Elevation with Steven Furtick - You Already Know: Fear Of Running Out

Episode Date: January 28, 2019

Time, energy, confidence, ideas… are you afraid of running out? To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://ele.vc/TI55jRSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. I believe the Lord has spoken to me, and I want to share a message with you as another installment on our series, Flip the Flow. And I look at each of these like they build on each other. The last time that I was speaking with you, I spoke about joy and the fullness of joy in the presence of the Lord. And now we're going to see not a description of that, but a demonstration of it from the scriptures.

I just want to give you one verse, and then you can be seated, and we'll speak together today. But as you stand in reverence and respect for God's word, welcome to all the locations. Thank God for all of you who are joining e-groups today. Tell the person next to you, you can't go to heaven unless you join any group. These are really great people. I can vouch for 80% of them. There's always a 20% weirdness factor in anything you do with large groups. But we try to screen them, vet them.

They're not going to sell you pampered chef, essential oils or anything like that once they get you in the home. It's not a timeshare presentation. Just want to help you grow in your relationship with the Lord. Not selling keto drinks, just trying to help you build a foundation. John chapter 2, verse 11, make sure you take advantage of that. It's there for you. It's there for you to grow in your faith. John chapter 2 verse 11. What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him.

One more time, turn to your neighbor, give him my sermon title, tell him, you already know. Please be seated. Shout out to my brother Matt, who is stationed in New Jersey. He serves in the United States Air Force. Shout out to him because he put me on this documentary that I really enjoyed this week. It's called Fire, the greatest party that never happened. It's a documentary about one of the great scandals of our day in regards to entertainment and social media. The Fire Festival was created by Billy McFarlane and the legend Jha Rule. It was to be the ultimate luxury music experience on the private island of Exuma in the Bahamas. It was to take place over the course of two weekends, one in April and the other in May of 2017.

Some of the world's top models and social media influencers promoted the event simultaneously using the hashtag fire festival, Fire with a Y, in case you go home and watch it. I'm not recommending movies from this pulpit because I know how legalistic some of you are and you'd be at Instagram messaging me about the bad words and this and that I'm not saying you should watch it. I'm just saying it was awesome and They put these orange tiles on Instagram all at the same time and because it was people that have such clout The festival sold out the music festival sold out in 48 hours in 48 hours they sold tickets and day passes ranged from $500 to $1,500. Then the luxury experience went up to $12,000. And some of the packages were reported to be $250,000 for the luxury villas and stuff.

And they put these beautiful pictures online of the festival, marketed toward millennials. And they showed the island. They said that the island formerly belonged to Pablo Escobar and that you could come party like Pablo Escobar with Instagram models in bikinis, white sand, clear waters at the fire festival, and then you could get a luxury room, villa, and they sketched that. But when the millennials arrived and descended upon the Bahamas, things were a little different than had been advertised. Turns out that our boy Billy and Jha, a first name basis, sold something that didn't necessarily

exist in the same form that they advertised it. When the customers arrived to the fire festival in the Bahamas, they found disaster relief tents, the villas were supposed to be, in gravel parking lots, in the parking lot of a sandals resort. Not to mention that instead of gourmet meals cooked by five-star world-class chefs, they found apparently cheese sandwiches in styrofoam boxes. And the festival never happened. The festival never happened. were stranded, according to the documentary, in the airport overnight without water.

23-year-old kids who paid $12,000 to see Blink 182, serves them right, found themselves stranded in the Bahamas with no fire festival. And one case study that I read that said, you know, now Billy McFarland is in jail for wire fraud, But it was suggesting that this was the ultimate cultural case study in FOMO that never have we seen because people were so afraid that this would happen without them, the fear of missing out, which I don't struggle with as much. I don't struggle with the fear of missing out. More like for me, the fear of running out. That's more what I deal with. I'm a pretty lazy person, a pretty boring. I'm not lazy about the things that matter, but somebody's like, you know, there's a lunar eclipse. clips tonight and I'm like, eh, somebody will take a picture. What time is it at? 1045? I'll check it out tomorrow.

