Are We Willing to Become New Wineskins?
21 Days to Overflow: Part 4 • Sermon • Submitted
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· 11 viewsA continuation of last week's message where we learned that before God can pour out the new wine that we've been crying out for, He needs to first, prepare us to carry the new wine as new wineskins.
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14 One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, “Why don’t your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do?”
15 Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
16 “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.
17 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”
I really love the title to the book that we have been going through together, especially with an emphasis on the end of it...
21 Days to Overflow: A Devo to Bring Spiritual Restoration and Heavenly Fire
21 Days to Overflow: A Devo to Bring Spiritual Restoration and Heavenly Fire
Share some of the great things that I’ve been seeing the Holy Spirit do during our time of Overflow
Matt Baker Testimony of hearing God’s voice
This morning, I want to pick up from last week’s message where I posed the question the Holy Spirit’s been stirring in my heart for our church for a while now...
Are We Ready for An Overflow of New Wine?
Are We Ready for An Overflow of New Wine?
If the Lord were to pour out an overflowing of His Spirit, or as Jesus once referred to it, “New Wine,” as we have been crying out for—are We Ready to Receive It?
This is the pivotal question the Holy Spirit began laying on my heart last summer for our Church Family...
Are we ready for the New Wine?
As we’ve been saying for quite some time—THINGS ARE A CHANGING!
How would you explain to someone who just woke up from a coma all that’s transpired in the last year?
If There Ever Was a Time Where We Needed Overflow in Our Nation, In Our Church, In Hour Homes, In Our Lives, It Is Now!
I believe...
Changing Times Cries Out for New Wine Requiring New Wineskins
Changing Times Cries Out for New Wine Requiring New Wineskins
But...
Are we ready?
To help us answer this question, I believe the Holy Spirit has a few probing questions to stir our hearts to see if we really are seeking an Overflow of New Wine and all that it entails or if we are simply seeking a spiritual high for a couple minutes on Sunday morning, then back to normal on Monday morning.
These “probing” questions are nearly as important as the question at hand because they help to reveal the heart behind the desire.
Last week, we started out with one that may sound easy to answer at first, but when you dig a little deeper, it uncovers some deep areas of our hearts...
1. DO WE REALLY WANT AN OVERFLOW OF HIM OR ARE WE REALLY SEEKING AN OVERFLOW OF OURSELVES?
1. DO WE REALLY WANT AN OVERFLOW OF HIM OR ARE WE REALLY SEEKING AN OVERFLOW OF OURSELVES?
Do we truly desire the “New Wine” we have been singing about lately, or is it merely lip service for what our heart’s true desires is?
If you missed last week’s message, you can go online and listen to them anytime for free.
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Yes...
a. Jesus Wants Us to Pray for Our Personal Needs
a. Jesus Wants Us to Pray for Our Personal Needs
That’s why He told us in Matt. 6:11, “Give us today the food we need,” but notice what He told us to pray before we get to our own personal needs in v.9.
9 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today the food we need,
Briefly talk about this...
As with everything else...
b. Humility is the Key
b. Humility is the Key
When we truly humble ourselves and begin to seek an overflow of Him over ourselves, we are better suited to answer the real question... “Are We Ready for An Overflow of New Wine?”
RememberGod-Centered OverSelf-Centered
It all starts with humility:
14 Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
You will never get past the starting line without humility.
Accepting the gift of salvation itself requires a form of humility.
To repent of something, you have to come to the humbling reality that you did something wrong and you need help.
“I need you God; I can’t do this myself.”
Nothing has more potential to keep you out of God’s will, or even heaven itself than PRIDE!
So...
c. Are We Ready for an Overflow of New Wine?
c. Are We Ready for an Overflow of New Wine?
Well, that’s the question isn’t it?
We’re getting there, but we need to probe a little deeper first.
That’s exactly what the Holy Spirit began doing last summer when He asked me the question like this...
2. IS NEW LIFE WILLING TO BECOME A NEW WINESKIN?
2. IS NEW LIFE WILLING TO BECOME A NEW WINESKIN?
Now to fully understand the question, we have to understand the context of the question.
