The New, Week 2
Dr. Tim Rivers | January 12, 2025
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What's up everybody? Are you glad to be in God's house? Yes. Did anybody come with expectancy that God's doing something new in your life? Yes. Has the Lord done anything new in your life this week? I'm telling you, I've already seen God do some new things this week, and I believe that if you create the right atmosphere for new things, new things will happen. Before we get into the word, I do want to say that if you are a guest with us, if you are new here or you've been coming for a while, but maybe you've been coming in and out, I want you to know that we are a church. Our vision for the church is come to know God, grow in faith, and go change the world. And what we mean by that is we want everyone to always be taking steps of growth. Healthy things grow,
Right? Have you ever seen an apple tree that doesn't produce apples? If you have, that's a bad apple tree, right? Because healthy things grow, healthy things produce fruit. So we want you to take your next step. So maybe your next step is just getting engaged. Maybe you've been coming for a while or this is your first time. We'd love the opportunity to get to meet you. Get to just shake your hand, answer any questions you may have. So if that's you and you want to know more about Embassy City Church, just walk outside this door at the end of service, turn to the right, go all the way down the hall and you will see our brand new welcome center. So stop by there. We love to just shake your hands, get you plugged in. Maybe your next step is water baptism this coming week, Tuesday or Wednesday.
It'll go live on the website. If you have professed faith in Jesus, but you haven't been water baptized, that is your next biblical step. So we want you to get water baptized. Sign up for baptisms, which will happen next month. Maybe your next steps is to lead a group. Many people have attended a group, but maybe you want to lead one. Maybe you want to facilitate one. Well, today after service, we're going to have new and current group leader orientation. Now, everybody that wants to lead a group has to go through orientation. Y'all want to know why there's some crazy people out here? We're trying to do this for everybody's protection. Have you ever gone to a group and thought, oh Lord, we're trying to prevent that from happening. So we want you to join. Maybe you've come here in November. We went through a generosity series and what we talked about is that the generous life is the good life.
And if you're in this house, you're in a house that is very generous. We practice generosity, everyone else does. Everyone here does we all practice generosity. So maybe your next step is to practice generosity by giving. We invite you to do that as well. We're not going to twist your arm, we're not going to not let you out unless you give something. But we do ask you to participate if that's the next step that God has for you. Either way, there's a next step for everyone and everyone say amen. Amen. Grab your Bible. Stand with me. We're going to Matthew chapter nine, the book of Matthew chapter nine. While you're turning there, I want to say this, we started our series last week and the series name is the new, and it is not just a series name, but this is the anthem, the theme, the phrase for our church for this year.
I really believe that God is going to be doing some new things, not just for us as a church, but for you as an individual. And so we want you to participate in this new series. But what I said last week was that I didn't just want to hype you up about new things because sometimes we get so excited about the new thing that God's going to do in our lives that we just run off and we're waiting for God to do it. And God says, Hey, there are some prerequisites that you need to prepare yourself for the new things. And so that's what we're going to talk about today. So Matthew chapter nine, starting in verse number 14, then the disciples of John came to him saying, why do we in the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast. By the way, we're in the middle of a 21 day of prayer and fasting.
Anybody hungry? That's good. That's the point of a fast. Let me just stop and say this. If you're not part of it yet, join us. Sometimes I'm like, this is how I do it. If I'm on a kick and I'm eating healthy and then I mess up during the week, let's say on Tuesday, Janice knows. I'm like, I'll start back next Monday. You don't have to wait until you can start right now, right in the middle of 21 days. We have booklets out there. We've got a QR code you can follow along. If you're fasting social media, that's totally fine. We have every resource on the website, embassy city.com/ 21 days. Thank you Lord for putting that in the scripture. And Jesus said to them, can the wedding guests mourn? As long as the bridegroom is with them, the days will come when the bride groom is taken away from them and then they will fast.
No one puts a piece of shrunken cloth on an old garment for the patch tears away from the garment and a worse, somebody say worse, a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wine skins. If it is the skins burst and the wine is spillt and the skins are destroyed, but new wine is put into fresh wine skins. And so both say both are preserved. I want to just talk to you for a little bit, maybe preach a little bit on this subject, new heart. Last week I talked about new hope. Today I'm talking about a new heart. Dear Lord, we're so grateful, so thankful to be in your presence. I pray that in the next few moments as we surrender ourselves to you, that you would have your way, that you would do what only you can do. Speak to us.
