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[0:00] All right, Matthew chapter 9. Thank you for letting me know. We are going to continue on in our series about stories of the kingdom, the parables of Jesus.

[0:16] ! And we are going to look at Matthew chapter 9 today. The title is Treasures and...I'm sorry, that was last Sunday. Treasures and Pearls. Anybody remember that?

[0:28] Treasures and Pearls. This Sunday we're going to talk about garments and wineskins. You notice there's kind of a theme. Jesus takes these very interesting themes in each parable, and a parable is just an illustrative story, a tale that someone would tell to make a greater point, and Jesus was always making a greater point, about the kingdom of God.

[0:53] So we're going to look at verses 14 down through verse 17. How many of you enjoyed the service already this morning? Amen. Glory to His name.

[1:05] Thank you, Jesus, for the blood applied. We thank those who have gone before and paid the ultimate sacrifice for us on this earth, and we thank the one who came before us and paid the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.

[1:18] Matthew chapter 9, verse 14. You've been up and down today. I'm going to let you keep your seats, but let's read verses 14 down through 17.

[1:29] Then John's disciples came to Him saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often? But your disciples do not fast, Jesus.

[1:43] Can you hear a little passive aggression there? It's not like, Jesus, we respect you as a teacher. Please instruct us, help us understand why it's better for your disciples not to fast according to our custom.

[2:04] It doesn't seem to be, maybe, you know, we try to not read too much into the text other than what it says, but it certainly could have been phrased differently. And so they come to Jesus and say, Why do we fast and your disciples don't?

[2:20] Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse.

[2:40] And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst and the wine spills out and the skins are ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.

[2:54] Let's pray together. God, please give us an understanding of what you meant to teach here. What your greater point was, what you were teaching us about the kingdom of God and our role in it.

[3:05] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. How many of you have an older phone? Anybody? An older cell phone? Smartphone?

[3:17] Y'all all a bunch of latest model. There you go. They're pointing to Barbara. Y'all be nice to Barbara. Come on now. Just proud she's got one, you know?

[3:29] That's awesome. Al, yeah. Al, you don't have a smartphone, do you? You told me that he's like, I am staying off the grid. That's good.

[3:40] They're going to find us, but they're not going to find you. That's good. We're all coming to your house. All right. I have had many older phones.

[3:51] The very first cell phone my family ever got was when I was a kid, and it was very large and had a big old antenna coming out of it, and that was my dad's cell phone, and we thought they were the cat's pajamas because we had a cell phone.

[4:06] I think it was made by Nextel or something. I don't know. This right here is an iPad that my mom, not my mom, my kid's mom, my wife got me for.

[4:20] That was good. Can we just start over real quick here? Cut the tape. We're starting over. Remember we used to have tapes? Yeah.

[4:31] Now it's all live. Anyway, I love this thing. I preach from this thing. Y'all want to see how this looks? Not that you can all see. First of all, there's Holly. Isn't she pretty?

[4:43] And then here it is. There's no way you can see that, but maybe some of you up front. I've got the slides over here that you see, so I see what's coming up next. I've got all my notes right here that correspond to the slides, and that's what works for me.

[4:57] Now, before I had that, now this is not the latest iPad, trust me. It's a few years old, but those tend to be a little cheaper than the latest ones, so it's new to me, and it works great, and I love it.

[5:11] Before I had that, I had this iPad, and I could not preach from it for the simple reason that it will not hold a charge. So you can charge this thing up, and I did just recently, and it will not turn on.

[5:28] So there you go. Not only will it not hold a charge, it does not receive the latest updates. It's very, very old in its updates.

[5:40] How many of you know what we're talking about? How many of you had your iPhone or your Android or whatever pop up there? You need to update your software. Yeah. How many of you have tried to update your software, and for some reason you wake up in the morning, and it says your iPhone was not connected to a power source and Wi-Fi, so the software update failed.

[5:59] Anybody had a software update fail? Yeah, me too. I'm really glad y'all raised your hand, because I thought maybe I was the only one. But listen, this is the world we live in now. Smartphones and software updates.

[6:12] And do y'all understand this concept, this principle that these companies make? Designed obsolescence.

[6:24] Anybody understand what that is? Yes, sir? Bill says yes, I got it. Look, they make it to where your phone is going to be out of date soon.

[6:37] I feel like I just got my phone, and it's already showing its age, because I think it's three or four years old now. Some of you are like, man, my phone's 10 years old.

[6:49] Might be time. Look, if you have a phone that's 10 years old, you can't get the latest software for your phone. Who cares? I don't need the latest software.

