New Wine, New Wineskins (transcript)

com. What a unique organism church is. Right? All the different organizations, all the different groups, all the different things that we’re a part of when we walk out of these doors, but the church is different and unique. Your job don’t matter.

Your paycheck don’t matter. Your past don’t matter. Your future don’t matter. Your last name don’t matter. Your failures don’t matter be because they have been appropriately dealt with.

The rest of the world is fine to engage with you on a level of your carefully crafted and curated pick and desire. You get to present to your friends. You get to present to your coworkers the face that you want them to see at your job if it’s any kind of a good job. There is a meritorious system of award, meaning, hopefully, there’s an expectation of you to work hard at your job and do well and perform. But but with our friend group, like, our friend group outside of these walls of the church, they’re they don’t really wanna know too much.

Yeah. They’re they’re gonna be there to, like, help you load up your Subaru and move from one apartment to another. Yeah. Like, they’ll they’ll call you to go skiing, you know, on a part of the it’s great, wonderful, all that’s fine, has its place. But we can have these deep, deep, deep, long lasting friendships and never ever get below the surface.

This is a different animal all together. It’s a place where we celebrate our weaknesses. Because for those of you who have encountered his strength and his power, you realize that there’s nothing I can ever do that would make god love me any less. And there’s nothing no stars, stickers on my chart that I can earn that would cause him to love me anymore. He loves me not because of who I am or what I’ve done.

He loves me because of who he is. And that’s something very, very, very freeing. And so we come together as an organism, a community of people marked by freedom. That was a free sermon. This next one will cost you.

There’s a connect card in your seat with a pen. You can, we would love to have a record of your visit if you’re passing through, or if you are new to town, you could fill that out. If you are a young adult, I think there’s an opportunity to check a box. We have a thriving young adults group that meets every Tuesday at the TMC, which is the building that we own, tribe ministry center. We do a meal, there’s worship, great great stuff is happening at the TMC.

And so if you’re if you are a ninety day wonder and you’re just getting the town, we haven’t quite had, like, the the full explosion of ninety day wonders yet, have we? Not quite yet, but they’re coming. They’re coming. The ninety day wonders are coming. So you can fill out that connect card.

There’s opportunity if you have a prayer request, You can put that on there. Also, one of the ways that we communicate with you all is through a text blast, and that lets you know a lot of different things that are going on at Tribe, including where is tribe meeting this week. And so, as you know, we’re we’re having church in a bar underneath the disco balls and taxidermy. But, occasionally, there are events that are happening here in the conference center on Sunday, so we have to flex where we meet. And so, getting that text blast will keep you informed of of where we meet each week.

Also, last week, we started a new series of conversations titled new wine, and this came from a question slash comment about three weeks ago from Nancy who we were we were chugging right along and we’re talking and following following my outline carefully. You raised your hand and that’s we we do that here. Like, raise your hand and, like, talk. We have a mic in the room. The mic will come to you.

I didn’t say it like that. So Nancy interrupts I mean, Nancy has a question. She gets the mic, and we’re talking about new wine and wineskins. And Nancy’s like, I I I feel like I just need, like, a little, to to slow the train down a little bit. And can you explain to me a little bit more about what you mean by new wine and new wine skin?

And I said, that’s a fantastic question. And so we can say thank you, Nancy. Everybody say thank you, Nancy. Thank you, Nancy. Because we’re slowing the train down.

We’re taking two weeks of conversations. It’s let’s be honest. It’s probably gonna be more than two weeks of conversations about this idea of of new wine in new wineskins, and we’re going to start by defining some terms. And last week, if you weren’t with us last week, we started this series of conversations by just defining terms. What is the new wine that Jesus is talking about?

And so why don’t we get into God’s word, and let’s read a couple of places together about this new wine. So if you have your Bible with you this morning, will you turn to the book of Matthew? And whenever I say, if you have your Bible with you, would you turn to that’s nostalgic for me. That’s me walking in the footsteps of my mentor. And so I like to honor him by saying that.

