Sunday 09 • 22 • 19

No matter what you think your purpose is in coming this morning, whether you come here all the time or whether this is your first time, God has purposes for you being here this morning. And we believe that God brings every person who comes on a Sunday morning through those doors into this place. And he has things for you here, and we're so happy to be part of that process of welcoming you in Christ's name.

We're going to turn our attention to God's word, and I invite you—as has been our habit—we're going to read this out loud together. We're doing that just as a reminder that we are a people of the book and we want everybody to have this word in them. So for a long time we've had people read this out loud, but we're in a season of just reading this aloud together because we want you to put this word inside of you. We think this is wisdom and truth that you'd put inside of you.

So we're going to read together from Ecclesiastes chapter two verses one through 10. It's on the wall behind me and also in your bulletin. You ready? Three, two, one, go.

I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, it is mad, and of pleasure, what use is it? I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what good for the children of men to do under heaven during the few days of their life. Made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to draw water in the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house. I also had great possessions of herds and flocks more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasures of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me, and whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I gave my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. — Ecclesiastes 2:1-10

Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you for your word. There is nothing like your word. We pray now as we open ourselves up to you, Father, that you would come and speak to each one of us. Lord, we know we come into this place from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, but each of us come the same way, in need of a word from you, in need of a touch, of just a sense that you are with us, that you're for us, that you are here by the power of your Spirit and speaking to us. We pray that in Christ's name. Amen.

The Author: Koheleth, the Teacher

So if you're just joining us, we are working our way this fall through the book of Ecclesiastes, and it's like reading a memoir, but it's sort of like reading the memoir of nobody you've ever met before. And honestly, I have a hard time even being able to place in our culture a person like this person.

Now the church throughout the ages has treated this as the words of King Solomon, and he's the richest and most powerful king in all of Israelite history. But I'm trying to think of like who I can compare this to in modern day. This is somebody with the power of Donald Trump and the riches of a Kardashian and the sort of business savvy of Steve Jobs and the intellect of Stephen Hawking. This is just sort of this larger than life person.

And the author, however, doesn't use the name Solomon. And as you go through this memoir, you can tell he actually uses a different name. He uses the word Koheleth, which just means the teacher. Which means that this memoir is not just a story of his life—it is actually he's taking us on a journey. He's teaching something. He's taking us down all these different pathways and saying, is meaning here? Do you find purpose there? Do you find meaning right here? Where is it in life?

The Question of Pleasure

And this morning as we look at this, we're looking from chapter two about pleasure. Is there meaning? Is there purpose in pleasure? See in verse three, he says here, "What use is it?" That's the question he's asking. Is there something from this?

Now that may sound kind of odd to you or kind of ancient to you. But we don't think of finding meaning in our pleasures. We find maybe escape in our pleasures. We find joy in our pleasures. But finding meaning.

But can I just remind you that you live under the philosophy of one of the great philosophers of our age, a man named Pharrell Williams? And let me just see if you know his philosophy. So let's fill in the blank. He sings, "Because I'm happy."

"Clap along if you feel like a room without a oh, yeah. You know it. Right? You know, Because I'm happy, clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth. Right? Right? Because I'm happy, clap along if you know what happiness is to you. Right? Good. Because I'm happy, clap along if you feel like that's what you want to You guys know this. You're under the influence of Pharrell Williams in this room. You didn't even know.

Now if that's too low brow for you, I got a high brow one. Centuries before this, the famous French mathematician Blaise Pascal said almost the same thing. He said this: everyone you know lives for happiness all the time. This is what every person without exception seeks in everything they do. He writes, whatever means they employ, it's all to this end. It's the cause of some to go to war, of others to avoid it. It's the same desire in both—happiness. The will never takes any least step but to this object of happiness. This is the motive of every action of every person, even those who hang themselves.

You know, this is startling to read. But he's saying this is behind everything. This is what we seek in life. Everyone is trying to find meaning in life. Everyone is trying to find happiness in life. Everyone wants to be happy, and this is what we're looking for all the time.

Now the difference though between Kohelet and you is that he's got all the means and all the time and all the opportunities. So when we think about our pleasures, about the things that give us life or that we look to for fun or escape, we say we dabble with those things. We flirt with them. Do you ever have a me day? That's like a reward yourself day, but not every day can be me day, right? We reward, we flirt with these things, we might indulge ourselves, you might give yourself a treat, but we can't give ourselves to these things like he does.