[7:00] That means some of the apps that you try to use probably won't work, because they're designed to work with the latest software. They get you coming and going, you know? Buy the phone, spend a bunch of money on it, and then you're going to have to keep these software updates coming so it works how you want it to work.

[7:20] All these fancy, you know, advantages that this phone gives you. Oh, by the way, you've got to have the latest software updates to use them. Well, after a while, your phone won't update anymore, and then you've got to go get a new one.

[7:33] It's how it works. Why? Because old phones are not compatible with new updates. Now, this is not, I don't think, too hard of a concept for anybody in this room to understand.

[7:49] If it is, we'll talk after. But look, Jesus is talking about that in this passage. He's talking about old phones not being compatible with new updates, new software.

[8:07] Okay? But he's using different illustrations because they didn't have phones back then. But he's using the same principle. So, thank God, I don't have to use this thing anymore.

[8:21] Now, it looks nice, but it doesn't work. It doesn't function. So it does me no good. Because it's incompatible with anything that I want to do with it now.

[8:34] Let me just say this, y'all. Now, the traditions of men are incompatible with what God wants to do.

[8:50] Let's throw it out there again. The traditions of men are incompatible with what God wants to do. Man creates structures.

[9:03] God comes in to replace them. All right, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's look back at the text. Number one, from Matthew chapter 9, verses 14 through 17.

[9:17] Let's look back at verse 9. Jesus went on from there. Where? Hold on a minute. I'm in chapter... I'm in verse 9. I need to be in verse 14. Here we go. Then John's disciples came to Jesus and they said, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?

[9:33] We talked about it a moment ago. Do you see what they just said there? First of all, who's the John they're talking about? Anybody know? John's disciples. Who was that John? Say it again.

[9:44] Y'all, this is a Baptist church. Let's say it together. Ready? John the... Yes, we love to say that word. Say, see, Baptists were in the Bible too. It's a little different than the Baptists on the...

[9:57] Anyway, John wasn't the first Baptist pope, okay? There is no Baptist pope. I'm sorry. Can't necessarily trace the Southern Baptist Convention back to John the Baptist, all right?

[10:08] But he did baptize and we do too. So we get to share that name. All right, so John the Baptist was what to Jesus? Cousins, right?

[10:18] They were related. They grew up together. John the Baptist was what by God? It's kind of getting obscure here. He was sent by God to be a forerunner of Jesus, the Messiah.

[10:37] John was an evangelist. John was going around. He was a missionary, like the kids were talking about. He was telling people about Jesus, but Jesus wasn't out there yet.

[10:48] His public ministry hadn't started yet. So John's going around preaching about the coming king, his cousin. He didn't even necessarily know yet who it was.

[11:00] But then we get to read early in the Gospel of John how this all plays out. Now listen. Here's the deal. John had his own disciples.

[11:13] Those who believed his message. The Gospel message. The message of Jesus Christ. And they would believe. And they would start to follow him. And they would help him in his ministry.

[11:24] So these guys knew by now that Jesus was, of course, John's cousin. But he was the Messiah. Because John had called it.

[11:35] He said, this is the one. This is the one who I've been preaching about. I'm not even worthy to tie his shoes, basically, is what he said. So he held Jesus in high regard.

[11:47] He was God. He was the Son of God. He was the Messiah. He was the one that John had been preaching about. He taught his disciples this. So they come to Jesus. And they say, Master.

[11:57] Jesus. Teach us everything we need to know. John taught us this much. You fill in the blanks, Jesus. That's not what they said. It's probably what they should have said. It's probably the attitude they should have had.

[12:09] And it's probably the attitude you and I should have when we pray, when we talk to Jesus. God teach us. God teach us.

[12:20] Show us. We can only understand so much. But instead, they had a different attitude. They said, we've noticed something.

[12:30] We fast a lot because we are good religious people. We follow the customs. We follow the religious traditions.

[12:43] Oh, and just to back us up in this, by the way, we're not alone. The Pharisees do this too. The great religious leaders of the day. You know, Jesus, they love you.

[12:54] Those Pharisees. Let's try that one again. They love you, those Pharisees. You know, they're your biggest fans, Jesus. Y'all, they didn't. Okay? Do I need to educate you on this?

[13:05] The Pharisees hated Jesus. They couldn't stand him. Read the Gospels. Open it up. It's the books that have a bunch of words in red. That's the words of Jesus. Look, they didn't like him.

[13:16] The religious leaders of the day called the Pharisees and then another group called the Sadducees. They hated Jesus. Isn't that weird? Isn't that crazy? Now, Jesus, Christianity is the most common religion around the world.

[13:28] And yet, back in the day, religion rejected Jesus. So they said, we have this tradition, and the Pharisees do too, and we fast.