It's a once in a lifetime thing. It'll be on YouTube. That's kind of my thing. I'm fine to miss out. But fear of running out, faux mo not so much. Fou row, fear of running out, I think about all the time. And that's why the documentary was visceral to me, because even though the guy was a scam artist, I guess because my fear in life is not having what I'm supposed to have, and people show up expecting

something that I can't give. Even in church, I'm always so nervous that I won't be able to get my energy up to the level that I need to get it to to connect with you, because sometimes you come in with very low energy. I'm just being honest, but I know you need a gourmet meal from the Word of God, and I don't want to hand you a cheese sandwich in a styrofoam box. You know, I don't want you to show up with a FEMA tent when you're expecting a villa. But I'm scared of this. I'm scared of running out all the time. I'm constantly scared like my creativity is going to run out because I need creativity to do what I do. And even in writing sermons, you're kind of saying the same things over and over again

sometimes. And even though the Bible has a lot of interesting stories and letters, I'm scared like one time, maybe I'm open my Bible and I won't be able to find a sermon. And sometimes it gets late in the week. And I'm so scared of running out when we write worship songs. I'm always like, how many different ways can we say, God, you're good? I trust you. There's different ways. I'm not saying that God is simple. I'm just saying, sometimes I'm like, can we write another song? I'm scared of running out of time. I always feel like I don't have enough time. Always feel like I'm going to run out of time raising my kids. I'm scared to death that I won't get everything instilled in them in the time they're in my house.

And then they will end up on a therapist couch, $250 an hour, because something I didn't teach them, or Abby is going to marry some jerk because maybe I didn't teach her what a man should be like, because I don't know how to fix cars. And since she never saw me fix cars, she's going to end up, you know, on the corner. I'm scared about this stuff. I'm scared like that they're going to leave. I know it's dark, right? And I'm scared that I'm going to send my kids out

and they're not going to have what they need for the world because I ran out of time to give it to them. I'm scared that I'm going to run out of money. I'm more scared now than I'm going to run out of money than I was when I was 22 and we didn't have any money. I can't figure out how the more we got of it, the more I started to depend on it, and now it consumes more of your time.

You think you'll get to an amount of money where you'll no longer be scared. of running out, all money is going to do is create more obligations. All more money is going to do is create a bigger lifestyle. And now you will need more money to create the lifestyle, so you really won't lose the fear of running out. It will just be on a larger scale and you'll have more to lose. I'm so scared of running out. Fommo, not so much. Froyo, never liked the stuff. Foro. So when they got there and they didn't have it, I was like, John chapter 2. That's how my mind works. The fear of running out. What if I don't have what they need?

What if I can't be who they need? Any new parents? Any new parents? Yeah. You don't. You don't have what those kids need. It's going to have to come from God. Please believe me. Did you figure this out yet? Have you already got the baby or you're expecting? or what? Yeah, over there and E kids. You just came here to get a break. Is this your date? That's a good way to do a date, by the way. You got to understand this was the first sign. Jesus did way more signs than John puts in his gospel. And he uses the word sign, not miracle, because he believes it's pointing to something deeper. That's what a sign does. That's why that says exit because of the door. The sign is worthless if that's just a wall.

It's pointing to something. And when you see things in Scripture a lot of times, you're going to see it on a natural level, but then it's going to point to something beneath the surface like life does. Like there are things going on in your life right now that are trying to point you to something deeper. There are things you're experiencing in your life right now, but the surface is not the story. There is a deeper meaning for it. And so John says in his gospel that if he were to write down everything that Jesus did, he said, the world would not have room for the books that would be written.

This was before Wikipedia. Now you could put it all out there, but at the time he said, if I wrote it all down, I'd run out of room. So he chose the number seven. It's a number that represents completion in the Bible, and it's the days of the week. the world was created, seven days. It's a symbolic number in the Bible. Seven is all over the Bible. He uses the number seven, and he puts in the Bible seven signs that Jesus performed to point to who he was. Everything that God does for you is to point to who he wants to be to you.

And if you only live at the level of what he does for you, but miss what he is trying to point to that he wants to be to you, You can receive resource from the Lord without revelation of the Lord who gave the resource. And if your attachment is to the resource, then you will always run out at some point. If your attachment is to the revelation, you will always know who he is. And so whatever you need, he can be because he is the great I am. Shout about it for five seconds so I can move on. Seven signs. He says, I'm going to give you seven.

