You are invited to stop drifting between churches and root yourself in a community where the Holy Spirit can work through relationships. Embrace obedience as the pathway to receiving the power needed to share your personal testimony with boldness. Today, ask the Lord to fill you with His new wine so you can walk out your calling with clarity and impact.
It's a good day because God is good, and He's with us, and He's enough. Amen? Amen. No matter what you're going through, no matter what's going on, God is good, and He loves you. And if you "lean into Him", you confront whatever's happening with Him, He's enough.
Amen? Amen. It's good. I I do wanna say, you know you know why we sing happy birthday to Pam? Because that's what we do.
Because we're family. Family sings happy birthday. Amen? Amen. I I would encourage you what Mariah was saying.
If you're in between churches and just hopping from place to place to place, I can guarantee that you're not bearing fruit in your life like God wants you to. Because those that root bear fruit. Those that root and and so I'm not trying to control you to say, hey. You have to come here every Sunday. This you know, go where God calls you.
But where He calls you, say, yes, Lord. And then anchor there and root there so that you can bear fruit because there's so much in you that that place and, man, of course, I think it's real church, but not my will be done, but the Lord's be done in your life. Amen? But there's so much in you that that church needs in order to be all that God's called it to be. And without you rooting and anchoring there and saying, Yes, Lord, what's in you will never impact the church like it's supposed to.
But then also, there's relationships and people in the church that you are designed to meet. Relationships are the **currency of the kingdom**. God wants to get something done. It's gonna happen through the context of relationships. You're not an island unto yourself.
Stop living and being trying to be a Christian by yourself alone. It's just not godly, and it's not biblical. Actually, in *1 John-1*, it says, when you walk in the light as He is in the light, you will have fellowship 1 with another. Which means if you're not in deep fellowship 1 with another, you're probably not walking in the light. Amen.
I saw something. You know, I tell that to people on the street all the time. I'll share the gospel and say, I'm a believer. I'll say, Are you in a healthy church? And they'll say, no.
I I just don't do that church thing. I say, well, You you believe in Jesus, and he's the Lord of your life? Yeah? How can you not be connected to his bride? How can you not be connect?
If if you're connected to the head, you have to be healthily connected to the body. And if you're not, then maybe you're not as connected to the head as you think you are. You know? And I know that's tough, but I'm telling you this because I love you enough to tell you the truth. Get healthily connected to a body.
You're invited and welcome here. And, man, if you come and you anchor here, you get established, I promise, your life's gonna bear a lot of fruit. And if it's not here, go where God is calling you to get established. Establish there, root deep, and your life will bear fruit. Amen?
Amen. You guys okay? That was unplanned. Thank you, Mariah, for for pulling that out of me. I will say this as well.
My my wife sends you guys greetings. She misses her church family. She is in Fort Worth with Jerry and Heidi and Daniel Achular and the Jesus Year people for 4 days. So it's me and the 4 kids at the house. And *God* has given me the grace, plus they're amazing.
They're good kids. Ain't that right, Tripp? Yeah. They're good kids. So y'all pray for daddy.
My wife has taken good care of me. She bought lots of easy to make food and sandwiches and, you know, right Raymond noodles or ramen noodles. So we're having a good old time. If this is your first time, we pray that you encounter the love of Jesus in a very real way. You are welcome here.
We're glad that you're here, and we're we will unapologetically share Jesus to you because that's the most loving thing we can do. We're gonna share the truth in love and in grace. And, man, sometimes that truth is going to cut. When it cuts, it's the best thing because maybe you needed surgery. But it's going to cut away the junk so that if you receive Him and you say and you turn to Him, you're going to experience His life in such a real way, in every aspect of who He is as He's drawing and leading you toward the calling that He has for you.
Amen? Amen. So thank you for coming. The message today actually came out of our leaders meeting this past Sunday night. We had a leaders meeting where we had our elders and deacons and all of our staff get together, and, we do some type of meeting like that every month.
And we were just praying and worshiping. And 1 of 1 of the staff, as they were praying over the church, began to just speak out. I sensed new wine and new wineskins and just began to pray over the body, new wine and new wineskins, not knowing that I had a message that I've preached multiple times called New Wine. I just hadn't preached it here in about 4 years. So I got a message today.
