There are three different layers to this miracle. The first layer is provision. The couple at this particular wedding ran out of wine. You don’t want to run out of wine at a Jewish wedding. It’s not good. Jewish weddings last for days, and the people feast on wine and good food. If you run out of wine, you will be looked down upon, as poor and lowly, but when you invite Jesus to your party, or your life, you will always be provided for. He doesn’t go half-way, either. He created the best wine from dirty water. With Jesus, you will always have the best of the best.

The second layer of this miracle is obedience. The servants had no idea what filling pots with dirty water would do. Still, they did what Jesus told them to. When your plans fall apart, do what Jesus says- even though it is hard, and all it feels like you’re doing is carry dirty water. The servants had to carry 180 gallon pots to the river and back. They did this when Jesus told them to. They did not ask why, they just did it. All Jesus asks of us is to carry a burden, not give up, and do something crazy. The Bible does not say when the water turned into wine, but we know that when the servant dipped the cup into the pot, it was water, and somewhere in the middle of his obedient walk to the master of the banquet, it turned into the best wine. If God can get us involved in our miracles then they will stick.

The third layer of this miracle is that we are the pots- God wants to cleanse us and fill us with something priceless. The substance inside of the pots started out as dirty water from the river, and wound up as wine, the best wine. God wants to do that in our lives. he wants to take all that is in our hearts and make it better, clean it up and make it beautiful. You don’t even know when your water turns to wine but it happens. Somewhere in the walk of being obedient, a miracle happens.

In reflecting on our ongoing discussion about the power of God, a theme that you hopefully have seen emerging in recent weeks is the fact that nearly every breakthrough and miracle that we will experience in our Christian walk will require a faithful request or else some sort of bold initiation on our part. I have said it before: “God will use you to work your own miracles.” Scripture confirms this. Two weeks ago, we learned about the woman who was healed because she waded through a crowd just to touch the hem of Jesus’ robe (Mark 5:24-34). The two blind men in Matthew’s Gospel similarly had to call out to Jesus before having their sight returned to them (Matthew 20: 29-34).

This week’s story is a little different. It’s a little shocking, really. It starts off ordinarily enough—if one could ever really refer to Christ’s miracles as “ordinary”—beginning on the heels of yet another ‘self-initiated’ miracle, where a Roman officer has just offered a bold analysis of authority, thereby impressing Jesus and healing his slave (Luke 7:1-10). After this episode, Jesus travels the ten miles from Capernaum to Nain. It is here where this week’s story begins.

Jesus, as you can probably imagine, has garnered quite the following by this point in his ministry. He’s healed leapers (Luke 17:11-19); he’s cast out demons (Matthew 8:28-34); he’s fed the 5,000 (Matthew 14:13-21) and restored the sight to the blind through some rather unusual means (John 9: 1-34). What’s more, he’s probably earned the reputation as a particularly cheeky prophet at that. By now he’s worked a month’s worth of Sabbath days (thereby incensing the local Pharisaical devotees), and even managed to get kicked out of his hometown of Nazareth. Indeed, controversy tends to spiral in his wake. That is all to say that this young rabbi was likely to have a crowd of disciples, onlookers, enthusiasts and scrutinizers surrounding him wherever he went.

So on the road to Nain this entourage, all abuzz with the witnessing of miracles and ten miles of teaching, meets up with a crowd with an altogether different timbre. The crowd whom Jesus encounters in Nain is a funeral procession accompanying a widow who has just lost her only son. This is a rare and terrible blow for any single mother, but even more so for a woman in this time and culture, who would’ve lost not only her last blood relative but her financial safety net as well. She, in effect, has lost everything. At the front of this procession would likely have been a band of her peers wailing along with her in an act of demonstrative sisterhood.

These two crowds eventually meet—one craving life and the other mourning death. The emotional contrast could not be starker nor Jesus’ reaction more surprising. Upon witnessing this woman and intuiting her sad circumstances, he is moved to intervene. His intervention, however, is surprising in several ways. First, it is interesting to note that this woman, unlike the other stories mentioned above, does not ask for his intercession. Her dire worldview has probably become such that she is tired of the faithful and all their optimism. She’s stopped asking for miracles long ago. Her prayers, she tells herself, have not and will not be answered. She’s done. Jesus, though, spots her and calls to her, “Do not cry!” Authoritative. Curiously, Luke reports that his reaction was one of excessive compassion, though most of us are prone to intuit one’s yelling at a widow as an especially insensitive act. The thing to catch here is that Jesus is refusing to agree with her situation, and is instead provoking her to think otherwise. Tough love, some might call it.