I'm going to give you seven. The second sign that Jesus did in John's gospel is when he, in John chapter four, he healed a royal official son. In John chapter five, he healed a man at the pool of Bethesda who had been lame for 38 years and was waiting for the angel to stir up the water. But Jesus came on the scene and said, you don't have to wait for somebody to stir up the water. The living water has come to you. And since you can't move and you're sitting by this pool, I'm going to bring to you what you could not get for yourself. He flipped the flow. He flipped the flow.

I could preach this series for another year and not exhaust all the times that Jesus flipped the flow. In fact, in John chapter 6, this was the fourth sign that Jesus recorded in John's gospel. Jesus was looking at some hungry people and a little boy had a styrofoam box with a cheese sandwich and Jesus, fish and loaves, but I modernized it. Jesus took it and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them. And they all, they went from hungry to full. They went from hungry to, I can't eat another bite.

They went from hungry to, would you like to see the dessert menu? No, I'm full. That was the sign in John chapter 6. In John chapter 6, Jesus also walked out on water to his disciples. He had sent them to the other side, but they encountered a storm. And what was really most important wasn't what was on the other side, but what they went through to get there. Because when they went through the storm, it gave him an opportunity. to reveal who he was in a way that they couldn't have seen if they didn't go through the storm.

So he's trying to get us to see. You see the sign? He's trying to get you to see that the storm points to something that is deeper than what you can see on the surface to show you that the power of God on the inside of you is greater than the wind that blows against you. He gives him a sign. In John Chapter 9, he heals a man born blind. The man didn't do anything to be blind. His parents didn't do anything to make him blind. Jesus said this was to reveal the glory of God. He is using something that the man can't see to show the man something that physical eyes cannot detect. It's a sign. He's trying to show something deeper until John Chapter 11 when he shows the ultimate sign that foreshadows the very work that he came to do when he shows up at Lazarus house

late after Lazarus has died, misses his healing appointment, and tells him come out of the tomb. because he had to show them. You've seen me as a healer, but now it's time for a deeper expression of your understanding of me, because even when I don't show up, when you want me to show up in your life, I already have in mind what I'm going to do.

And even if they've wrapped you in grave clothes and buried you, if you have the faith to come forth, I can still speak a word that will bring you out of any situation because I am the resurrection and the life. Somebody shout, God, give me. a sign. The Jews wanted a sign, so Jesus gave them a sign.

So what was the first one? Those were the six, but the first one was, and I know some of you, some of you already know. Some of you really, really, really, really, really know your Bible. And when I said John chapter 2, you were like, water into wine, you know, and you're right. If you would have shouted that, I would have ruined my setup. Because you already know. But, you know, sometimes we have the curse of knowledge and we think we know something. And we do know it at the surface.

But why did Jesus turn water into wine? And I'm going to show you. And this is so powerful. God, I'm excited. I hadn't had this much fun preaching in a long time as I'm having today. I think it's the denim. Holly said I don't wear enough color up here. I like black.

It's slimming. Dark colors. Now, go back to John chapter 2, verse 1. Somebody shall flip it. Jesus shows up on the third day at a wedding which took place in Cana in Galilee. This is a small place, not necessarily an important place, but nevertheless, Jesus' mother was there at a wedding, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, the miracle started. You missed it.

When they ran out of what they brought, when they ran out of what they planned for, which to us would not be the biggest deal. You know, you run out of wine at a wedding, and it's probably a good thing because you've got crazy family members. And when they drink too much, they start fighting anyway. men's up in jail. But in this culture, it was the epitome of dishonor to invite a guest and to not be able to provide. And this wedding was not a, you know how we do a wedding and it's like 40 minutes and then a reception. This was more like the fire festival. It was supposed to last a week. The wedding would last a week. And everybody showed up expecting that at whatever point they

showed up at the wedding, there would still be something to drink. That there would still, you know, to show up at a wedding and there to be no wine, it was actually recorded that if the groom, who was responsible to make sure that the wedding went off right, if he did not provide everything that necessity required, he could be sued by his mother-in-law. You thought you had family drama, right? But Jesus shows up at the wedding and they run out of wine. Now, I don't want to skip over this.

What have you run out of? What are you running out of right now? What are you constantly afraid of running out of? Is it wisdom? Is it peace? Is it ideas? Are you out of ideas for how to fix a relationship? Are you out of ideas for how to reach a level of success that you thought you would have been at four years ago?

