[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here, and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's word in practical ways.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in. Man, it's good to be in the house of the Lord. I'm grateful that you are here. Welcome to church, everybody. I am glad you're here. I'm glad that you're watching online. For those of you that couldn't make it with us, and maybe you're having church at home, we want to say a very special welcome to all of our friends watching from Arizona to Africa to Abilene, from Mineral Wells. We see you all the way out in Gilmer. Hey, we see you, baby Asher, watching for the very first time, just about a week old. We want to say congratulations to the Hill family. Come on, church family. Let's welcome all those that are watching in online.
Good morning to you. Grab your Bibles, if you would. We're going to spend some time in the book of John. John, chapter two. John, chapter two. If you're new to the Bible, open it up to the middle. Take a hard right. John, chapter two. As we're digging into God's word, I want to just say thank you so much for being a very generous church. You guys are an incredibly amazing, generous group of people. The things that we're able to do, not just outside, on the other ends of the earth, but the things we're able to do in our own church building are fantastic. That is all because of you and your generosity. You guys, perhaps you've noticed what was happening in our student center inside of our children's building. I think we have an incredible worship center, and I'm so grateful for this place. But our kids in the next generation, my grandchildren, my great grandchildren, I want them to know that you are a priority here, and because of your generosity, we're able to invest into the next generation. So I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for not just saying the adults get all the nice things. You remember that when you were a kid. I'm like, man, they get all the nice stuff and we get all the junk left over. Like, no, no, no. Our. Our children, they are not just. They're not just kids. Hey, they are the church. Come on, somebody. They're the church. And I want kids to have an amazing time and to feel loved and valued. And appreciated. And I'm thankful that we have a generous church that will love, value and appreciate our young ones. So thank you so much for that. So, John Chapter two. This has been an incredible season of my life. My, my wife and I are just now experiencing the first week of being empty nesters, which is, which is a strange time. It is really, really strange to come home to your house and for it to be quiet. Some of you are like, I have waited my whole life for that. Well, I'm in it and it's weird.
But let me just say we, just a week ago, we just married my daughter off to her amazing husband. I have a new son in law. Yes. And so this is, this has been a great, incredible week for our family and a lot of adjustments. But as we were approaching this wedding for my daughter, it's the last wedding, the last of my children. And so as we were approaching that, my heart was just on the weddings and kind of what the Lord was revealing in my heart through a wedding. So in John chapter two, we're talking about a very specific wedding and what happens when Jesus shows up. And so I've been a part of a lot of weddings that to have a father of the bride's perspective is completely different than just attending a wedding. So I have a new perspective on that. And as I'm studying about what the Lord is saying in this particular wedding, it's kind of opened up my heart to some new things that I want to share those with you this morning. So John chapter two. We're going to pick it up right here in verse one and spend all of our time here today. It says this that a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee and Jesus mother was there. And Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. And when the wine was gone, Jesus mother said to him, they got no more wine.
Woman, why do you involve me? I want to just camp out right there for just, just a moment. Because in our culture, in modern day culture, and especially in the south, if you look at somebody say woman, that you're ready to reap the whirlwind when you say that. Don't start any conversation. Let me just give you a nickel's worth of free advice. I feel this stirring from the Holy Spirit. Don't ever start a conversation with woman, you about to go some someplace you don't want to go and you can't, you can't recover from. No, but, but in this culture it would be the equivalent of us in the south saying, ma'am, Ma'am. So it's important that Jesus uses this particular word and not mother. So he doesn't approach Mary in this context as my mother. He says, ma'am, or in other words, there's been an authority change.
There's. There's a difference between me when I'm three years old, underneath the authority of my mother, and Jesus now, at 30 years old, saying, ma'am, I understand that you've told me my whole life what to do, but in this moment, there's been an authority change.
So Jesus says, woman. And by the way, that's not a disrespectful term.
