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Hey, Rock Point Church. We are so glad you're joining us. What an incredible time of worship we just had altogether. For those of you who don't know who I am, my name is Rocky. I am the kids pastor here at Rock Point Church, and we are so glad you decided to join us. And let me be the first to say happy
New Years. I know for some of you, this time of year can be very stressful. For those of you, congratulations. You have survived the holidays.
Others of you are a little bit more like me, and you're a little bit bummed because you love the holiday season. I know for me, it works out perfectly. My three favorite holidays are back to back to back in the season, and that's Halloween, Thanksgiving,
and Christmas. So this time of year, I'm getting a little bit sad because we're just losing all of my favorite things. Not only are those my three favorite holidays, also some of the biggest events in my life take place around these holidays. In October,
my oldest kids, I have twin boys who just turned three, were born two days before Halloween. Me and my wife, we celebrated our eight year anniversary in November just a couple days before Thanksgiving. And my youngest child just turned one and he turned one two days before Christmas Eve. So this time of year
really is one of my favorite times of year. And if my parents are watching right now, they would actually be pretty sad to hear that because my entire childhood, they tried very hard to make sure Halloween was not my favorite holiday. I grew up in a very conservative home
and with that meant Halloween was not a holiday to us. It was a day to be avoided. That was until eighth grade, and this is where my obsession with Halloween really began. In eighth grade, I transferred from a private school to a public school, and at this school, I knew one kid in the entire school.
And somehow though, I was invited to a Halloween costume party. Now when I got this invitation, I was so excited, but I also knew there was no chance my parents would let me go to it. So I went home and I pulled out like a whiteboard. I'm writing all of my cases down. Like I presented
the most elaborate case why my parents should let me go to this party. And to my absolute shock, they let me go. So me and my buddy got together and we decided we had to get costumes that would match each other, you know? So we decided we wanted to go to this party as power rangers.
So me and my mom went to a Walmart and we got this blue power ranger costume. Him and his family went to Walmart and they got the red costume. Now let me tell you about this costume. This was no joke. This was the kind of costume that had a full mask so you can't see your face anywhere. It had these giant muscle
outfit. Now, I'm not like Bill. I need fake muscles if I'm gonna have real muscles. So this thing had muscles everywhere. I had a six pack, covered your feet. This thing was elaborate.
And I was so excited to walk into this Halloween costume party. So I go to the party. Right? And and it went well. It was fine. But where things really got interesting is at the end of the party, where me and my friend were sitting there as families were arriving to get their kids.
My friend looked at me and said, Rocky, I have a really good idea. Now now with my age and my wisdom, I know if someone looks at you and says, I have a really good idea, you should just turn and run. Right? Can I get a witness? Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.
But he looked at me and said, Rocky, I have a really good idea. What if we switch costumes, I went home with your family, and you went home with my family, and we would see who could go the longest without our families noticing? So when he told me this, I immediately said, yes,
we've gotta do this. So we quickly ran to the bathroom, we switched out our costumes and we sat back down. At this point, I'm starting to get a little nervous, right? Because I'm a good kid, I don't do this sort of things. My parents barely let me even go to the party to begin with, but I'm all in at this point. The problem was we never met each other's families.
So we decided whenever our families would walk in, we'd like kick each other under the table. So we're sitting there, we're kind of waiting and my mom walks in. So I start kicking him like as hard as I can because I'm starting to freak out a little bit. My mom walks in and she says, let's go, honey.
My friend without missing a beat stands up and walks out with her. And I'm thinking like, may the odds be ever in your favor. Right? But then it dawned on me. I have no idea what his family looks like. How am I gonna go home with anybody?
So now I'm sitting there and I am full blown panic mode. I'm playing out every scenario in my head. I'm gonna get kidnapped by a stranger. What if my family likes my friend more than me and they trade us? Like, I'm playing it all out in my head. And as I'm doing that, I see this elderly woman come up, tap me on the shoulder. She doesn't say a word, turns around and walks out.
And I'm like, this is my moment. Do I go with this woman or not? Is it my friend's mom? I have no idea. But I decided to go with it. So I go and I follow this stranger
into her car. I sit in the back seat because I want to be as far away from her as possible in case she was a murderer. I went in the car. I immediately put my head on the glass door because I knew if I talked, she would know who I was.
And we start driving. I gotta tell you, this was the moment I said the most genuine prayers of my entire life. I'm praying, God, if you let me survive this, I will be the greatest kid ever. I will never celebrate Halloween again. Like, I'm doing all of that in my head. We finally get to the house, and this is a beautiful house.
I get out of the car. I walk into the front door. And when I walk into the front door, I see the most masculine human I've ever seen in my life. He's sitting in his throne. He's got this giant beard. He's got a cut off shirt, tattoos everywhere. He's got the real muscles. He doesn't need the fake ones.
And he's sitting there reading his newspaper. And at this moment, I knew I'm dead. Like, I've eighth grade is gonna be the end of my life. I lived a good life. Thank you, Jesus. This is it. I'm not surviving this. And I just sat there and wondered how did I find myself in this situation?