Matthew chapter nine, and you can scroll down to verse 14. And would somebody please read we’ll have the mic in the room. Sarah’s running the mic around this morning. Would somebody please read Matthew chapter nine verses 14 through 17? Yes.

Here it comes. Thank you. I can see. I put my glasses on. I know.

I can’t Yeah. Test. Test. Test. Can you guys hear me?

Okay. Then the disciples of John came to him saying, why do we Right. Right. Okay. Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?

And Jesus said to them, can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth in an old garment for the patch tears away from the garment and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed.

But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved. Fantastic. For those of you who have been following Jesus for some time, I’m sure that you’ve read this. And probably more than once, twice, thrice, a lot of times, we read this and we’re like, yep. Okay.

Got it. New wine wineskins. Yep. Keep going. Let’s read this same word the same words of Jesus from a little bit different perspective of a different biographer, doctor Luke.

So Luke chapter five, and we will Luke at verse 33. I can’t not do it. That is not from my mentor. That’s from me. But I can’t wait for you when you become a preacher, and you are teaching from the Bible, and you come from the book of Mark and or the book of Luke, and then it’ll be your turn.

Luke chapter five verse 33. Who’s got it? All the way over there. Thank you, Sarah. In the corner.

Slip on through. Until until when? Just 33. Luke five thirty three through 39, please. And they said to him, the disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.

And Jesus said to them, can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. He also told them a parable. No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one, after drinking old wine, desires new, for he says the old is good. There’s a similar passage.

This story is also in the book of Mark, but it’s very similar to Matthew. So we’re sticking to Matthew and Luke. Last week, we tackled just one simple question. What does Jesus mean by the new wine? And we we answered this question.

What does the new wine represent? What does the new wine represent? And then that’s what we talked about last week. And sometimes when we encounter things in the bible that we’ve read so many times or heard so much about, we tend to kind of like like glaze over and like, yep. Yep.

Got it. New wine wineskins. Okay. But if you were sitting down at Roadhouse Taproom with a friend and somebody said, hey, I’ve never read the Bible a single sentence in my life, but I heard somebody talking about this idea of new wine and wineskins. And here we are enjoying each other’s friendship in the Taproom.

I thought this would be a great place to ask you. Can you tell me what is what is is it Jesus? Is Jesus talking? What does Jesus mean by new wine and new wineskins? What would you say?

You’ve read it a thousand times, but I I know you guys would do great. You would do you would do just great. But I’m just talking about us in general, you know, other people. How would they answer that question? So then we came up with a really a a two part definition.

What does the wineskin represent? Well, we had two answers, generally and specifically. Specifically, when Jesus was talking about the new wine, we said this, Jesus came to fulfill the law and establish a new covenant, a new way of having right relationship with God. So what does the new wine represent? This is what we said last week.

The new wine specifically represents that Jesus came to fulfill the law and establish a new covenant, a new way of having right relationship with God. And then most Christians are like, yep, I got it. I’m no longer under the law. But then, generally, what does the new wine represent represent? It represents any new way that god is moving.

So Jesus talks about new wine. Specifically, he was he was addressing the old covenant, the Mosaic law. And we know this because numerous times, Jesus says, you have heard it said. No. No.

No. No. No. And then what are the next words out of Jesus’s mouth? But I tell you, but I say, that’s new wine getting squeezed out right there.

Generally speaking, the new wine is any new way that God is moving. Now last week, we had a lot of great discussion about this. And interestingly enough, we were talking about the new wine, but people jumped to talking about wineskins. This is like a big broad arc I gotta cover. How you doing?

The new wine is any new way that God is moving, and that’s as far as we got last week. In our discussion, we kind of flip flop flip flop back and forth and jumped around between new wine and and new wineskins. And so we’re trying to be super clear. This week, we’re going to talk specifically about the container, the vessel, the wine skin. Last week, and we have this definition of know what the new wine represents.