[13:45] They fasted twice a week. Mondays, Thursdays. It was a sad day. Monday was a sad day. Thursday was a sad day. It's great.

[13:57] Great form of religion there. Why? Why would they fast? Because they were in mourning. They were in sadness. They were crying. They were weeping. That's what the whole day was basically given over to.

[14:12] Why? Because Jehovah God had instructed them a long time ago to do this? No. He hadn't. Do you know the one day per year they were required to fast?

[14:28] They call it Yom Kippur now. It was the day of atonement. The one day a year when the high priest that God had appointed would go into the Holy of Holies.

[14:40] Inside the tabernacle, he would go into the Holy of Holies, and he would take the sacrifice, the animal that had been killed, to make a show of atonement for the sin of the people.

[14:54] That was the one day that God had said you should fast on this day. What does it mean to fast? I mean, I feel like in today's world, you know, there's all kinds of fasts out there to lose weight, that kind of thing.

[15:07] I should probably look into a couple of them. But look, I'm working on it, all right? Seriously, we're on this diet plan. It's actually working right now. Could have used some amens right there. Like, yes, it really is, man.

[15:18] You're doing great. But look, fasting, you know, there's this intermittent fasting, all this stuff. That's not what this was about, okay? This wasn't trying to be healthy or lose weight or get on a diet plan.

[15:29] This was a religious show. It was a religious practice. Came from that, Jehovah's commandment to his people. But then, just like people always do, they take what God set up and they mess it up.

[15:46] God put the line here. Here, here's one day a year that you should fast. And before you know it, man gets a hold of God's commandments and he twists them.

[15:59] And before you know it, they're now asking people to fast twice a week. And most of those people were sincere. They were using that time to call out to God.

[16:10] God, send your Messiah. Send the Deliverer who's going to help us. God, send the Deliverer who's going to help us. So first of all, John's disciples are in bad company.

[16:22] They think they're in great company. Man, the Pharisees do this. We learned it from them. Why do we fast twice a week like our religious customs ask us to do?

[16:34] Hey, side note. What do your religious customs ask you to do that God never asked you to do? Do you know what religious customs are really good at? They're really good at distracting you from the thing that God wants you to be doing.

[16:50] Religious customs are excellent, excellent tools to get you not doing what God said to do and doing everything but that. That's what was happening here.

[17:03] So they said, Jesus, why does this happen? Do you understand that old religion has expectations? Old religion has expectations.

[17:15] Remember, we've learned this in recent weeks and some of you already knew it before. But every passage of the Bible, every group block of verses that you pick up and read, it has an interpretation that is correct.

[17:27] This is what it's saying. And then it has all kinds of extra applications that you can take and apply to your life. Because this was written a long time ago. So there's different ways to apply it back then.

[17:39] And there's different ways to apply it now. So how can we apply it now in 2025 in Henrietta, Texas? Old religion has expectations. They were sincere, but they were misguided.

[17:53] They've been trained to expect a certain religious rhythm. Fasting as a sign of being pious, being religious, being holy.

[18:04] Grief, sadness, longing for God's deliverance. Their assumption was that the form they assumed that this form of religion had to be preserved at all costs.

[18:18] That's where the Pharisees come in. At all costs. Man, they just about had the Roman army on their side. Almost as their arm of enforcing at times.

[18:29] They're going to preserve their religious customs at all costs. Even if the function no longer fits the moment. Even if the function started in sincerity, started for a good purpose, but it's no longer relevant.

[18:48] It's no longer applicable to the moment. What they didn't understand is it was no longer relevant or applicable to the moment. Why? Because Jesus was there.

[19:02] Jesus was there. And we're going to get there in just a minute, okay? But stick with me. First, Acts chapter 15 makes this incredibly valuable point that they didn't get.

[19:12] And this was the early church. Peter was talking to the early church because they were starting to do the same thing that those disciples did of John when they came to Jesus, the Son of God, the one we pray to, the one we sing to, he's out there walking around with him.

[19:27] And the disciples of John go to him and say, what about our religious traditions? You and your crowd ain't keeping them. What's up with that? Fast forward.

[19:40] Jesus has died on the cross. He's risen from the dead. Spoiler alert if you didn't know. Jesus rose from the dead. He's alive. He hears the songs. He hears the prayers. He's here with us today through his spirit.

[19:52] But listen, his church started. They took off. They started spreading everywhere. It wasn't just his disciples. It wasn't just the disciples of John. Now there's Jesus followers all over the world. It's spreading like wildfire.

[20:04] And somebody says, hold on, hold on, hold on. We're letting this get away from us. Too many people getting baptized around here. Too much momentum from God around here.

