WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.400 I am wired up, yep. Morning everybody. That was nice, not. For those of you that don't know, 00:00:09.500 --> 00:00:17.960 my name is Karen and I am a semi-retired teacher and there will be relevance to that later on, 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:26.460 okay? So we're going to look at John chapter 2. If we can have the words up on the screen, 00:00:26.460 --> 00:00:36.150 that would be marvelous. Okay. So just to recap, because being a teacher, I can't get out of doing 00:00:36.150 --> 00:00:42.870 ways in a certain way. And when you're teaching, you always recap on the learning that's gone 00:00:42.870 --> 00:00:50.050 before. Okay. So before, in chapter one, we're introduced to Jesus. We're introduced to John 00:00:50.050 --> 00:01:02.420 the Baptist who points the way to Jesus. In John chapter 1 verse 33, he said, when God sent me to 00:01:02.420 --> 00:01:08.180 baptize with water, he told me, when you see the Holy Spirit descending and resting on someone, 00:01:08.700 --> 00:01:16.260 he is the one you are looking for. He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. I saw this 00:01:16.260 --> 00:01:24.080 happened to Jesus. So John is saying, Jesus is the one. And also you get to find out who his first 00:01:24.080 --> 00:01:31.380 disciples were, okay? And then we move on to chapter two, and it goes like this. This is the 00:01:31.380 --> 00:01:38.040 NIV version, I believe. On the third day, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:47.000 there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, 00:01:47.720 --> 00:01:51.720 Jesus' mother said to him, they have no more wine. 00:01:53.430 --> 00:01:56.350 Woman, why do you involve me? 00:01:56.690 --> 00:02:00.550 Jesus replied, my hour has not yet come. 00:02:03.610 --> 00:02:06.930 His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. 00:02:08.460 --> 00:02:14.240 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:18.300 each holding from 80 to 120 litres. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:26.300 Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water so that they filled to the brim. 00:02:28.180 --> 00:02:33.500 Then he told them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. 00:02:33.500 --> 00:02:40.240 They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned to wine. 00:02:41.220 --> 00:02:47.440 He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. 00:02:48.140 --> 00:02:50.600 Then he called the bridegroom his side. 00:02:51.600 --> 00:02:55.300 And he said, everyone brings out the choice wine first 00:02:55.300 --> 00:02:59.940 and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink. 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:03.540 But you have saved the best till now. 00:03:05.420 --> 00:03:09.820 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs 00:03:09.820 --> 00:03:15.660 through which he revealed his glory and his disciples believed him. 00:03:15.660 --> 00:03:21.040 after this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples 00:03:21.040 --> 00:03:29.860 and they stayed for a few days so if you want a really short sermon what I could say is 00:03:29.860 --> 00:03:36.160 Jesus and disciples went to a wedding his mum was attending the wine was running out 00:03:36.160 --> 00:03:43.400 Mary informs Jesus Jesus turns the water into a very good wine the first miracle the first display 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:54.550 of his glory. And then his disciples believed in him. And now you can go home. So the reason why 00:03:54.550 --> 00:04:00.850 I talked about being a semi-retired teacher is because I only work part-time. And working 00:04:00.850 --> 00:04:10.330 part-time means that I can go on holiday in term time. Yay! And this year, Jonathan and I went on 00:04:10.330 --> 00:04:21.740 our first and last sea cruise. Things we didn't know. One, you don't go in January. Two, you don't 00:04:21.740 --> 00:04:27.240 go to what we went to the Canary Islands, which apparently are called the Windy Islands. Who knew? 