March 26, 2013 "Bring Back The Wine" Rev. Dr. Sean H. McMillan

we're grateful today to be back in the House of Prayer and we thank the Lord that he's been faithful to us and brought us at last again into this solemn place what a joy it is to know that the old promise has remained true the water has not overtaken us and the fire has not burned us you ought to clap your hands and give Ramona I come today deeply moved and honored by the responsibilities afforded to me to be here this is my first time both in this church and in this city and I am grateful to all of the staff of this church who made my coming and experience of break delight and joy I want to before I press forward say a special word about your leader and about your pastor I recognize that it is preaching protocol to speak well of the minister but I'm from New York so I don't happen to say anything that I don't happen to mean and if I didn't like him I just say open the Bible let's get to the text he mentioned the sermon that he heard from me that night I remember well him preaching of Moses that same night and what a tremendous vessel you have I hope you recognize that many a preacher will come here and he or she will have great eloquence and grand gestures but we will go back to our churches but there's only one man who while you are tossing and turning he is praying for you that while you were going through darkness he is praying for you and don't you let ever let anybody come into this pulpit that you honor more than you honor the man of God the God is placed over this church cup your hands for the Reverend dr. Howard Jean listen you would grab your Bibles and turn with me therefore to the second chapter of the book of John I believe that therein we might find a word John chapter 2 yes there at the first verse you will find these words on the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there Jesus and His disciples also haven't been invited to the wedding where they're also and when the wine gave out the mother of jesus saith unto him they have no wine jesus said to her woman what concern is that of mine my hour has not yet come his mother said to his servants therefore do whatever he tells you there was standing there 6 stone jars of water for the Jewish rites of purification each holding twenty or thirty gallons jesus said to them fill the jars with water and they filled them to the brim and he saith unto them now draw some out and take it to the chief steward and they took it and when the steward tasted the water and when the steward tasted the water that had become wine and did not know from winter that come he called the servants and the bridegroom and said everyone else serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk but you have kept the good wine until now remain standing I want to pray with you but I want to talk to you tonight on the subject bring back the wine God our Creator we thank you for the privilege of preaching and for the joy that comes in knowing that you are with us even when we are not present for ourselves we thank you that you have been the kind of God that has not removed your grace or your mercy from us and that you have been good even in bad times now God your people have come into this church not for entertainment not for the flattery of anybody's ego but we need a word from the Lord tonight we need a word that will correct us from the inside out we pray that you would use your servant tonight for your servant in whatever key you want to hear that your people might be blessed your word might be edified and your reputation enlarged in Jesus name let every heart say amen as you take your seats tell somebody bring the wine back the Bible reports to us tonight and language that is clear and need not extravagant interpretation the Bible says to us that while they were at a wedding party invariably the wine did run out before I make commentary about the wine and its elasticity I would make first remark about the remarkable thing of Jesus and the twelve going to a party it bears some significant notice but there are those perhaps even among us suffer from an acute case of Christian seriousness who find it difficult to translate the promises of God into a good time but we would do well tonight to recognize our Lord not in church to recognize our Lord not at a prayer meeting to recognize our Lord not at a deacon gathering but rather he was partying and they were drinking wine I make mention of this not only to create some meaningful levity but I make mention of it because we are a Christian people and because we are being so saturated with the possibilities of salvation it ought to be offense to us to sit in churches without faces twisted up what our spirits maladjusted with our hearts in some inclement situation we are a Christian people and if anybody ought to have joy it ought to be us they did not order know how to have a good time it ought to be us so how are we not the people who believe that dead things can come back to life I don't have long to stay here but might I make commentary by saying this definitive mark of our Christianity is not the fact that we believe it is not the fact that we come to church every Sunday it is not the fact that we know the doxology and the hymns you are not a Christian merely because you are baptized you are not a Christian because you tithe and give every week you are not a Christian because you sing in the choir but you are Christian because you believe there's something dead on Friday can come back to life on Sunday and this is the nature and destiny of our George if there anybody in the building who can say pastor son I brought my joy with me I don't need a crier I don't need a praise team I don't need a preacher matter of fact give me 30 seconds and let me show you how can I we were at a party the Bible says they were having a good time somewhere in the middle of the gathering we are told by the writer in no uncertain terms that they ran out of wine Mary goes to her son and says they have no wine I submit to you that it is a very interesting proposition to which she endeavors to address her son's attention after having wine and not just any wine but good wine she says to him the wine has run out it is my task tonight to cue you into one of the dirty little secrets that we don't talk about in church and that is no matter how good the party is no matter how long the party is no matter how much money you spit on the party sooner or later the wine will run