This week, we’re going to tackle the question of the wineskin. What could Jesus be talking about when he’s describing new wine needs to go into a new wineskin. So we’re going to look at a story today from the Bible of a person who was faced with exactly what Jesus was talking about. This new wine, this new way that God is moving. And can this person be able to, in my favorite Texas vernacular, grab a hold of what Jesus is saying?

For that, we need to turn to the book of John. John chapter three. I’m going to preload you with two questions that I want you to read the text and consider. So there there are two questions I want you to have spun up in your mind so that as we read the text together, you can be thinking and looking for these treasures in the text. Okay?

The questions are and I don’t think we have them on the screen. But the two questions that we’re going to ask at the end of reading this is, what is the new wine in this passage, and what could be the new wine skin? So with that in mind, John chapter three, let’s read verses one through 21. That’s a lot of verses, so we’ll probably have a few people trade off and read. So whoever would like to read first Matt Summers, just raise your hand, and then you can volunteer, read that read a few verses and hand it off.

Oh, There was a man named we’ll start with one. Yes, sir. There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. Rabbi, he said, we all know that God has sent you to teach us.

Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you. Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. What do you mean? Exclaimed Nicodemus. How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?

Jesus replied, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the spirit.

Awesome. How are the these things possible? Nicodemus asked. Jesus replied, you are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? I assure you, we tell you we have we I tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony.

But if you don’t believe, but if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ever gone to heaven and returned, but the son of man has come down from heaven. And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. For this is how God loved the world. He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

God sent his son into the world not to judge the world but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s only one and only son. And the judgment is based on this fact. God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.

And who do all who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it, for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. Well done. John three verses one through 21, Jesus is talking with a Pharisee named Nicodemus who comes to him at night. Nicodemus, is an interesting name because it’s not a Hebrew name.

Look at his name, Nico there. Nico comes from a Greek word that if you were to maybe stretch a little bit, you could figure out that root word. Nico, what does it sound what other Greek word does that sound like? Hint. Sneaker brand.

Nike. The word Nike is in his name. No. No. No.

No. Not that part. The is where we get our word from, our English word. I’m blanking on it right now, demographic. And it has to do with people.

And so when you put Nicodemus’ name together, it means that he was a victorious or successful leader of the people. Nicodemus. I told you there were two questions that I wanted you to be considering. The first question was, what is the new wine in this passage? Can we see an example of the new wine?

And then what could be the new wine skin in this passage? So what do you see in this passage? I’d love to hear from you. Oh, yeah. It’s racing around here.

More than usual? Yeah. I talk to myself all the time. So Poor Matt and Brad’s the last time they’re ever gonna come. I’m calling them out.

Out of here. Now to me, the new wine is the holy spirit, and the wineskin is our heart and how we receive it. Okay. Well, listen, come on up. I think we yep.

Ready for convenience. No. Really good. Really good. Let let’s drill down into it a little bit more in what, in the text can you point to oh oh oh, this is a new wine moment.

These are some new wine words, Kate. These are some new wine words. Here here’s an example of this new wine. What what do you see? I see the the new wine words being, a new understanding of being born.

There you go. So now we’re talking a new wine skin is having a spiritual birth rather than a natural birth. I love it. How you’re gonna receive that. I love it.

I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water in the oh, no. No. Verse three. I tell you the truth, unless you’re born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. New wine.

In verse two, it also says at the end of it, it says, man can do miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. That’s such a powerful new one. We don’t do anything. It is God in us that does it through us. So Nicodemus is stating, I’m seeing something new, novel that you, a person, question mark, is doing.

Something is different. Something something is different. And then he’s he’s thinking like he’s he’s not consciously thinking this, but he’s like, I’ve been drinking this old recipe, but what I’m seeing you doing has a very distinct different sweet taste to it. I was just gonna say, I’m just thinking now that the new wine is exactly like we said. That seems easy.