It's crafted for you. I believe the Lord has a word for you, and the title of it is **new wine**. And I want to preface it by this, making sure we're all on the same page when it comes to faith. If you've been coming here for a while, you know this. If not, this will may be new for you or just a refresher, an understanding of of of faith.
*Faith* comes by hearing. So in order to have walk in faith. Right? You consistently, to be faithful in the different areas of your life, you need to have a relationship where you can know the Father's voice. Jesus said, my sheep know my voice.
**faith comes by hearing**, but that's not complete faith. Faith requires believing what you heard so much that you obey it, and you put it into practice. Faith is completed by obedience. Amen? Amen.
*Faith comes by hearing, requires believing what you heard, and is completed by obedience*. Now the word also says we live by faith and not by Amen. We live by faith and not by? Right. Exactly.
So I wanna be so captivated by the word of God that what I see as I'm living is what he says over my circumstances. I want to be so captivated by what Jesus has spoken that it is over and above everything else I see in this life. It takes putting on some different goggles, if you will, having a new perspective, a perspective through the Holy Spirit. *Ephesians-5:18* says this. It says, don't be **"drunk on wine"**, which leads to debauchery, but instead be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Isn't it very interesting that *God* connected being drunk on wine and being filled with the Holy Spirit. He contrasted them, but he connected them in Scripture because there's similarities. Now I picked up my kids on Thursday after having dropped off my wife at the airport later in the day, went and picked up my kids from Skycrest. We were pulling out, and there was a lot of traffic. And so we were kind of stuck in traffic a little bit, and this guy caught the corner of my eye because he fell down on the sidewalk.
And so I look, and he gets back up. And as I'm watching him from a distance, I'm noticing him. And I'm like, oh, no. And he almost falls again. He steadies himself, and he keeps walking down the sidewalk really intentionally because he was Drunk.
He was drunk. Exactly. You ever been drunk before? Know what it's like? I'm not talking about just taking a sip of wine or strong drink, and that's that.
I'm talking about really getting sloshed. If you've been drunk before, you know that it shifts the way it shifts your perspective. It shifts how you see the world. You're a little little different. And it because it changes how you see, it changes also how you walk as well.
Right? And if somebody else sees the way that you're walking, they can notice that you're drunk, they can notice that your perspective is different from what normal people is. That makes sense? You guys follow me here? You can drink so much, an alcoholic who's so used to drink, when you get in their vicinity, the atmosphere shifts because you begin to smell what's coming out of their pores.
You I mean, an alcoholic, they'll try to cover it up. They'll eat a bunch of mints and all kinds of stuff, but you just know, no matter how much they brush their teeth, scope, and put mints in their mouth, that they are an alcoholic because it's oozing out of their pores. You smell it on them. Make sense? Don't be drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.
I don't want to just take a sip. I want to be so filled with the Holy *Spirit* that he changes my perspective. He changes the way that I see the world so much so that it changes the way that I walk. So that when others see the way that I'm living, it looks different than what's normal, and they take notice. When they when they get in the room with me, there's a scent of heaven that causes them to say, what's different about this person?
When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, it causes you to see the world differently. Maybe you have trouble walking by *faith* because you've never really experienced the fullness of the new wine that he wants to pour into you. Because the new wine of the Holy Spirit that is a gift of the new covenant is what helps us to see the world by what he says instead of by our circumstance and the way we've always seen it. Capiche? I love my Jesus.
Man, He's so good. He's my hero. He he came. You know, in John no. No.
Not John. Let's go to in Matthew-3, *Jesus* is is baptized.
And why is he why is
he he's baptized, and he comes up, and the Holy Spirit lights on him as a dove. Why? Because he did everything on earth even though he's fully God. He did it as a man, and then he he chose to. Philippians-2, we see that.
Not counting equality with God something to be grasped, but instead taking on the form of a servant, humbled himself, being obedient to his father unto death. *Jesus* lived life, God in the flesh, limiting himself to living as a man, didn't do any miracles until after the Holy Spirit came on him after baptism. The father said, this is my son whom I love and whom with whom I'm well pleased, and then he led him, the *Holy Spirit* led him into the *wilderness* to be tempted and tested by the devil before he started ministry. A lot of you have been anointed by the Holy Spirit for your calling in whatever area of your life it is, and then the Holy Spirit has led you into the wilderness that's testing to see whether or not you're gonna remain in the calling that God has for you even though you don't see it. Be like Jesus and stand firm regardless because the testing in the wilderness is only a season, and those that really walk by faith and see what he says over their circumstance will stand firm and bear fruit in their life.