We read here, he dives in head first. He gives himself 100% to hedonistic excess. Sensory overload, denying no pleasure, orgies of every type. This is what he's doing. He's saying, I gave myself all the way to this to see what was at the end. This is why he's a teacher. He has something to tell us, and if you take notes, here are my points for this morning: the pleasures we seek, the pleasures that don't deliver, and the real pleasure we want.

The Pleasures We Seek

So let's jump in with this. Look at all the places that the teacher goes to find happiness. They're listed for you just one by one going through this passage. And what's remarkable is how modern they are, how similar they are to where we live. As he said earlier in this book, there is nothing new under the sun.

He lists things like this: jokes and humor, alcohol, money and possessions, music, sex, affirmation, work. These seven pathways are the same ones we pursue today. So I want to walk through them briefly and look at each of these pathways.

Jokes and humor. What is it we say? Laughter is the best medicine, right? You know this. And to be honest, Friday night I was at a stand-up comedy show, and it was awesome with some friends. I laughed my head off, right? Like, great time that evening. But question for you: what do all these people have in common? Ellen DeGeneres, Owen Wilson, Bernie Mac, Mary David, Conan O'Brien, Cedric the Entertainer, Woody Allen, Dave Chappelle—they all struggle with depression, or they all did struggle with depression.

You know, what we see over and over again is some of the funniest people are often most in touch with the deep sadnesses of this world. This is why in August 2014, the world was shocked when Robin Williams took his life. It was like a punch in the gut. Robin Williams, one of the most talented, brilliant humorists of our day, in touch with the darkness of this world. And he comes to the same place Kohelet did.

I said of laughter, "It's mad. It's empty." And of pleasure, "What uses it?"

The word we've been using, the word he uses over and over again for vapor or emptiness is the word hevel. I want you to know this word. I told you a couple weeks ago, this is the vaping book of the Old Testament, because like that person walking down the sidewalk with a Juul or a vape, it's just gone. You see the puff and then it's gone. There's no grabbing at it. And again, he says this with humor—there's nothing to this.

Second, alcohol.

Verse three: I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine.

I love this. I searched with my heart—I had to study alcohol, like really hard.

My heart's still guiding me with wisdom, how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the children of men to do under heaven during the few days of their life. Now we all know that alcohol can be a gift. In fact, Scripture tells us that alcohol is a gift given to cheer the hearts of men. It's a gift from God. And yet, so many of us know lives that have been devastated by alcohol addictions or dependencies, ways that alcohol has been used that actually brings shipwreck into the lives of people.

It's really funny. You may think of alcohol dependency or addiction as a modern issue. I was preparing for this sermon today and was surprised to read back in 1633. Almost four hundred years ago, this English pastor writes to his congregation, "Drink not the third glass." And I'm like, that's worth keeping right there. Drink not the third glass. Two glasses, that's okay. Drink not the third one. And he goes on. He says, "Because you can't tame it once it is within thee. Shall I, to please another's wine-sprung mind, lose all my own?" I think that's great advice. Alcohol, it's a gift, but it also can become a master. It can rule us. Its delight is momentary and it can bring great hurt. Right? Hevel. Emptiness.

Money and Possessions

Three, money and possessions. Look at verses four through eight. Notice when the teacher here mentions his possessions, it's all in the plural. Like Noah's Ark two by two. You may want a dream vacation house. He's got vacation houses. You may want a swimming pool in your yard. He's got pools. He and we read here, gardens, parks, vineyards, slaves, herds, flocks, golds, silvers, treasure, and it just keeps going. He's got all of it. But listen to his verdict about his stuff, about his money.

Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and I was striving after wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun. — Ecclesiastes 2:11

Yeah. He's singing the song from Kansas, the band Kansas from the seventies, like, "All dust in the wind." It's just through your fingers. You can't keep it. So today's desirable new car—let's just say, maybe a Jeep Gladiator that someone would want to give their pastor—that's going to be in the dump in fifteen years. Those shoes that you think are so awesome that you looked at last night. Like ten years from now you're going to be like, "Why did I ever wear those?" That's what we always do looking back on our fashion from ten years ago. What was I thinking? That's what fashion does. Today's new home has a leak in the roof tomorrow. These things, dust in the wind.