That’s like, okay. Whatever the lord’s trying to pour into me and but it’s up to me to create a new wine skin. The holy spirit creates it, but I have to allow the holy spirit permission to give me a revelation of what it is the holy that the lord is trying to say to me. So, like, I’m I’m changing my mind thinking about the wine skin is my surrender to allow the holy spirit to create a new way of thinking or a new receptacle for something I hadn’t previously had to hold or absorb or whatever. Like, Lord, you’re gonna, by your holy spirit, have to help me create a new wineskin to fully understand this.

Then you give him permission. He comes in and creates a new wineskin, let’s just say, like, about my identity. I didn’t have a wineskin to hold that I’m beloved and and fearfully and wonderfully made. No new wine is he’s saying that to me. And then I say, okay, holy spirit.

You’re gonna have to create a new wineskin in me, but I have to give him permission to do so. Mhmm. I’m I’m just having this, like, revelation. Yeah. Come on.

And then I made a connection. Oh, here we go. Last week, I was gonna hop up on this mic of the keyboard, but I thought that was too much. You might not be able to get me sit down. Last week, this beautiful girl over here, she had a comment about the why did the people say, but the new wine is just fine.

Remember we were talking about that? Yeah. The old but the old wine is new. It’s just fine. The old wine’s just fine.

Drink the new wine. And we sat on that for a minute like, is the old wine just fine? I mean, if I trucked along this long, you know, like this. And I was trying to think of the scriptures that why we need a new wine skin. Like, why do we need a new wine skin?

And then what we just read, I think, was the scripture I was trying to think of last week, which is, at the end of, 19. And the judgment is based on this fact. God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light. They liked the old wine better because the new one makes us surrender and be stretched. Keep getting keep Stop.

I’m getting done. I really appreciate the the the format that the opportunity that the Holy Spirit has created in this opportunity of of a different format for doing church so that we get to hear things like this, and and people read and ask questions and make comments and connections because I get I get so much more out of it. I love that. I love that. So as you go through, I invite you we’re not gonna do it right now, but I invite you this coming week, go back and read that passage and maybe take two different color highlighters.

And whenever you see new wine that Jesus is pouring out, highlight that one color. And then whenever you see Nicodemus wrestling with if that fits into his wineskin or not, highlight that a different color. We can see beautifully. Nicodemus wrestling with the new wine that Jesus is pouring out. Nicodemus goes, I’m trying really hard, but I just cannot conceive of how I can go back into my mother’s womb.

He’s really trying to come Jesus’s way. He’s trying really hard to fit the new wine of what Jesus is saying into his old wineskin. I’m trying here. And many times in the past when I’ve read this passage, I’ve thought of Jesus getting, like, like, kind of short fused and and short-tempered with Nicodemus. Like, bro, you’re not getting it.

I really think that as I read this passage through the lens of new wine and new wine skin, I can hear the patience of Jesus. But I also hear the challenge in Jesus’s word. Never once is Jesus come alongside somebody and say, there, there, there, I’m gonna rub your belly, give you, like, a warm glass of milk, and everything’s gonna be fine. He’s like he’s like he he does not say, okay. You’ve got this carefully constructed wineskin.

We can pour a little bit of new wine into it. It’s okay. He loves Nicodemus enough to to say challenging things and then also invite him to construct a new wineskin because Jesus knows that what I have for you is not going to fit in your old wineskin. Then Jesus slows down and he actually takes a run at it several different times. I tell you the truth, unless you’re born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of god.

And then Nicodemus says, I’m trying. And then Jesus says, listen, nobody can enter the kingdom God of God without being born of water and of the spirit. Jesus was saying, you’re you’re halfway there because you’ve been born of water. You’re human. You can be you you are qualified for redemption because Jesus was human.