But those that aren't full of faith will die in the wilderness. Don't die in the wilderness. Stand firm. I believe you're those that are full of faith. Amen?
Man, my Jesus, my hero. So then after after that, he goes and he calls the fishermen to come and follow him, and and the fishermen come and he he gathers a group of disciples to follow him. And then Jesus does this crazy thing. He goes to a party. My Jesus loved to party.
We see it in John-2. His mom and him were invited to this party in Cana. Jesus and the disciples came from probably Nazareth to Cana. Random information. It was like a 9 or 10 10 mile walk, so it's a day walk.
People came from all around to weddings because they were a huge deal in Jewish society and Jewish culture. So Jesus and his disciples come to meet his mother at this wedding that they were invited to, and we pick up in John-2:1. It says, on the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. See, wasn't lying.
I told you the truth. Verse 3. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. She probably knew that there was something special about him. Don't you think?
I mean, he was implanted into her womb by the Word of God. The Word made flesh. Anyway, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.
Just so you know, Jesus is not being rude there. It might sound like that as we read it in English, but it's the same word that Jesus used when He was on the cross, and He and He said, Woman, this is your son, to John. Okay? So He's not just being like rude, like, Woman, how dare you talk to me like that? Somebody might have thought it.
I don't know. But what's interesting, he says, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. Now, we know that Jesus only said what the Father was saying, and he only did what the Father was doing. So if Jesus said, my hour has not yet come, that means the father was saying that it's not time yet, son.
Isn't that interesting? Now, did Jesus perform the miracle? Yes. Jesus did. Which means Jesus performed the miracle before it was time.
Why? What does mom say? His mother said to the servants, "do whatever he tells you". What is faith? Faith comes by hearing, requires believing what you heard, is completed by *obedience takes surrender*.
Complete and total surrender. This was an act of faith by the mother and by the servants to do whatever Jesus said, and this act of faith caused the time of Jesus to start His miraculous works to move up. Jesus was even surprised by the faith of a centurion later. I wanna have such a faith that I the things that God's planning on doing in my life later, I wanna have such a faith that it causes him to say, you know what? He's ready now.
You know what that takes? Surrender. Yes, Lord. "I'm all in". Everything.
Lord God, I give everything to you. I know what you're planning in the future, Lord God. And if I'm not ready now, so be it. But, Father God, right now, I ask you to do whatever it takes to teach me to say yes, Lord, in everything. And anything in my life that I'm not willing to say yes, Lord to, discipline me that I'll be willing to say, yes, Lord, and walk by the type of faith that you will be pleased with, because I know it's faith that pleases you, Lord.
I know it's faith that caused you to be surprised, Lord. And you asked, will I find faith when I come back to the earth? Let my life be a life that reflects the type of faith you're looking for in every way, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen.
Faith comes by hearing, requires believing what you heard, and is completed by? Obedience. Obedience, it's not complete faith. Amen? Amen.
You guys good? Alright. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Now, what what his mother told the servants to do and what Jesus told the servants to do after that, it wasn't easy. And it didn't just take a little bit.
It took a lot of bit. Now, there were 6 stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. 20 or 30 gallons. So that's anywhere from a 120 to a 180 gallons that they have to fill. Because what did Jesus say?
*Jesus* said to the servants, fill the jars with water. And what did the servants do? They filled them to the brim. Can you think about a 120 to a 180? Let's just say right in the middle.
What is that? A 150. Thank you. A 150 gallons of water that they had to fill these up to the brim. And and Jesus just said, fill it.
They went over and above. Their worship of Jesus, by the way, obedience is an act of worship, was not halfway. Their worship of Jesus was doing everything they could to fulfill everything that their master wanted. Over and above, they filled it to the brim. Now, what did it take for them to take a gallon of water or to get a gallon of water?
They had to walk to the well, which likely wasn't at the home, take a rope, put a bucket down to the bottom of the well, pull the bucket back up, maybe the bucket was a gallon, fill maybe a 5 gallon bucket ish, put it on their head or carry 2 of them back to the wedding. I'm sure after they poured the first 10, 15, 20 gallons, they're like, man, this is going to take a lot. Maybe we could just fill it halfway. Maybe we just do, you know, what I'm comfortable with. Did *Jesus* perform the miracle when they were tired and they had only done it halfway?