And to do that we have to realize that...
a. The Way We’ve “Done Church” Has Changed More In The Last Year Than It Has In a Lifetime!
a. The Way We’ve “Done Church” Has Changed More In The Last Year Than It Has In a Lifetime!
Talk about all the changes Covid brought to the church
Talk about my conversations with retired Pastors concerning the matter
Pastors and Church Leaders from all around the nation and world, including us here at New Life have been continually beating our heads against the wall asking the Lord to show us what we could do to, not only reach the lost, but connect and love on...
Those who were sick, yet we couldn’t visit
Those having surgery, yet we couldn’t enter the hospital
Those who were immunocompromised and unable to join in worship with us
Those who had become bitter and offended and closed themselves off to everyone
Those who simply need a hug, but are unable to receive one for whatever reason
Connect and love on...
People when we ourselves are on empty and have nothing left to give
No doubt about it, things have changed!
As my ministry mentor, Dr. Wayne Lee puts it...
b. We’re No Longer Living in Jerusalem, We’re In Babylon!
b. We’re No Longer Living in Jerusalem, We’re In Babylon!
When the Israelites were exiled out of their homeland and forced into servanthood under the Babylonian King, they had to learn how to worship the Lord differently in the foreign lands of Babylon than they did when they were still living in Jerusalem.
12 But because our ancestors angered the God of heaven, he abandoned them to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who destroyed this Temple and exiled the people to Babylonia.
The Jewish people had to learn how to worship God without the benefit of...
Being in the Promised Land
Having the Temple for Sacrifices
Priests for teaching
Copies of the Torah readily available for study
A “Jewish” culture
In many ways, this is where we are today—a Christian people living in a “Post-Christian” world.
Briefly talk about this
Yes, the people of God were still worshiping the same God, they were just having to find new methods of worshiping Him because they were in a new culture.
That’s why changing times requires changing or “new” wineskins.
So...
3. WHY DO WE NEED TO BE NEW WINESKINS?
3. WHY DO WE NEED TO BE NEW WINESKINS?
Why in the world do we need to be a wineskin? Let alone, a New Wineskin?
To find out, we need to go back to our opening text in Matt 9:14-17
14 One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, “Why don’t your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do?”
15 Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
16 “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.
17 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”
In this passage we find Jesus having dinner at the house of His disciple Matthew when some of John the Baptist’s disciples crash the party.
:) John’s disciples were on edge because they were fasting.
One of the reasons John’s disciples were fasting was because they were mourning the imprisonment of John by King Herod Antipas.
Another reason they were fasting was because, they along with the Pharisees, were in the season of the year where many of the religious leaders would fast as a way to prepare themselves for the coming Messiah.
NL Corporate Fast: Kind of like the season we are in now that we use in part to prepare us spiritually for the upcoming year.
They were probably expecting Jesus to commend them on how great they were for fasting, but instead, He responded in v. 15...“Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Jesus was basically telling them without blurting it out, “hey guys, the Messiah you’re preparing yourself for is literally right here in front of you!”
Now we have to understand that...
a. Jesus Wasn’t Condemning Fasting
a. Jesus Wasn’t Condemning Fasting
He was all for it!
That’s why it was the very first thing He did after He was baptized in Luke 4:1-2
1 Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.
Then in Matt 6:16, Jesus told His disciples...
16 “And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get.
And WHEN you fast...
Here’s the real deal...
b. Jesus Had Come to Do Something New!
b. Jesus Had Come to Do Something New!
However, John the Baptist and his disciples were still looking at things through the old lens of the way things used to be done.
That’s why they were still fasting for the Messiah when the Messiah was right there in front of them.
So...
Jesus had to shake things up and help them to understand that yes, there would be a time for fasting, but for right now, He was there to show them a NEW way of doing things—A New Covenant!
“Because we're unfamiliar with ancient practices, sometimes it's difficult for modern readers to understand Jesus's parables.”
The Jesus Film Project explains it like this...
“In Jesus's day, people used animal skins—like goatskin—for storing liquids. Fermented drinks like wine expanded, and since an old wineskin would already be stretched to its limit, the new wine would tear the seams.
This is why new wine needed to be preserved in new wineskins. As the wine expanded, the new skins would stretch to accommodate it.