Help us to have ears, to hear a heart, to receive a mind, to understand what the spirit would say. Help us to walk out of here different than the way we walked in. Help us to take the next step. Help us to ready ourselves for new things. We give you name the praise, the glory and the honor because you're worthy of it. In Jesus name, amen. Before you see it, look at your neighbor. Say Neighbor. Neighbor. Something good. Something good is about to happen. Something happen. Look at your other neighbor. Neighbor and say, other neighbor. Other neighbor. Something good. Something good is about to happen, about to heaven. One more time. Give God some praise. Before you're seated, you may be seated. Have you ever looked at two things or people and thought to yourself that don't go together?
Those are just me. One of the most fun things to do is sit in the mall and people watch. Or at the airport, I don't even use my phone at the airport. I just sit and watch. I already know what my retirement plans are. Walk them all, look at people and keep my thoughts to myself. It is interesting that we can look at two things sometimes and go that don't go together, that paint and that paint don't work. Those shoes, that dress is a no. That tie that suit. No sir, that man, that woman. And what's interesting is when we assume something don't go together, we'll try to make excuses or try to figure out how that happened.
He must be rich. What's interesting, there's an old idiom that kind of encapsulates that thought, and you've probably said it before. If not, you've definitely heard it. We say those two things go together like oil and water. And really what we're saying is those two things are incompatible. They're opposed to one another. They're contradictory, they're incongruent. They don't mix very well. And so we have this thought when we see two things that we feel like don't go together. It looks like oil and water. Now I've got an illustration here because y'all know I suffer with illustration, so this is about as good as you can get. But right here in this jar, I've got a mix of water and oil. And if you can tell these two things don't mix. Now I want to explain, maybe give you some definition for what it means to be incompatible or contrary or opposites or conflicting. So you'll see this come up here to be incompatible or contrary or opposite or conflicting. Number one of two things. It means so opposed in character as to be incapable of existing together. There are certain things that just don't fit together. There are opposed. What does it mean to be opposed or opposite? It means they're heading in the opposite direction. When something is incompatible or it's contrary or it's incongruent is heading in opposite directions, another definition of two people is unable to live together harmoniously. Oh, some of y'all just figured out we're incompatible.
It literally means unable to live together harmoniously. Here's another one of one thing or a person not consistent or able to coexist with one another. The thing about incompatible or contrary things or people is that no matter what you do or how much you want those opposing things to mix, they simply cannot. It's like oil and water. Look what I do. I'm going to mix this up. I'm going to make it work. And what's interesting about things that are incompatible or opposing or things that are not meant to be mixed is that no matter what you do or how hard you try it is incapable of mixing. Why? Because the molecular structure all the way down to the molecular structure of oil and water, they're opposed to one another. I can put 'em in the same jar.
I can let them go through some turmoil. I can mix it up, I can set it out in front of people. But if it is incapable of mixing, if they're opposing, if they're opposites, it's just going to take a little while and it is going to reveal to you that these two things just don't match. And it doesn't matter what you do now. Now it's human nature to want to force incompatible things or people to mix. It's human nature. So we try everything, every method and scheme to try to make things work. Y'all know who I'm talking about. We told you he was a knucklehead, but you married him anyways.
We told you that color didn't match, but you wore it anyways, everyone told you don't let her beauty fool you, but you got fooled. Everyone told you money ain't everything, but you left your good job anyways. How many in this place would be so brave and vulnerable and transparent to admit that you tried to make some things work that you knew was incompatible? Come on, let me see your hand. Don't. There we go. And if your hand is down, we got prayer. Ministry happens after service. You're in denial. Anyone try to force 'em, incompatible things to work. And here's what ends up happening. It'll work for a little while. Oh look, it's a wonderful marriage. Six months later, some things are just incompatible. They cannot coexist. And here's what's interesting. When you read the scriptures, you read throughout the Bible, you will find many, many examples where God will often tell people or a people group that he wants to do something new in their life.
He'll tell them, I am going to do something that has never been done before. I want to do something in your life. I want to do something in this group of people that has never been done before. And then God says, but I can't do it here because the new thing I want to do in your life is incompatible with where you are. Take for example Abraham, he's probably the greatest example of this analogy of two things that don't mix together. Comes to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, and he looks at Abraham at this point, Abraham 75, and he has no children, he has no heir, and his wife is bearing. And so God comes to him in Genesis chapter 12 and says, Hey Abraham, guess what? I want to do something new in your life. I want the new to break forth. In fact, I want to give you a new seed.