He says, woman, what business is this of mine? He says, my hour has not yet come. Why are you involving me? And like a true. I can't help it but see a true Southern mother. His mother just said, hey, do whatever he tells you to do. She speaks to the servants. She doesn't even acknowledge that. She's like, y'all just do whatever he says. In other words, she's like, you know, you may not be underneath my authority anymore, but they're underneath your authority, so you tell them what to do. And so much of what God shows us today and the powerful things that happen come, and we have a revelation of who's in charge.
Who's in charge. And so Jesus begins to shift out of just being a son in this moment. He's like, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm not on your timetable. This is not my deal. And it helps me to raise up some questions. You see, Jesus repeats multiple time in Scriptures. He says, my hour has not yet come. And other times, he says, it's not up for anyone to know the dates or the times or the hours. Only my father knows those timetables. So perhaps in this moment, Jesus is like, I don't know when the time is, but I don't think this is it. And then God begins to whisper like, it's time. This is the moment. Your time has come.
So Jesus tells her, woman, why do you involve me? She says to the servants, just do whatever he tells you. Now, in just these scriptures alone, I think we find. We find a couple scriptures here that my Southern Baptist friends wish was not in the Bible because it mentions wine.
Now, let me just tell you, theologically, you cannot get around the fact that it uses the normal Greek word oinos, which means fermented wine.
It's there. And so theologically, you can't get around that it's there in scripture. And all my Southern Baptist friends are like, you know what? It's there. And then my Roman Catholic friends have to look at this and see the very last words that Mary ever speaks. What does she say? Y'all do whatever Jesus says to do. It's a joke, but it's also true.
The very last word she says, just do whatever Jesus tells you to do. So nearby, it says, stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons. Now, if my math is correct, and it always is, this means that there's 120 gallons of wine about to be served to some guests. Now, that is a party for real. He doesn't just give them a little thimble juice of communion wine. Come on. Jesus means business. That's a problem for some of my Southern Baptist friends. I'm just messing with you. I can't help it. So my dad was raised Southern Baptist. My mom was raised Roman Catholic, and they raised me Pentecostal. What in the world?
I got a lot of things going on in this. I'm just saying.
So Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water.
So they filled them with water to the brim. And then he told them, now, draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. And they did so. And the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He didn't realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water, they knew.
And then he called to the bridegroom, he pulled him aside and he said, you know, everybody serves the good stuff first. And then when everybody's had a little bit too much to drink, then they serve the cheap stuff. Then they break out The Mad Dog. 2020.
For those of you that giggle, you've had a past, and I'm thankful that you're here.
God redeems and restores.
He says everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine until after the gas, the guests have had too much to drink. But you've saved the best till now. That's important. Underline that, by the way, if you have a paper Bible, underline those Scriptures. Because Jesus always saves the best for the perfect time.
You've saved the best till now. That scripture, by the way, gives me a lot of hope. It's not about my timetable. It's what Jesus does when he feels like it's the right time. And it's always better.
It's always the best when Jesus is in the middle of it. You saved the best till now. And what Jesus did Here in Cana of Galilee. Look at this. Was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory. So he's revealing something he wants people to see. He's teaching us a lesson. He's showing us something more than just let some people that have been drinking too much have a lot more to drink? That's not the point. He's revealing his glory. And then I want you to see something that. I've had a hard time not seeing this scripture until this past week. This is. This is interesting. I hadn't seen it this way, but it says, and his disciples, look at this. Believed in him. This is the moment in scripture where the disciples go from just hearing his sermons, from just watching him do something, to believing in Him. This is the tipping point of their faith. They go from just hearing about him, knowing him in a surface level relationship, to something much deeper. They buy in to who he is. And I wonder, I wonder if we could just stop right there for a moment and ask you a question. What was the tipping point of your faith?
Is there a moment in your life where you say, Jesus went from being something that I heard about in Sunday school or something that somebody taught to me to where he became my personal Lord and Savior? They bought into the message. Do you have a moment in your life where you say, that's where I bought in. That's where I said, I'm all in. Whatever this is, I'm in. And if you don't have that moment, if that moment doesn't come into your. Into your mind, let me just tell you, today is your day.