What are you running out of? What have you run out of? The worst thing is to run out of gas when you're the one driving. The worst thing is for people to show up to your kitchen and all you have is cheese and bread. The worst thing is when you know that people expect something of you. Because some of you, you're the life of the party. Some of you, you're the strong one. Some of you, you are the one that people come to with their problems and they don't know you are sick of being the

place where they dump their crap. You've got your own sewage, and they keep backing up and dumping more on you. And they don't even know how close you are to quitting. And you're running out. And that's why I like this, because you don't have to say it out loud. I'll say it for you. Everybody in here is running out of something. Not wine.

How about joy? How about how you haven't been happy in a long time? How about that? The last time I was up here, I preached on joy. Did you hear that sermon? Sounds like it meant a lot to you. Praise the Lord. Why do I do this?

Were you here when I preached on joy? Yes. Well, since wine represents joy, I thought it would be good to stay in this flow. But Jesus comes to the wedding and he's a guest, but he's about to provide what the host could not provide. Why? did not come to demand righteousness. He came to provide righteousness. He flipped the flow. The first thing Jesus did was to take away the shame of a couple who had run out of what they were unable to provide. That's the first thing he does when he comes in your life. He doesn't just

expose your shame. He doesn't just come to condemn you. He doesn't just come to point out everything that's wrong with you. He says, I didn't come just to show you your shame. He doesn't just come just to show you your I came to take it away. Look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Oh, I'm happy about it. I need the Lord in my life. Because I'm so scared I'm going to run out. And yet the Bible says that Jesus didn't do anything about it. He let it run out. He let it run out. He let it happen. like he often will do. Until, watch this, when the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him,

they got to imagine. The wine's really important at the wedding. This is not the first person who has discovered that it's gone. They probably had many discussions, and there's probably been a lot of finger-pointing. That's one thing on that documentary I watched. Everybody was saying it was everybody's fault. Everybody was pointing. Everybody was pointing at somebody else.

Well, we didn't know. Well, we didn't know. How did you not know? That's what we wanted to know, is how did you not know? But Jesus' mother knew something. Rather, she knew someone. And she did something interesting. She didn't go to the wedding planner.

She didn't go to the couple. Jesus' mother, when the wine was gone, Jesus' mother, Mary, did you know? Yeah, she knew. She didn't know what to do, but she knew who to go to. I'm going to preachless message today. I'm coming for it today because you don't know what to do right now, right? But if you know who to go to, and see, a lot of the reason you've been running out is because you've been running around to people who don't have what you need.

They don't have it. They can't give it. They got their own stuff. They're running dry, too. But if you go to the man from Galilee, if you go to the one whose name is life, she came to Jesus and said, they have no more wine. She didn't tell him about the solution. She just told him the need. She just told him what he already knew.

I promise you he already knew. How do I know he already knew? Because he was the word from the beginning. If he spoke the grapes onto the vine, he certainly knew that they didn't bring enough. He knew. I know he knew because in John chapter 6 when he turned the little boy's value pack chick-fil-a value pack when he turned it into a buffet, All You Can Eat buffet. He asked Philip, what are we going to do about this? And Philip was an accountant, so Philip was like, if we did the t'-tun carry the one and can't do it. But the Bible says,

Give me John 6.6. I know I didn't use it in the last one, but I want to use it because these people want it. They really, really want it. These people are hungry. These people want the Word of God. He asked this only to test him, for he already knew. He already knew what he was going to do. How cool is that? You mean, I'm coming before God praying a lot of times, and I'm like, like I'm God's administrative assistant, you know? Like, Lord, just reminding you about that appointment you missed last week when I asked you to help me. me with the thing and I told you to fix them. You didn't fix them. So just putting it back on your calendar. If you get around to it, Lord, you know, if you get, because, you know, and then there's

the other thing over here, blah, blah, blah, blah. And lately I've been praying like this. You already know. I know you know. I know you know. That's why Mary went to Jesus, even though it wasn't his job. He was just a guest at the wedding. But she knew what was in him because he had been in her. And when Christ is in you and you are in Christ, you already know. How many of you, you already know that God will do it? You just don't know how. Okay.

That's all Mary knew. Mary did you know? Mary would be like, yeah, I knew he would, but I didn't know how he would. I didn't know how. But see, every need in your life is pointing you to a deeper source. Every sign that John recorded was pointing to something deeper. Every need that you experience in your life is pointing you to a deeper place in God that you can access. A deeper place of strength, a deeper place of confidence, a deeper place of health, a deeper place of relationship, a deeper place of dependence.