And through your new seed, I'm going to bless you so much that if you can count the sand of the sea, that's how great I'm going to make you. If you can count the stars in the sky, that's how great people have yet to count all the stars in the sky. People have yet to count how many granules of sand there are at the sea. And God says, I want to do something new in your life. And I'm sure when Abraham heard it, he was like, let's go cue the organ. Give me shout music, let's go. A new thing is coming and then God hits him with this. But here's the prerequisite, Abraham, I cannot do something new in your life as long as you stay in old places.
Abraham is like, God is going to do something spectacular, something new in my life. And God's like, yes. But here's what God says in Genesis chapter 12, verse number one, go from your country and form your kindred and your father's house. Now, why is that significant that he has to remove himself from his father's house? Well, if you go back and look at the chapter before his father, terror was on his way to Canaan, the scripture says he's on his way to Canaan. If you look at the map, it's one big loop. But about halfway to Canaan, he stops at a place called Ron and he camps there. So he set out to go to the promised land, which is Canaan, but he stopped halfway. And so this is where he raises his family. So when God comes to Abraham, he says, Abraham, I would've done it through your dad, but your dad settled halfway. So if I'm going to do something new in your life, you got to get away from where you're at and away from the people that keep you halfway to the promised land.
I'm preaching, I'm just getting started. Why did God want him to move away from where he is at? Because what God wanted to, God could have done it where he was, but God wouldn't do it there. Why? Because where he was was incompatible with what God had in mind for him. Canaan was the promised land. So Abraham and then Abraham is human, right? So Abraham does what most of us humans do. Abraham starts off on the journey toward the new thing that God has for him, and he's doing well. He's being obedient. He's following after God's voice. And about 10 years later, while he's on the journey, he's wondering, why hasn't a new thing happened yet? Because he's an on time God. Yes he is. I guarantee you. Well, I can't guarantee you theologically, but I would take a good guess that when Abraham started to make this journey toward wherever God was leading him, the next day he was like, Sarah, we got to get busy because God made me a promise that if I will head out, something new is going to happen after a few weeks, nothing's happening. Few months, nothing's happening. A couple of years, nothing's happening. Can I tell you, when God does something new in your life, inevitably there will be delay.
That's why some people can't make it through the year of trusting God because they expect that when God said he was going to do something new, he was going to do it like the next hour. And there are some times when God will do something right then or the next hour. But generally speaking, when God wants to do something new in your life, there is an inevitable delay. Why? Because during the process, God is teaching you trust and faith, and a faith that isn't tested can't be trusted. So Abraham is on his way about 10 years later, Sarah goes, Hey, I know what God said. I know that he said he's going to do something new, but once you go make it happen, once you goes, you to go shake some things up with Hagar. So Abraham's like, well, alright, you said it so he does.
And she gets pregnant and he's like, woo, I got a new thing coming right? And God's like that ain't it? Why? Because that wasn't a part of my original plan. I told you what was going to happen and how it was going to happen, but you try to make two things work that are just incompatible. I told you to get to a new place and when you get to the new place, the new thing was going to happen. But on your journey, you did the most human thing that humans do, try to make the will of God happen.
Listen, it's not that God doesn't want you to have friends, it's just that the friends that you had in one season are incompatible with what God wants to do with you in the new season. It's not that the church that you grew up in is bad, it's just that they're stuck in yesteryear and God wants to do something new in your life, so he's got to transplant you. I don't know who that was for. Sometimes we question why God is moving us. And the reason is is God wants to do something new in your life and he can't do it where you are at. So he has to move you because where you are at and the new thing that God wants to do are incompatible. It's like oil. And this is the crux of the passage in Matthew chapter nine because in our passage, lemme give you some context here, the one who was writing Matthew is Matthew.
And Matthew is only one of two actual disciples of Jesus from the four Gospels, Matthew and John were the ones who were eyewitnesses. They were with Jesus at the point. Mark and Luke were not a part of the 12. And so they got most of their information from secondhand accounts. I dunno if you knew this or not, but Matthew and John actually were eyewitnesses. They were firsthand witnesses of what Jesus was doing. And the way Matthew got called into ministry is Jesus is he's doing miracles, signs, and wonders and he's walking and he sees a man who is a Jewish tax collector named Matthew. And he says, Matthew, follow me. Now when he calls them into ministry to follow him, Jesus ends up going to Matthew's house where there are other tax collectors and other sinners. And the Bible says that Jesus reclined with them, he's having fellowship with them. And the Pharisees get upset like, I cannot believe that you would hang out with tax collectors and sinners. Some of you that pay taxes. You know why they feel that way.
