Tell Him

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, dear radio friends, how in the world are you? Yes, this is your friend Bob Cook. I’m doing all right, thank God. And I trust everything’s all right at your house. Glad to be back with you. We’re sharing from the Gospel of John these days. And we come now to John chapter 2. Let me read a few verses for you. “The third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. And the mother of Jesus was there. Both Jesus was called and His disciples to the marriage. And when they wanted wine,” I mean, lacked, they ran out of it, “The mother of Jesus said unto Him, ‘They have no wine.’ Jesus said unto her, ‘Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.’ His mother said unto the servants, ‘Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.’ And they reset their six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Jews containing two or three firkins apiece. Jesus said unto them, ‘Fill the water pots with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. And He said unto them, ‘Draw out now and bear unto the governor of the feast.’ And they bear it.”

“When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine and knew not whence it was, but the servants which drew the water knew, the governor of the feast called the bridegroom and said unto him, ‘Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine and when men have well drunk then that which is worse but thou has kept the good wine until now.’ This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth His glory and His disciples believed on Him.” That 11th verse that I just read for you is the outline of what happened before it. Miracle, glory and commitment on the part of the disciples.

Now, I’ll come back to the beginning of the passage. All of this happened together. “The next day,” John 1:29. “Again, the next day after,” John 1:35. Verse 43, “the day following.” That was the call of Philip and Nathanael. Then it says, “In the third day, all of these things happened together.” You wanna realize that when you’re thinking in terms of that 11th verse, “His disciples believed on Him.” Everything was happening fast but not so fast but that they could realize that this was indeed the one that Philip described when he said, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

The third day, it says, “There was a marriage and the mother of Jesus was there and Jesus was invited and His disciples as well to the marriage.” The traditional marriage ceremony that many of us evangelical ministers have used through the years always mentions the fact that the Lord Jesus dignified the marriage with His presence. The fact that the Lord Jesus went to a marriage ceremony and reception feast, tells us that He put His seal of approval on marriage and the home. The writer to the Hebrews says, “Marriage is honorable in all.” And the Book of Genesis says, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife and they two shall be one flesh.” The marriage and the home is ordained of God. Well, you know that, don’t you? The fact is, however, that in our day there is a concerted attack upon this whole concept. And people say, “Well, a marriage license, that’s just a slip of paper. You don’t have to have that, just as long as you love each other.” And so, people are living together.

The number of unwed people living together, according to the US Census, has grown dramatically in the last few years. Another Census is coming up soon, the government is now getting ready for it, as the papers tell us. And I’m sure that those figures will again be inflated over what they were before. There’s an attack upon the biblical concept of marriage and the home. One man for one woman and both of them for God forever. Yes, I know divorce enters in and breaks up homes and some of my listeners have gone through the heartbreak of that experience. And no sermon, no word of mine or anybody else’s is gonna take away the deep hurt that you feel. It’s a kind of a combination of hurt and bewilderment: What happened? Why did it happen? And rage, why does this have to happen to me? And all of it wrapped up in that sense of despair that rolls over you every now and again. Rough, isn’t it? Yes, it is. The only answer to it is to let Jesus handle your heart strings. He can heal the hurt. I know that divorce has come into some of your lives and it’s rough. Jesus said it wasn’t meant that way. Look up what Jesus said about it. He said it wasn’t meant that way, but because human hearts are hard, that’s why it comes in.

Anyhow, our Lord Jesus blessed the whole concept of marriage and the home by attending with His disciples. A small thought here. You put your seal of approval on the events you attend. You wanna think about that for a moment? Absolutely true. You put your personal seal of approval on the events you attend. So, do you want people to look at you and say, “Well, he’s a Christian and he went there, must be all right. She’s a Christian and she did that, must be all right.” Do you realize the vastness of your influence even as one individual among many? Each of you, my dear friends, has his or her own public. You have people who like you, who wanna be like you, who imitate your ways, who gauge the rightness or wrongness of their conduct by yours. Yes, you do.

Give some thought to this, will you? The next time you’re going to go some place that might, might, I say, be a little questionable. Doesn’t hurt you, you say. “No problem to me.” Well, that could well be. But just give some thought to the influence, the influence that you’re having on other people. Jesus was there, and His presence and that of His disciples has been recorded so that nearly 2,000 years later, we look back and we say, “He went to a marriage feast.” Yes, your life and mine is being recorded as well, every one of us must stand. Paul says, “We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that every man may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad.”

Your life’s events are being recorded, my friend, in God’s books. We have just a little inkling of the vast, incalculably vast knowledge of God. When we think about what our big computers can hold, all of the significant events of your life are wrapped up in the government’s computers. That and the credit bureau, but taken together, will tell exactly who you are, and where you live, and what you’ve done. That is just man’s doing. God, all He has to do is turn on the whole universe, it’s a vast tape recorder. All He has to do is turn it on and play your life back to you. So, yes, your life is being recorded, what you do, where you go, what you say, and the influence you exert upon others. God grant that that influence may be for God and for good. Give a little thought to where you go and what you do with the knowledge that somebody else is gauging their behavior by yours.

Now, they ran out of refreshments at the wedding reception. I’ve had three daughters and they’re married, and I’ve gone through three wedding receptions. My blood runs cold at the thought of having to say to the guests, “Friends, we’ve run out of refreshments. Awful sorry. Just leave your presents at the door, at the table there by the door as you go.” [chuckle] Oh, dear. That’s awful. [chuckle] But what are you gonna do? They were out. Now, Mary said to Jesus, “They don’t have any.” She wasn’t asking Him to do anything, she was just telling Him. A small thought here. There’s an old song that says, “I must tell Jesus all of my troubles. I cannot bear these burdens alone. I must tell Jesus. Jesus will help me. Jesus alone.” Remember that old song, some of you old-timers?

If we tell Him, He does something about it. Do you realize that many of us are lacking in the blessing of God because we simply have not told our Lord about things? Do you know that some of the greatest blessings I personally have ever had have come just out of telling the Lord about things? I came away from a conversation with a man who looked me in the eye and said, “I will get your job. I’m young and I have talent, and I’m going after your job.” That’ll shake you up a little, you know. What I did was to go back to my office, which at that point was down in a basement of a church. In the summertime, all the furniture swelled up with the dampness, and the drawers stuck, and I never got inside of my desk drawers from April to September. [chuckle]

Anyhow, I went back to my office, got down on my knees and I said, “Lord, you heard what he said. I wanna tell you, Lord, this man said he’s gonna get my job and he has lot of friends, and he may well do it. Lord, I just want you to know about it.” And I told the Lord about it, I didn’t ask Him, really, as I recall, this was 45 years ago. I didn’t ask God for anything, I just told Him. And you know what happened? God spoke peace to my heart and there came this strange realization that God was saying something to me. You know what He said? He said, “You just keep on doing what I told you to do and I’ll take care of the competition.” [chuckle] Well, I haven’t heard about that man for 40 years, I don’t know where he is. He may be dead by now, but God took care of His boy. I just told God about it. You try that yourself today, will you? Just tell the Lord about things. We’ll get at the rest of this the next time we get together.

Father God, today, help us to have the good sense to tell thee about things and thus enlist thy almightiness. In Jesus’s name I pray this. Amen. ‘Til I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today, and be a blessing.