Everything is pointing to something deeper. So when she said they have no more wine, Jesus responded. And I don't recommend this as like something to say to your mom or your wife. Verse four, woman, why do you involve me? That's not like a great marriage seminar, love languages, verse. But she didn't tell Jesus the need to inform him like we do. She didn't pray like a ritual. And God, bless me today as I go to the thing and after the thing.

And God, just let me go through my list and worry about it and say that I'm praying, but really all I'm doing is worrying out loud with my eyes closed. She wasn't doing it to inform him. She was doing it to involve him. Because she knew if he gets involved, I don't know what he'll do, but I know who he is. Now I'm going to need you to shout right now if you know who he is. Come on, Blakeney, don't be quiet. I know you love the Lord.

I need you to shout right now if you know who he is. I know who to go to. I lift my eyes to be able. And his mother, watch this. His mother goes to him. He says to his mother, a woman. I'm going to start talking to Holly. Woman.

Help him with their homework. Woman, why do you involve me? That's my favorite verse this year. I'm going to use that a lot this year. Why do you involve me in Jesus? My hour has not yet come. He's talking about the cross, but she needs him to do something right now. Some of us have things that we need God to do now.

We really do. We need him now. Yeah, I'm going to heaven when I die. And yeah, there's a white horse that I read about in the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelations. And people put an S on it. The Book of Revelations. Walmart's, Revelations.

Yeah, it's great. But how about now? And so watch what she does. She doesn't argue. She doesn't convince. She doesn't beg. In fact, she doesn't talk to Jesus anymore. She turns away from Jesus, points to the people who are working at the wedding.

And verse 5, she said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Because if you start moving in faith, he's going to do something. I don't know what. He didn't tell me. I don't know the details. I don't know the plans. I went in the wedding planner. This isn't even my party. But if you'll start moving, if you'll start obeying, if you'll take a step, you're going to see something. It's a sign. And she said, do whatever he tells you. Now, I know what you're thinking. I already know. I already know. I already know what you're thinking. I would if I knew what he wanted me to do. I would. I would, you know, do whatever he tells you.

you to do. That's such a great thing to say on Sunday morning. How about about this apartment that I'm living in right now? And I don't know whether I should move out of this apartment. And we get really weird sometimes too, right? Like, people do all kind of stuff and say that God told them to do it. A couple of you are new to church. There's probably one of these weird people within like three rows of you that God has to tell them what you. what color to wear in the morning. It's paralyzing, you know. And they'll make stuff up. It's like a cognitive bias thing as well. It's like, well, I was praying about, you know, whether I should date him. And then I went and I went to elevation and Pastor Steve. He was

preaching on, he's preaching on John. And his name, the guy's name is James and it's close. They both start with Jay. So I'm going to date him. Right? It's a sign. But sometimes the way God speaks, it's like the Lord was saying to me the other day because I was praying about, you know, I don't know whether to do this or that. And I know you have situations that are nuanced, and I really don't like preaching that doesn't respect nuance. I really think it's, in some ways, it's misleading for people to say, you know, it's just simple. Do whatever he tells you to do.

Because sometimes I don't know what that is. And sometimes I don't know if I should take the job and make a little more money, but it's going to pay me away for my family more. But I need to be here for my kids. but I also need to be able to send him to college in four years, and I need to be able to provide for him, so I'm kind of caught between, I don't really know what he wants me to do, because I can't find a Bible verse about whether I should live in Atlanta or Charlotte. But let me just say something. There's traffic in both cities, and there's problems in both cities, and there's ups and downs to both cities. Where am I going to go to college? I see a Winget shirt over there. Where am I going to go to college? You know, you can live for the Lord at Winget or at Woffer.

You could live for the Lord either place. It's not as important. I mean, go where the scholarship money is. Or if there's no scholarship money, you know, go. But it's more important what kind of friends you make the first week of college than it is whether it's Wendgetter Wofford. Can I preach a little bit? So the Lord was speaking to me, I was like, if I knew what to do, I would do it. And God said, if you would do what you knew.