But here's the reason why they didn't like tax collectors, because tax collectors, Jewish tax collectors were actually hired by the Roman government to collect taxes from Jews. Jews were the oppressed at that time. The Romans were the oppressors. So this is what the Romans would do. They would hire a Jewish person to collect taxes from other Jews, but here was their stipulation. Listen, we want our percentage. Whatever you set as a percentage above that, that's gravy, that's yours. And so what Jewish tax collectors would do is if the percentage that the Romans required was 5%, they'd make it 10%. And the Jews were required by the Roman law to pay their taxes. This is why they got so upset with Jesus when he said, render to Caesar, what belongs to Caesar. He was saying, pay your taxes. And they were like, I can't believe that Jesus would hang out with the ones who collecting money from the oppressed to pay the oppressors to oppress them some more.
It was completely new to them. And so the Pharisees were livid and they were upset. And when they asked Jesus, Hey, why are you hanging out with publicans? Considers Jesus had a very easy answer for them. He goes, listen, it's the sick that need a doctor. God, it's not in my message, but stop being upset with sick people that need a doctor. They missed the point completely. And Jesus said, listen, I've come to bring mercy and not judgment. So everyone's confused. Everyone's frustrated because this has never happened before. And so while this is all happening, Matthew writes in his gospel, this passage that we read, which seemingly comes out of nowhere, where the disciples of John come to Jesus and they say, yo Jesus, we have a pressing question about fasting. It seems not to mix at all with the storyline, but let's read it in Matthew chapter nine, verse 14, look at this.
Then the disciples of John came to him speaking of Jesus saying, why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast. Now, in order to understand the significance of this question, you have to understand the significance of fasting at that time. Because if you read throughout the scripture in the Old Testament, there was only one commanded institution of fasting that God gave to the people of Israel. And that was during the day of Atonement. It's called yum Kippur still acknowledged by practicing Jews right now, and this was the holiest of day. This was when God said, listen, out of 365 days, there's one day that I want you to fast. I want you to stop eating. I want you to deny your flesh. And it was a moment where you sought for God's mercy and you also grieved the sin of your past.
It was called the Day of atonement. Now, every other fast outside of that one day was voluntary and there were really two reasons why you would fast. One is to get closer and deeper with God, and the second was to mourn. Now, when the Pharisees started developing their own version of the law, they would take the commands of God that were, you may do this and they would make them, you must do this. That's the perfect example of a legalist. You want to know what a legalist is? You want to know what a self-righteous person is. A self-righteous person takes what you may do and make it a must.
Some of y'all had to get delivered out of that. So the Pharisees had this law. They said, listen, everybody is required to not just fast once a day but twice a week. And this is why they would fast. They would fast in a way where they would make themselves look like they were fasting. You ever run into somebody instead of they will go out to eat with you. And when you ask them what, Hey, what are you going to get? Nothing. Oh, come on, get something. No, I got you. No, why are you eating? Can't really tell you what's happening.
I am going to fast. They want you to know they're counting us this long. That's why Jesus said, when you fast put some oil on your face, you looking dry and sad. Put some baby oil on your face. Quit walking around trying to let everybody know that you're fasting because the Pharisees had this law that said you had to fast twice a week. So twice a week they were walking around, sat beating their chest out, trying to get closer to the guy. And the reason why they were fasting is because they were trying to get closer to God. And this was Jesus replied to the Pharisees and the disciples of John. He goes in Matthew chapter nine, verse 15, 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. Jesus was like, listen, you're fasting to get closer to God, not realizing that God is as pulse as he's ever been.
They were so caught up in their old manmade traditions that they missed that the reason why they were fasting in the first place was standing right in front of 'em. It is possible to glorify requesting so much that you miss the answer. It is possible to get so caught up in how you have church that you miss why you have church. It is possible to go through the motions of coming to church and miss the visitor. My God, Jesus goes, y'all are so caught up in your old manmade traditions that you are missing the new Messiah that's standing right in front of you.