[20:16] Too much fruit from the Holy Spirit around here. It's starting to spiral out of control. And our religious traditions are not being kept. And so Peter gets up and says, folks, we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

[20:33] He said, we are making it difficult. By all these people who are catching a glimpse of Jesus and they're responding to Jesus.

[20:46] They're not responding to our Jewish religious customs that we grew up with. They're responding to Jesus. Fast forward to 2025 in Clay County. Folks, people are not responding to your religious customs or traditions.

[21:00] But they will respond to Jesus. Look, I love the church building. I love the choir. I love the pews. I'm throwing things. I love a lot. I love to throw things.

[21:13] I love a lot of the stuff we do around here. But that's not what draws people to Jesus. He is. He is what draws them. So if the custom fits the moment, then we do it.

[21:27] If it doesn't, then we hold it loosely and we say, God, what would you have us do now? What will now help us reach people for you, not for our traditions?

[21:39] We don't want to make it hard on anybody. Turning from sin and turning to the Savior, that's hard enough. Turning from darkness to light, humbling yourself before God and saying, I can't save myself.

[21:56] I need you to save me. That's hard enough. We don't need to add anything to it. We don't need to make it hard for the Gentiles. Say, look, God loves you and we do too as long as you fit our mold.

[22:13] As long as you fit in. As long as you do this Jesus life how we do it, then we love you and we want you to walk with us. That's the danger of old religion.

[22:27] It has expectations. Jesus didn't come to bring old religion. Then or now. Jesus' way is always the new way.

[22:41] It's always the radical way. It's always the way that flies in the face of your tradition. I promise you. So, why do we fast and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don't fast?

[23:00] Because Jesus came to abolish those traditions. Now, let me jump in here with this. Too often, you and I operate just like the disciples of John.

[23:18] We say, why aren't things like they used to be? Why don't things look like I'm used to them looking? Why don't they sound like I'm used to them sounding?

[23:29] Jesus isn't interested in maintaining appearances. He's inaugurating something completely new. He's kicking off something completely new.

[23:41] Listen, He's always doing it. He's taking the old time religion and He's turning it on its head. You know the one thing that never changes?

[23:56] The color of the carpet. Nope. You know the one thing that never changes? Who the pastor is. Nope.

[24:06] Who's sitting in the pews? Nope. How the lights look. I thought building the grounds was going to do something about the lights, so that's why I use that as an illustration.

[24:18] Don't start that way. What's going on with the lights? The one thing that never changes is the message of Jesus. That was the same message that John preached.

[24:30] That was the same message that Jesus preached. God willing, it will be the same message that gets preached from this pulpit forever until Jesus comes back.

[24:41] That's the message that doesn't change. Everything else, we hold loosely. It's subject to change. You ever seen the disclaimer at the bottom, terms and conditions subject to change?

[24:55] Well, listen. Conditions will change. The terms of salvation will never change. But the terms of how we live in this world as followers of Jesus, how we communicate the gospel to the lost, the kind of music we use, unfortunately, there's no Ten Commandments regarding church music.

[25:17] So we've got to work it out through the guidance of the Holy Spirit what best suits our day, our moment, so we don't make it hard for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

[25:28] Not saying, well, this is how we did it 20 years ago, so why are you not wanting to do it this way now? Because God came to bring something new.

[25:43] His gospel is new. The vehicle that carries his gospel is the church. And the church must continually refresh itself so we are not a stale vehicle for the always new, always alive gospel of Jesus.

[26:04] The story that never changes, and yet it's always fresh. It's always new. Isn't that amazing? There's nothing like it on this earth. So what is God doing now and how must we respond?

[26:17] That is the attitude. Okay? You want to know what kind of attitude should you have toward God and church and his work? What is God doing now and how should I respond to it?

[26:28] Not how should I react? Not how should I get bent out of shape? Not how should my expectations not be met? Nope, that's the old religion talking. Old religion has expectations.

[26:38] Jesus brought something new. How do we respond to it? So religious routines, even well-meaning ones, can become barriers to recognizing Jesus when he shows up.

[26:53] And he's showing up, by the way. We've had 30 people baptized in the last two years. I'm excited about that. We've had 30 people baptized in the last two years.

[27:05] Glory to God. Yeah. Glory to God. I'm excited about that. Verse 15. Let's go to verse 15. We'll be done in just a couple of minutes.

[27:19] Y'all stick with me, so that's not a lie, okay? Verse 15. Here we go. Jesus said to them, can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them and then they will fast.

[27:34] What's he talking about? Does anybody get that off just face value? Aubrey, don't raise your hand. I'll have you explain it. And you have your newfound voice again. So, look.

