Understanding God's Plans and Jesus' First Miracle

I heard a story about a guy that was quite the penny pincher, I guess nowadays, he would be called a nickel pincher? No more pennies? He used to work a lot to save more and more money. He had saved almost all his money during his life span. He told his wife to put up all his money in the casket with him when he died. He wanted to take all his saved money with him.

One day he said to his wife,” Promise me, that you’ll put all my money in my grave with me.” So, she promised.

Just a few weeks later the man died. At the funeral as they were about to close the casket, his wife stopped them. She went to her husband’s coffin and put a box beside him. And then the coffin was buried.

The woman’s friend asked her,” Don’t tell me that you have put all the money in that box!” His wife replied,” Yes! I did.” Her friend said,” Are you mad!! You have put all the money in it!” His wife replied,” I’ve deposited all the money in the bank and made a check for it and put it in that box. When he is ready for it, he can cash it.”

Probably not what he expected, but it was for the best. With God, we don’t always get what we expect. God doesn’t always play by the rules that we think are best.

I want to read about Jesus’ first miracle found in John 2.

There are a lot of questions that I can’t answer like “Why would this be the miracle that Jesus did in Cana that revealed His Glory?” Why water to wine? Why not healing or a miracle of food? So many other miracle possibilities that I would have chosen for Jesus to perform first. But when it comes to God, how about this from the book of Isaiah 55:8-9…. “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

God does things differently than we would think, so we need to expect the unexpected. Because point #1 tells us…

1. Sometimes God speaks through our circumstances.

John 2:1-3

When I think about this one, I am usually the one that gets myself into circumstances that are not good. I mean just like you, I make poor choices from time to time that lead me right into a situation that I do not want to be in.

In a way, I am like Joseph in the old testament, when he was hated by his brothers and would tell them that his dream was about them bowing down to him. If he would have been a good brother and tried to build relationships with them, then maybe he would not have been sold into slavery.

Through that time of being a slave, Joseph grew in his faithfulness to God and allowed God to use him and it didn’t always fair well for him even when he made the right decision.

God spoke to Joseph through his circumstances to help Joseph to be the great leader that he was.

This miracle of turning water to wine, started with the circumstance that someone failed to plan for the number of guests or maybe leaned too much on their own understanding of what to expect and it came around to bite them in the backside. A lot of times, our circumstances are beyond our control, like Joseph being accused by Potiphar’s wife of trying to rape her. Other times, we get ourselves into bad circumstances like David and Bathsheba.

Whether we are going through a rough patch, a smooth patch or a flourishing path; whether it is our fault or not, if we will just stop and listen to God, He will help us to grow closer to Him and He will use our circumstances to (Henry Blackaby’s book Experiencing God) “reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.”

2. Sometimes God speaks through the Church.

John 2:4-5

Experiencing God is such a great bible study. It will challenge you to grow. It helps you to understand through scripture different aspects of God that will help you get to know God better. One of the statements made in Experiencing God is, “God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.”

As I focus on this one. God speaks through the church, that doesn’t mean just through the pastor or Sunday school teacher or leadership, it means it will be through those that have a relationship with God, through Jesus. I remember when I was about 15 Dixie Haase telling me that I was going to be a pastor one day.

I remember one day that I was talking with Bob Hendrix on the phone when he was the pastor out in Satanta, KS and he said, “I can see that one day, you will be the pastor at the Granby Church.” I told him like I told Dixie, that I think that they had lost their ever-lovin’ mind.

When the Pastor Ashley left, becoming the pastor wasn’t even on my radar. After church, the very day that Ashley gave his notice, Cheryl asked me if I was going to put my name in the hat for pastor. “No way!” And I told her some of my reasonings behind saying no. And she was like God takes over in our weakness. Well, then He ain’t calling me. Next week same thing, she asked and I had more excused, until finally she quit asking and God said, “It’s time.” God used Dixie, Bob and Cheryl (the church) to speak to me and now you are stuck with me.

A few months ago, Cheryl mentioned that a sequel to Experiencing God was coming out and she wanted to know if I would take it with her. All my excuses, it’s a lot of reading, it takes up a lot of time, I am lazy and don’t want to…. blah, blah, blah. Until Monday when I started putting this sermon together, and God laid it on my heart to do it. God spoke through Cheryl, (the church) to speak to me. He will use the Church to speak to you too, so be ready.

After understanding how God speaks; we can see how God used Mary, (a woman) and that was unexpected. Knowing that it may be in unexpected ways, point 3 tells us…

3. Hearing God’s plan brings you to a crossroad.

John 2:6-8

Last week in Sunday School, Oooh, that reminds me, here is another push for Sunday School. We have classes for all ages. If you feel like maybe you want to get a little more bible study time together, Sunday School is a great place to do that. It starts at 9:45ish and we have something for every age group. Sunday nights starting at 6 and Wednesday nights at 6:30, we have something for all age groups also.

Anyway, in Sunday school last week, Wes was talking about his call to be the youth pastor. He felt like that is where God wanted him and that he needed to let the Church Council and the pulpit committee know. But before he could do that, he wanted to make sure that it was God’s voice and not Wes’ voice. He prayed and prayed about it and got a peace about the situation that it was God calling him to that position.

As the pastor and one of the leaders in the church, many opportunities to serve, lead, work and help come up. If I make an announcement that we need small group leaders, we don’t usually get very many (maybe one or two) people step up. If I, or even another leader asks people, the reply is usually let me pray about it. And that is the end of it. If we think back to point #2, Sometimes God speaks through the Church, then we are hearing from God and we have come to a crossroad of decision time.

How well would this miracle been if the people that were told to fill the jars with water to the brim and they decided to not do it because it seem ridiculous? What if they only filled one jar? Or only partially filled the jars? They were at a crossroad of being obedient or following logic. They chose to be obedient, when we choose to be obedient point 4 tells us…

4. The outcome will be unexpected.

John 2:8-10

How many people, do you think, had any idea that Jesus would turn water to wine? Probably just Jesus. Mary knew Jesus could do something, but I don’t think she knew exactly what He would do.

When I felt like God was telling me to focus on paying off the loan on the church, I had no idea that we would be able to pay off the loan of over $120,000 in that short of time. Not only were we able to pay off the church, we had enough money left over to buy the church bus. My thoughts were that we might get the loan paid off but no where as fast as it happened. I never thought that there would be money left over. Maybe a few hundred to $1000, but not as much as there was.

I never thought that God could use me as a pastor because of my past. I was really bad at one time. I never thought that I was worthy and I am not. God in me is worthy and allowing Him to lead me will bring an outcome that is unexpected. Imagine, how much more God can do through our church if we just say “Yes”. With God we can expect the unexpected. Are you saying, “Yes!” to God?

With God, Expect the Unexpected