No. He did it when the obedience was completed. Amen? When the process was done, not before it was done. Okay.
So for the Jewish rites of purification, just FYI, they used these they would take it in, like, cups and stuff for hand washing, washing the outside before they ate. They would wash themselves after they used the bathroom. In richer areas, they would have these big jars that would they would fully bathe and wash their outer cells maybe after a woman's cycle and different things. Okay? So depending, that's what they would do.
And this was less for sanitary reasons and was more for spiritual cleanliness in their minds. Jewish purification rites. Why? Because the old covenant, the old way of doing things was all about washing the outside, but Jesus had a new way for them that would clean them cleanse them from the inside. Okay.
His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Now, there were 6 stone water jars there for Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. We've been here. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water, and they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.
So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water can you imagine the servants taking this water to the master of the feast? This is the purification. This is not something you drink from. Okay?
And they're taking it, and this is like for them to run out of wine at a wedding was a big deal. Like, there was going to be a lot of shame on the family and the groom who was supposed to prepare for this thing. I mean, it would be humiliating. So for them to obey was risking humiliation. There's a lot of times when God wants to move in your life, and he wants you to experience the supernatural on the other side of obedience, but we're not willing to obey because we're risking humiliation.
But I don't understand how this is gonna work. Well, Bible says, by faith, you understand. Meaning, on the other side of hearing, believing, and obeying comes the understanding of the way of the father. But just because you don't understand doesn't mean it's not what He's saying. Sometimes you gotta do it and risk humiliation, it not making logical sense in order to walk the thing out and trusting the Word of Christ because His Word is enough.
You guys follow me? You you with me here? Okay. So they risked it. They did it anyway.
They obeyed. On the other side of obedience came the supernatural. When the master, verse 9, of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. Why? Because the people are drunk and they don't care what kind of wine it is.
*Jesus* is radical, Jeez. In this kind of situation, he turns the water to wine and not just any kind of wine, the good stuff. But you have kept the good until now. This is the first of the signs Jesus did in Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. By the way, Jesus is not in this scripture condoning drunkenness and saying, hey, it's okay for you to go out and get drunk.
But Jesus turned the water to wine. I ain't gonna get drunk. No. The Bible says do not be a drunk. Do not do things that lead to drunkenness or what whatever it's drunkenness is not okay.
It's a sin. It's excess. This miracle was showing that the old way of doing things, of washing the outside in order to be clean, was not good enough. And Jesus came to establish a new covenant. In that new covenant, there would be new wine that would fill the inside of the temple and then come out and impact everyone.
It's a it's a miracle of transformation. *God* was transferring transforming the water to wine in the same way he transforms us from flesh to life a life by the flesh to a life by the Spirit. A life by trying to be good enough on the outside so others see us and they think good of good enough of us to being born again and born of His Spirit where He transforms us from the inside out. And then He fills us with the new wine of the Spirit so that everything that we do and see is it looks like the kingdom of heaven. You got it?
I still like my Jesus. He's my hero. And he really liked to party. He did. Let's go to Luke-5.
Luke-5. I'm gonna start in verse let's just let's just read verse 37. It says, and no 1 puts new wine into old wineskins. If He does, the new wine will burst and the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.
To really get this, you've to understand the context of what's going on. Jesus is walking around and calling people to be His disciples. Remember, the Jewish fishermen left their inheritance. By leaving their fishing, everything, they're leaving their future in order to follow Jesus because He's worth doing that. They left their livelihoods.
They said, yes, Lord. I'm all in. And then Jesus goes to Levi, which we call Matthew. He was a tax collector. The tax collectors were hated back in the day.
I mean, hated. You know why? Because they were Jews who were sellouts. They worked for the Roman occupation, taxing their fellow Jews and cheating them and skimming money off the top. And the Jews hated the tax collectors, and Jesus called the ones everybody else hated anyway to come follow Him.
And then the other Jews that were following Him had to learn to get along with this guy they used to hate because they were both following Jesus, so now they're family. Amen? Amen. Anyway, so Jesus called this tax collector. And what did Matthew do when he started following Jesus?