[27:45] Back then, weddings were different, okay? You know how weddings work today? Back then, it was different. The groom would go to the bride-to-be's house and he would carry with him a payment, a dowry.

[28:02] Dowry for the bride. He had to pay off the dad to give his bride away, to give his daughter away. It was, I'm not gonna say it's weird because that's their culture, but different for us, right? I'm like, good night, man.

[28:15] I bought her a ring. What do you want? But look, it was different. He would go to the bride's house. He would pay the price for the bride and then he would take her and he would bring her to his house and there would be a big feast set up and all the friends and family would be there and they would celebrate and it was great and they wouldn't leave and go off to a honeymoon then.

[28:35] It would last for a week. So they're celebrating this wedding for a week. It's the reception, the rehearsal, the ceremony, and the honeymoon all rolled into one. Just a big week-long to-do.

[28:48] So that's the culture that Jesus is using this illustration in. So, isn't that interesting? Little side note here. Do you know who the bridegroom is in Scripture?

[28:59] Anybody? Jesus is the bridegroom. Do you know who the bride is? The church. It's us, right? It's us. And do you know that someday he will come and he will rapture or take his church away and we will celebrate in heaven for seven years?

[29:20] What an exciting thing. All right? Now, we can talk about timelines and get into arguments about Revelation and how that all plays out. But look, you know that Jesus is coming to get us and we're so thankful for that.

[29:32] And it's a reference to this. But why would they be talking about fasting here? Why is he using this as an illustration of fasting?

[29:43] Because nobody would eat until the groom got there. The party didn't start until the groom walked in. Listen.

[29:53] Jesus is saying your fasting has been because you're waiting for the groom to come. In the Old Testament, Jehovah God referred to himself as the bridegroom.

[30:06] Now, Jesus is referring to himself in front of these disciples of John as the bridegroom. He's saying, that's me. I'm the one you've been waiting for. I'm the groom.

[30:17] He's saying, there's no reason to be sad. There's no reason for Monday, Thursday, sad days anymore. There's no reason to fast anymore. I am here.

[30:30] It's time to celebrate. It's time for joy. It's time for rejoicing. In the presence of God, there is great joy.

[30:50] There is joy in God's presence. And he was present with them. Boy, they had endured a long period of darkness. They had endured a long night.

[31:02] But what does Lamentations teach us? Weeping may endure for the night, but what comes in the morning? Joy. And the morning was there. It was present with them.

[31:13] Some of y'all have forgotten that joy is here. We're living in the morning. Jesus came. He's here with us. So we can put a smile on that grouchy face.

[31:26] We can lighten up a little bit. Because Jesus is here. And I got a question. If there's no joy, is it because you don't have God's presence?

[31:41] Why do y'all think I keep giving an invitation every Sunday morning? saying some of you probably need to turn to Jesus for the first time. Because I suspect you don't have God's presence because you don't exhibit his joy.

[31:54] And in the presence of God, there's joy. Oh, there's sorrows. There's weeping. It'll endure for the night, but the morning always comes.

[32:06] Jesus is always there. He never abandons us. He's still there and the joy has to be the overriding attribute of your personality.

[32:18] It's not that you all got to be type A people persons and I love to talk and I'm going to be the life of the party. That's not it. But there's a joy that can't be extinguished. No matter how hard the rains fall, you're built on the rock.

[32:36] So, the groom's here. There's no reason to fast anymore. There's joy. There's no reason to mourn. There's no reason to be sorrowful. The groom is here with the bride.

[32:48] It's time to celebrate now. We're going to pivot to the last two verses and we'll be done. It's 1157. We're going to try to knock this thing out in eight minutes.

[33:00] 12.05? Can I get 12.05? Okay. I'm going to shoot for it. Here we go. Ready? Verse 16. No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth.

[33:14] No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth. Why? Because an old garment with unshrunk cloth, the patch will pull away from the garment and make the tear worse.

[33:25] Wow, I totally skipped that. All right, we're just going to move ahead, y'all. We're going to move ahead. Here we go. All right, we need new clothes. The ladies are like, yes and amen.

[33:36] We need new clothes. Let's go shopping. Everybody will meet at TJ Maxx or whatever. All right. No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse.

[33:53] Stop there. We're going to get to 17 in just a second. We've already lost a minute. Here we go. We need new clothes. What do we mean by this? Jesus is deepening his warning.

[34:05] He used the whole wedding thing and he made the first point there, but now he's bringing his new reality of his kingdom, the kingdom of God that he's talking about, this whole thing.

[34:15] All these are stories about his kingdom. He's having to teach everybody because, by the way, the kingdom of God is very different than the kingdom of this world. Completely night and day. You and I are taught and brainwashed in the kingdom of this world from the time we are born.