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:34.520 One of the islands we went to was a place called Forteventura. Has anybody been? 00:04:35.820 --> 00:04:42.520 One or two? Yeah. Okay. So we were there for two days. The first day, we just did a little walk 00:04:42.520 --> 00:04:46.780 around the port and I'm sorry for to venture I'm just going to say it was a little bit boring and 00:04:46.780 --> 00:04:51.840 there wasn't a lot to see so we were there for two days so the second day we thought well we're 00:04:51.840 --> 00:04:59.580 going to have to do something so we paid to go on a seven and a half hour trip everywhere aloe vera 00:04:59.580 --> 00:05:07.170 farms goat farms the lot the guy in the minibus uh took you know we literally went all over the 00:05:07.170 --> 00:05:14.800 island and what I noticed was the mottled greenness on the mountains the thing I loved about the 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:19.600 Canary Islands were all the mountains. Beautiful. And what I really loved was when the clouds 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:26.240 literally rolled back. It was just gorgeous. And I was looking at these mountains and I said, 00:05:26.500 --> 00:05:31.680 you know, they're really beautiful. He said, they are now. He said, if you'd come two weeks ago, 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:37.840 what you would have seen is brown. And if you come in another month, you'll probably see brown. 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:45.240 We've had some rain that we don't normally get. The mountains are the greenest they've been 00:05:45.240 --> 00:05:52.460 in 15 years you're very fortunate to come when they're not and actually when we were driving 00:05:52.460 --> 00:05:57.900 in through the mountains and you could see the greenness and not just greenness beautiful 00:05:57.900 --> 00:06:04.510 beautiful little flowers but two weeks ago they hadn't been there they were brown 00:06:04.510 --> 00:06:12.810 and you wouldn't have thought it possible that the water would come and change the vista that 00:06:12.810 --> 00:06:20.140 we were looking at. To know that, you'd probably have to have scraped a little bit under the surface 00:06:20.140 --> 00:06:28.650 to see those plants that were ready to come up when a little water came down. And that's what 00:06:28.650 --> 00:06:36.740 we're going to do now. We're going to scrape under the surface. What I want to say to you is, 00:06:37.440 --> 00:06:43.220 as a Christian, if you read the Bible, there is more than one way of reading it. 00:06:43.220 --> 00:06:50.200 if you just read it on the surface, like I've just done, you're not going to move on much as 00:06:50.200 --> 00:06:57.840 a Christian. If you like, you're still going to be a baby drinking a bit of milk. If you want to 00:06:57.840 --> 00:07:02.900 grow as a Christian, you're going to have to think about the word. You're going to have to let it 00:07:02.900 --> 00:07:09.550 settle. So Nick texted me earlier on in the week, I think it was Tuesday, and said, have you 00:07:09.550 --> 00:07:14.250 remembered your preaching? And I said, well, you're a bit stuffed if I haven't, aren't you? But yes, 00:07:14.250 --> 00:07:23.440 I have because I like to sit with the passage for a good while and I've got a friend who's just 00:07:23.440 --> 00:07:30.200 become a Christian and she's I said do you want to join the book club she said no I only read one 00:07:30.200 --> 00:07:38.920 book she's absolutely overwhelmed with the bible and has bought more bibles or I've given her a few 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:43.320 and then she's bought more and and she likes to journal and she likes to draw pictures next to 00:07:43.740 --> 00:07:45.380 And I said, have you read this passage? 00:07:45.500 --> 00:07:47.020 She said, no, I'm only on the same verse. 00:07:48.090 --> 00:07:50.030 And she might be on that verse for a good few days. 00:07:50.090 --> 00:07:51.270 She's letting it settle. 00:07:52.440 --> 00:07:55.620 And I can see the growth because of that. 00:07:57.230 --> 00:07:59.050 So if you want to move on 00:07:59.050 --> 00:08:05.780 and allow the Holy Spirit to work more in your life, 00:08:05.780 --> 00:08:08.920 my advice to you is don't surface read. 00:08:10.530 --> 00:08:11.510 Let it settle. 