out this pastor shows us that the line was not created to last forever every now and then you can be in the middle of a good thing and wake up in the middle and realize that the line is gone now all you are left with all the misgivings of water and I don't care how Christian you are I don't care how much you love Jesus I don't care if you're speaking tongues or run around the church 30 times the line will run out on you there are a whole lot of people in here tonight for whom the wine has run out men and women who began relationships and scenarios started out meaningful tantalizing the creature cravings satisfied but sooner or later the wine ran out you were left there with somebody who could only give you order is it not the case that when the wine runs out it means that what used to be good what used to be filling and nurturing what used to be affirming what used to be fortifying has become the complete opposite and negation of that it means that what used to bring you joy now brings stress and disease if you live long enough in some area of your life the wine will run out on you it is interesting beloved because one of the things we have to ask is it not the case of somewhere under wee hours of the night when sleep will not come when the deep transactions of the heart are desperate when the diseased and despairing soul reaches out of the darkness to find some modicum of light have we not ever sat on the edge of our bed and dangled our feet into eternity and ask God God where did the wine go have you ever come to that place in your life where you wonder where in my strength go where did the love we had go where did the resources go I'm telling you if you live long enough you will experience the wine running out on you even in America the wine has run out 50 million people living in poverty in this nation 40 million more food insecure where did the line go in Detroit they have suspended democracy put a czar over the city so that one man can make choices for millions of people where did the wine go America only graduates 40% of its black children and yet in Chicago the mayor of Chicago wants to close 54 schools where did the line go 7,000 black people are killed by black people every year where did the wine go these are the dark questions of the soul when the moon is low and the wine is gone and the water is bitter is it not the case that in these in criminal as we assault ourselves there is someone here tonight whom the wine has run out who believers questions of insecurity and regret when you have had life change on you the first person we assault is not the devil but ourselves and have we not all sat there at some moment and wondered what did I do wrong have we all had something change on us and go to our cell Lord if I just could have done one more thing this verse teaches us that no matter what you do and no matter how good you are sometimes it is the nature and destiny of the party for the line to run out I submit to you tonight the wine running out bothered me I've read Mary run into a son to get help I'm glad Jesus was there but the line running out bothered me I don't want the line to run out I wanted to know what might we do when we are left with droppings of water how do you farm a future when the sweetness has left and you are left with the bland bitterness of water that you didn't want in the first place how do you sustain a relationship when you are left with water and the wine has invaluable been missing out of your life I did a little thinking about it and found out something that fascinated me and listening the Bible says that the wine ran out and he took the water and turned the water into wine did you know parenthetically that in every bottle of water good wine rather there is sixty percent of water mr. Shelton in every bottle of wine there is at least 60% of water so you do not ever have wine without also having water therefore if in every glass of wine there is water then might we philosophically conclude that in every glass of water there is the potential to I you ain't shot good enough you sick somebody and say neighbor it may not be what you want but God ain't finished with it yet is there anybody in here tonight who can bear witness that God took what water I could give him and he turned my water into wine he turned a messy thing into an honorable situation he took a GED and made a career out of it I'm gonna shut my mouth with right here and let you praise God for the next 30 seconds if you know what it is to have God Oh wine out of the water there is a melancholy truth we do not often know what we have when we have it never now and then because we do not have vision we will resent the water because it does not taste like wine can I help somebody tonight don't you ever get so upset about what you have that you lose sight of what it might become don't you ever get so resentful about what they are not that you lose your connection to what they might become it may look like water now it may taste like water now it may smell like water now but God has not yet with his hand on it can I help you tonight never underestimate the power of what you have because of how you got it never underestimate the power of what you have because of how you feel about it if God could take a rag on a rock and make a giant behave if God could take fish and loaves and feed 5000 surely God can take the mess in your house and make a way out of no way with it come on and put those hands together and give the Lord a hand somewhere in the things you wish you could give away are the things that God will use to change your whole life somewhere in the things that you cannot stand all the things that God will use to change your whole life there's wine in him somewhere he may not be perfect but there's line in him somewhere she may make mistakes every now and then but underneath all that water that's wine in it somewhere and the great challenge of relationship it's not to be watered off by how it looks now that's why in order to be great lovers we must first be artists there is no great love without artistry it is the eye of the artist that looks upon the slab of marble that lets upon the dark and dull slab and sees and the stone something beautiful and if you don't have any vision you ought to leave people alone if you don't have any insight you ought to keep your hands to yourself we don't need lovers we need artists who know how to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope I want you to