How did I find myself in a place I never thought I would be in? And I wonder how many of us who are watching this can relate to that right now, where you have found yourself in a place surrounded by people and you're wondering, how did I end up here? Maybe for some of you, it's relationally,
that you're in a place that you're looking at your relationships going, how did I get here? Maybe it's financial. Maybe you're sitting here with your finances going, god, I don't understand how I got to this place.
And if that's you today, I wanna I wanna give you hope. I wanna give you hope. Because in these moments where we find ourselves wondering,
how did I get here? There's hope. And it's the big idea. It's the one thing I want you to remember for today and I want you to think about as we head into the new year. And it's really simple, but I believe it can really make a big difference in the year 2023. And it's this, Jesus shows up to places he's invited to. Jesus
shows up to places he's invited to. If you are in a moment where you're in a place and you don't know how you got there, the hope is Jesus can show up in your mess. Because the reality is Jesus has been showing up in messes since the dawn of time. We just celebrated Christmas, Christmas, a time where God left his throne
and literally came and was born in a mess to meet us in our messes, to meet us in our brokenness.
There's an incredible story I wanna look at that really shows this idea that Jesus shows up to places he's invited to. So if you have a Bible, we're gonna be in John chapter two. John chapter two. If you don't have a Bible and you're just watching in your home, no problem. You're gonna see the scripture show up on the screen. John chapter two. Some of you, I say John chapter two and you already know the story we're heading to. We're gonna look at a time where Jesus shows up at a wedding. So if you have your Bible, John chapter two, here's how it starts.
The next day, there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. I love how John starts. See, he starts his gospel off different than any other gospel.
He doesn't start with the manger. He doesn't start with Christmas. He doesn't start with Charlie Brown. No, no, no. How he starts his gospel off is a beautiful image of the infinite becoming an infant, of the creator becoming a a part of his creation. It's a beautiful picture that he shows that the God who created everything
became one of us, but yet his own creation
didn't recognize him. And that's how John starts his gospel. And after he goes through this beautiful picture, he then gets to one of the most popular miracles that Jesus ever does. In fact, it's what he calls the first sign that Jesus does to reveal his glory. It's the first miracle,
and and Jesus shows up to this wedding in Canaan. We're gonna keep reading. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. If you're taking notes, circle that word invited. The wine supplier ran out during the festivals. So Jesus' mother told him,
they have no more wine. Alright. Try to picture the scene here. So Jesus
is invited to a wedding in a place in Cana. Now this is a place that's very strange. It was a small place. We don't see a lot about it. In fact, today, we don't even know where it is. We lost it. And throughout history, it's kinda just disappeared because it was such an insignificant place. Jesus showed up to this wedding for a couple that we don't even know who they are. So we got Jesus showing up to an insignificant
place with insignificant people. And at the wedding, the wine runs out. Now some of you can relate to running running out of wine. If that's you, no judgment. But the wine ran out, and this was a big deal. Here's why it's a big deal. In this dime,
the groom was responsible for providing the wine at a wedding. Now these weddings were not forty minutes like ours. These would be days. And it's it's so funny. They actually say that in those days, if you ran out of wine at a wedding, the mother-in-law could sue the groom. You
think you have a family that's jacked up? You thought Christmas was hard? Imagine being sued by your mother-in-law for running out of wine. Right? But that's that's what they could do. So the groom runs out of wine. I don't wanna miss this. What are you running out of this year? I wonder how many of us
just feel like we're running out, that the holiday season has just left us empty, has left us dry, has left us just feeling like we have nothing left to give. And at the wedding, they run out of wine and Jesus lets it happen. At that point, Mary knew this happened.
We just got done singing Mary, did you know? Well, in this story, Mary did know. She knew the wine was gone. And what does she do? She turns to Jesus and says, There's no more wine. Now, Mary didn't know what Jesus would do, but she knew who to take the problem to.
She didn't tell Jesus how to fix it. She didn't tell Jesus what to do. She did not bark orders out him. She simply invited Jesus into the problem and said, Jesus, here is our problem. We are out of wine. This is so important for us today because we feel in these moments like we have nothing left to give.
My question is, are you inviting Jesus into those moments? Because there's a lot of smarter people than me who would tell you why Jesus chose this insignificant place with insignificant people to do his first miracle. I'm not that smart, I'll tell you why I think he did it, because he was invited.
And Jesus will often show up to insignificant places for people who feel insignificant if he is invited. So he's invited to the wedding. His mom looks at him and says, we're out of wine. Jesus' response is something that if your mom is with you, please don't ever say this to her. Verse four, dear woman, that's not our problem.
I would not recommend you trying that at home. You're like, dear woman, that's not our problem. And your mom's like, what'd you just say? And you're like, it's biblical. Jesus said it. Don't do that. That's not smart. Moms, imagine tonight you go to your teenage son and say, son, your room's messed up.