00:08:12.210 --> 00:08:14.470 Dig a little deeper and see what's underneath. 00:08:14.610 --> 00:08:15.530 So that's what we're going to do. 00:08:16.410 --> 00:08:20.130 Would you mind ever so much putting the Bible passages back up 00:08:20.130 --> 00:08:24.030 and starting from the top of Chapter 2 for me, if you can? 00:08:26.220 --> 00:08:26.440 OK. 00:08:27.080 --> 00:08:34.450 Now, I'm the kind of person that asks a lot of questions. 00:08:34.570 --> 00:08:35.530 I'm really annoying. 00:08:35.930 --> 00:08:38.290 So we went to Graham and Steph's a few weeks ago, 00:08:38.810 --> 00:08:40.780 and I said, oh, I've got questions. 00:08:41.040 --> 00:08:42.760 And I started asking them questions, 00:08:42.760 --> 00:08:44.300 and I can't remember which one of you said, 00:08:44.380 --> 00:08:45.900 is the interrogation over now? 00:08:46.810 --> 00:08:47.470 Was it you, Graham? 00:08:47.470 --> 00:08:52.050 or if I'm at a meeting and the meeting says, 00:08:52.150 --> 00:08:53.250 has anybody got any questions? 00:08:53.450 --> 00:08:55.930 They all look at me, especially if it's an education one, 00:08:56.090 --> 00:08:59.470 because I'm going to ask questions, okay? 00:08:59.850 --> 00:09:02.630 So I started by thinking, okay, 00:09:02.870 --> 00:09:08.470 so why were Jesus and his disciples invited to this wedding? 00:09:08.470 --> 00:09:11.390 Because he'd only just gathered some of these disciples. 00:09:12.170 --> 00:09:15.430 But I'll talk to you about how weddings worked. 00:09:16.290 --> 00:09:18.710 Weddings at that time, and still now, 00:09:18.710 --> 00:09:25.110 if you go to Greece whole villagers are invited to a wedding it's not just a few and it's not just 00:09:25.110 --> 00:09:32.750 for a day so if it's Jesus it says on the third day so they've been around for three days so 00:09:32.750 --> 00:09:39.760 therefore they'd get invited because they were there okay and Jesus' mother was also there okay 00:09:39.760 --> 00:09:56.460 next bit please if you wouldn't mind they'd been invited to the wedding okay next one okay so this 00:09:56.460 --> 00:10:04.110 is where you need to dig deeper, okay? When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, 00:10:04.290 --> 00:10:11.030 they have no more wine. Now, in the NIV, it says Jesus' mother. If you read other versions, 00:10:11.030 --> 00:10:21.200 it will say nothing. Give me the next verse, please. And then it says, woman, why do you 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:31.130 involve me, my hour has not yet come. You can easily sweep over that, but there's an awful lot 00:10:31.130 --> 00:10:38.660 in there. First of all, he doesn't say, mother, why have you involved me? Now, woman doesn't cut 00:10:38.660 --> 00:10:44.120 it either. There is no word in the English language for the Greek word that Jesus uses at 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:53.950 this point, because I think that sounds quite harsh. Woman, why have you involved me? And it isn't harsh. 00:10:54.750 --> 00:11:04.450 Okay? And why have you involved me doesn't cut it either. It's in the Old Testament too, 00:11:04.510 --> 00:11:12.740 and the New Testament. It's almost a phrase. And basically it means, what has this situation got 00:11:12.740 --> 00:11:20.440 to do with you or me? The wine's run out. Not your problem. Not my problem. So what has that 00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:28.910 got to do with you or me? My hour has not yet come. What on earth does that mean? 00:11:29.390 --> 00:11:31.540 I'll come to that in a minute. 00:11:33.210 --> 00:11:38.510 I think, and I've read every, well, I've read a number of books about John, 00:11:39.010 --> 00:11:43.610 because Jonathan's got humongous amounts of books on every book in the Bible, 00:11:44.660 --> 00:11:48.840 and there are lots of reasons why you've got that woman, 00:11:48.840 --> 00:11:53.960 why do you involve me, and why is that word woman not really a good interpretation? 00:11:54.420 --> 00:11:56.460 Why does he not say mother? 00:11:57.450 --> 00:12:00.610 Mum, this isn't your problem, and this isn't my problem. 