He didn’t come in any other form. He came to redeem humans. And then he says, the wind blows wherever it wants. You can hear the wind, but you can’t tell where it comes from or where it’s going. So you can’t explain how people are born of the spirit.

And here’s what he’s saying. Right now, Nicodemus, your wine skin does not have the capacity to understand it. In the closest way that I can show you and illustrate this, that you’re not getting it, is by an example of the wind. And Nicodemus is like, yeah. I I’m not getting it.

Trying to lead Nicodemus to the point of I must have to set some of these things aside, and I need a new container to to and then Jesus, he’s a challenger, says you’re a respected Jewish teacher, and you you don’t understand these things? And then he says, you have a great container that fits all of the nice mosaic law in all of its nice, neat, little boxes. And in fact, Nicodemus, along with all of the other Pharisees, probably had the first five books of the Bible memorized. He’s like, look, dude. You’re a stud when it comes to, like, knowing the word of God.

You’re a teacher of Israel. But what I have for you is not going to fit in the carefully constructed container that you have. It’s not gonna fit in there. Therefore, if you want to pick up what I’m putting down, you’re gonna need something else. A simple basic definition for the wineskin.

We’ll put it up on the screen. What does the wineskin represent? The wineskin represents a person’s capacity to receive and adapt to a new work of the Holy Spirit in their life. Jonathan with something, which is kind of what you just said. Give yourself a little star.

So my understanding of this is that, actually, the wineskin is our spirit. And before you receive Jesus or let me put it this way. The new wine is the salvation through Jesus. And before you receive Jesus, your spirit is dead, isn’t it? And if you try to, get yourself saved, so to say, through keeping the law or doing all these things right, this is the the old wineskin.

Right? And, it’s funny that in Luke, it says, no one after drinking the old wine wants the new wine, for he says the old is good enough. Right? So they’re saying it doesn’t really mean it is, but they’re saying it’s good enough. It doesn’t mean that it really is, but they’re saying it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the salvation to Jesus is actually he cannot be contained in our, old spirit, our dead spirit. So what Jesus had has to give us a new spirit or to warn us again.

Right? And this is how our spirit comes alive, and this is how you receive the new wine, which is the salvation through Jesus. And he says that no one takes a new garment and get gets a patch for the old garment. Right? Yeah.

And then also says that no one pours new wine into the old wineskin. If it does, the new wineskin will burst the skin and will be spilled. Right? This is the English mind blowing. If you’re trying to understand Jesus in your mind, right, it’s Ah.

Yes. So you understand Jesus in your spirit. This is the new spirit, the born again, the Yes. The spirit that’s alive. That’s so good.

That’s so good. That’s so good. How many times can I close my bible and so good? So I just kept hearing the word wineskin and wineskin, wineskin. And I was thinking about this man.

He was saying the wine was the holy spirit, and you were saying the wine is the move of God and what’s the spirit is doing. Right? And so the wine skin is whatever holds Holy Spirit, which is Jesus, right, also. And so we are we are the wine skin to be filled with the new wine so that we can pour out. Because you think of the skin, it pours out.

So we are meant to pour out whatever the move of God is doing, whatever the holy spirit is doing. If we have that new wine skin born again, right, to hold the new wine, then we’re not just meant to have the new wine, but we’re meant to be pouring pouring pouring, whatever that wine is. Like a bank. It’s great to put money in the bank, but the only reason anybody ever puts money in the bank is so that they can withdraw when needed. We’re need the wineskins were made to hold wine and pour out new wine.

That’s why we took another run at that’s why we took another run at, the invitation for ministry this morning that if we have not experienced freedom in this place, how can we ever be ministers of freedom and light and life to a sick, dying, broken, and in bondage world around us? I think in listening to it, it reminds me how before we receive Jesus, who pours into us the new one, we’re living in our soul realm, which is our mind, our will, and our emotions. That’s all that we’re controlled by. Me, me, me. What about me?