[34:33] If we're blessed by God to grow up in a home that worships Jesus and tries to follow him, then we also hear about the kingdom of God. But it's always competing with all these other voices that are training us in the kingdom of this world.

[34:49] So Jesus is coming into this and he's saying, my kingdom's different. And he's using this illustration. Clothes back then, they're made of wool. So, you put a new patch on this old garment and it's not pre-shrunk.

[35:08] Anybody, ladies, know what we're talking about? Like pre-shrunk? Men too. I'm not trying to be. Anyway. You gotta pre-shrink things, right? What happens if you don't pre-shrink it before you patch it onto an old garment that's already shrunk?

[35:26] Shrinks. There you go. It's not gonna work. The patch isn't gonna work. And you're gonna end up ruining both garments. So he's saying the old fabric is illustrating this old way, these old customs, these old traditions, these rigid systems that the Pharisees had come up with.

[35:51] By the way, we're not that different from the Pharisees. We come up with our own rigid systems and structures. Why do we do it this way? Well, because it's how it's always been done.

[36:02] I've heard this illustration from two different people. We've talked about it in staff meeting. I've heard it from people in this church. Somebody said, who was it? Somebody can raise their hand. Somebody said they would get a roast and they would cut the end off of the roast before they put it in the oven.

[36:18] Anybody know what I'm talking about? Yeah, there you go. I've heard this from a couple different people here. And, you know, the daughter, whoever it was, says, why do you do that? Why do you cut the end off the roast? I mean, that's valuable meat, right?

[36:29] She says, well, that's how my mom always did it. Well, it turned out it was because her mom had a small oven and the roast wouldn't fit without trimming off part of it. But she never understood that, so it's just like, that's what you do.

[36:42] You cut the end off the roast. What are things that we're cutting the end off the roast and it doesn't even apply anymore? Right? Doesn't even apply anymore, but we hold on to things because that's how we know it.

[36:55] We were trained in that. We grew up in that. That's what we know. That's what we relate to. That's what makes sense to us. That's what we're comfortable with. What's going to happen if I put the whole roast in the oven, man?

[37:08] It's going to like blow up or something. It's too much. Too much roast. What's going to happen if we have too many new people coming to the church? It's too many.

[37:19] Too many new people. They might start populating our committees. They might start populating our teams. They might start getting involved in the service. Things might start changing.

[37:31] I'm not comfortable with that. And maybe something worked for a moment in time, but God wants to change it because it's a new moment and His gospel is never outdated.

[37:51] It's fresh and alive and applicable for every single moment, but we're trying to put holy patches on our old garments. We're trying to take what God's doing and somehow make it work with what we know and are used to.

[38:08] And I promise you, it doesn't work. It didn't work back then. It will never work. What happens is you ruin both. You make the gospel more ineffective.

[38:21] You make it not as loving, not as gracious, not as compassionate as it should be, and you ruin what you had. It never works. So, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, instead of trying to put a holy patch on your old garment, Jesus wants to give you a new garment.

[38:43] It's what He did when you got saved. Maybe you're not saved. We talked about that a moment ago, right? Maybe you haven't experienced God's presence yet. In reality, you've had this form of religion, but you don't have a relationship with the Savior.

[39:00] When you get one, it's just like that wedding garment. Was that two Sundays ago? You've got to have the right wedding garment on, right?

[39:11] Jesus' righteousness. He clothes you in Jesus' righteousness. Just like that, God wants to give you a new garment, continually clothing you in Him, continually clothing you in Jesus' righteousness.

[39:24] And that's not going to work with the clothes you have on. I'm not talking about the clothes you're wearing right now. I'm talking about what you clothe yourself in every day. our selfishness, our pride, our ego, our traditions.

[39:41] It's what we wrap ourselves in, like an armor that protects us from all the horrible people that want to change things. Instead, God wants to make you a new creation.

[39:56] The old will continue to pass away because the new is here. The new has come. That's what Jesus is teaching.

[40:08] These themes are consistent. You find them in the Old Testament. We'll get there in a minute. You find them in Jesus' teaching and you find them in Paul's letters to the churches. It's the same principle.

[40:20] We've got to let go of the old garment entirely if we want to wear the righteousness of Christ. Now, last verse. It's 12.05.

[40:33] Y'all, we've got to do it. We've got to do this last one. Last one and we're done, okay? I promise you I'll try to wrap it up as soon as I can. But please don't miss this. It's what ties the whole thing together.

[40:44] Verse 17. Jesus says to the disciples of John, no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Let me throw a disclaimer about there.

