everything that I say and everywhere that I go. You take over my finances, you take over my business practices.

You take over my social media account. You take over my dating life, you take over my parenting. You take over everything. I trust it to you. I trust every need to you.

I'll bring everything to you, and I will do whatever you say. That's how the power of God gets unleashed in your life. And I want to encourage you this morning to trust him for that. Here's the cool thing. Here's how the story ends.

When they brought the water, which was turning into wine, to the head waiter, he took a drink, and then he called the bridegroom over and Said Guy, don't you know everyone serves the good wine first? And when the people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine, you kept the best stuff until now. I think that's a sign that Jesus, what he brings is always best. It's always better than what anyone else would ever offer.

And what he gives is full of joy and it is overflowing with joy if we will invite him and, and we will trust him fully. What he gives gives life and life abundant. I want you to know that. I want you to know it in the decisions that are before all of those that are writing your story. This is the big one.

I want you to know the joy of Jesus at work in your life. And he wants it more than I do by far. And deep down in your soul, that's what your soul is wrestling with and longing for. Every day of your life, every trouble that you face, every decision that you have, have. There's a wrestling and a longing in there to be satisfied.

And it will only be satisfied by him. Can I pray for you this morning? God? I thank you this morning for your word. I thank you that it is clear.

I thank you that you've revealed to us so many beautiful moments in the days that Jesus walked on earth. Some of them are instructive but like today's, it's just beautiful to watch you work Jesus. This is what you do because this is who you are. And in such an everyday common experience like showing up at a wedding in your community, it shows us that you are not too heavenly minded to be any earthly good. But you care about every detail in our life.

You want to be there. So I pray that we would be a people who invite you all the way in. I just think about all the frustration and all the wrestlings of those who have invited Jesus just little way in. And you wonder why life is falling apart or life doesn't make sense. It's because you held some things back.

He's not your Lord. So Father, I pray this morning the power of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, would you guide our minds and our hearts to have courage, to invite Jesus all the way in to trust you, to trust you're better and your way is better. And if you say to do this this way, it's going to be better than anything we could scream, scheme up on our own. And I pray that we would find satisfaction.

And I pray that we would find joy in the faith that we place in you. And I pray this for these who are moving into this next season of life graduated high school. And for everyone here who tomorrow is a new day and the next day is a new day. And some of those days are full of decision moments. I pray that we would lean on these decisions before the decision to carve our way.

And our story wouldn't be a story of me, but it'd be a story of your grace and your incredible, unending power and love through me and in my life. And I pray that you would extend it in ways that you would bear much fruit in our lives and throughout the world as you bring redemption and healing to those who need it most. In Jesus name, amen.