They were so caught up with all of the stuff that they were doing that they missed the new thing that Jesus was trying to do in front of them. Here's the thing now. Now I got to stop and say this because some people want to throw out all the traditions. All the traditions are bad. It's this relationship over religion. Y'all heard that one? There is a religion that is undefiled according to the scripture in James, and there is a tradition that should be passed on. It's called the parados in the New Testament. It's the traditions of the early fathers. It's the apostolic traditions that the traditions that the apostles preached as it was revealed to them by Jesus. Those traditions should be passed down through the church. But there are some things that are manmade. Jesus said to the Pharisees, you are teaching for doctrines the teaching of men. Whenever you take a doctrine of God and you add to it and you add some more and you try to force feed it down somebody's throat, you are in danger of heresy. Okay?
That's what Jesus was saying. He says, your traditions and the new thing that I'm doing is incapable of mixing. Y'all want something new, but you won't change what you've been doing. You want a new move of God, but you won't change anything about your traditional methods. You've glorified so much the way we used to do it and the way church used to be and how we used to have a move of God. God's trying to do a new thing. He can't do a new thing because you're so caught up in how we used to do church and we used to have revival. And God says, all right, go ahead. We used, I'm about to watch my own, own YouTube back. And when Jesus gets ahold of a bone, he goes for it. So Jesus like, all right, that don't get you. Watch this. Matthew chapter nine, verse 16. No one puts a piece of unhr and cloth on an old garment for the patch tears away from the garment and a worse, somebody say worse, a worse tear is made. This is how Jesus opens up. He says, no one. You know what that means? Have you ever talked to somebody that does something so ridiculous that you're like this? Listen, no one, that's a hyperbole. No, literally no one would do something. So I have small children, I got to watch my language.
No one would do this. And Jesus is telling people, Hey, listen. A seamstress or Taylor knew that you could not patch an old garment that has holes in it with a new garment. I want you to see this picture right here. This is what would happen if you had an old garment that you would wear. It would get holes in it after a while, right? But here's what you have to understand about old garments in antiquity, old garments were made of wool, not like cotton. Most of the stuff is made now, not like polyester. It was made out of wool. And what does wool do when it gets worn and wet? It shrinks. So what Jesus says is that an old garment that has been washed, that has been worn ends up shrinking over time. And when you get a hole in it, you cannot patch something that is shrunken with something that is new, that is shrunken.
Here's why you can't do that, because when something is shrunken, it means it has lost all elasticity, all flexibility is out of it. The ability to stretch and to move with flexibility, it's gone. So you can't just try to mend something that is inflexible with a patchwork of something new. You can't take an old worn out garment and try to put something new on it and expect for it to last. In fact, this is what Jesus said. If you try to put something new on something that is old and worn out, it won't just destroy the new, it'll destroy the old as well.
I'm just teaching because here's what people do. You got some old habits that you're trying to patch with new things. You got a bad culture, but you're trying to rebrand. Lemme tell you something, new patches don't fix old problems. How many people try to patch holes in their life with new things? And here's the thing, anytime you read in the scripture about clothing or cloth, it is often is often an analogy for anointing. If applied to the scripture what Jesus is saying, you can't put new anointing on old anointing, you can't mix. They're incompatible, they're incongruent. How many people try to fill up these gaps in their whoa, old wore out stuff? Listen, if you are inflexible, you can't handle the new because if you are shrunken, worn out, inflexible, you've lost all your elasticity, then when something new comes, it'll actually put you in worse condition. Oh God, people think that a marriage will fix their lux problem.
Here's what I can tell you as a pastor, if you're dealing with lust, fix it before you get married because if you try to patch your lust with a new marriage, it'll not just tear you up now, it'll tear your new spouse up. Oh God, this is getting real. And Jesus is like, I ain't done. So he takes us to Matthew chapter nine 17. This is what Jesus says, and neither is new wine put into old wine skins. If it is the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed, but new wine is put into fresh, somebody say fresh, fresh, fresh or new wine skins. And so both are preserved. Jesus here is reiterating the point again that I cannot do anything new in old vessels. I got to have new wine skins. I got to have new cloths. I have to have new traditions.