00:12:00.610 --> 00:12:12.320 these are my thoughts on why that is if we think about Mary when the angel comes and says to her 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:20.730 you're going to have a baby and you're a virgin what she says is your will be done 00:12:20.730 --> 00:12:33.340 I am your servant and you've got this whole thing about her letting God do whatever he wants with 00:12:33.340 --> 00:12:42.860 her, okay? And that's what she's doing here. She's not talking to Jesus as her human son. 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:54.020 She's talking to him knowing that he is the son of God, yeah? Because he's the only one in her eyes, 00:12:54.020 --> 00:13:00.010 I think, that can actually make a difference in this situation because there is no wine. 00:13:00.010 --> 00:13:10.310 so if i think he doesn't say mother because he knows that she knows that he's the son of god 00:13:10.310 --> 00:13:25.250 so she's not talking to him as her earthly son she's talking to him as god's son and i think 00:13:25.250 --> 00:13:29.390 that's why he doesn't use mother because he knows that she knows that that's what she's doing 00:13:29.390 --> 00:13:40.240 yeah and he also knows why he's involving her in a situation that neither of them need to be 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:46.140 involved in we don't know the relationship that jesus had with the bride and groom they you know 00:13:46.140 --> 00:13:51.990 were they just invited because the whole village were invited but if she's interested in the fact 00:13:51.990 --> 00:13:57.750 that the wine's running out i suspect there was a greater relationship with the bride and groom 00:13:59.460 --> 00:14:04.280 Okay, so then we come to my hour has not yet come. 00:14:07.380 --> 00:14:08.420 What does that mean? 00:14:10.640 --> 00:14:14.180 So that word hour, it can mean hour, 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:17.400 or it can mean a specific time, if you like. 00:14:20.560 --> 00:14:24.390 If you read on, further on in the Bible, 00:14:24.470 --> 00:14:26.430 when you come to Jesus' death, 00:14:27.400 --> 00:14:29.480 it talks about the hour of his suffering. 00:14:31.380 --> 00:14:34.480 So then is he talking about the time of my, 00:14:34.480 --> 00:14:42.520 if you like ministry building up to my suffering and my death we're not there yet or is he saying 00:14:42.520 --> 00:14:56.040 it's not time for me to start my ministry whatever it is she's scuppered it because she knows 00:14:56.040 --> 00:15:06.880 and he knows that she knows that he is going to do something because she's asked him well she 00:15:06.880 --> 00:15:10.740 hasn't really has she what she said is oh they've run out and running out of wine they've run out of 00:15:10.740 --> 00:15:17.380 why? It's not telling him to do anything. It's a statement. But she knows that he knows 00:15:17.380 --> 00:15:25.420 that she knows that he will do something about it. Yeah? Next, please. This is the bit I 00:15:25.420 --> 00:15:32.240 absolutely love. I blooming love John's gospel from beginning to end. And it's nuggets like 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:40.030 this. His mother said to the servant, do whatever he tells you. Again, she's not telling him 00:15:40.030 --> 00:15:52.370 what to do, is she? But she knows that he will do something, not because she's his son, but because 00:15:52.370 --> 00:16:08.370 he is the son of God. And then she walks away. Okay, next please. So, the six very large stone 00:16:08.370 --> 00:16:13.830 water jars, and I'll explain what that means, ceremonial washing. So, when the Jews came to 00:16:13.830 --> 00:16:20.990 the wedding they would have to wash to get rid of anything that had contaminated them before the 00:16:20.990 --> 00:16:30.850 wedding it was a matter of law this was what they had to do to follow the law of the old testament 00:16:30.850 --> 00:16:39.180 yeah so they had to wash in that water so jesus asks for them to be full to the brim again 00:16:39.180 --> 00:16:41.720 and it's a lot of water. 00:16:42.180 --> 00:16:43.060 Next verse, please. 00:16:45.750 --> 00:16:46.690 Okay, keep going. 