He immediately invited all of his old tax collector friends and everybody else to a party and then invited Jesus along. So Jesus comes to show up at this party. Jesus liked to party, but he wasn't going to party in order to do sinful things with the tax collectors. He was going to touch the tax collectors with His glory so they could be transformed. Amen?
And the Pharisees and the scribes didn't like it because they thought He was just hanging out with the tax collectors. And so, man, they they they came at, who is this this sinner that's drunkard and this glutton that's hanging out with the tax collectors? You see, the religious don't like Jesus. So the religious aren't gonna look like you when you're following Jesus because because when you really follow Jesus, it offends the religious. Yeah.
If you're offended, maybe you're a little religious. You need to repent and start following Jesus in purity. Amen? Amen. I didn't say that to be mean.
I just said that to cut a little bit so we can cut that away. We can just walk with Jesus in in totality. Amen? Amen. Okay.
I'm going somewhere with this. So the religious, they question Him. They talk to Him about fasting and stuff. And then verse 33, they said to Him, the disciples of John fast often and often prayer, 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 will be taken away from them. Then they will fast in those days. He also told them a parable. No 1 tears a piece of cloth 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.
Similar principle, not gonna preach on that today. And no 1 puts new wine into old wineskins. So they're questioning him about why he's sitting with sinners, and Jesus responds with, no 1 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 1, after drinking old wine, desires the new, for he says the old is good. By the way, don't get caught in that last sentence there. No 1 after drinking old wine desires the new, for he says the old is good. He's contrasting 2 covenants, the old covenant and the new covenant. But also, there's old ways of doing things, and the Holy Spirit has moved on, still operating in the principles of the holy of of God, still operating in the line with scriptures, but just maybe not in line with your preferences you grew up with.
There's people that get so stuck in their preferences, and they create a wall around it. It's the old wine, and the Holy Spirit's like, hey, I'm doing a new thing. And these people can't move on with the new thing, and so all of their churches die, and they have no life of the Holy Spirit because they're so used to the old wine and not willing to continue to be obedient and be transformed even more into his image and what God's doing new. Does that make sense? Man, I honor the generations past.
I learn from them, and I wanna continue to learn the principles that God has put on them and stand on their shoulders. And, man, God's called us as a new generation to stand on their shoulders and keep going, not just repeating the same old thing over and over. So when I'm when I'm the older generation in 30 years, 40 years at the Lord's Terry's, man, I want to push the newer generations higher and serve them in such a way that they say, I say, you're gonna do the same things I do and even greater, and not hold them back to my way of this kind of song, or this kind of music, or this kind of carpet, or this kind of piano, or this kind of whatever. Man, none of that matters. I just wanna follow the new way of the Holy Spirit, whatever he's doing to reach the culture in a way that's in line with the principles of my king.
As a side note, you guys okay? I'm sorry. I've just been in a lot of churches and seen a lot of dying churches because they're so stuck on their preferences, they're not willing to follow the will of God. I I never wanna be so stuck on my preferences. We only have to do it my way when God's saying, no.
I wanna do it this way. Are you okay with following me instead of what you want? Amen? Amen. You guys alright?
Yeah. Alright. Sorry for the side note. Back to the new wine and the new wineskin. *Jesus* is not like trying to teach them how to make wine here.
*Jesus* is using something that they clearly understood that was normal in their culture in order to to bring across a kingdom principle. And what is it? Well, first, you need to know how they made wine. So they would take the the wineskin, they would take like a a leather from a skin from a goat or a sheep, and they would tan it and make it into a bag and they would pour the grape juice in in order to ferment. As it's fermenting, it's creating carbon dioxide which is causing gas bubbles to expand the bag.
So the wine skin now is expanding and then they let it sit. Of course you know we say the longer it sits the better it gets. Right? So they let it sit for a while and when it's time to drink it they drink the wine. Now if they put new wine into an old wineskin, the new carbon dioxide gas would expand and bust the wineskin so it would not be usable, and you'd lose the new wine and the wineskin.
Does that make sense? Okay. The Pharisees and the scribes, a lot of them didn't quite understand. *Jesus* went on to explain the principles of the new of the kingdom. He went into later, he went into the Sermon on the Mount where he's talking about what it looks like to live out the principles of the kingdom as empowered by the Holy Spirit, the wine of the new covenant.