Jesus was making a very specific point to [the disciples of] John the Baptist. He was here to do something completely new. If John (or anyone else) tried to make sense of it through a lens of old expectations and regulations, they'd miss the amazing thing that was happening.
Through Jesus, God was redeeming the world to Himself. And if people expected this to look familiar to what God had done before, they wouldn't understand.
Modern Christians have the benefit of hindsight. We get to see the whole picture in a way that makes sense.
Those who chose to follow Jesus in the first century struggled with a lot of confusion. Was this Messiah going to conquer their enemies? Why did Jesus behave so differently than other rabbis? Why was the religious establishment so angry with Him? Questions like these would have created a lot of unrest and anxiety in His Jewish audience.”
https://www.jesusfilm.org/blog-and-stories/what-did-jesus-mean-putting-new-wine-new-wineskins.html
Whenever Jesus comes to do something new, He needs new wineskins to do it in because the old ones won’t be able to accommodate the new work.
17 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”
Spend some time talking about this...
Are we Willing to “Do Church” Differently Without Compromising the Word of God or the Mission of Our Church?
Not just our church, I believe the Holy Spirit is asking every one of us...
4. AM I WILLING TO BECOME A NEW WINESKIN?
4. AM I WILLING TO BECOME A NEW WINESKIN?
Now that’s the real question, isn’t it?
Not only was the Holy Spirit birthing this question in my heart for our church, but I also soon came to realize that in my time away, the Lord was beginning to do the exact same thing in my life, creating a new wineskin out of me, so I would be able to carry the New Wine of His Spirit.
This morning, I believe He is asking the same thing of us as well.
Look around you, darkness isn’t the only thing on the move.
We are seeing seeds of revival beginning to take root all around the world!
God is up to something new!
God is pouring out New Wine
And He is looking for some old wineskins who are willing to be made new again by His Holy Spirit, to carry that New Wine!
Talk about how this looks like for our church
Talk about how this looks like for me personally
Talk about how this looks like for our people
Talk about how this this could look like for our community
New Life’s Theme for 2021: New Wineskins for an Outpouring of New Wine
New Life’s Theme for 2021: New Wineskins for an Outpouring of New Wine
Briefly talk about this
BRINGING IT HOME
BRINGING IT HOME
1. DO WE REALLY WANT AN OVERFLOW OF HIM OR ARE WE REALLY SEEKING AN OVERFLOW OF OURSELVES?
2. IS NEW LIFE WILLING TO BECOME A NEW WINESKIN?
3. WHY DO WE NEED TO BE NEW WINESKINS?
4. AM I WILLING TO BECOME A NEW WINESKIN?
21 Days to Overflow
21 Days to Overflow
Ask the Ushers to Begin Handing out Communion
One of the ways the Lord uses to break down the old wineskin of our lives and make us pliable again is through the spiritual disciplines we’ve been talking about the past couple weeks, including fasting.
While this morning may conclude our corporate 21-Day Fast, it shouldn’t conclude our times of fasting for our nation, our church, our community, or our families.
I love how my MRI coach encouraged me as I am praying about how to move forward in fasting this year when he said Chriss...
“Choose to life the fasted life so I can live the fullest life!”
The New Wine is coming and in fact it is already here—can you hear it?
To conclude our fast, I want us to pray the last prayer at the end of our Devo book together and then take Communion together.
Tambi and the Team will then lead us in the song “New Wine” and when they do, I want to invite you to ask the Lord to create in you a New Wineskin.
Let’s pray together . . .
“Father, in the name of Jesus, I come before You humbly. I ask today that a mighty anointing would fall upon me, like never before.
I ask that my heart and my mind would be activated, stirred, electrified, and charged with Your Spirit. Let there be a fire that hits my life, where I would no longer be found guilty of doing nothing.
Instead, let me be found guilty of advancing Your Kingdom, of preaching Your gospel, of loving my enemies, of giving until it hurts, of walking in Your truth, of being separated by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Look upon my availability, and not my ability, and do through me what only You can do. Let Your perfect will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Use me to transform lives, I pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Hosford, Jeremiah. 21 Days to Overflow: A Devotional to Bring Spiritual Restoration and Heavenly Fire (pp. 122-123). Kudu Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Communion
Turn Over to Worship Team