Saved the Best Wine for Last: Why Your Season Is Coming

Sermon outline

God daily loads us with benefits and satisfies us with good things: as at Cana He kept the best wine until last, so stop looking back, expect a turnaround in God's season, know who you are, and build your life and family on Him.

1. He daily loads us with benefits

   We don't have only one benefit, salvation: God daily loads us with benefits, watches over our lives, provides for our needs and never leaves us. He forgives, heals, redeems your life from the pit, crowns you with loving kindness and satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. He has the church tell each other, 'He satisfies you with good things.'

   Illustration: Hang the words 'He satisfies you with good things' in your mind the way you hang your clothes on a hanger in the wardrobe.

   “God daily loads us with benefits.”

   • Psalm 103:1-5
   • Psalm 103:18-22
   • Hebrews 13:5

2. On the third day: what is dead will rise

   The wedding was on the third day, which stands for completeness and for resurrection, so whatever is dormant or dead in your life will rise: expect a miracle, and don't question God, because His grace is sufficient. Cana was seven miles from Nazareth, and seven stands for perfection: God will perfect what is imperfect and restore whatever the thief stole. Celebrate other people's successes instead of comparing, because what God did for one He will do for you; as He raised Joseph from the pit to the palace, He will raise you.

   Illustration: He has coined a phrase: God is a great accountant who will balance your books. Some are throwing in the towel, but keep fighting the good fight of faith and don't look back like Lot's wife; there is a greater day coming.

   “You are going up and over. Never under.”

   • John 2:1
   • Romans 9:20
   • 2 Corinthians 12:8-9
   • John 10:10
   • 1 Timothy 6:12
   • Genesis 19:26

3. Madam, my hour has not yet come

   Jesus was not being rude to His mother: the respect was lost in translation, and 'woman' meant something like 'madam'. He waited until the wine had run out completely so that no one could say some was left over. To everything there is a season; it may look dry now, but your season is coming, there are seasons of turnaround, and God makes everything beautiful in its time.

   Illustration: In a boardroom you can say the right thing at the wrong time and it becomes wrong, so ask God for wisdom to know when to speak and when to keep quiet.

   “There's a turnaround in God.”

   • John 2:3-4
   • Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

4. The God kind of mind

   The conscious mind is where beliefs and memories are stored; a wrong thought is changed by convincing it logically so that it passes into what he calls the superconscious mind, the God kind of mind, a realm of perfect ideas where God reveals by His Spirit what you need to know. God made us in His image to lead and have dominion, and to go into our own world, whether banking, selling cars or construction, as lifters and builders of people with the ministry of reconciliation.

   Illustration: Everything God made is perfect and in the right place: imagine if your ears or your nose were somewhere else.

   “You are a lifter of men. You are a builder of people. Not a breaker of people.”

   • Genesis 1:26-27
   • Mark 16:15
   • 2 Corinthians 5:18

5. Be God's original

   Jesus knew who He was and only did what He heard from the Father. Learn from others and research, but don't be a copycat: love who you are, be comfortable in your own skin and proud of your heritage, and when someone speaks negatively, say you are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. God lifted us step by step and removes our wrong turns as far as the east is from the west, so you were poor, but no more, and you will lack no good thing.

   Illustration: On a hot beach in Florida he looked for shade while a fellow pastor urged him to come out and get some sun; he replied that he was tanned already.

   “I love who I am.”

   • John 5:19
   • Psalm 139:14
   • Genesis 1:27
   • Psalm 103:12
   • Psalm 34:10

6. Six water pots: you need God in your family

   Jesus' first miracle was at a wedding, showing that God celebrates marriage, as He completed Adam with Eve. Six stands for man and his imperfection: Israel marched around Jericho for six days, but the walls fell on the seventh, because you cannot do it alone. He gives seven keys about families: they are the glue of society, they shape who we are, they matter to societies and to God (which is why the devil tries to break them up), God's blessings flow through them, they matter to God, God blesses the generations of those who serve Him, and God is a builder of families.

   Illustration: He encouraged his wife to learn to drive; after a minor accident she said she would never drive again, he handed her the keys, and today she tells him he drives like an old man.

   “We're not in competition with one another. We complement each other.”

   • John 2:6
   • Genesis 2:18
   • Joshua 6:3-20

7. How to cast your burdens on the Lord

   First, say it: speak blessing over your home. Second, soak in Scripture. Third, sing and praise. Fourth, surround yourself with prayer warriors who lift you up and celebrate you, not people who run you down. Speak well of your country, church, family and employer, because if your company fails, you fail.

   Illustration: If a friend buys a new car, celebrate it with him instead of saying you don't like the colour.

   “Why do you need a fortune teller when I know your fortune?”

   • Psalm 55:22