remember tonight he turned water into wine he turned water into wine pastime now I'm not going to be long I promise but might not I offered this is some insight most relationships are predicated by us on the splendiferous nature of the Papa - Danis presentation we predict a tower attractions about how good somebody looks we size you up and determine based upon how well proportion you are whether or not you'll get the number tonight or not and because we begin relationships there our mind never leaves that moment but when the ring is involved and it is for forever I selected you that it has nothing to do with the splendiferous nature of the Papa Taurus presentation for a man does not connect with the woman simply but for the rest of his life because she is beautiful he connects with her because she saw something in him that those other women were not able to see she saw in him what they ignored to see and he was connected to her because while he was still a kid she spoke to the king in him you don't need to lose weight you don't need to gain weight you don't need to get taller you don't need to get darker just learn how to speak to the stone and pull the wine out of it learn how to talk to the marble and say you're great you're great whether you like it or not you're the head and not the tail come on it put those together how's the genuine value of anything it's not connected to what it is now but connected to what it might become my dear brother she did not connect with you because you were the most handsome or the tallest never others so much taller and more handsome than you she did not connect with you because you had a great job she connected to you because you knew how to say something in the wee hours of the night that's full down into the secret places of a soul that made her want to live when the Nationals Negroes made her want to die I'm almost done but I need you to understand the significance of the water becoming wine and not the wine becoming water we are so hard on ourselves we are so hard on ourselves without realizing that the gift of God to all of us is that we are still becoming the Greek word for woman is the word general may he it means to become this is the genius of every woman is that she is yet still becoming the ever-evolving ever ever-increasing ever learning of a growing this is the genius of femininity the genius of masculinity is that every man begins in the mud he struggles and fights against the mud impulses to become a man he must conquer the modern him and reach for manhood this is the genius that God gives us is that yet even in the water there is skill one says to his servants since they have no wine fill the jars with water now notice it was still water when they filled it up he says since you have no wine fill the jars with water this is good advice I submit to you that you do not have to wait for what you want in order to be full one of the great challenges of life is to learn how to be full right now he says since you have no wine fill it with water since you have no wine he says fill it with water you may not have a lot of money but you can still be full tonight you may not have a relationship but you can still be full tonight and the challenge for all of us is to learn how to be full even when we're still waiting for what we really want stop somebody and say neighbor you can be full right now you're not the wait till you get another job or another house another car there is enough grace and love and mercy in the universe in order for you to pull it down and fill yourself with that you ought to never come into this church empty and I'll never be the case that this man has to preach to him empty people God has been too good to us God has been too faithful to us God has been too kind to us for us not to come in here full of goodness and mercy and gladness when you are empty a phone call breaks your heart when you are empty somebody firing you sacrifices your dream when you are empty and email can ruin your day but when you come in the house for you tell somebody I'm too full for that foolishness don't call me back and I'll be alright in a half don't hire me and I'll be okay in a half out any full people in the building who can say pastor Shawn I didn't come here to get nothing I come in to play God but I already got customer DC filling up he told him to fill it with water notice it now he told them to fill it with what they did not want until they got what they needed I don't know who I'm preaching to but there's somebody in here tonight you may not have a lot going for you but I'm telling you take what little bit you got and work it until you get what you want take that little bit you got and work it right head working come on honey work it work it work it till you get what you want is anybody in here who can say god I'm gonna work what I got until I get let me rush on let me rush on that I might bid you founder do tonight critical thing and I should like to bring to your attention it's not only that they ran out of line and not only that he told them to fill it with what they did not want but more interestingly the question we must ask tonight is when did the water become line preachers across the chasm of the years have preached this text and a few of them have allowed their minds to go down into that deep and metaphysical question when did the water become line it's a critical point that must remain here for if you read the passage clearly you will note that when they feel the jaws it was still ordered that when they poured it in the stuarts cup it was still water that it did not become wine until the man tasted it with his tongue miss your shout let's try it again it was water in the jar it was water in the pouring of it but it did not become wine until the Stuart put it in his mouth there's a wisdom here wisdom here is a very particular one not everybody in your life will be able to put your water to their lips and taste the wine that is hidden in you it did not become wine until the right man tasted it it was mine in the mouth of the right person I submit to you tonight that not everybody will like what you taste like not everybody will be able to taste what God is doing in your life not everybody will be able to discover the secret nature of a sequestered greatness that lives deep down in the stark places of your not everybody is able to taste it in fact you know that somebody is yours when you hand the water and they taste wine you know that the situation