Sermon Tone Analysis

Greater Signs = Greater delight

The sign reminds us that only can give us the delight we were created for

Phrase that pays: Don’t settle for toilet bowl Christianity when unending joy is offered

ETS- Jesus first miracle reveals that he is worthy to be obeyed/believe and delighted in.

ESS- We must obey/believe and delight in Jesus.

OSS-To believe that this statement is where greatest life is found, “whatever you say I will do.”

Introduction:

The French physicist Blaise Pascal said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator made known through Jesus Christ.”

We are all looking for life.

Time I went to warehouse in college.

I had just become a Christian and my teammates were asking me to hang out with them.

You have to remember that when I was in high school I had never been to a party because I had a vision to make the NBA.

So here I was in College and these teammates asked me to go to the warehouse with them.

So we all gather up into a bunch of cars and we head to Fayetteville, where the University of Arkansas was we went to the warehouse.

It was a fraternity party, now remember I had never been to a party ever and now here I am at my first fraternity party ever.

There was a place where there was a punch bowl, me being naive thought it was just punch, but of course it was spiked I remembered seeing people dancing like their life depended on it, I mean they were getting in to it.

I saw relationships beginning, people who were completely slammed.

But when I was leaving I remember seeing this guy in the bathroom throwing up uncontrollably.After seeing that I decided I better come back so I drove back to Siloam Springs Arkansas and I am flying back because I was so out of my comfort zone.

I forgot about how fast I was going so I got pulled over in the small town of Siloam Springs.

I think a party reveals what we are all searching.

We are searching for life and significance.

The person who gets wasted thinks that life is found in drinking, the person who is looking for an attractive mate or one night stand thinks life will be found in that.

But then this picture of the guy in the bathroom could not get out of my mind.

This man like all of mankind was looking for life and because he was looking for it in all the wrong places it left him at a toilet seat throwing up.

A gross bathroom.

Different ways people look for life:

Money

Success

Sports

Internet

Why do I share this story.

Today in the scriptures we are going to see God’s first sign or miracle in the book of John shows us where life is found.

Sulpician Fr.

Raymond Brown says, “it’s the part of the Gospel where “the word reveals himself to the world and to his own.”

Changing water into wine at Cana in John 2:1-11 - "the first of the signs"

Healing the royal official's son in Capernaum in John 4:46-

54Healing the paralytic at Bethesda in John 5:1-15

Feeding the 5000 in John 6:5-

14Jesus walking on water in John 6:16-

24Healing the man blind from birth in John 9:1-7

The raising of Lazarus in John 11:1-45

God does not want us to be like that guy who is looking in all the wrong places throwing up in a gross toilet.

But he does his first miracle at a party.

Many of us have false conceptions of God we think he is a kill joy but the opposite is true.

Our problem is not that we want to much joy but that we settle for too little of it.

Our problem is not that we want too much but rather we settle for too little.

I wish I would have grabbed the guy on the toilet seat at the party

I know where life is found

Today Jesus is going to show us a new way of life

Talk about the signs in the scriptures: the significance of them and the different one’s.

1. Jesus first miracle invites us to believe because he is worthy (1-5).

Why is he worthy to be obeyed?

a. Jesus came to us (1-2 ).

Jesus miracle reminds us that Christianity is mission.

He went to them.

But we also see in this setting that this was a very natural setting.

A wedding.

JESUS WAS INVITED

Jesus is the greatest missionary of all time.

I know pastors who are too scared to do anything outside the church that are so worried about bad things that they just want to invite people to their prehistoric churches.

But what I want you to see here is that Jesus was involved in the life of his community.

Because Jesus offers ultimate joy we must remember Christianity is missional (Observations from the scripture)

He went to a wedding, which means he was connected where the people were, and he went where the people were.

He left heaven to do what God called him to do, (my time has not yet come)3rd day-connect this to the gospel.

The measure of a church should not be it’s seating capacity but it’s sending capacity.

Statistic

There was a serious problem: no food you would be considered an outcast.

Why is he worthy to be obeyed?

b.

Jesus is the ultimate solution (3-5).

Jesus’ mother had been invited to this event and Jesus accompanied her.

The Lord was always welcome among those having a good time in the right way.

Running out of wine represented a social disaster much greater in the first century than it would today.

Disgrace, humiliation, insult—all these and more would be brought upon the family with such carelessness as to allow this to happen.

Wedding celebrations in that day sometimes lasted nearly a week, so the wine supply was a major consideration.

The reality we have a really big problem, talk about our flesh and how we are a mess.

Some of us try to hide it some of us know we have issues but we are in serious trouble because of our sin.

Even though we are about to see Jesus do a miracle he never forgot that the reason he was sent was the main thing.

But not only did he come to us, he knew exactly why he came to us.

He says here my hour has not yet come.

He knew that one day he would have to die for sinful man.

The greatest missionary came with the greatest message and now we can be forgiven of our sins and have eternal life.

Because of who Jesus is and what he does we can now follow his example.

Illustration: Elf-Great missionary.

He went to them he did not expect the people to come to the north pole.

Buddy was on mission to find his dad.

He tried to bring Cheer to his family, built stuff.

Jumped on mattresses, showed his brother how to have a snowball fight.

We are opposite a lot of times as Church people.

I know pastors who won’t even go to places where alcohol is served.

Even thought he would do a lot of loving things for a lot of people he did not lose the vision of what he came for.

Church that we can be a church that stays centered on the main thing.

That we would never get caught up in the spirit of competition but rather staying true to being close to God and making disciples of all nations.

That we would not lose sight that God is worthy to be central in all of Houston.

Could Mary’s response:

I love Mary’s response (5), maybe she was a little delusional but she knew that Jesus would fix it.

Gospel-Tie it into the third day of the resurrection

Jesus sought us to give us joy

Jesus was the greatest missionary of all time

Jesus abandoned comfort to offer us ultimate joy