Perhaps this is your moment. But there should be moments where you look back and say, that's not just a story. Now he's living in my heart. He's taking over every area of my life. The disciples believed in him. They had been following Him. Now they believed in him.
So as we're approaching this scripture, I can't help but look at it through the lens of the different weddings that I've been to. And let me just tell you, I've seen some good, bad and ugly in my almost 26 years of ministry. I was. We were trying to think, how many weddings have I done? And it's over a hundred, maybe closer to 200 weddings. That's a lot of weddings. And so I don't do very much anymore. And I've just seen. I've seen every aspect of what you can do with weddings. I've seen couples that spent all kinds of money, and I've seen couples that just didn't have a lot to spend. I've seen couples that. It seemed like the more that they spent on a wedding, the shorter their actual marriage actually got. It was so strange. Like, you put up all that money, and six weeks later, you know, I might have made a mistake. I don't know if I really like him at all. Like, you spend a ton of cash. But I've seen stuff that I thought, okay, I probably wouldn't have done it that way. And I've seen stuff like, that was super sweet. But everybody wants their wedding to be something that is unique and special to them. It should be. Should be something that you'll remember and hold it as, like, that's a special memory. It's a moment. It's something more than just another day. It's not just two people putting on each other's rings. It's. It's something. Something more than that. I've seen people that had way too much to drink at weddings. I've seen people that did things in their weddings. And I thought that that's interesting. I've seen people involve a lot of dogs in weddings, by the way, a lot of dogs. But I've never seen a single person get married with a cat anywhere close. That should tell you something. For you cat lovers, we're going to get you saved today. Come on, somebody.
I have a lot of couples in this room looking at each other like, some of you are, like, I'm bringing my cat into this wedding. This is.
But at each wedding, even though they're unique and specific and special to each person, I've seen it from a different context. To go from officiating the wedding or just being a guest at the wedding to now being the father of the bride. I understand things from a father's heart as a little bit different. And I understand that I want our guests, our friends and our family and those that are coming to celebrate, I want them to have a good time. I want them to know that we value you. We want you to be a part of what's happening here on my family's special day. And at each of these occasions, you can approach these with different perspectives. And when you begin to look at what God, the Father's heart is for this wedding, you see, it's more than just about some water becoming wine. But there's a message here for us to learn.
And I think many people spend a lot of their time in discussions today thinking about what Jesus might have looked like. And we have, you know, Chinese Jesus, and we have white German looking Jesus. We have black Jesus. And I think Jesus honestly probably looked more like me than some of you.
But that's my personal opinion. More than what Jesus might have looked like. What we see in this story is his personality.
And there are things about Christ's personality in this story that still speak to us today. Powerful lessons that we need to know as believers that would encourage us and bring us hope.
Here's the first of three things I want to share with you. If you're a note taker, you might want to write this down. Number one, Jesus still responds to invitations.
Jesus still responds to invitations.
Now, we see this at multiple points in Scripture that Jesus was invited to several weddings and he always showed up. But not only weddings. Jesus was invited to dinners. Jesus was invited to people's homes. And guess what? We don't find any occasion in Scripture where Jesus says, nope, too busy, can't come. Jesus responded to invitations at every single point in scripture. That tells me something.
It tells me that Jesus was the kind of person that people wanted to be around.
When it tells me that he said, let the children come to me. Children wanted to climb on Jesus. It takes a special person for kids to want to be around you, to climb on you. They don't go around people that are crusty and old. They don't get around the grumpy ones unless you're grandpa. And then they know that it's just an actual. But kids want to be around people that are fun, that have personality, that have life. And we see that Jesus responded to invitations, people wanted to be around him. And so as we look at this and see the kind of personality that Jesus has, it helps us to see not only who Jesus was, but who would not be invited to a wedding, who would not be invited to our house, who we would not invite to have dinner with us. And the people that you don't invite to a wedding, the people that you don't invite to your home, the people that you don't invite yourself to have to have dinner with. Those are generally people that are disruptors, people that are full of drama, people that are. That are distant, that you're like, I don't really know that person. I don't have a relationship with him. Let me just say it's a beautiful thing when you get invited to someone's home, when you get invited to dinner, people want to spend time with you. If you're like, I've never been invited to a wedding. Nobody ever asked me to come to dinner. I've never been at anybody else's house. You're probably really grumpy and we're going to help you today.