And Nicodemus comes to him at night and says, hey, teacher, we we know you're from God. We see the miracles, but and Jesus interrupts him and says, no 1 can see the kingdom of heaven unless they've been born again. What do you mean, teacher? Born again. He says, you must be born of water and of spirit.
You guys have heard this over and over. You and I were both born of water. Your mama's water broke. My mama's water broke. But what does it mean to be born of spirit?
That's the question. When you believe Jesus died on a cross and rose again, and you say, I'm going to live for you instead of myself, that's confessing him as Lord. In that moment, he makes you into a new wineskin. He makes you into a new creation by his *spirit* where we can say, you're my father. I trust you.
And now, as a new wineskin, you can hold the "new wine of the new covenant", which is the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in every aspect of your life. So now, you can be so full of the Holy Spirit that when you walk in the room, others sense the "fragrance of heaven" because you're filled with the new wine. You follow me? I was also talking about the old covenant. The old wineskin was the old covenant, the way of of following this list of rules and laws that was never supposed to make you righteous.
It was only showing that you were a sinner in need of a Savior. But Jesus came and fulfilled all of the laws and all of the stuff in and of Himself. And then not only did He fulfill Him, He died on a cross and rose again. *Ephesians-2:15* says, abolishing the old *covenant* in his flesh for those who are in Christ. So us in new in Christ are in the new covenant and then making a way for us to be filled with His Spirit.
You guys follow me? You guys okay? I know it's a lot. Weddings were important. Kind of a big deal.
And when we when we when we talk about communion, there's an aspect of this that has to do with a wedding that I wanna teach you. *Matthew-26:26*. It says, now as they were eating, Jesus took bread. And after, He blessed it and broke it and gave it to the disciples. He said, take, eat.
This is my body. And He took the cup. And when He had given thanks, He gave it to them saying, drink it. Drink of it all of you for this is my "blood of the covenant" or of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, will not drink of this fruit again in the vine until that day when I drink it with new with you in my father's kingdom.
I'm gonna tell you about a Jewish custom when it comes to wedding that has to do with communion. And then we're gonna take communion together. In the Jewish society back in the day, when a young man wanted to marry a young woman, him and his father would travel to the young woman in her father's house. And then the father and the son would negotiate a price for the bride. After the price was negotiated and set upon, the father would take a cup, the father of the son would take a cup and pour wine in it and hand it to his son.
The son would take the cup, representing he was willing to pay the price. And then the son would offer the cup to his future bride. And offering the cup to his future bride, he was saying, I'm giving my life for you. The bride did not was not obligated to receive the cup. The bride, if she received the cup, she was consenting.
If she rejected the cup, she was saying, no, I don't want to marry you. When the bride received the cup, she was saying, I receive your life and I give you my life as well. And then she drank of the cup. When we're taking communion, *Jesus*, the price for his bride was his body, his life, all of it, and His blood. He was saying and is saying when we take communion and we're being reminded of this, I give all of my life for you.
When we take communion we're saying I receive your life and I give my life for you as well. We're confessing Him as Lord. Now, does the bread, as we take this, remember, yes, His body was broken for our wholeness so we could be whole in Him. Yes, His blood was shed so we could be completely forgiven and receive His life. Absolutely.
This is just another aspect of communion and understanding of who Christ is. You understand? So I want to give She she told you all to get the the cup and the bread. Now you don't all have to take it. But this is an invitation to salvation.
The Bible says when you believe Jesus died and rose again, and you confess Him as Lord, you say, I'm gonna follow you instead of myself. What you're saying is, I give you my life. That's what this is saying. In that moment, you're born again. He forgives you of all of his sin by the blood that he shed.
You have access to fullness in your life by the body that was broken. And then He also puts the new wine of the new covenant. Right? He makes you new, makes you into a new wine skin, able to experience the fullness of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, we gave this to everybody knowing that everybody in here is not a born again believer.
Maybe some in here have only played church or went to church a couple times or maybe you're just figuring out this Jesus thing, kicking the tires. Okay. But my invitation to you is take this with a declaration in your heart. I understand what it means. Not right now.
I understand what it means. And I'm receiving your life, Jesus, and I'm giving you mine as well. I'm gonna follow you instead of myself. So communion for some of you today will be an act of confessing him as Lord. For others, will be a reminder that you're his bride, the bride of Christ.