But Jesus isn’t finished. He never is. He goes a step beyond speaking and moves to action. As Luke reports, he walks into this crowd, the death crowd, and tells the boy to “get up.” Equally authoritative. And out of an equal compassion. The boy, as you have read, does exactly that. Another miracle has been worked and witnessed.

As an aside, it is crucial to recognize that becoming a Christian is not a one-way ticket to The Good Life. Even after that altar call your day to day existence will more than likely remain a challenging endeavor and your obstacles will still be there where you left them. So let’s be frank, the Christian walk is not paved in bricks of gold. What Kingdom living does offer you is not only a Savior and Redeemer, but what’s more, a community of people who will speak into your world encouragement and, when necessary, conviction. They will become your brothers, sisters, friends, and mentors. It is the crowd round you, and not a plastic smile, that will help to keep your feet moving when life becomes nearly unlivable, and in this circle you will find hope. And Jesus will of course be there as well, teaching and affirming you every step of the way.

What Jesus has effectively done in this story (and beyond) is shaken death by its collar. Perhaps you require a similar ‘shaking.’ Perhaps you have responded to the wailing of the death crowd and decided long ago to tuck tail and walk in their ways—out of fear, or despondency, or faithlessness. Jesus is perhaps calling to you those same tough, provocative words: Stop crying and get up! And perhaps the local church will be the last thing, maybe the only thing, that can help get you back on your feet.

This woman’s situation was possibly the worst. In accordance to Jewish Law, she was completely shut off from society. She had no one in her life save for the doctors who were causing her grief. They would get her hopes up for healing, but she would only get worse and her hope would fall. Despair and solitude are a bad combination. This combination makes room for bitterness, anger, and thoughts that lead to a twisted, darker view of the world. She was completely alone.

Then, she heard that Jesus was coming. Jesus was on His way through town in order help someone else. Usually, Jesus would show up without any one knowing; this time, word came ahead of Him. And she had heard about Him. Now, she has a choice. She can either adhere to the Jewish Law and stay at home, away from society and from the people who were constantly letting her down. Or, she could muster up her faith one more time and break the rules by seeking out Jesus. To venture out was a danger, for she could not hide her disease; she could not hide that she was unclean; but that fact did not stop her. Her faith was stirred when she heard He was coming. Faith comes when the Word is spoken.

The woman came to an interesting conclusion in verse 28. She thinks that if she can “just touch His robe,” she’ll be healed. Why? There is no Biblical mandate stating that the robes of a Rabbi are holy and have healing powers. She could have come to this conclusion because of the rules influencing her world. An unclean woman is forbidden from touching a Holy Man. So, in following the rules, perhaps she thinks just touching His robe will do the trick.

OR…she remembers the Word of God and has received a revelation. Isaiah 6 describes God as sitting high and lifted up with the train of His robe filling the Temple. There are several Biblical references to God’s robe and His glory. Maybe, she knew this. Maybe, she believed Jesus was the Messiah and how He is different from any other. She believes what she hears and decides to take a chance and break the rules. She fights through the crowd–the doubts, the fears, the opinions of the world–and reaches out to Him and grabs His robe…

And Jesus feels it. He immediately stops what He is doing and asks, “Who touched me?” Everyone around Him is like “We all are touching you!” But Jesus knows. This was different. The woman approaches Him, falls at His feet, and tells Him her story. And He listens intently. That is the nature of Jesus. When someone reaches out to Him, He stops everything and focuses on the person, wanting to know their story. Nothing else matters save this one person.

This woman had lived her life in rejection and pain, yet, in hearing the Word, she stirred her faith. She worked her miracle; fighting all doubts and fears to reach Him. And Jesus listened to her. Then, He completed the miracle. In front of everyone, He says, “Daughter, your faith has healled you.” He elevates her back into the Family of God by calling her “Daughter” and seals the deal started by her faith.

Faith is the key. It stirs a person to go the bold. Position yourself, work the miracle, and GO THE BOLD!

The filter or prism that we look through defines how we see life and can change how we see God. If you were raised to believe that God is angry with you, that is how you will view God and it will affect your actions. If you were raised in an abusive home, that will affect how you see – and possibly treat your own family. The Bible gives us an amazing way to change how we see things. It doesn’t really matter how we see things because many times our prism is not reality. It’s our perception. We see certain things and they become our reality. But when I change the way I see things, I can discover God’s reality – discover the truth and discover how God sees. To start out this new year, we are going to shift the prism we look through and stop living in an environment that never allows us to tap in to what God has for us.