Music

Four, music. Listen to verse eight: "I got singers, both men and women." This is a man who loved music, and he had the power and the money to have a live concert in his home every night. So imagine like this week you have Taylor Swift on Monday, you have Daft Punk on Tuesday, you have Chance the Rapper on Wednesday, you got Adele on Thursday. You could just have whoever you want. And yet this also falls under the axe. It's also under Hevel.

I just want you to think about this. Music is such a gift. It moves us. It's one of the great enjoyments of this life. And yet, think about the best concert you've ever been to. Maybe you filmed it even on your phone, but you can't go back. That experience, that night, that connection with that artist, it's gone. Or your favorite songs. You may have like, I have my collection of vinyls, or I have my Spotify, everything. You've got all the stuff, and yet that moment of deep connection where that song spoke to you that way, that's a moment, and it's gone. It's hevel. It's like vapor.

Sex

Fifth, sex, verse eight. Kohelet mentions his concubines, and what we see here is limitless sexual options. It probably wasn't a person until the modern Internet who had, like him, so much access to so many bodies. And he says, you know, I gave myself to all this, and yet it also falls under the axe of Hevel. This is emptiness. It doesn't give life. All of sexual options don't give me life.

We live in a culture that's like, "Hey, what we do with our bodies, it doesn't really matter. It's just bodies." And yet we know lives devastated by sexual choices. In an interview recently, Drake, the hip hop artist, said there was a point when I felt like I needed to keep the company of a different woman every night of the week. I was trying to fill a void. But in the moments after sex, I knew it wasn't working. Those quiet moments are the realest moments a man will ever have in his life. The next day, I convinced myself to do it again. But during that time, I knew it wasn't working.

I mean, Drake is saying in his own way, Vapor. And unless we think—and the church does this sometimes—makes sexuality, even promiscuous sexuality, into just a man's issue. I read this week an interview with Carrie Cohen, and she wrote a memoir called Loose Girl, A Memoir of Promiscuity. And she had done this exercise, going back in her mind, figuring she realized she'd had close to 40 sexual partners over her 20s, and she recounts that with sadness. She writes that she was trying to find proof of being loved. And she says, "For a man, this might be a pleasant trip down memory lane counting up his conquests, but for a girl it's a whole other story. I let these men inside of me wanting that to make me matter to them, wanting it to make me matter." Hevel. Affirmation or accomplishment.

Verse nine: "Kahel turns then to like, look at all the things I've done in my life. Look at all the things. He says, became great and surpassed others who were before me in Jerusalem."

He's the most talented person to date. Right? Most accomplished. And yet what he says is what we hear from other people throughout history. So just this past week, there's a new 30 for 30 ESPN video that's been dropped. This one on Dennis Rodman. So the 30 for 30 are a series of these documentaries around great sports stories or great sports personalities throughout years. And this one on Dennis Rodman dropped now. So for you millennials, here's who Dennis Rodman was. Dennis Rodman was a big deal when I was in college. He was on the winning Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan, has five championships to his name. He was one of the most amazing defensive players ever to play basketball, crazy dyed hair, lots of piercings, really out there personality.

Right before this video drops, he does an interview. And during the interview, he breaks down crying. And he says, you know, this whole—all the winnings, all the accomplishments—he says, "Just wanted people to love me." I mean, just an incredibly emotional statement. You can almost hear him saying like Kohelet here: "I became great and surpassed all who were before me and yet, Hevel. It's emptiness."

Work

And we'll do a lot more on this next week. But verse 11:

"Then I considered all my hands had done, the toil I expended doing it, and all of that was vanity and striving after wind."

I mean, it's an incredible statement. There's a guy, Jack Higgins, a best selling novelist, who wrote this: "I wish I had known then what I know now. That when you get to the top, there's nothing there. Nothing there."

One of my kids showed me this. There's a video going around the Internet and somebody gives raccoons cotton candy. And I didn't know this, but raccoons wash their food before they eat it. So they give these raccoons cotton candy and they put it in the water and then it's like—and somebody plays in the background, "Hello darkness, my old friend." I guess that's such a picture of what we're chasing. You know, these are the pleasures we pursue. And you're probably saying, "Okay, bald pastor, let me at this point in the summer—you're like, look, I know that those things are good things. I'm not trying to get meaning or purpose out of them. I'm not like Koheleth. I mean, like, come on, who's trying to find meaning or purpose in these things?"