00:16:49.140 --> 00:16:50.740 And then he said, now draw some out 00:16:50.740 --> 00:16:52.560 and take it to the master of the banquet. 00:16:53.260 --> 00:16:54.600 He knows what he's doing, doesn't he? 00:16:55.260 --> 00:16:57.280 He doesn't say, now draw it out 00:16:57.280 --> 00:17:01.040 and just serve it. 00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:04.620 He says, and take it to the master of the banquet. 00:17:04.880 --> 00:17:05.780 Next verse, please. 00:17:07.360 --> 00:17:09.680 The master of the banquet tasted the water 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:11.940 and it had turned into wine. 00:17:13.790 --> 00:17:15.270 He didn't realize where it had come from. 00:17:15.270 --> 00:17:21.240 nobody told him Jesus had changed the water into wine, just that this wine had been drawn 00:17:21.240 --> 00:17:28.440 and he was tasting it. Next verse, please. And again, and then he says, why have you 00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:33.300 saved the best till last? Usually people are drunk by that time and it don't really matter 00:17:33.300 --> 00:17:45.340 what you serve them. It's a bit silly. Okay, next. Right, now, this was the first of the 00:17:45.340 --> 00:17:53.380 signs, okay? John uses this word sign. In some versions, you might see the word miracle, but John 00:17:53.380 --> 00:18:00.460 uses sign a lot, and you'll find he uses the word sign much more than Matthew, Mark, and Luke, okay? 00:18:01.560 --> 00:18:12.430 He's got this thing about signs for miracles, and it's very important to him. I want to pick that 00:18:12.430 --> 00:18:20.490 apart a little bit. First of all, you've got this ceremonial washing, and that's the old way. 00:18:22.280 --> 00:18:25.440 When Jesus comes, something new happens. 00:18:26.360 --> 00:18:27.680 Life changes. 00:18:29.030 --> 00:18:34.470 Life changes from having to wash your hands ceremonially to be clean 00:18:34.470 --> 00:18:41.220 to Jesus dying on the cross and shedding his blood. 00:18:42.420 --> 00:18:46.080 And in Christianity, the symbol of that shedding of the blood 00:18:46.080 --> 00:18:48.180 is the wine that we drink in communion. 00:18:50.090 --> 00:18:54.450 So we've gone from ceremonial washing of our hands to make us clean 00:18:54.450 --> 00:19:03.420 to the new revelation that jesus makes us clean through his death and we don't have to do any of 00:19:03.420 --> 00:19:14.160 that lost stuff anymore it's gone we are under grace and jesus blood has set us free point number 00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:29.260 one okay now this sign stuff this miracle stuff i think um i want to look at a little bit more 00:19:29.260 --> 00:19:40.250 it talks about these signs being a sign of the miracle that it brings glory glory to God 00:19:40.250 --> 00:19:47.090 it is the first display of his glory what do I mean by glory you see when you read it you just 00:19:47.090 --> 00:19:58.730 wash over these words glory is the revelation of God's presence in saving action and what you've 00:19:58.730 --> 00:20:09.680 got here is God's presence. He saved the wedding, if you like. Yeah? But what he actually, what 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:18.960 this shows, when we talk about God's glory, is how he saves us. Because when we understand 00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:30.840 the revelation that he's Jesus, and we accept Jesus, then we're saved. Okay? Then you've 00:20:30.840 --> 00:20:41.750 got the bit where it says, and his disciples believed him. Why did they believe him? Because 00:20:41.750 --> 00:20:49.790 he'd shown a miracle. He'd shown that he could do miracles. And they believed him because 00:20:49.790 --> 00:20:54.590 of that. And when you get to further in the scriptures where you've got doubting Thomas 00:20:54.590 --> 00:21:01.550 and Jesus said, you believe me because you've put your finger in the hole in my hand. Greater 00:21:01.550 --> 00:21:12.600 is the faith of those that haven't seen me and believe and we are those people yeah okay now 00:21:12.600 --> 00:21:23.110 what I want to say is when we think about the wine it talked about the wine being excellent wine 00:21:23.110 --> 00:21:35.150 okay and I thought about this so give me some words that you would use to describe somebody 00:21:35.150 --> 00:21:40.210 that brings a really good bottle of wine to your house. 