See the flip? You see the flip? Because I'm waiting for new information from God. And God is like, all right, what do you already know? I'm speaking to somebody today who has run out, and you don't know what to do, and you don't have the wisdom, you don't have the experience, and you don't have the, I don't know. It's really hard to do something you don't have a context for, but if you would do what you knew, what do you already know?

I mean, I know, for one, that gratitude is the thing. gateway to joy. So much so that I bought a journal and put it by my bed. It's a gratitude journal. It's orange. Like everything else in this church and like God's favorite team, the Clemson Tigers, whom he has anointed with the fresh oil of yet another national championship. For the glory of his name, his kingdom come. Some of y'all look like you hate me right now. But I found out the gratitude journal doesn't bless me if I don't open it and write in it. And I already know that, but I hadn't touched it in seven months. And it's got dust on it.

And then I'm going to go to God at some point praying that he'll help me to feel joy. But I already knew what to do. I didn't do it. I got 17 books on my Kindle that I bought last year that I read one. chapter of. I probably don't need to buy another book this year, and you might not either. I'm serious. I'm a preacher till it's so quiet that you think is Elevation Presbyterian Episcopalian Cemetery Service. Look at me. You know enough right now. I promise you do. I promise you do. You know enough right now to be physically fit. I'm just saying you might not need men's fit.

with Hugh Jackman's workout to do some push-ups and to take less calorie. But we're addicted to knowledge. We're addicted to, you know, if I knew what to do, if I knew, if I could do this diet over here, and I heard about this, and this celebrity diet, and I got to do this thing, I heard about this kombucha. If I drink that, then my gut will be held. You know, you already know. Touch somebody and say you already know.

You know push-ups. You know. sit-ups. You already know. Get a trainer if you want, but the trainer will not transform you. If you know what to do and you do what you know, you will know what to do. Come on. God, I don't need you to clarify. I need you to give me courage to do what I knew that I didn't do last time. I knew I needed to humble myself. I knew I need. Some of us know exactly what we to do, but we don't want to do it, so we want to pile more knowledge on top of the last thing we didn't do that he gave us to do.

I'm preaching, Mom. They might not come back next week, but I'm preaching. I'm preaching. Because there's three things that Jesus points to. And I want to give this to you because I believe that God already knows. Somebody say he already knows. I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you. But there's something that you don't know.

that you can't know. It is not in the knowing, but in the doing, that the miracle happens. Praise God. Do you feel this word, man? It might be just for you. God might have gave me this message just for you. I don't doubt it. He's that good.

Do you believe that? That he would put this in me just for you? I do. So I was noticing the details because his mother said, do whatever he tells you to do. And don't do what everybody else tells you to do. Because you'll spend all your energy doing what everybody else tells you to do. do and then not have the strength to do the thing God called you to do, saying yes to everything else but what God gave you to do. Do whatever He tells you to do. And so listen, so Jesus,

he wasn't reluctant to get involved. He just needed their involvement. And he tells them to do something. Look at it in verse six. It says, nearby stood six stone water jars. What kind of jars? stone water jars, the kind used by the juice for ceremonial washing. They were common. They were there for a common purpose, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons. They were big. That's a big gallon. In fact, by the time they did what he said in verse 7, Jesus said,

The servants filled the jars with water, so they filled them to the brim, which would have made 1,000 bottles of wine more than they needed. Because he's a God of more than enough. He is a God of more than enough. It's not that he doesn't have it. It's that we're so busy pointing to what's not there that we miss what is. And that's why we've got to flip the flow. And the Bible says that not even knowing what would happen when they did it, because they needed wine, but he points to water.

He doesn't point to what they need. He points to what they have. And then he told them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. They did so. They did it. They just did it. They had a Nike mentality. They just did it.

Swoosh. I'm looking for a sponsorship. I'm just trying to work this in. Trying to get us some money for the expansion program. They did so. And the master of the banquet tasted the wine that had been turned, the water that had been turned into wine. Now, he tasted the product, but he did not understand the process.

He didn't know. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants knew. Touch somebody who say you already know. You know who knows what God is doing in the earth today? Those who serve him. Not just those who come and sip, but those who serve. Those who involve, I want to thank God for every volunteer in this church, for everybody who served something today, for every e-group leader in this church.

I thank God for you because you already know that it's more blessed to give than receive. Not those who sit, but those who serve. That's who God blesses the moment. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, you flip the flow. Because everybody brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink. That's the way the world works.