Well, let me reframe it this way. Have you ever watched a baby with a pacifier? So we gave our kids pacifiers and look, no judgment, don't judge us. I know what orthodontists say about that, but everybody goes to a dentist and everybody needs orthodontics anyway. So, yeah, get over it. So anyway, five out of our six kids would take the pacifier. And we did this for our own sanity so we could actually sleep and be normal people. And my kids were so attached to this—several of them even named their pacifiers, like invented a specific word to call this thing. So these babies, these little toddlers would take this thing and you try to take it away from them. It's like they're sucking, following the pacifier if you're trying to pull it away. I mean, a toddler will flat out fight you in a mean, underhanded, not nice way, right, over a pacifier. It is hardcore.

But here's the thing about pacifiers: we know a pacifier only pacifies. Right? There's no nutritional value. There's nothing of substance being delivered through the pacifier to the baby except sanity for the parents. That's the only thing coming through that thing. But nothing of any value. And see, this is what Kohelet is doing. He's walking through all these things that we're like, "It's just a pacifier. Just a pacifier." And he's pulling it out of your mouth, and you're like, "No, no, don't want that." Like, he's saying that's not a satisfier.

It's a pacifier. And I just want to challenge you. These good things—these good gifts that God's given us like music and alcohol, these accomplishments—these are good things. Try to go a month without music, you music lovers, and you'll be ready to fight. "Yeah, I'm gonna give up my wine for a month. No, I'm not." Like, these things are good things, but we may say, "I'm not getting pleasure out of them." Well, why is it so hard to take it away from you? Why is it hard? Because we're confused about what's a pacifier and what's a satisfier.

Now, time out. How's the sermon going so far right now? You know, y'all are mostly Bible Belt people, and isn't this what you expect in church? I mean, let's be honest, the pleasures of this world don't satisfy. Everybody's heard this sermon before, right? Everybody's heard this one.

But here's where I think the teacher takes a surprising turn, and this doesn't do what the Bible Belt teacher would do. Because Koheleth never says those pleasures are bad. Your desires are wrong. In fact, we read in this book over and over again, he says things like this: eat and drink and enjoy your life. Enjoy it. Enjoy these things.

And see, Koheleth is showing us, he's all he's saying is, these are pacifiers. They're not satisfiers. And what he's doing here in not going the extra step is what the rest of the Bible does. God has designed your body as a pleasure machine. You have five senses that take in all kinds of different types of pleasure, and that is a gift from the Lord. He made you that way.

We know about the brain. The brain has dopamine receptors, which are like little pops of good feelings. Dopamine is just like a little drip of good feeling. And we found out recently you get one of those when everybody likes your social media posts. A little dopamine drip. God designed you to be a person who enjoys pleasures of this life. Now that's not all you're for, but God doesn't call those things bad. And in fact, anybody who says different hadn't done their homework and definitely hadn't read this book.

Because the writer of Ecclesiastes—this book is pro-pleasure. It is pro-pleasure. There's an entire book of erotic love poetry in the Bible. That's not an accident. God's not like, "Oh no, how did that get in there?" Jesus shows us, tells us over and over again, the end of time will be like this. It will be like a great banquet where your joy cups will overflow. The new heavens and the new earth—it's not going to be like sea rations and cliff bars with Jesus. He has designed us as people who are made for pleasure and to enjoy this life.

And yet, see, this is what we're seeing. This is what Koheleth's doing. He's just taking the pacifier, saying, "Look, do you see what you are grasping at in this life? These things that are not the ultimate, they're pacifiers. They're not satisfiers." And he's being kind in showing us those things. He's actually really, really kind in showing these things.

And as I've said throughout this series, we're doing it every week—Koheleth keeps asking the questions that beg for an answer that comes several thousand years later. The teacher keeps asking these questions, and Rabbi Jesus shows up on the scene and gives the answers. So he's like, "Pleasure, do you see? We like these pleasures. These are the pleasures that don't satisfy." And Koheleth's got a point. It's got a point to something else. There's got to be a satisfier. And Jesus shows up on the scene, and we're going to look at this briefly from John 2, where Jesus shows up on the scene and says, "Yes, this is supposed to go somewhere."

We'll put this up on the wall behind me, but I'm not going to go through verse by verse. John 2 shows us Jesus showing up at a wedding, and this is before he's come out as a public figure. He's just attending the wedding. He's just in the crowd. Now in Palestine, a wedding would last about a week long. And everybody, this is what you did. This was an excuse to knock off of work and spend the whole week with your neighbors celebrating. A wedding was a big deal. And in the ancient Near East, the hospitality providing for that wedding, making sure everything was set was an even bigger deal.