is right when somebody has a taste for you we would do well tonight we would do well tonight not to expect the world to be able to like what we taste like there will always be people who are turned off by who we are there was a phrase in Latin which says dumb not qua non intelligentsia it means they kill what they do not understand and not everybody is going to be able to like the fact that you're becoming something great and wonderful some folks will try to hold you hostage to what they know about you some people will never let you grow past the thing that they know you did some people will never let you be bigger than the mistake that you made last week some people will always see you as water and Omaha no matter how much wine God puts in the middle of your life you must be prepared you must be prepared to go through life with some people never being able to taste the true sweetness of your life those of you who need someone to love them need everybody to light them need to be validated live forever between the collapse of people's hands who live in that space between the clap who eat in that space who love in that space who will die in that space you will never understand what the liberation of the gospel is all about it is to be able to go to people who do not watch your water who cannot receive your wine and give it to them anyway rock obama didn't look like much in the jar obama didn't look like much when they fought him out when america tasted him found out it was lying in their opening look like much in the jar this year chubby little black girl she didn't look like much in the job she didn't look like much when they poured her out but when America tasted her found out there was wine in there stop somebody is a neighbor this line in here not just because you don't have to tongue for it don't mean it ain't in there because I am what I am by the grace of God and if you ain't got a taste for it don't mean God didn't give it to me is there anybody in the building who can say I know who I am I know what I have I know what's inside of me he'll only give gonna prison Oh I would to God tonight I would to God tonight that God would send people in your life who have a taste for what you have tonight we mourn for all the men and women who exacerbate themselves and endless cycles of desire constantly wanting people who were never created to taste your wine to discover that you are sweet we mourn for those who will never know the sweet secure squeeze of Earth between their toes and to know without a doubt that they have arrived at the moment of deliverance we mourn for those who are chasing after people to see what they were born not to see long for things that God never wanted them to have who feel themselves accursed by the night blazed by the Sun who forget that nobody can curse what God has already blessed and do not understand that though he may not have the tongue for it though she may not have the taste for it God has blessed you to be one anyway I give you a final thought tonight we might in this conversation leave here emboldened by something better he turned water into wine but a remarkable discovery that God can take the unimpressive elements and turn them into something radical and beautiful you mean water can become wine you mean water can become wine water to wine there were two 15 year old who engaged in their creature cravings and she got pregnant she carried the baby for seven months both mother and father 15 years old she carried the baby for seven months and at the end of that seventh month the child was coming out of her womb whether they were ready for it or not her mother had already told her that you cannot bring this child into my house they were a strict Pentecostal family said you cannot bring illegitimate children in this house so in the desperation of their fifteen-year-old Minds they had the child together in the house and then because they could not think of what to do next they left the child in the garbage can behind the building child laying the GAR and the trash around it by the birthing fluids and the blood and the trash of that included day the child lay in the garbage a janitor came and hurt the child hurt the child crying out for the child's life took the child to Brooklyn social services where 52 year old woman raised the child child grew up in a difficult situation always knowing that the child came about the garbage came one year when the child was in high school child stuttered from the fourth grade to the ninth grade couldn't say anything in public studied with all of the intensity of stuttering one day when there was a speech contest in high school one of the teachers of the child said I see something in you and I'm gonna put you in this contest a child said to the teacher I don't know when you're talking about the child said I stutter I can't even talk to my friends but the teacher said I see something in you time came for the child standing up child's palms are sweaty but the child stood at that podium and begin to sleep with an eloquence that they had not yet heard the child spoke and the child went to college in the town graduated from college and the child went to grad school and graduated from there and not a child is standing a pig talking to you God some trickin in now give your neighbor high five and say neighbor I got someone in me I may not look like it to you but I got some wine in me is there anybody here tonight that who can say don't give up on me yes don't turn your back on me yeah go to walk out on me yet because God is still turning water into wine in my life give somebody a high five and say neighbor or neighbor before it's all over I will be better than this I will not die like this I'm not going out like this so I'm gonna put your hands together and give the Lord a praise in this building huh I want everybody to hear you you said you never be nothing now I want everybody to hear you who said you'll never turn into nothing huh I want everybody to hear you well that walked out on ya huh that talked about you that lied on ya and slam doors in your face I want them to hear you praise them I want them to hear you give them a shout tell them what you did so it gets break me yep but it made me fat awesome water and still be wine up throw your head back and give you

Channel: Alfred Street Baptist Church

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Length: 41min 30sec (2490 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 27 2013