It's good for a little while, and then it runs out. He said, you did it different. It got better and better and sweeter and sweeter. I've come to tell you your best days are not behind you. God is not like that. He didn't let you run out because he left you. He let it run out so he could give you something better than what you brought to the party to begin with.

Yeah. You flip the flow. You have saved, verse 10, the best. But how did he do it? How did he do it? Because everything you're running out of in your life today is in Jesus. It's in Him. But there's three things I want to show you and we'll go quickly, quickly, quickly.

Number one, it's not going to be in the places you expect. It's going to be, number one, nearby. It's not going to be by you moving to a new situation or something. thinking that your solution is out there somewhere is not going to be distant. It's going to be nearby. Verse 6. Where were the stone water jars? Pay attention to the details. Nearby. Where is the help that God has given you for the shortage in your life? It's nearby. It's nearby. The reason we don't see what's nearby is because when something is close, we see it as common. These were stone jars made of earth.

They were leakproof so that they wouldn't be ceremonially unclean, but there was nothing gold-plated about them. These were not iced out jars. That's not what made them special. What was special was what was inside. But they didn't have to go. You know, Jesus right here could have been like the disciples. Go to town. You've got to get some wine.

But the thing about Kena is in the middle of nowhere, so they can't go get anything, so they have to use something nearby. I wonder what's nearby that if you pour yourself. into it, God can flow again through your life. It's nearby. It's so close. Remember, they all came in the party and washed their hands. So the miracle was in something that they had already walked by to get to the party. The miracle is in something that you're walking by every day. It's in a Bible reading plan that you already started, but you just quit it and you can pick it back up. The wisdom that you need might be in the wife that you chose to do life with six years ago, but you don't want to listen to her because she's nearby.

So I will see men go to conferences to learn how to be a better man, but they won't even listen to their own wife because they don't want to be humble. I'm telling you, it's nearby. It's not out there. That's not where the provision is. It's not somewhere out there. It's nearby. It's going to be so close.

You'll miss it if you're not. careful. It's going to be so close. You're walking. I'll tell you, it's something that you're walking by right now. You've been praying for it. It's an orange gratitude journal that's right there on your bed. It's an exercise plan that you already know to do. It's going to be nearby and it's going to be normal. That's the second thing. It's going to be normal. It's not going to feel so supernatural. It's going to feel natural and then it's going to be super. But you can't wait for something special. You've got to embrace something normal. We have this treasure in earth and vessels that the excellence

of the power might be from God and not from us. It's coming through something normal. It's going to be normal. It's going to be habits. It's going to be discipline. It's going to be normal. God used me. Go home and have dinner with your family. It's going to be normal. It's not going to be exciting. It's not going to be sexy. It's not going to be Instagram models and bikinis on the beach. It's going to be normal. It's going to be normal. Tell somebody it's going to be normal. Tell them it's going to be natural, but it's going to be super. When God gets done with normal, what happens on the inside of what looks normal on the outside, God is doing something in me.

And I wonder what you've been walking by because it looks normal. You don't even notice it, because it's nearby and it's normal, and it's now. Jesus said, now. First eight, now. Everybody say now. Not after I've explained it to you, now. He didn't tell them, now when you draw it out, it's going to start to turn purple. Like when you stir the Kool-Aid and it's going to be a fermentation process and molecular structure is going to let me draw it up for you guys.

This is okay, everybody. Come on in. Come on in, guys. Now, I know you don't know what I'm going to do, but I already know. I know you don't know why I'm telling you to do this, but I know. I know you don't know why I'm telling you to forgive, but I know what I want to do that I can't do in your life if you have a clogged heart. So do it now. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for. And Jesus never points to what's next without dealing with what's now. Now draw it out.

Now. I could imagine he could have gone around the whole party. You should have planned better and you should have known better. But he didn't do any of that because he didn't point to what they should have done. It doesn't do any good. He points to what? Even though you've run, even though you could have done better, I'm going to tell you, you could have done better job. You need to fire your wedding planner.

I hope you didn't give her too much of a deposit because she really screwed this up. But now, that's actually what Mary and Martha said to Jesus when he showed up for Lazarus. If you would have been here, our brother would not have died. But even now. I feel the power of now on this word today. Now, now, now, now, now, now. Because the truth is, you might be running out of time. And Jesus only had three years on earth.