So what happens here is that Jesus shows up at a wedding, and we don't even know the name of the bride or groom, but we do know this: it's about to crash. This is a wedding that's about to crash. There's a catering disaster just about to happen at this wedding. They're about to run out of wine. Now this would have meant if this family had all their neighbors and all their friends in their house celebrating and they run out of wine, this would have meant social humiliation for generations.

People would have talked about this family and this event for years to come. And so Jesus is there with His family, and His mom, for some reason, we don't know why, takes on like, we got to do something and turns to Jesus. Again, we don't know why. We don't know what she expected him to do, but she's like, help. Do something. And this is where Jesus shows up. He's showing up at a wedding that's about to crash, and he steps into this. And this is the first miracle he does, turning water into wine at this wedding.

And yet John doesn't call it a miracle when he writes about this. He calls it a sign. Now, you know what to do with a sign. You read a sign. A sign tells you something. And John's saying, this event is not just some random miracle, this is something that tells us something very explicit about Jesus Christ. So let's read the sign together.

This is Jesus' first ever public miracle, and it's not even that public. I mean, if you think about it, the only people who knew that water had been changed into wine were the people who were working the catering job. Right? The people the best man finds out and tells the groom, but nobody really—it's not even that great a public miracle. But Jesus chooses this moment. This moment is going to be my place of coming out in public.

Now, if you know anything about rock stars or politicians, there's a lot of marketing that goes into what's going to be the moment where this new personality is unveiled for the world to see. So there's a lot of thought that goes into this, and Jesus picks this moment. Why would Jesus do that?

Think about weddings. Weddings are those moments where we take the pictures. This is where we spend the money. This is where those of you who can't dance, this is the one time a year when you dance like me. Okay? My hips don't move. Right? So I'll get out there maybe for a couple songs. Maybe. Right? And because this is where you throw down. This is a party, and Jesus says there's something about a party that's what I'm like, and my kingdom is like. This is what I'm all about.

And Jesus shows up at this place, and he turns water into wine. Now let's say something about the quality and the quantity of this. We know that it was a great quantity of wine because there are these giant jars, and we'll talk about these more in a moment, there's six of them that hold about 30 gallons. If you could picture, we have these trash cans around the room, 55 gallon trash cans, same height, just a little less far around. Okay?

So let's—you all are a bunch of math nerds, a bunch of engineers in here and architects and all that kind. So like six jars of 30 gallons each. How many gallons of wine is that? A 180 gallons of wine. That is an over the top amount of wine for a party, especially if they've already been drinking for a while. This is a lot of wine that Jesus makes.

And we find out this is not just like $2 Chuck. This is not the Trader Joe's cheap stuff. Right? The master of ceremonies comes and says, wait, you've saved the good wine until the end of the party. You're supposed to serve that stuff first. This is vendor's reserve. This is really, really good stuff. Right?

Now I know that this passage makes a lot of really conservative people really uncomfortable. And they're like, surely Jesus turned it into grape juice. No. He didn't. Because it's clear in the passage, these people already have a buzz going. You're going to serve this when people already had a little bit to drink, the good stuff? No. You serve the good stuff first for the first glass, you serve the cheap stuff later when people don't notice. Right? That's what's being implied, what's being described in this passage.

Why does he do this? Because in the Bible over and over, wine is a symbol of joy. Read the Psalms. They're filled with descriptions of how you give greater joy than when new wine abounds. It's saying like Jesus, saying of God and His salvation, you are defined by this. This is how I can describe this. It is that pleasant. It's that pleasing. It's that wonderful. Like, this is what Jesus identifies with.

I mean, this is why I love in our church that we have wine and good wine at communion. Like, because we're saying like, this is a symbol of joy. Can you read the sign? This is the question that comes to us from John 2. Can you read the sign?

Jesus is not a pacifier. He is the satisfier. But it's even more than that. Because Jesus took the jars and used that water to turn it to wine. Now these six stone jars that are described, these six jars, were used by the Jews for ritual purification. They would splash in this, and they knew like, this washing—it didn't do anything but symbolic of a deeper washing that we need.

And Jesus comes and takes that and says, "These jars are going to be useless to you anymore. Let me take what was used for a sign of cleansing and replace that with joy." Now what is He doing? Jesus is showing us that He meets us in all the places of uncleanness and defilement.