But people want to be close to those who they want a deeper relationship with. And we see this about the personality of Christ, that he was invited and he says yes.
And when Jesus said yes, every time he showed up to any of the things that he was invited to, please hear me. Something miraculous happened, something beautiful, something special happened. What does that show us today that's so important for us to know? It shows us that where Jesus is welcomed and honored, the miraculous follows. Let me just tell you, Jesus was there for that couple on their special day. Jesus cared about their marriage and he cares about yours. Jesus cared about their family, and he cares about yours. And when we invite Christ into every area of our life, the miraculous is the byproduct of what happens when Jesus is in the middle.
I think it's easy for us to see that, but I think if we were to be honest today, we would say, yes, there are parts of my life that Jesus has full access to, parts of my life where I've invited him in. When I was sick, when I needed help, when I was struggling with my seventh grade math test, I needed Jesus.
But perhaps there are some areas of your life where you say, that's a no invitation, Jesus, I don't want you here. Why? Because. Cause you're going to disrupt that. You're going to mess up what I got going. And it might be a relationship that you have with someone, it might be an addiction issue that you're. That you're struggling with. I don't want you in this, Jesus, because you're going to mess it up. And I like that.
Perhaps this is a financial thing.
I don't want you in my finances. You're going to mess it up. I've got just enough. I don't want to get Jesus into my finances. He's going to mess it all up. Let me just remind you, this story shows that wherever Jesus is invited, what he brings is better than what you have. He's always in a position to give you more than what you're afraid to let him into.
So here is the personality of Christ saying, look, I want to be involved in every area of your life.
Jesus wants to be Lord of all, Not Lord of most, Lord of all. And what he has for you is good. Scripture backs this up. In Revelations, chapter three, Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock.
And he says, anybody that hears my voice, he says, I'm. Not only am I knocking, I'm calling out, come on, let me in here. Let me into your marriage. Let me into the relationship that you have with your children. Let me into your finances.
He said, if anyone hears my voice and opens up that door, he says, I'm gonna come in.
Now, back in my day, we played a game called Ding Dong Ditch. And we used to go to neighbor's house or the cute girl in the neighborhood and. And you ring the doorbell and then you take off and just dive in the ditch and they come like, where? Who's that at my door? I don't know why. It was a weird thing. That was before ring cameras were invented and life was better and easier then.
Jesus doesn't do that.
He's not a savior sitting at the door of your heart that the moment that you open them in, he says, yeah, you know what? I've disappeared.
He wants access to every part of your life, my life, our lives. So Jesus still responds to invitations. And perhaps today is a day where we can invite him into the parts of our life that we don't like to talk about at parties. Maybe invite him into the parts of our life where like, this is. This is messy.
This is, this is. This is a problem.
Jesus still responds to invitations. Here's the second thing that we see from this scripture. Number two. Jesus still cares about the details.
He still cares about the details. There are some things in life that you can plan it out to a T. But there are some things in life you can't plan. And you're just having to hope and believe that, okay, God, you're going to have to show up and help with this because I can't control that. We recognize this. And we were putting this wedding together for my daughter, and a lot of the wedding was going to be held outside. And let me just say that in Texas that is generally a bad idea because. Cause we have two seasons in Texas, like really, really hot or nader season, tornado. Okay? That's pretty much the seasons that we have. It's either gonna be really, really bad or really, really bad.
And we get about 27 minutes in a year where the weather is just perfect. But in the wedding for my daughter, the Lord just cared about the details and it was perfect. Incredible weather outside. And I'm like, thank you, God. I can't control that.