Paul was the master of seeing that people’s lives could be changed by seeing things through God’s eyes. He was amazing leader, because he didn’t see people as they were, but as they could become. You have to take a leadership responsibility of your own life, and everyone in this context is a leader. You have to make difficult decisions about your own life, and nothing around you can change your life. But you with God can bring monumental change. Every one of us how the power to make incredible shifts and changes in our lives, and find ourselves living in a totally different environment – a God environment – a place where God designed for us to live. It is the same world you are living in – we just change our prism so that we can better represent God to the world.

Colossians 1:6 – The same good news that came to you is going out all over the world, and it is changing lives everywhere. God is into change. Jesus is the Gospel – the good news – and the act of God sending Jesus in itself is change. When you have an encounter with God or meet God, you change. It changed your life “the first day you heard and understood.” This doesn’t mean that everything is suddenly different in our lives. Hearing or even having an initial conversation with Jesus does not change much in the natural. It changes a lot in the spiritual. When the Gospel is heard and understood and becomes truth – then change begins to happen.

v9 – We continued to pray for you that God would give you complete understanding of what God wants to do with your life. It isn’t just your redemption – your initial encounter. Finding faith in Christ as your Lord and Savior is the easy part. A lot of times people find Jesus in a time of crisis. Allowing God to work in our lives and change our lives is the difficult part. Our humanity is a tyrant and causes us to struggle with things in this life. We start to drift away from how God sees things and back toward the way I see things. That is why God says this Word is like food – it is feeding you. When you drift away from the God’s words, you begin to drift back and impede change and progress. We have to stay connected to God and the saints, to be sharpened, challenged and held accountable so that we can continue to move forward. When you are living around people who believe the same, you all move together. It is also smart to listen to people that know more than you and learn from them. Always listen to people who have fruit.

Truth and revelation – Paul brought one of the most powerful revelations and life builders ever brought to earth – v9 – I pray that God will give you complete understanding of what He wants to do and make you wise with spiritual wisdom. v10 – Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord. Once you have an encounter, wisdom and understanding begin to come and you begin to live a life that pleases the Lord. Now when we mess up, God still loves us – that’s what grace is for. But the more I get to know God, the less I want to let Him down. The more of His heart that is revealed to me, the more I want to live up to His vision for me.

Ephesians 1:16 – What do you want to do this year? What do you want to see change? Put God first, and He will help you in all areas of your life. “I have never stopped thanking God for you, and I have never stopped praying for you that God will give you spiritual wisdom and understanding, that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future that He has promised to those He has called.”

This is all talking about getting a revelation. A revelation is truth revealed. When truth is revealed, it changes your behavior. Not in your mind – that is understanding. What happens in your mind is never enough to change behavior. Revelation is truth revealed in the spirit. Change begins with revelation. A revelation stays alive in you forever. Once you get a revelation, it doesn’t matter what happens around you or what your circumstances are, they won’t change your belief, your faith or your behavior. Revelation is foundational – it is the foundation to rebuild your life. Revelation brings knowledge alive and makes it usable – the truth that changes your perspective and causes change.

God does not respond to our needs. He responds to the faith we have inside us that God will help us overcome our needs. Even in a place of blessing there will be pitfalls and obstacles (i.e. consider the serpent in the Garden of Eden). There will be things that can cause us to backslide when we aren’t managing our lives and seeing into the future – seeing through God’s eyes and with vision.

There are times in our lives when we face things that cause us to backslide and pull away from God’s presence. When God speaks to us in these times, He gives us a pathway to come back to Him and come back into the right. When we do something wrong, God doesn’t hide Himself from us: we hide ourselves from Him. The three questions take us on the path back to Him.

Question 1: Where are you?
Genesis 3:1 – In that moment, we need to choose to hear God, move toward Him, and overcome the things that are holding us back. We need to respond “I am here Lord. This is where I am.” Once we open our hearts and hear Him, we move to the next level.

Question 2: What do you see?
We need to choose very carefully what we can see with the eyes of our spirit. We need to choose to look higher and see things as God sees them. We need to choose to see above and beyond our problems, circumstances or where we are right now. We need to look to the future, have vision and see breakthrough. We can’t be shortsighted and focus on the present. We have to keep moving and see a goal. Have a vision. See the vision and run to it. As God said to Ezekiel: “Can you see these bones live?” In other words, what do you see for your life? Do you see things changing? If you don’t see change, it will never come. A vision in our heart of where we are going will give us the power to keep moving.