We all know what embarrassment is—it's like dropping your tray in the high school cafeteria, everyone's looking. That's your average level embarrassment. But shame is something much more profound. Guilt has to do with feeling bad about what I've done. Shame has to do with who I am. Who I am is just wrong. It doesn't matter where I go, I'm being seen. There are witnesses and it's public and there's something wrong with me.

John Paul Sartre described it as a hemorrhaging of the soul. I'm bleeding out. There's something so wrong with me, and there are witnesses to this, and I'm just bleeding out, and everybody knows. And I'm filled with this sense of defilement and corruption and shame. And Jesus steps into that.

You see what He's doing? He takes the stone jars and turns this into wine. And what is He saying to us? You came in here this morning, some of you feeling a great weight of shame. This great burden of like, there is something profoundly wrong with me. There are ways that I feel unworthy and unclean. And Jesus is showing us: look, even in those places, even in the darkest places, the places that you don't dare name to another person, you would never tell your parents, you would never tell your roommates, you don't want anybody to know—light and healing and joy reach those places. This is what our Savior's about.

Can you read the sign? The sign of the wine, the sign of the jars. Healing, wholeness, joy, even in the places of despair.

The Failure Covered by Jesus

And finally this one. In this passage, we read about a failure. Ultimately, the person who was responsible for this catering disaster was the groom. The groom should have provided enough wine and made sure he went back to the supplier and checked to make sure all the bottles were there. Should have sent somebody to the store with a twenty. "Go get us some more two-dollar Chuck. We need this right now." Like, should have gone after this. The groom messes up. He messes up. And it's his shortcoming that's actually covered by Jesus.

When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and didn't know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn it out knew, the master of the feast called the groom and said to him, "You've saved the best for last." — John 2

Of course He didn't. The groom dropped the ball. And of course, this is one of the great joys of this passage. It's because Jesus steps into this role, the failure of the groom. He steps in, in place of this groom, and saves the day.

The chapter after this, there's a guy named John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, who had been sent by God beforehand to welcome, to prepare the way. And this is what John the Baptist says of Jesus: "You know what, I'm like the best man, Jesus is like the groom. And I can see He is coming. I'm just here to get everything ready so the groom can step in. I must decrease that he might increase."

And here's what we see Jesus doing. He steps into the role of the groom and covers his failures. This is such a great picture of hope for me, and I hope for you in the places where we are failures—where we're failed husbands and grooms and mothers and daughters and sons and wives and children and employees and friends. In all these places where we are in touch with our own failure, Jesus steps in.

Can you read the sign of the bridegroom? The groom steps in and says, "I'll take the hit. I'll cover the tab. I'll pay for the mistake. I'll pay for what's wrong." Jesus loves us this way.

You know, one of the reasons why I think we don't know the names of the bride and groom in John 2 is because actually, there are only two names in this story: Jesus the groom and us, His bride. Brothers and sisters, this is the invitation for you this morning.

Kahlil asked the question, "Is there life in any of these pacifiers?" And Jesus answers it: "I have come to bring real joy, real and lasting joy. I've come to meet you in the places of your shame. I've come to bring the overflowing presence of My Spirit that brings joy. I've come to cover even your failures." This is what Jesus does.

He invites us this morning, therefore, to spit out our pacifiers. Those things that we go to—it's not good, it's not everything, but this is doing something. And Jesus invites us, as painful as it is, to let go, lay it aside, and come to Him.

Come to me in all the places of your hurt and your longing, all the places where you've been running for joy besides Him. He is the joy giver.

Prayer

Would you pray with me?

Father, we thank you this morning that you meet us and know us as we are—as weak people who confuse good things with ultimate things, confuse pacifiers with satisfiers. Father, we thank You that You see us and, Lord, You move toward us in our weakness.

I pray this morning, Lord, for those who are long term Christians in this room, who have tasted of joy in You and yet for a long time their eyes have become dim and their hearts have become dull and they've lost the joy of their salvation. I pray, Father, would You give them courage this morning to name lesser things as only pacifiers and You as the only thing that satisfies. Lord, renew their joy.

Lord, I pray for those who are not Christians who are here this morning or who may not have given themselves fully to You. Lord, I pray that You would help them to lay down, lay aside those things which are not lasting, which don't satisfy. Lord, lay those at Your feet and come rushing to You this morning.

We thank you, Father, for your grace and mercy. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.