What about me? How suspect me? Is this good for me? So that old wine skin of the soul, it can handle the holy spirit. Correct.

It cannot receive holy spirit. Only just as Jonathan said, when our spirit comes alive because we’ve received Jesus. We’re not religious anymore, which is what Nicodemus was. And he didn’t even realize that he knew he was trained in religion, but he was religious. He was in his soul realm, and your soul cannot comprehend what your spirit’s trying to say.

Absolutely. At best, what it does is create religion. Yes. Yes. So last week when they’re talking about it, I thought, like, the wine, the new wine was, like, a new perspective or a new heart posture.

But then this week after reading about Nicodemus, the I think the new wine skin is a new heart posture and a new perspective because whatever the move of God is, you have to have the right perspective and heart posture to actually receive it and understand it. Because Nicodemus was, like, trying really hard to to understand it, but he didn’t have the right perspective to receive it. And I was immediately reminded of the parable of this the seeds in the soil. Like, seeds were planted in different types of soil but the ones that weren’t in fertile soil were either choked out by thorns or picked up by birds and the seed wasn’t actually planted and received, that brings new life. But if it is if a seed is planted in fertile soil that will grow roots, grow deep in your heart, then you will receive the new wine and the new life I love it.

That you write out. I love it. What does the new wineskin represent? The new wineskin represents a person’s capacity to receive and adapt to a new work of the holy spirit in their life. Heidi.

I was just gonna, I was gonna encourage what she just said. I don’t know her name, but Mhmm. Second Corinthians five seventeen. Therefore, if any person is engrafted in Christ, the Messiah, he is a new creation, a new creature altogether. The old previous moral and spiritual condition has passed away and behold the fresh and new has come.

And so it’s kind of like is what you said and what Brad Wolf said that, the new wineskin is the holy spirit and or the new wine is the holy spirit and the wine skin is the condition of our heart, but in fact, maybe our whole self. Would you read that address one more time so that people can write it down in their notes as they’re taking great notes to come back and unpack and study more. Yes. Second Corinthians five seventeen. New wineskin, new creation.

So so far, and this is really, really, really good, we have a good working definition of new wine and a new wine skin. And when we have talked about applying that definition of a new wine skin, many of your comments have been related to salvation. Great, wonderful, fantastic. Super. You got it.

We need to grow in maturity. We need to move beyond just salvation. Salvation is the foundation, and it’s not like you lay a foundation, build a house, and then when you put the last shingle on, you’re like, great. I’ve got the roof, and then you go out and rip out the foundation. Well, I’m done with that.

No. No. No. That’s not what I’m saying. But but like a house, the idea of a new wine and new wine skin being related to salvation, great.

Awesome. Fantastic. That’s foundational. We need to we need to keep building. So the question is, the question is, what is the condition of your wineskin?

What is the condition of your wineskin? Is it soft, supple, able to be stretched to receive the new wine? And remember, our definition of the new wine is any new move of the Holy Spirit that he wants to do in in your life or in the life of the church or in the big c church. What is the condition of your wineskin? Is it soft, supple?

Is there room to be stretched and challenged to consider to maybe abandon old ways of thinking to adopt and surrender to new ways? Or is your wineskin all out of stretch and it is brittle? Tribe itself is a wineskin stretcher. We’re meeting in a bar. If you can’t and that I’m not speaking to anybody that’s here because you’re here.

But if you say in your mind, church can’t meet in a bar, your wineskin is brittle. If you say, well, a preacher’s not supposed to wear a flat bill hat when he’s preaching, your wineskin is brittle. Preacher a preacher can’t quote beastie boys in a sermon. He can’t have a rage against the machine song in his outro. Your wineskin is brittle.

If we can’t interrupt worship I wouldn’t say interrupt. If we can’t interject and worship and say, hey, let’s take another run at this invitation for ministry. Your wineskin is brittle. Stretch test. Because I mean, it would be good to know, like, what is the condition of my wind wine wine skin?