But a fantastic day with perfect temperatures with the sun coming out after it, raining on the front end, raining afterwards. The perfect day because God cares about the details of our lives. And in this story, we see that this, it says this day Three of a wedding. By the way, the Jewish ceremony for weddings does not last like the 30 minute American version of the weddings or the two hour version that some of y'all have. Don't do that to us as a guest. We ready to go home or get to the table to get something to eat. This ain't about all that. Shorten it up.
Help me help you. Right? Let me help you. And so a Jewish wedding would generally last seven days. That's some for real partying. And it says there at day three. Now, I don't know if my math is correct, but you didn't even make it halfway.
So it shows us in this situation that if this was your wedding, you'd recognize that I've either made one of two errors. Either. Either I didn't plan very well or I didn't budget very well.
But either way, what's about to happen to this couple and to this family is embarrassment.
Embarrassment.
Now, I'm also getting to the age where there's not a whole lot that embarrasses me. I talk for a living. I say dumb stuff all the time. I get it. I understand. I'm now getting older. And the things that my kids say back to me, I'm like, I didn't realize that was embarrassing. But apparently they just. What I say is embarrassing. And then there's. It's how you said it. Like, I don't know any other way to talk. It's worked pretty good for me for almost 50 years.
But there was a time in my middle teens, like 13 to like 15, where everything was embarrassing. You just want to die. You know, just. I'm embarrassed. Oh my God. Like. But here we find two families that are about to be really publicly embarrassed.
But thankfully they had invited Christ to be a guest. And where Christ comes, he's not here to embarrass, he's here to help.
And I want to remind you of how important that is for Christ to be what we focus our marriage and our lives on. He's not out to embarrass me. I think many of us had this idea in our hearts that if I invite Christ to this area of my life, he's going to embarrass me.
If you invite Christ into this, this part of your life that's dealing with lust, it's going to be embarrassing. Let me just remind you, what God brings is better than what you have.
But if I turn this part of my life over to Jesus, he's going to send me to Africa someplace I'll be Working at some orphanage in the middle of nowhere, maybe. You know what? When you get there, you're going to love it.
You won't feel embarrassed at all. Going to say, I was built for this.
Jesus, please hear me. Jesus never set out to embarrass anybody, and he is in no danger of starting with you. We cannot find a single instance in scripture where Jesus embarrassed somebody. We can only find moments where Jesus publicly criticized people that were leading people the wrong direction. You know who publicly criticized the religious leaders of the day? Never. People like me and you.
Jesus never set out to embarrass anybody and doesn't.
Jesus cares about the details of their lives. He cares about the little things. He cares about those. Why? Because he wants us to rely on him to fill in the gaps of the things that we could not possibly do on our best day.
God's word reminds us of this. In First Peter, chapter five. He says, cast your anxieties. Cast your cares on him. Why? Because he cares for you.
It would be easy for us to say, lord, I know that this is, you know, the things that I'm walking through are not like the salvation of the world. And things I'm walking through are not like, you know, this and that, that people are struggling with on a global scale. I get it. But it's important to me.
Now, what's the main thing of this wedding? That the couple gets married. Right? That's the main thing. And they would have had a great story to look back and say, remember that time we had a wedding and we ran out of wine? Everybody was staring at us like, it's so embarrassing. But, hey, the struggle is real. We're just getting started. That's all we had. You know, many of us have the exact same story. Not that big of a deal. You're gonna get over it.
But it was a big deal to them.
It shows us that God cares about the little things. God cares about the details of our life, and he's not here to embarrass anybody. Jesus still cares about details. Here's the final thing I want to leave you with. Number three.
Jesus. Miracles still reveal his mission.
It says, Jesus revealed his glory through this. And every miracle that Jesus has ever done is not just about the miracle. It's about the mission of what he's here to accomplish.
It wasn't just about serving some wine to some people who had already been drinking for three days. That's not the point. He's revealing his mission. He says to his mother, my hour's not yet come. Why Are you involving me? She's like, no, no, no. I'm still your mom. And I know who God's created you to be.