And here's what Jesus is saying. Now, oftentimes when we think of wine, we think of barrels, we think of jars. But in ancient times, you didn't store wine in barrels or in jars. You actually stored them in a wine skin. Now you may be looking at it as like, Hey, that's an animal. Exactly. What they used to do is they would take a goat or a lamb and after removing all the meat and after utilizing all the meat and after taking away the skin from the hide, they would take the carcass of a sheep or a goat and they would tie up its arms as legs and they would pour new wine into a completely fresh hide. They would pour new wine. And what new wine means that is freshly pressed unfermented grape juice. They would take new wine and they would pour it into the neck of this high, and then they would tie up the neck and they would store it.
And the reason why they store it is because new wine after a certain amount of time when it was sitting there, would begin the fermentation process. And as it fermented, it would start to expand. And as it expanded, it needed a vessel. It needed something that had the ability to stretch with change as the new thing was doing. Its work. And what Jesus was saying is once you've been stretched out and you have already filled the expanse of yourself, I can't do anything new in you. Why? Because it's incompatible. So Jesus said, if I'm going to pour new wine into you, I've got to have fresh wine skins. I want you to look at this picture right here. This is what a fresh wine skin looks like. A fresh wine skin looks completely different. It's not cracked, it's not brittle, it's not inflexible. It's not old and rusty and dirty and it's new, it's fresh, it's flexible, it'll stretch. Can I tell you, anytime God begins to do something new in your life, it will stretch you. The reason why God can't do something new in some of our lives, we're inflexible. We like our stuff the way we like it. We love the dent in the bed. We love that the lazy boy, it's worn out. It is ugly. It's given you back problems, but you've had it for 40 years. You don't want to let go of it. You suffering. Get a new lazy boy. You earned it. Use your income tax.
Jesus said, I'm trying to do something new, but I can't do it in old wineskins. What is Jesus trying to say that something new? And now here's the thing. Here's the thing about an old wine skin. Once everything is poured out of an old wine skin, you can pour new wine into it and it will hold it for a little while. It'll seemingly hold it until it begins to expand and stretch and do what new wine does. And when new wine begins to stretch, if you are inflexible and you've got old skin, it'll start to crack and stuff will start leaking out and it'll just be a matter of time where that crack will get bigger. And lo and behold, if it doesn't flex, it'll burst. Not only will you lose the wine skin, but you'll also lose the new wine. Now here's the thing about new wine. New wine is hard to get because new wine only comes at a certain season when it's harvest time.
If you miss the new wine, you may have to wait for a while until there's another harvest. That's why when Jesus came to the man who was by the pool, he says, Hey, why don't you have your healing? He goes at a certain time. It's only a certain time when the angel comes and troubles the water. And what Jesus saying is right now you are standing at the precipice of me wanting to do something new. God is looking for somebody who understands that if God's going to do something new, I got to get new. You got to reevaluate some of the old stuff you've been doing. Maybe you got to change the time that you pray. Maybe you got to change the amount of reading that you do. Maybe you got to move some people out of your, they've been my friends since middle school and they've held you back since.
Right, right. Well, they're my competition and that's the problem. They're the ones that always give me up. You don't realize they're keeping you down. You are always trying to stay level with them. And God says, I need you to stand up, but if I stand up, they're going to come to my shoulder. Yes. Why? I'm trying to do something new in your life. And if I'm going to do something new in your life, you got to get new company. You may have to have a new scenery. You may have to get a God's looking for some people who are going to make themselves flexible for the new.
I got to wrap it up. So what does it mean to have new wineskins? What is a new wineskin? Well, Jesus said new wine can't be poured into old wineskins. Wine is a type of the spirit, and when God begins to pour his spirit, he pours it into the heart. The heart is the center of who you are. The heart according to scripture, is your mind will and emotion. It's your soul. It's the very center of who you are. And some people have soul become brittle and flexible in their heart that God can't do nothing new in you because you're inflexible to the stretch. And I am convinced that God will allow some old wineskins just to house old wine and stay in the cellar, but he has new wine available to people who are willing to have some heart surgery, some heart transplant, meaning that he's going to take out the old, put in the new, fill it up with new wine.
I do not want my relationship with God to to have been better 10 years ago than it is right now. I do not want to say, I don't want to spend the rest of my life talking about how God used to move and that whole building, how the worship used to be so good back when we did this. I'm not saying that the old stuff is bad. I'm just saying that if God's going to do something new in your life, you got to get a new heart about you. You got to get a new soul. You got to get a new mind willing and emotions. You got to address some old patterns. Let me, Ezekiel chapter 36, verse number 26, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. I will pour within you, put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. God is getting ready to do something new in your life, but the prerequisite is you got to have a new heart because if you don't get a new heart, you may miss the opportunity for new wine.