And a an intelligent person would be thinking, well, what is the condition of my wineskin? Stretch, quick stretch, test. Let’s talk about Jesus for a second. There’s plenty of room in your wineskin for Jesus to be the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. We were just talking about it over and over and over.

The sweet, kind, gentle Jesus forbid not the children to come unto me. And he gathered the little children unto his arms and spake unto them and bless them, and then sent them on their way. Yeah. Great. Yeah.

The Jesus that performs the miracle. Sir, all I have are these five loaves and two fish. And he takes it and performs a miracle. Well, he’s pious. He’s pious.

He’s very pious. That’s my pious Jesus. If there’s no room in your wine skin for the preacher to have an accent every now and then, you might be a little brittle. Is there room Does your wine skin allow for not the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, but the lion of the tribe of Judah who is a conquering warrior, who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Yes.

But will come back to Jerusalem riding on a war horse. The Bible says that his robe will be stained with blood. The Bible says in the book of Isaiah that I have trodden out the wine press alone with the blood of my enemies. Speaking of the returning Messiah, The Bible says in the book of Psalms chapter two that he holds an iron scepter and he rules the nations of the world. And that at his whim, he can smash nations like a clay pot.

The Bible says in the book of Ezekiel that if there is any nation that will not come and send a delegation to celebrate the feast of Sukkot in the millennial reign of Jesus, he can just turn off the reign over their country. What does that do to agriculture? What does that do to economies? What does that do to the livelihoods of potentially millions of people? Is there room in your wineskin for that Jesus?

His hair is white like wool. His eyes burn like fire. Out of his mouth comes a sharp two edged sword. Is there room for for that Jesus? Wineskin stretch test, the church.

Do you have to have pews? Here’s one. Does it have to be Sunday mornings at 10AM? Yeah. I’m not saying we’re gonna move our service now.

That does not, like, foreshadow or anything. But I’m just saying, like, does it have to be Sunday at 10AM? It’s always been Sunday at 10AM. Can it still be the church and meet in a home or in a bar or under a bridge? Stretch test, the Holy Spirit.

Is there room in your wineskin for him to move in power today? Or is your wine or is your wineskin brittle that says once the books of the Bible were canonized and we’ve got the Bible, then there’s no longer any need for the person in active ministry of the Holy Spirit today. We’ve got the Bible. Thanks, Jesus. We’ll take it from here.

If there’s no room in your life and in your heart for the Holy Spirit to move today in power? Your wineskin is brittle and stretched out. Is there room for prophecy and tongues, healings, miracles? How about this? The geopolitical world, is there room in your wine skin for God to know about global calamities and catastrophes that cause the death of millions of people around the world?

No, Jesus would never do that. Your wineskin may be brittle. Am I saying that God or Jesus inflicts? That’s not what I’m saying. So so now you’re trying to fit my words into your wine skin.

That’s on you, man. You’ve not read your Bible. Just the the the four the first four seals that are broken in the book of Revelation, there’s billions of people that are dying off. But Jesus would never do that. You need to read your Bible.

Who, let me ask you, who is breaking the seals that that that is the catalyst for these things to come forward on the earth. Who’s breaking the seals? The lamb who was slain. That’s Jesus. Is there room in your wineskin to stretch for Israel?

That’ll stretch your wineskin, Israel. Israel had their chance. Jesus, the apostle Paul, other places, numerous places in the New Testament, it says that that God has taken the message of salvation now to the Gentiles, that’s us. And Israel had their chance and they’re on their own now. That’s a brittle wineskin, I’ll tell you that, if you hold that mentality.

Is there room for your wineskin to stretch for God’s heart, for the nation of Israel, the people of the covenant and the city of the great king? Is there room? We talked about this almost two years ago. For some people, maybe some of the things that I’ve said like like, really is petting your fur the wrong way. But what did we say two years ago?