And he turns and looks at you and says, woman, that's not my problem. Just guys, don't do this. I don't don't have time to go into the detail, but what Jesus is saying there is not being disrespectful to his mom. He just looks at her and says, mom,
that ain't my problem. But she's married. She's the mom, so she she has a response. Jesus says, that's not my problem. My time has not yet come. But his mother told the servant, do whatever he tells you. Alright. Picture the scene. Jesus
is looking at his mom. His mom says, we have a problem. Jesus said, that's not my problem, probably with a smirk on his face. Mary then turns to the servant and says, do whatever he tells you. And for some of you, that is all you need to hear today. Simply do what Jesus tells you to do. Oftentimes,
we find ourselves in these moments where we feel like we don't know what to do, but the reality is if we simply did the things we know Jesus wants us to do, if we invited him in those moments into our lives, we will see something spectacular.
Do whatever he tells you. Verse six, standing nearby was six stone water jars used for Jewish ceremonial washings.
Each could hold 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told the servants, fill the jars with water. If you're taking notes, want you to circle that. Fill the jars with water, a very ordinary thing. When the jars had been filled, he said, now dip some out, take it to the master's ceremony. So the servants followed his instructions.
Couple things here. This is so important for us today. This has so much implications for our life today. Jesus goes to the servants and gives them a ordinary task to do, and they did it. This is so many of our issues today. We want God to do something extraordinary in our life. But if you read the narrative of scripture,
so often, the extraordinary things that God will do in our life starts with ordinary decisions to obey him. This was an ordinary task that Jesus asked them to do and they did it.
If you want God to show up in a way that he's never done before, if you wanna see God work in your life this year in a way that he's never done before, start doing the ordinary things that God wants you to do because God can take ordinary and turn it into extraordinary. He does it all the time. Now dip some out,
take it to the master's ceremony. So the servants did what Jesus said. Verse nine, when the master of the ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from, though, of course, the servants knew. Stop right there for a second. The servants always see the miracle first, always.
If you wanna see directly what God is up to, choose to be a servant of his. Out of everyone at the wedding, the people who really got to see the first miracle were those who simply said yes to the ordinary task that God asked them to do.
If you wanna see God show up in a way this year, do the ordinary things and be a servant to Jesus. A host always serves the best wine first, he said. Then when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine, but you have kept the best until now. Verse 11, this miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee
was the first time Jesus revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. All of this happened because they invited Jesus into the ordinary of their life and allowed him to do something extraordinary, and he does this today as well.
As we we wrap up, I wanna talk to two different people who might be watching this. For those of you who are watching this and you you really wanna see God do something in 2023, you wanna see God use you this year in a way that maybe he never has before.
You wanna see God show up like we just saw in this story in your life. You wanna look back on this year and go, wow. Look at what God did through me. Here's what I wanna say to you. Start looking at the ordinary things that are nearby you in a different way. In this story, it was ordinary water, ordinary jars
with an extraordinary God. If you wanna see God show up in a way this year that you've never seen before, start looking at the ordinary things around you in a different way and allow Jesus to come into those moments, invite him to end those moments and see what God will do.
For others of you watching this, you might be sitting here feeling like your cup is empty, that you have run out. Or maybe you're in this moment where you say, God, I don't know how I got here. I'm in a space, I'm in a season and I don't know what to do. What I wanna say to you is there is hope.
Just like when I went to my friend's house, when I got there, I saw the father and I was so afraid because I knew I was in a place I shouldn't be. I started walking away and the father looks at me not knowing who I was yet. And he says this, he says, How's the party?
I tried to ignore him and I kept walking. He says, Boy, I asked you a question, how's the party? So I answered really quick because I didn't want him to hear my voice because I was so afraid what he might do if he saw who I was. So I said, Good, really fast. But in that moment, he looked at me and said, Take off your mask.
And I turned to him and I slowly began to reveal who I really was. And it was so scary because I knew I was in a place I should have never been in. And now this powerful father, he knows who I am and where I am and what I've done. Father looks at me and he slowly begins to grin and smile.
For those of you who find yourself in a moment, in a situation where you're wondering how did I get here? When we reveal to our heavenly father who we really are and say, God, I know I shouldn't be in this moment. I shouldn't be in this situation. I don't know how I got here. We have a loving
and gracious heavenly father who looks at us and does not condemn us. He looks at us and smiles because he doesn't just love who you should be. He loves who you are. So my challenge for you is this, regardless of your situation, will you invite Jesus to be a part of it? Because Jesus changes everything.
And regardless of what season you're in, I believe God wants to do something extraordinary in your life this year, but it will always start with us doing the ordinary things that we know God wants us to do. Love to pray for you. Father, thank you.
Thank you as we're starting a new year, father. We want this to be the best year yet, but that only happens if we decide to invite you into our life, if we decide to invite you into the ordinary things in our life and we trust that only you can do something extraordinary in those moments.
Father, help us see things the way that you see them. Father, we wanna be a people that are servants for you. We wanna be a people that simply do what you ask us to do because we know that's when you do extraordinary things. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for spending a couple moments
with me this weekend. As you can see, we are not in person, but next weekend, January seventh and eighth, we will be back in person as we start a new series, Genesis. Excited to see you here next weekend.