I know that God cares about this couple.
So she tells the servants, just do whatever Jesus tells you to do.
By the way, if you're an underliner, if you have a paper Bible, underline those words, do whatever he tells you to do.
There's some power there. And in this moment, we find some great things about Jesus personality and his timetable. He tells Mary, look, it's not my hour. Or in other words, I'm not on your timetable. I'm not even on my timetable. I don't get to decide. But I'm on the Father's timetable.
He shows us there that he's on his Father's timetable. And here's the. Here's the. Here's the crazy part. Jesus never once rushes the process.
Did you know that? Jesus never rushes any process. That he's not going to rush it with you. Doesn't rush it with me. He doesn't do what we want on our timetable. He does it at the perfect time.
He doesn't rush the process. Let me think about it this way. Jesus doesn't turn grapes into wine.
Why didn't he tell him, just go out and grab a bunch of grapes and I'm gonna. Supernaturally, you know, they just become wine. They fermented. Rush the process. He doesn't do that.
Cause he's not on my timetable. He's not on yours.
But he shows up at the perfect time. It shows us through scripture that Jesus timing is always for a couple of things. It's always for our benefit and for his glory. It may not fit what you think should be done, but it's for your benefit, it's for your good, and it's for his glory. We see this several times in scripture, but you remember when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick and he says, let's just go ahead and wait.
He's asleep.
Asleep. That dude died.
What we think often is the last possible minute is not.
This dude died. Jesus showed up four days later. That's past the point of being too late. Can you imagine, Lord, I'm about to die. I'm so sick, I'm gonna die. Lord says, yeah, you're gonna have to go ahead and die. I'll bring you back in a few days.
Help me.
Like you have allergies. Get up. It's gonna be fine.
Jesus doesn't rush the process. He shows up at the perfect time.
It shows me that Jesus knows The perfect time to step in. Why is that important to me? It means I can trust his judgment.
I can trust his timing.
It says here that they have six ceremonial stone jars that the Jews used for. For washing. And in this culture, what they would do is they wash every dish, they wash every utensil with this holy water kind of stuff. And. And that was an important part of their ceremony and their Jewishness. Always, always looking back to the old covenant, the old law that God had set up of. This is how you take care of yourself. You wash your hands, you wash the outside of your body. You would use it to wash the feet of your guests.
But Jesus takes that ceremonial water and turns it into wine. He said, this is something that they used to wash the outside, but the wine goes on on the inside.
His miracles reveal his mission.
It's about more than trying to clean yourself up. It's about more than trying to show yourself from an outside perspective. I'm pretty good. I got it all together.
I got a business. I've got some new toys. I've got some nice things. I should be respected. Jesus like, no, no, no. It's what's on the inside I need to get on the inside. You may be all nice and cleaned up, smelling good on the outside.
He said, let's talk about what's going on on the inside. See, it's not about washing your hands. It's not about getting yourself as clean as possible if what's going on on the inside is really filthy.
And I found this to be true in my own life. Being a pastor's kid and growing up in the church, I recognized very, very quickly that appearances matter.
We can't do this because what would people think? We can't do this. What would people think? What would people think? What would people think? I understood that I couldn't follow all of the rules because every time you come up with one, they'd come up with the next one. You'd be like, I can't even get the other ones down. That's what happens when you're raised Pentecostal. Please hear me, mom and dad. That was tough on me. I'm grateful for you, but that was tough on me. There's so many rules, but Jesus takes the old covenant and says, I need to be on the inside.
I recognize that when Jesus says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. Have a hard time reading that with the wrong covenant in mind.
And a new revelation would say, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.
If I'm on the inside. If you have a love for me, you don't have to worry about breaking the commandments. So it's not what I can do on my best day. See, Jesus was pouring out not just wine, but it's symbolic of his blood, symbolic of what would be poured out on the cross for me and for you. Jesus blood does what my best efforts to clean myself could never do.