If this is petting your fur the wrong way, the best thing that you can do is what? Turn your cat around. Turn your cat around. We talked about this two years ago. If any of this stuff pets your fur the wrong way, Really what you need to do.

Well, I I the graphic, I think, explains it. He don’t change. He don’t change. She’s gonna say, oh, you don’t agree with that? Okay.

I’ll change. He don’t change. He pets one way, and it’s the best way. The invitation today is for a a new wineskin to allow the Lord to to if yours is crusty and brittle, you might need to abandon the old wineskin. It was great, wonderful, appreciated for what it was.

Great. Let it be ashes. Lord, I need a new wineskin to contain the new wine that you’re pouring out on the church today and in my life and in my heart today. Well, just before we go to communion, we’ll tie a bow on Nicodemus. Did he ever get a new wineskin?

What what did he ever grab a hold of what we were talking about? Yes or no? What do you think? At the end, did he? John chapter 19.

Yeah. Let’s read. Let’s read. Yeah. He crossed that.

Right? Let’s read. Did John did did Nicodemus ever come around? John chapter 19 verse 38. And if Nicodemus can see what we’re about to see here, there’s hope for us.

John chapter 19 verse 38. Afterwards, Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus because he feared the Jesus leaders, asked Pilate for permission to take down Jesus’s body. When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away. With him came who? Nicodemus.

Oh, buddy. The man who had come to see Jesus at night, he brought with him about 75 pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. I never carry 75 pounds of anything with me unless I’m helping somebody else pack out an elk. And 75 pounds is a lot of weight to carry. It cost Nicodemus something.

Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus’s body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth. Man, I just thought of this. It also cost him his standing in the Sanhedrin and in the temple because he became unclean after touching a dead body. Cost him. It cost him.

It cost him. It cost him. I’m just seeing this. The place of crucifixion was near a garden where there was a new tomb never used before. And so preparation for the Jewish Passover and since the tomb was closed at hand, they lead they led Jesus there.

Wow. I’m just seeing this. This act of Nicodemus also excluded him from being able to celebrate Passover. Passover. I think we have a direction for next week’s conversation.

A new wine skin will cost you. Help us, Lord. Help us. Help us. Help us.

Help us. I feel like the Lord would say, I am pouring out new wine. A flavor of wine that has been percolate no. No. What’s fermenting from the foundations of the world that have been saved for this time.

And what I’m doing in the earth will require a new wine skin. There will always be a precedent and grounded in the word. If you’re not if you’re hearing what I’m not saying, that’s just your old wineskin. You need a new wineskin. He says kids in a in a really loving parental way.

Kids, you need a new wine skin. I I have begun to pour out this new wine already. It is it’s being poured out. I’m looking for a generation of men and women who will be able to appreciate the old wine for what it was, but move into a place of maturity that will require a new wine skin and that they are willing to pay the price to have their old mindsets, their old thoughts dismantled and reconstructed by the Holy Spirit to contain the new wine that I’m pouring out. And then he would say, who among you, my children, will pay the price for a new wine skin?

And then I would say as Brian, Lord, help me, help me, help me. Show any any brittleness in wine skin that I’ve previously constructed. Oh, I want your new wine, intimacy with you, ways that you’re moving, things that you’re doing. I want to see it. I want to taste it.

Help me Just before we go to communion, you take a moment and you, do whatever business you might need to take care of with the lord. We do it over here. So if there’s anything that you need prayer for at the end of service, wave your hands, John and Kate. They would love to pray for you. So at the end of service, if there’s anything that you need prayer for, you can just go back over there, and they will pray for you.

All rise. Just try to die. Lord Jesus, we love you. We love you. We love you.

Stretch our wineskins. I command a blessing over each and every person here today. Give us a great week. And help us, Lord, to soak up all the new wine that you have for us. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, the strong son of God.

And everybody said, Amen. Alright. I love you so much. Have a great week. And remember, Bento, you got this.