00:21:41.360 --> 00:21:42.100 What would you think? 00:21:44.500 --> 00:21:45.120 Generous? 00:21:47.100 --> 00:21:47.740 Rich? 00:21:49.840 --> 00:21:50.400 Anything else? 00:21:50.800 --> 00:21:51.730 Pardon? 00:21:52.390 --> 00:21:53.030 Kind? 00:21:56.780 --> 00:21:57.460 Connoisseur? 00:21:59.020 --> 00:21:59.300 Pardon? 00:22:00.110 --> 00:22:00.710 Friendly? 00:22:01.190 --> 00:22:05.960 You're worth it. 00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:08.760 Okay, I'll give you the ones that I came up with. 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:12.640 He didn't charge for this wine. 00:22:13.540 --> 00:22:14.400 It was free. 00:22:17.750 --> 00:22:19.250 It was extravagant. 00:22:21.830 --> 00:22:22.810 It was gracious. 00:22:22.810 --> 00:22:26.160 He didn't have to do it, okay? 00:22:27.650 --> 00:22:28.850 It was generous. 00:22:30.790 --> 00:22:32.610 It was an outpouring of generosity. 00:22:34.110 --> 00:22:36.210 And that is the God that we have. 00:22:36.650 --> 00:22:51.200 If we choose to believe that Jesus is who the Bible says he is, 00:22:51.990 --> 00:22:55.610 then we have a decision to make, each and every one of us. 00:22:55.610 --> 00:23:07.790 do we choose to follow the son of god who can be and is extravagant generous gracious to us 00:23:07.790 --> 00:23:16.580 or do you choose not to and that has to be your choice you choose whether you let god's word sink 00:23:16.580 --> 00:23:25.760 in or whether you read it at a superficial level and that's enough for you you choose 00:23:25.760 --> 00:23:37.680 And whether you allow God to have the kind of inroads into your life 00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:41.680 that can make the kind of difference that Jesus made at this wedding. 00:23:43.270 --> 00:23:44.210 Because you don't have to. 00:23:50.020 --> 00:23:53.560 Jesus had a choice whether he turned that water into wine. 00:23:54.040 --> 00:23:55.820 And he chose to do so. 00:23:57.410 --> 00:23:59.950 Because he was extravagant, he was generous. 00:23:59.950 --> 00:24:16.080 And we have a choice of how much we let the power and the grace and the forgiveness of Jesus impact in our lives. 00:24:16.560 --> 00:24:17.400 Would that be fair? 00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:20.300 You know, we've talked about free choice, free will. 00:24:20.720 --> 00:24:35.650 The impact that this had on that wedding was that the wine continued to flow and that they had a good time. 00:24:35.650 --> 00:24:46.220 the impact that Jesus can have on your life if you choose to let him is immeasurable 00:24:46.220 --> 00:24:57.950 immeasurable but we all have choices and we talked about free will and we have that choice to make 00:24:57.950 --> 00:25:10.220 Jesus chose to die for us on the cross he didn't have to he chose to do that so let's today think 00:25:10.220 --> 00:25:18.080 about where we are. If you haven't become a Christian, think about your choice, because 00:25:18.080 --> 00:25:26.480 you have a choice. If you are a Christian, think about what Jesus did, turning water 00:25:26.480 --> 00:25:33.100 into wine, and what that wine was like, and what that signified. And think about the fact 00:25:33.100 --> 00:25:41.780 that in doing so, he revealed God's glory, which is revealing God's presence in saving 00:25:41.780 --> 00:25:52.440 action we are saved and we have god's presence in us so i hope that helped you to understand 00:25:52.440 --> 00:25:59.020 reading surface don't give you a lot but when you scratch a bit when you find those little seeds 00:25:59.020 --> 00:26:10.260 underneath those emerging plants it can make a difference to your life full free extravagant 00:26:10.260 --> 00:26:34.560 grace that only jesus can give us let's pray together father thank you that you chose to give 00:26:34.560 --> 00:26:47.700 us free choice that we are not robots that we aren't made to serve you thank you that you sent 00:26:47.700 --> 00:27:02.590 jesus who in his free choice chose to die