Isn't it crazy? Think about this. I'm almost done. Y'all got like five more minutes, or am I out of time? I don't know how to receive that tepid encouragement. I guess go if you need to go. I'm going to talk to who wants to hear this last part. I just studied too much.

to get up here and let a clock tell me when to quit. Because I know what it feels like to be empty. I've been there in my own life, you know, just dry and empty. If another person asks me, if I don't even want to do it, but there's something significant not only about what Jesus did, water into wine, the law into the spirit. preach about that. We will, one day. That he did it in a ceremonial jar, and it was an idea of the fact that the ceremonial washings of Moses were now being replaced by the blood that would be shed. That's all in there. It's a sign. It's pointing to a lot. But why did he do it in Cana?

Why did he show his glory in Cana? And to understand this, we need to meet Nathaniel, because Daniel was a disciple who came to Jesus. Guess who brought him, by the way? Philip, the one who Jesus said, where are we going to get the bread from, but he already knew? I promise you, he already knows, but he's just trying to make sure that you know where it comes from. And Philip brought Nathaniel to Jesus. Pick it up in 45. Philip found Nathaniel and told him, yeah, you can start playing. It'll hurry me along. He found Nathaniel and told him, we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law and about whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. There were 456 different expectations of the Jewish Messiah. And Philip was doing the math, you know, carry the one.

It's like it was. And he said, I think this is him. I think so. I'm not sure, but I think, come see. And Nathaniel starts trying to figure it out based on what he can understand. He's like, did you say Nazareth, that Hicktown? Nazareth? Monks Corner.

See, I'm used to being from a place that people don't respect when you say the name of it. Nazareth, can anything good come from there? And Nathaniel asked the question, and Philip said, I can't answer that, but you can come see. Now watch this. That's where it gets good. When Jesus saw Nathaniel, I always preached John chapter 2 thinking that verse 1 is where it started. On the third day, Jesus went to Cana. But it started before that.

When Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching, he said of him, here truly is an Israelite, in whom there is no deceit. Now Nathaniel was kind of creeped out. Verse 48, he said, how do you know me? We had met. How do you know? He said, I know what's in you. He said, but you don't know me. He said, but I know what's in you.

One time when Elijah was little, he would walk around the house. How old was he? Two, three. He'd walk around the house going, How do you know my name? How do you know my name? How do you know my name? I think he heard it on a TV show.

And I thought that was so bizarre. He'd walk up to me and I'll like, how do you know my name? How do you know my name? I say, because I made you. Because I gave you your name. I know who you are. I know what's in you. Jesus looks at Nathaniel and he knows what's in him because Nathaniel came from him.

Now watch this. This is so important. For everybody who spends a lot of time feeling like that what's against you is greater than what's in you. I want you to know that God already knows what's against you, and he already knows what's in you. I said, he already knows what's against you, and he already knows what's in you. He said, I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you, and Nathaniel said, you saw me. Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. You hadn't even met me yet, and you saw me before I was called. You mean you saw me

in this situation before I was even in it? You saw me in this dry place before it even stopped raining. You saw me in this dump decision. You saw me in this divorce. You saw me in this low place. Say, yeah, I saw you. I wouldn't have put you in it if I didn't put it in you. You've got it in you, And you will not run out and it will not run out and it will not run out You will accomplish your purpose you will fulfill you will complete your assignment It is in you I love Jesus. He said you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree You will see greater things than that and then they went to Cana So Jesus could show Nathaniel what he just told him.

I am the one who flips the flow. I am the one. Come on, get happy. Who gives grace for shame? I am the one who turns rejection into blessing. I am the resurrection. I am the life. Your struggle is a side.

Your setback is aside. Your secrets are aside. God is with you. It is in you. Come on, release a sound of you. praise in the place and you will not run out you will not run out you might not have any wine but if you have the one who can who can stir the water you will never lack you will make it and you will achieve it in jesus name well i hope you enjoyed the podcast today if you did there are just a couple

things i'd love for you to do number one subscribe to our show that way the most recent episode will always be in your feed waiting for you ready when you are. And secondly, if this ministry has impacted you and you'd like to help us continue to reach others, you can click the link in the description and you can give now. And I'll see you next time on the Elevation Podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.