I'm not good enough, and neither are you. Thank God we have a savior that can turn water into wine. I couldn't fix myself, and I think maybe somebody needs to hear that. I want to camp out on that for just a moment. You can't fix you.
You can't fix you.
But there's a savior that helps me, that sympathizes with my weaknesses, that loves me.
Let me show it to you this way. Wine is completely different than water. Water can never make itself into wine, no matter what you do with it. Water doesn't become wine.
Wine can't make itself without a little bit of help.
Water can't make itself into wine, and you can't make yourself change either. It takes the power of Jesus.
He takes me from what I needed to be.
It shows me that I can be, not through my best efforts, but through his blood.
It goes on to say that the master of the banquet tastes this wine and he's like, whoa, that's incredible. Jesus takes what was ordinary water and makes it into something exquisite.
That helps me to see that his mission for my life is to do the same. His mission for your life is to do the same. He takes what was ordinary and makes it exquisite. Let me ask you this. Would you say that you need a little help in some area of your life?
Yeah. When you look at your life, would you say, I need some help? There's parts of my life I need some miracles.
I need Jesus to begin to speak in this area. Let me ask you this. Have you invited him in?
Have you asked him to come to be a part of your marriage?
Are you busy trying to fix it with your best efforts?
Have you invited Christ to come in to be part of your finances? Are you trying to just make enough.
Have you invited Christ into the relationship that you have with your children or your grandchildren?
Because Jesus is standing at the door and knocking, saying, I want to be a part of this. I want to be invited in. He will never force himself into those areas of your life. He's a gentleman, but he's asking. He's calling out, he's knocking.
Come on, let me in there. And as we finish up today, I want to just ask you, are there parts of your life that you'd say, I need to let Jesus have access to that?
Is there a lust issue that you're fighting? Is there some marital conflict?
I need Jesus to help me. Let's spend the next few moments asking him to come into those areas, submitting and surrendering those areas of our lives, saying, lord, I need your help. And know that when he comes in, he's not here to embarrass you. He's not here to destroy what you've got going on. He's here to give you something better than what you have.
Would you bow your head and close your eyes with me? I want to pray for you right now. How many of us would say, there's parts of my life that I need to ask Christ to come into? I hear what you're saying. You're bringing up stuff in my life, and I'm like, that's me. You're speaking to me. Where you at? Can you lift up your hands all across this place? Yeah, I see you. Good, good, good, good, good. You put your hands down. Good for you. Good for you. How many of us would say, I need a touch from Christ in that area. I need that today. I need some help. Yeah, Father, right now.
Lord, we come into your presence, asking you to come and do what only you can do. Lord, we cannot fix ourselves. We can't make things happen with our best efforts. We can't fix ourselves.
So, Lord, we ask you to come.
We ask you to speak hope where there was no hope.
Speak healing, Lord, to our hurts, our wounds, Lord, we ask that you would speak freedom to our addictions and our failures.
Help us to walk free from shame and guilt because of the blood that you shed for us, the blood that you poured out.
We can have hope. We can. We can have freedom. We can have healing. We can have the miraculous. You've provided it for us. So, Father, we give you full access to our hearts, to our minds, to our lives, to our finances, to our marriages, to our families. Lord, we give you full access to every part of our life, Those parts that are messed up and broken. Father, we submit them to you right here and right now. We ask that you would come.
Come, Lord Jesus, come.
And with heads bowed and eyes closed, maybe you're here today saying, pastor, if I'm going to be honest with you, man, I don't really have a relationship with Jesus. You may have been raised in church like me, but you're so far From God. And you know it. God knows it. You sense it. As a matter of fact, your heart is starting to beat a little bit faster right now because you're here for a reason. God led you here for this moment. You're here for this specific moment. And God is saying, come home. You may say, how do I do that? My friend, if you could see it right now, God himself is reaching his hand down to you, saying, I made a way for you.
If you want a relationship with Jesus, or if you've been far away from him, you want to be close to him, today, I want to invite you right where you are to pray a prayer with me. You can pray it out loud if you want to. You can pray it with a whisper. It doesn't matter. But if you want a relationship with Jesus, let me help you with the same prayer that somebody helped me with one time.