[40:55] I'm not advocating drinking alcohol, okay? You make your best decision based on you and God. The Bible gives absolute warnings about drunkenness, about addictions, about how dangerous alcohol can be.

[41:11] I'm not advocating for anything like this. Wine was a common drink of the day. It's not like the Chardonnay that you go get in a bottle, okay? Very different. Lower alcohol content, more fruit.

[41:21] It was fermented beverage. Very different from what we're talking about today. So just work with me on that. Don't get hung up on the wine part. No one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst.

[41:34] The wine spills out and the skins are ruined. No. They put new wine into fresh wineskins and both are preserved. Do you know what the number one problem facing most churches in America today, especially in small rural areas?

[41:48] We're trying to put new wine into old wineskins. Work with me on that. Just follow me there. Hold that. Set it to the side. I'll explain what I'm talking about. This is the heart of Jesus' message.

[42:01] The new wine. The life that the Holy Spirit brings to us. The movement of God's kingdom. The power of His gospel. His message. This is the new wine.

[42:11] And do you know what it will do? It will burst anything rigid, anything that can't move and form with it, anything that it can't mold and shape, it will burst it.

[42:26] The Bible uses another illustration that if you keep hammering on a hard heart with the gospel of Jesus, it will break. It likens it to a sword that is so sharp it can pierce anything.

[42:43] Jesus' way is revolutionary. But that doesn't necessarily describe His followers. So what happened?

[42:55] Where did we lose the power? It's our wine skin. It's what we're trying to put the wine in. It doesn't work.

[43:07] It just ruins both. The skin bursts and the wine spills out. So, the problem is never the beverage.

[43:21] It's always the vessel. The problem is not the wine. It's the wine skin. This is where we have to look inside.

[43:33] Have we become old wine skins? Has our church become an old wine skin? Have we built a culture in our church polity, our governance, our structure, our relationships, our presence in the community, our reputation that's unable to bend, unable to break, unable to be filled even by God's Spirit, unable to be moved even by God's Spirit.

[44:03] Galatians chapter 5 and verse 25. Wow, that was good. I want to show you this.

[44:15] There we go. God wants to replace, not repair. Okay, turn to Galatians if you would. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 25. While you're turning, I'm going back. Sometimes I forget to advance these slides, but I don't want you to miss this point.

[44:27] Back on the patches and the garments, God wants to replace, not repair. That's an interesting point that he's making here. Don't patch an old garment with a new patch.

[44:39] He's saying he wants to give you a whole new garment, right? So replace, not repair. Now we're up in Galatians 5. Galatians 5, talking about new wineskins. Ooh. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

[44:56] Did you hear that? If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. How many of y'all went to Texas A&M? Slip your hand up loud and proud. There you go.

[45:07] There you go. I expected a little more pride, but that's all right. What is this? What is that, y'all? Aggie man. There you go.

[45:18] Look, if you know me at all, you know that I'm a Longhorn fan. Hook them. There you go. Tyler, Bruce, Harlan, Matt, wherever y'all are. Billy, we got some Longhorn fans in here.

[45:31] I will admit the Aggies have a good band. All right? We also have a good band in Texas. It's great, but the Aggies have a good band. One thing they know how to do really well is march.

[45:45] They march in step. Right? Now listen. As much as I hate to look at that picture, it's really good formation. That's a strength of theirs, all right?

[46:02] If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Do you know how you keep in step? My dad went to San Marcos Baptist Military Academy, San Jacinto.

[46:18] He did drill team. He knows how to be in step. So I'm walking, and then I get out of step, and then I got to do a little change step. Right?

[46:29] Then I'm back in step. Everybody know the whole change step deal? Yeah. It's just kind of a little hitch, and then you're back in step with the people next to you. I never did drill team, but my dad taught me that from an early age, and I have fun with it.

[46:44] And my wife and I go walking around the neighborhood, usually with the dog, and sometimes I'll get out of step with her, and who cares, as long as we're not really out of step, right? But it's just a thing with me.

[46:54] I've got to get back in step. So I'll do a little change step, and then I'll make sure that our legs are, and my legs are longer than her, so we get out of step a lot. But anyway, what does it mean to be in step with the Spirit?

[47:09] Keep in step with the Spirit. Y'all, please don't miss this. I know we've got lunch around the corner. I know there are cookies being sold.

[47:21] It's going to be awesome. But please don't miss this. New wine in old wineskins doesn't work.

[47:32] You can't keep in step with the Spirit and also keep in step with yourself and what you want. It does not work.

[47:46] Many of you will keep trying to make it work, but I pray by God's Spirit, He will use His words to show you and enlighten you to change your step.