Question 3: “What do you want?”
Story of Bartimaeus (the blind beggar) – Jesus said to the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” When Bartimaeus heard the sound of Jesus’ voice, he cried out to Him for help. Although it may have seemed obvious what His need was, Jesus still wanted Him to speak it. Jesus said to him, “Get up and throw off your cloak.” This cloak was the mark of a beggar, and symbolic of his life and circumstances. Jesus told him to throw it off – shed it. Are you hiding from God? Are you connected with God? Throw off the covering that is hiding you – hiding what is inside. Stop hiding from God and others. Make the decision to change by throwing off your covering. Make a decision to move forward – move away from it. Your need is not the obvious motivating factor to God in your life. He wants us to identify our needs and make a decision to overcome them. The only limiting factor in this situation is our response to God’s question. Are we going to step out in faith into something bigger than ourselves? Or are we going to stay focused on what we see around us? There is no restriction in God. It’s all about faith.

Where are you?: What’s going on?
What do you see?: Do you have a dream for your life?
What do you want?: Do you have the faith to believe in something big?

The disciples were not new fisherman. They had been in storms before and had been in the boat with Jesus before. But this time they knew they were in REAL danger. Sometimes we are in REAL danger- our marriage is failing, we are on the brink of loosing our house, etc. In these situations, we come to God because we are afraid. But we have to keep our faith. I would never want God to come to me in a situation and ask me “Where is your faith?”

One day God is going to come to you and ask you to deal with a problem. You have to have faith that He is going to get you to the other side. Jesus is always speaking. In every situation, He is teaching us and He giving us answers. Jesus gets into the boat with you. He doesn’t just tell you what to do; He goes with you. Even in the middle of the storm when you can’t hear Him and you think He has left you, He hasn’t. He did not design us to do things alone.

You have to remember what He says to you when things are calm and the sky is still blue. He tells you that He will get you to the other side. We have to remember these things and walk in our faith when he allows us to steer ourselves. The best leaders allow you to learn by doing it as well as teach you. Remember that we can’t control everything, sometimes storms just come. When things are going well, we can miss what God is telling us and, when the storm comes, we can’t remember what He said.

The boat and the journey are issues in your life. The lake is the obstacle that stops you from getting to where God wants you. It takes faith to walk on water – overcome the obstacles – and get to the destination God has for us.Once Jesus starts you on a journey He is not going to get out of the boat.

The other side is a miracle. On the other side is an assignment for you. When you go through the storm you come out with a testimony – your test is destined to be a testimony. There are people on the other side who are facing the same trials and challenges. They need to be encouraged by your testimony, and hear how your faith brought you through it. If you haven’t gone through trials, you can’t relate to others. You cannot reach the lost without empathy for where they are coming from. Sometimes people who are going through a crisis – a storm – can not understand God. If you are there with a testimony, they get hope of making it through too. If you are not willing to get in the boat, you will not have that testimony. The other side is a victory for you and somebody else.

As we get stronger, people attach themselves to our strength and we take them on the journey. As the kingdom of God is revealed to the earth through the church, we are on a journey of growth. James says for us to appreciate the trials we go through because that is part of our growth. Not many of us will have our faith tested by living or dying like the New Testament saints did. That’s not to downplay our testing, but we just need to keep it in perspective.

Sometimes things go on around our life that we have no control over, and our only answer is to trust God. When we can’t work it out in our brain or see the answer, all we have left is our trust in God. Trusting in God starts with small steps of faith. Sometimes even just coming to God’s house requires trust. There is always something that is just beyond our reach that God will ask of us. That is right where God wants us, because all we can do is trust Him. Doing anything else will take us AWAY from where we want to go. There’s only one move we can make and that’s to go forward.

Jesus required something of the people that He healed (spit in the mud, the woman that touched His garment). When we read about miracles, the person that is getting healed is always involved in the miracle. Jesus could have instantly turned the water pots into wine. He could have just laid hands on whoever He wanted and they would have been healed. But he wanted them to take part of their own miracles. Faith without action is like a rocket without fuel. We move, God moves.

Luke 17:11 – If you were a leper, you were an outcast. In the Bible, leprosy can often represent sin. When there is sin in our life, we can’t connect to God because He is pure and holy and can’t fellowship with sin.

Jesus told the lepers to go and show themselves to the priest. In the Torah, if lepers were healed, the first thing that they had to do was to show themselves to the priest so that they could do a ritual. Jesus was speaking to them as if they were already healed – the only way that they could go to see the priest was if they were healed. So, the lepers WENT to the temple…and as they WENT, they were HEALED! They moved and God moved. That is the way that God works.