for us lord help us to be open and willing to make those 00:27:02.590 --> 00:27:13.940 choices that are good for us help us to understand that you are the bread of life 00:27:13.940 --> 00:27:25.070 you are the water of life you are the light of the world you are the good shepherd help us to 00:27:25.070 --> 00:27:34.330 have faith and courage enough to open our hearts to you in the places we have kept closed that we 00:27:34.330 --> 00:27:36.570 may know your free, full 00:27:36.570 --> 00:27:38.410 extravagant 00:27:38.410 --> 00:27:40.050 gracious, generous 00:27:40.050 --> 00:27:43.470 love and know 00:27:43.470 --> 00:27:45.450 all and experience all that 00:27:45.450 --> 00:27:47.820 you have for us. Amen. 00:27:49.810 --> 00:27:50.450 Thanks Andy. 00:28:00.220 --> 00:28:02.240 Can I have the worship band back please? That would be great. 00:28:04.030 --> 00:28:04.920 Maybe 00:28:04.920 --> 00:28:06.700 just, let's just bow 00:28:06.700 --> 00:28:07.820 our heads a minute and 00:28:07.820 --> 00:28:13.600 just think about 00:28:13.600 --> 00:28:15.560 what we just heard and just try to 00:28:15.560 --> 00:28:17.620 tie it together with some of the 00:28:17.620 --> 00:28:18.600 other things this morning. 00:28:19.620 --> 00:28:25.160 The challenges that we've got going on in our own lives, the things that we're grappling with, 00:28:25.160 --> 00:28:39.600 and yet we've just heard, you know, in the same way that Jesus did this extravagant, gracious, generous act at our wedding, 00:28:39.600 --> 00:28:54.390 is tiny compared to the extravagant, gracious, generous God who is with us right now. 00:28:55.710 --> 00:29:01.620 Whatever those things are, you know, we come before a Father who is extravagant 00:29:01.620 --> 00:29:05.020 and gracious and generous beyond our imagination. 00:29:05.740 --> 00:29:11.520 And the impact, Karen said, that Jesus can have on your life and on my life 00:29:11.520 --> 00:29:23.500 is immeasurable if we choose to let him if we choose to let his extravagance if we choose to 00:29:23.500 --> 00:29:31.960 let his graciousness and if we choose to let his generosity impact us what an opportunity we have 00:29:31.960 --> 00:29:37.920 and just as we sing these few songs as worship towards the end of our service let's come before 00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:43.640 that is the god we come before and i just encourage us to bring ourselves to him and stand in his 00:29:43.640 --> 00:29:48.920 presence and worship him uh jump setter if you want to lead us that'd be great all right 00:29:48.920 --> 00:37:13.500 we'll do that again say out short prayers maybe in response to what we've heard this morning that'd 00:37:13.500 --> 00:37:30.240 be great jesus we thank you lord for your extravagance we thank you lord for your extravagant 00:37:30.240 --> 00:37:38.080 grace we thank you lord for your extravagant love we thank you and we praise you in your precious 00:37:38.080 --> 00:37:39.980 name of Jesus. Amen. 00:37:52.480 --> 00:37:54.180 Father, we thank you that we can come 00:37:54.180 --> 00:37:55.140 as we are. 00:37:56.240 --> 00:38:02.980 Thank you that you have extravagant 00:38:02.980 --> 00:38:05.380 grace for each one of us. 00:38:06.280 --> 00:38:29.270 We praise 00:38:29.270 --> 00:38:31.030 God for his grace 00:38:31.030 --> 00:38:32.490 poured out on us. 00:38:32.650 --> 00:38:33.990 He belongs to his dear son. 00:38:34.680 --> 00:38:37.140 He's so rich in kindness and grace 00:38:37.140 --> 00:38:39.320 that he purchased our freedom 00:38:39.320 --> 00:38:40.660 for the love of his son. 00:38:40.760 --> 00:38:42.540 And forgave our sins. 00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:45.020 He showered his kindness on us. 00:38:45.300 --> 00:39:15.310 Let's close, shall we, with the words of the grace 00:39:15.310 --> 00:39:18.990 together. May the grace 00:39:18.990 --> 00:39:20.970 of our Lord Jesus Christ 00:39:20.970 --> 00:39:22.930 and the love of God 00:39:22.930 --> 00:39:24.950 and the fellowship of the 00:39:24.950 --> 00:39:26.850 Holy Spirit be 00:39:26.850 --> 00:39:29.010 with us all, now and 00:39:29.010 --> 00:39:30.850 evermore. Amen. 00:39:31.290 --> 00:39:31.650 Amen.