[48:02] Do a change step and get back in step with the Spirit. Because if someone is out of step, it ruins our whole formation.

[48:20] I didn't plan that, but wow. Again, I hope it's nothing serious. Nobody's in danger there, but man. Look. It is serious.

[48:33] It is a crisis, okay? It is an emergency. Listen, folks. We've seen it in our church. We've seen people get out of step. We've seen it in our community.

[48:44] We've seen people get out of step. If you refuse to stay in step with what God is doing, it ruins the whole formation. It ruins what we're trying to accomplish.

[48:58] Keep in step with the Spirit. Not your spirit. Not your spirit of a judgmental attitude. Not your spirit of prioritizing what you want over everybody else.

[49:09] Not your spirit of, I'm right and I deserve to get my say. Not your spirit of what you show on social media. Not your spirit, which is actually the devil's spirit.

[49:26] It's the spirit of darkness. darkness. And it's incompatible with the spirit of light. Y'all, I promise you, this is what it's about.

[49:39] I adjust myself to what God is doing. I don't ask God to adjust to me. I don't ask His church to adjust to me. I don't ask His people to adjust to me.

[49:52] I adjust myself to what God is doing. Here's our takeaway. I'm not going to have you turn there.

[50:05] I'm just going to read it for you. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven because I will declare to them, I never knew you. Do you realize that the sobering truth is many people are out of step with the Spirit because they're not saved.

[50:23] Many people who come to this church go to other churches in town, other churches across this country, and sit there Sunday after Sunday, and they hear the Word of God preached, but they've never submitted themselves to God.

[50:36] And they're going to get to heaven, well, they're going to get to the judgment someday, not heaven. They're going to get to the judgment someday, and they're going to say, Lord, what in the world? I called myself a Christian all my life.

[50:50] I did all kinds of things in your name. I told God, I said, God bless you to people more times than you can count. And he's going to say, I never knew you. I never knew you.

[51:01] Matthew chapter 7. So, I told you the Old Testament talks about this stuff. The former things don't dwell on the past.

[51:12] Forget them. See, I'm doing a new thing. Y'all, we got our 150th anniversary coming up next year. How many of y'all knew that? This church's been around almost 150 years. Isn't that incredible?

[51:23] Thank God for it. Thank God for what he's done in the past. But then move on. Because he's not doing what he did in the past again.

[51:38] Ever again. He's going to do a new thing. I don't need him to make me the next Ted Traylor. I don't need him to make me the next Ron Gunner or name your favorite pastor of this church.

[51:52] I need him to make me what he wants Sam Bunnell to be. Deacons, you don't need to be those deacons who came before you. You need to be the deacon that God wants you to be now.

[52:04] Trustees, same for you. Sunday school teachers, same for you. Committee chairman and members, same for you. You are going to do a new thing through God's power because he's going to do it.

[52:15] It springs up and it's already springing up. Haven't you seen it? Haven't you seen it happen? Haven't you seen the new faces, people you don't know? Haven't you seen what God's doing? I've been counting up. We're almost up to 20 new individual family units who have come over the last two years and kept coming.

[52:31] And I thank God for them. He's doing a new thing. We should have 20 more. We should have 30 more. God's going to do it.

[52:42] Are we going to be here for it or are we going to be fighting back against it? Are we going to be softening or are we going to be stiffening up? Hold on a minute. This doesn't look like what I'm used to.

[52:53] This doesn't look like what I recognize. So that's our takeaway this morning. Are you going to soften you, yourself, so God can fill you? Or are you going to be the hard, brittle, wine skin?

[53:10] You know what's going to happen to you? The new wine's going to burst you. It's going to burst you. It's already happened. And it's going to keep happening. God will not be denied.

[53:23] God will win the day. I want to be on the winning side. Let's pray together. God, please soften our hearts. Start with me. Start with my family. Go to our leadership.

[53:35] Go to our staff. Go to our deacons, our committee leaders, our teachers, our d-group leaders, our Sunday school teachers. Go to everybody in this church, God.

[53:48] Soften us so we are ready for your new wine. I want to taste it. I want to see how good it is. And we don't get any credit for it, God.

[54:00] You did it. It was your wine that made it look so good and so new. But Jesus, let us not resist it.

[54:11] Let us be suitable to receive your new wine, God. Tradition, expectation, religious structure.

[54:26] It's got to change. It's got to be compatible for the new thing you're going to do. Are we going to be ready? Are we going to let you make us new? Remake us?

[54:37] Give us a whole new garment? That's what I pray for right now, God. Stretch us, soften us, yield us to your spirit.

[54:48]  What you want to do in this church, God, it's not ours, it's yours. We ask it in Jesus' name. Church, would you stand...