When we hear about a promise, we have to move towards God. We have to believe by moving, and God moves with us. We can’t find what God has for us unless we move. Do what you can do, so that God can do what you CAN’T do. It will take boldness and a huge trust factor, but we just have to start moving.

When we are standing still, God has no power in our lives. When we move, we unleash the power of heaven, and the supernatural power of God. Faith isn’t complicated: it just requires action on our part. No matter where we want to go, we have to just start moving. We move, God moves – bottom line. We are going to live our lives by making moves. Will we make bad choices? Yes. But don’t let your pride get in the way of turning around and moving again.

In the area of Reach, we are all making sacrifices. We will keep moving towards the new building through our commitments. This is a faith move and something that will build our family.

Mountains are very specific things. They are things that we need to overcome in our lives, and they help us build our trust in God and walk in faith. That is why it is so important that we face them and not go around them. If we never climb the mountain and never conquer it, we will never have the power of God released into that area of our lives, and it will continue to hold us back. You can go around it, but you will never grow in God or learn to see farther than what is in front of you. God will always provide for us, whether we face our mountains or run from them, but we will never receive the revelations he has for us and we will never live the big life and the big destiny he has for us when we are living in fear.

God isn’t just on top of the mountain – God is also in the mountains. God is is the journey. The Bible says to count it all joy when you face trial. Sometimes God sends the trial and, oftentimes, God sends trial to those on which he has favor. It is an honor to have a mountain to overcome because is preparing you for something he wants you to do and preparing a revelation for you. He is also preparing a meeting between you and him on the mountain. God is always in the mountain and on the mountain. You just have to find him and his answer. Every time you climb another mountain, you become stronger.

If we want leadership in any area of our lives, we have to climb the mountain. As a leader, we want the ability to influence people in our jobs, our families etc. There will be times when we are in the forefront and WE have to make a decision – its just us and God and sometimes God won’t even say anything! He is waiting for us to decide – He directs our STEPS, not our standing.

“The leaders went up the mountain” (Ex. 24:9) – leaders are able to exert themselves. Leaders do things that are difficult. There are “mountains” in the kingdom that you have to be able to climb as a leader. For any Christian, the first mountain to climb is prayer. Then, we have to climb the mountain of God’s word…otherwise, we are being spoon-fed. We have to get to the point where we are feeding our spirits. Children can feed themselves by the time they are one year old – we must learn to do things for ourselves and not always rely on our pastors or leaders to feed us. We have to climb the mountain of attitude – pick any kingdom principle you want to conquer and that is a mountain.

God lives on the mountain. When we climb the mountain, we find God. When we are down here, we are living our daily lives – God doesn’t care about what color shirt we wear. He wants us to exert some energy and get to the top of the mountain where He is. God isn’t just ON the mountain – He is doing supernatural things.

Its always good to go up the mountain with other people (they shared a meal together – Ex. 24:11). We are people of the table – we eat and fellowship together. After we go through things together, we have a new sense of bonding – it changes your life. This church is about building a community of people that are doing life and discovering life together. This building that we are building is like a mountain that we are climbing together. God is building us through this project. The transfer that goes on in the lives of the people doing something together is powerful.

Exodus 24:13 – Moses and Joshua went further up the mountain – God had something more for them up higher. This isn’t a life where we sit back and think we’ve arrived. God is ALWAYS going to be calling us higher. Moses & Joshua had a meal in the presence of God and still went higher. God will visit us and give us instruction for our lives. Moses went even further up the mountain and a cloud covered him for 6 days. He stayed on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights – no food, no water. There are lots of supernatural things going on in the natural – Moses was sustained on the mountain.

While Moses is with God, the followers down at the bottom were getting restless. They created a golden calf and began to worship it. They wanted something they could SEE – idol worship is about not having enough faith to believe in God that we can’t see. 3000 people died that day, and coincidentally, 3000 people were saved on the day of Pentecost. Don’t be a person that doesn’t have faith to start climbing the mountain. If we don’t climb the mountain, we look to carnal things.

The people crossed the Red Sea, which is symbolic of our salvation experience. Even in the wilderness, God still fed them manna and provided for them. There was still more water to cross – the Jordan River. We don’t actually possess anything until we go through the Jordan and get to the Promised land. God didn’t stop the Jordan until they STEPPED in. Leaders are constantly stepping out and trusting a God that they can’t see…except when we climb the mountain, and see God – our faith and trust comes from our mountain experience. Climbing the mountain will change us.