Pray this with me. Just say, jesus, I believe you're the son of God.
I believe that you came and died, and I believe that you rose again so that I could have life and forgiveness for all of my sins.
I pray this to my friends. Say, I've messed up.
I need your help.
Will you forgive me?
Will you save me?
And now say this, Jesus, I give you my life.
I'm all in.
Thank you for loving me.
And with heads bowed and eyes closed, if that was you and you prayed that prayer with me, nobody else looking around, if that was you and you say, pastor, I did. I prayed that prayer with you. Would you just lift up your hand all across this place? Let me see you. Good, good. Yes, yes, I see you up there in the back. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Young lady. Good for you. I'm so proud of you. Perhaps you're watching online and you'd like, I prayed that prayer with you. I want you to know that if you're here in person or watching online, there is a phone number appearing on the screen in front of you. And just those of you that pray that prayer, would you go ahead and look up at that number and do me a huge favor. Text me, text the words I prayed to that phone number. When you do that, what's going to happen? I'm going to send you back the link to some things that will help you understand what just happened in your heart and what to do next. I'm super proud of you. Good for you. Thank you for doing that. How rich family. Go ahead and look up at me if you would. Let's stand to our feet together today. And as we finish up our service, I want to just remind all of you that are watching online and perhaps you that are here today that would be willing to share this message on social media. It is a huge blessing when you click that share button when you say, my world needs to hear this message. My friends, my family, those that I'm connected to on social media, they need to hear this message. When you share this message, it is making a massive impact all around the world. We get stories all the time of people that are watching that have never been in this building, never been to East Texas, that are saying, I tuned in, I watched this story, and I gave my life to Christ, I prayed, and those stories are incredible at what keeps us going. So thank you so much for sharing this. Elders and wives are going to go ahead and make their way up here, and they're going to be available to pray for you about anything that you might need prayer for. These guys will stay right here as the service ends to make themselves available to you. And we're getting real dark. Oh, we're about to get intimate. All right, now every head bow. No, I'm just kidding. Maybe that's the time we should take up an offering. Ushers, close the doors. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Let me remind you of two things. Hey. The most incredible men's event ever in the history of our church is coming up. That is Beast Feast that's coming up in May. Let me just tell you, there are guys coming in from all over the country to be a part of our Wild Game dinner and our massive giveaways. People are gonna hear about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's gonna be awesome. So, ladies, if you have a husband, if you have a boyfriend, send them both. Make sure that they're here. And then also, in just a couple of weeks, hey, Easter's coming. And so we cannot fit all the people that are coming to this church all in the same building at the same time. So we've got a bunch of services happening. So let me just tell you, we've had to shorten up our services a little bit. So there's going to be five services, each of those happening on the hour. So 8, 9, 10, 11, 12:00. And so just. Just know that what we'd like for you to do is if you're coming by yourself, do us a favor, go ahead and show up to, to the earlier service or to the later services. Those tend to have a little bit more room. But if you're bringing people, you can come to any service. That you want to come to, but generally they tend to show up in the middle services, the 10:00, the 11:00, somewhere in there. So just be mindful of that if you would, that there's going to be a lot of people here, so put on your best smile. Welcome a lot of people that need to hear about the message of Jesus. It's gonna be awesome. Invite them. They will come and God wants to use you to make a difference in your world for everybody else. Let me pray for you and bless you as we go. Father, would you bless my friends with an incredible week, being led by your spirit all week long. These things we ask in the mighty name of Jesus and everybody said together. Amen. God bless you as you go. Hope you have an awesome week.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening in today. Our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this PODC and leave us a review wherever you're listening. If you want to be a part of our online community, connect with us through Facebook or Instagram with the handle hyridgelv or you can check out our
[email protected] lastly, if this ministry has impacted your life and you'd like to support its work, visit highridgelv.com give we appreciate your support and we're believing with you today for God's best in your life. Have an incredible week and we will see you next time.