Here's the thing about new wine. It's not always available. What? There are moments where God is doing something new and you either catch the wave or you got to wait for the next one. There's a wave of new coming. God is pouring out new wine. The question is, is your heart conditioned to receive the new thing God wants to do in you is going to be uncomfortable. It's going to stretch you. It's going to expand you beyond what you think is possible. It is going to challenge some things in your life. It's going to challenge some preconceived ideas you have about God. It's going to challenge some preconceived ideas and notions that you have about church and religion. It's going to challenge some of your mindset, but that's what God needs to do in your life if he's going to do something new. So let me ask the question. How many want God do something new in your life? It's a trick question because you cannot have the old, you can't have the new in the old wineskins.
You got to leave that stuff in the cellar. I believe God's getting ready to stress some people. I'm calling the worship team up. I'm landing the plane, but I feel like somebody is in here. You about to be in a stretching season. You're about to get a little uncomfortable. Oh yeah. I'm not talking about, here's the thing about the context of scripture. When the scripture uses the words new and old, the Greek words for new and old don't mean necessarily age, but it means essence and nature. So when Jesus says that I cannot pour new wine into old wine, he's not talking about age. He's not saying, listen, you're 73.
That's not what he's saying. He's not talking about how long you've been in church. You're, I'm talking about how long you've been saved. Hey, I can't do nothing new and you, you've been saved for 25 years. That's it. That's not what he saying. He said, I can't do new things in old natures. I can't do, I can't challenge you. I can't stretch you. I can't do something new in your life if you have lost all flexibility, if you've lost your ability to be uncomfortable. I don't know if I like that song that Sarah singing stretch. I don't know if I like the lights stretch. I don't know if I like all these new people taking my pocket spot stretch.
I don't know if I like my wife going back to college. I can't even look stretch. I don't know if I like the fact that stretch, oh, you wanted something new. Oh, you want something new? Oh, you want something fresh. You got to get ready for it. I don't know if I want to move away from the place that I've always been comfortable. My cousin Jedi lives here. Auntie Sue's right down the road. Every Sunday we get together for family meals. Abraham, I want to do it, but I can't do it here. Stretch, expand band. I feel like that's a word for somebody. Expansion, stretching, new heart, new vision, new attitude, new spirit. I don't know if I like, yes, I understand. I empathize with you. Listen, I'm young, but I got an old soul and sometimes I look at you say these young people nowadays, she's like, you are a young person. I said, I guess you're right. I'm already walking. I'm already sitting at the mall.
I'm already wearing hocus
Stretch. What is it that's an old wine skin in your life that God's trying to replace with a new wine skin? What is it that Jesus needs to get away from you because it's hindering you from growth opportunities. It may be an old relationship. It may be an old church. It may be old friends. What is it that God's trying to give me? That it's old is crusty, it's worn out, it's brittle. It can't handle new. Okay, because the new thing is coming, but a new thing cannot be poured into inflexible old stuff. That's right. God, you're refined by the new because here's the thing, I'm closing with this. A fresh wine skin has in it bacteria because it's a fresh white skin. It's a fresh skin. It has all the nastiness in it. There was no purification process except for one.
So you ain't got to be all the way ready. You ain't got to be all the way mature. You ain't got to be all the way ready. You just got to have enough flexibility that while the new thing is poured into you, it is refining you as is stretching you. Oh God. Well, that's a word for somebody. You've been waiting to get ready and God says, I just need you a little ready. I just need you to be open to the possibility of new. I just need you to have one little opening. You ain't got to have all the bacteria cleared. You ain't got to clear out the closet. Just be ready that when I pour my new into you while it's stretching you, it's also refining and cleansing you and getting you ready. Stand here if you all across this place. Yeah, that's good. Really, really good. So good.
People ask me, how was it when you came to Embassy City? I said I wasn't ready, but I was ready enough that while I do it, God is fermenting me and he's cleansing me and he's getting the stuff out of me that ain't supposed to be in there, and he's stretching me and he's making me nimble. And while I'm stretching, it hurts sometimes, but guess what? I got new one. God's getting ready to do a new thing in you. Are you ready? Move both your hands right now. God, get us ready. Lord, new wineskins, new heart, new Spirit. I'm ready. Lord, I'm not perfect, but I'm open and I'm willing to be poured into Jesus.
