Pouring Wine into the Wedding

intro

God has truly blessed us. I am always reminded of

Ephesians 1:3 AV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

Of course the greatest of all blessings is without any doubt or debate everlasting life through Jesus Christ.

It is a blessing which we not not only ejoy and cherish here on earth but a blessing which also carries over into eternity in Heaven.

Wonderful heaven. Revelation gives us the tiniest of glimpses of our heavrnly home, but in reality.

1 Corinthians 2:9 AV

9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

My friends earth is not heaven. In fact for the born again cild of God, earth is the only Hell we will ever know.

Life on earth is hard. We are cursed because of sin to work by the sweat of our brow and always face opposition and harship.

Genesis 3:17–19 AV

17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

As christian we are like strangers and pilgrims in a foregin land. In the world but not of it. We have struggles nd challages throught our lives.

We face resistance and mean spiteful people, we have evil and wicked people, we struggle with sickness at times and exhustion. We get depressed and tired, we grow weak and weary.

And while on one hand, yes we have the Lord to help us spiritually, God has actualy given us a powerful, wonderful and glorious blessing to help us through this hard, cruel time on earth.

The Greatest Earthly blessing

Marriage

Knowing how hard life in this world can be, knowing the struggles, challanges and harships we all would face God made it very clear:

Genesis 2:18 AV

18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

Marriage is the single greatest earthly blessing that God has given us. I say earthly because it is a limited time blessing. A blessing which “ends” upon death - at which time the union ends.

Our marriages are not carried over into heaven, kim will not be my wife there.

Matthew 22:30 AV

30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

Why not? because in heaven a new kind of marriage will exist, a marriage which our earthly marriage are but a type and forshadowing.

We will as the church be married to the bridegroom which Jesus.

Revelation 19:7 AV

7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

Amen!, But we are getting way ahead of our selves. Lets just focus and remind ourselves of the blessings of marriage.

John 2:1–2 AV

1 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: 2 And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.

It is a very good idea to call Jesus to your marriage. But note, He must be called for Hi to show up. Never just assume on God, always call upon His name.

This is what saves this marriage from embarresment and loss. This marriage would have ended in disaster had Jesus not been there.

And to this day this is true, Jesus saves the soul, amen, but he always has power to save a marriage, bit only if both the bride and the groom call him to be present with them.

I must ask you, do you call on the Lord to be in your marriage? Now im not asking if you ask God to change your spouse - thats not what im asking: Im asking do you call on the Lord to be in your marriage - in the way you treat your spouse?

It is alo good to note that the disciples of Jesus were also invited. God has gioven us the blessing of his church to help us in all the aears of our lives including our marriages.

Our church brothers and sisters can encourage us, advise us, even rubke us as we negociate our marriages. It is good to have wise counsil when it comes to marriage - and we must look to those whos marriages have stood the test of time.

Lets keep reading

John 2:3 AV

3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.

Weddings, like the lifelong marriage that follows are means to be glorious and joyful occasions.

But this wedding ran into a bit of a roadblock - they ran out of wine.

Now we have to understand what wine is in the bible - in the bible wine is a symbol of joy.

Ecclesiastes 9:7 AV

7 Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.

Psalm 4:7 AV

7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.

Wine was a sybol of Joy because wine meany a good harvest.

So when this marriage runs out of wine, you can see the seriousness of the situation from a spiritual perspective, the marriage ran out of joy.

This happens, yes even to christian marriages. Marriage is a wonderful blessing full of joy.

But depending on our wise and descerning you were when you chose your spouse, it is not without frustration and hardship. Wise choices yeald pleasent results, while foolish choice yeald many frustyrations.

But even marriage to which Christ was invited from the beggining face the challage of running out of joy.

Like this couple its the things we never see coming and the things we think we are in control of.

Money troubles, children, career frustrations, sickness....

What happens next?

John 2:4–5 AV

4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. 5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

Look closley at Mary’s advice: Whatever he says, do it! So often we frustrate God’s plans by getting in the way or by pushing our own plans. - Its simple: Whatever Jesus says - Do it.

We always try to do it our way, we think we know better than God, so we come up with excuses why ur way is better.

But if you want Jesus to Step in - Whatver he says - do it.

Husbands: Whatever the bible says a husband does:

Ephesians 5:25 AV

25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

Wives, do what the bible tells you to do:

Ephesians 5:22 AV

22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

Oh i cant do that pastor, that wont help at this stage...

What did Jesus tell them to dio at the wedding?

John 2:7 AV

7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.

Think about that fort a moment: Think about how random nd seemigly daft that command was, they had run out of wine not water, and besies that water was for washing not drinking.

Mary said: whater he saus - do it. And now Jesus says to do a complete daft and silly thing - but thats what faith is all about.

And they did, they filled the pots to the brim.

Do you do the things that Jesus tells you to do in your marriage or do you find excuses not to?

The Best till Last

John 2:8–10 AV

8 And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. 9 When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, 10 And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

Let me tell you somthing about calling Jesus into your marriage:

Look at the words of the governer:

He says that at a regular wedding all the good wine is served at the beggining and then when everyone is to drubk to tell the difference they bring out the worse wine - but at this wedding, the wedding Jesus was called to, the good wine came out later.

This is a powerful temtamony to the christian marriage.

At regular weddings there is a lot of joy at the start, everyone is happy and all is well and there are smiles and laughing - the good wine.

But the quality of wine, of joy lessens as the years go by. Untill you end us with a marriage where they live together, but dont talk, dont share, they stop enjoying one another, the joy and the love seems to be gone one morning and monotonany becomes the new norm.

But not so for the christian couple. Often because of their conviction they often have difficult starts. with regards to friends and family. After all as chrisians we can expect trouble and Satan has always attcked the new ly formed family - look at Adam and Eve, we can assume that their attack came within the first 9 months.

But for the christian, instead of the wine getting worse and worse as the years go by, its gets better and better.

Christian couples who seek the Lord together, as theybget closer to God, they grow closer to eachother, and as they grow closer to each other, they grow nearer the Lord.

conclusion:

To every Christian couple, never underestimate how more of Jesus can transform a marriage.