If you want to take communion with your whole heart today, I want you to stand up. Anybody who wants to take communion. If you are not confessing Him as Lord or remembering that He is your Lord, don't stand. Lord, we thank you that your body was broken for us so that we could be whole, body, *spirit*, and soul in you. Lord, not only we claim healing and we receive your life that you gave, but we take this bread as a declaration, an act of worship that we're presenting our bodies back to you, our lives back to you as a "living sacrifice".
We take this with full knowledge, *Lord God*, as an act of declaring our lives are given to you as an act of worship. Thank you, Jesus, for what you did. Let's take the bread together. Lord, Jesus, we thank you that your blood was shed so that we could be forgiven of all of our sin, past, present, and future. Your blood was good enough So we could come into the presence of God knowing that He's our *Father* with confidence as a son or as a daughter.
So we don't take this cup lightly, but we take it knowing that You willingly took the cup from the Father, offering Your life for us. And we willingly take this cup from Your hand, giving receiving your life and giving you ours back. Thank you, Jesus, that because of that, we're forgiven. And, Lord, we confess you as the Lord of our life. We'll follow you.
Whatever you say, we'll say. Whatever you do, we'll do. We trust you, Lord. Let's take the cup. Lord, I pray for everybody in here that they experience a deeper level of understanding of who you are as Lord.
*Lord*, for some in here that were made that were just born again. Lord God, I pray that they experience your peace right now in this moment. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. You may be seated.
I'm gonna tell you this, and I will not be offended. I promise. I'm about to teach on the Holy Spirit for 10 minutes, and then we're gonna dismiss. If you need to leave, it's 11:30. Go ahead.
I will not be offended. However, *God* has some stuff for you for those that want, want to stay. Okay? When you're born again, you're ready for the new wine because you've been made a new wineskin. In Acts-1:4, it says, and while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit, which he said, you heard from me.
For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Some people are born again and baptized with the Spirit all in 1 whack. Bam. We see that happen in Acts. Others are born again, and then there's a period of time before they're baptized with the Holy Spirit.
We see that in Acts-2. Some are baptized in water before they're baptized with the Holy Spirit. Some are baptized in the Holy Spirit, and then they have to get baptized in water because they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. And everybody realized, well, dang, you're a Christian. We see all of those things in Acts.
If you're seeking a greater baptism of the Holy Spirit or a greater filling of wine, which of the wine of His presence and His spirit in your life, which we all should be. Sometimes it takes a little waiting, and that's okay. When they had come together, verse 6, they asked Him, Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? He said to them, it is not for You to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority. So they still didn't understand the transformation that was happening.
They were expecting the physical kingdom of Israel to be restored at that time. And Jesus is like, no. It's not that's not what I'm doing right now. Right now, I'm I'm empowering you to advance the kingdom of heaven. I'm empowering you as ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven to advance the kingdom of heaven, and you need the power of the Holy Spirit to do so.
Verse 8, but you will receive everybody say power. Power. You didn't say that powerfully enough. But you will receive Power. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you might be my witnesses.
You will be my witnesses if you're called an evangelist. Is that what it says? No. It says, and you will be my witnesses in Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Will, If you have received the new wine of the new covenant, you will be empowered to go outside of yourself and be a witness of what you have seen and heard.
A *witness* testifies not of what the pastor says. A witness, when they get on the stand, they don't testify about what somebody else saw and heard. A true witness testifies of what they saw and they heard. When you have an encounter with the Holy Spirit, you're encountering the spirit of Christ. And so you'll have a testimony of what you have seen and heard.
You'll have a relationship and be empowered to share that. And when you share the testimony of what you've seen and heard, it will have an impact on others because they will see somebody that's filled with the new wine of the Holy Spirit that sees a little bit differently and walks a little bit differently, and the fragrance of their life causes them to think of heaven. Amen? Come on. It's that good.
This is Christianity. The cross was the price. Pentecost was the prize. The gift of the Holy Spirit. The wine poured in so that we could live a life with the same dove that the Father put on Jesus, put on our life, empowering us to live like Christ in this world by the word of the father and submitted to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
It's biblical. 1 John-4:17 says, in this world, we are like Jesus. We can't effort our way into that. It's by the power of his presence. The word spirit, pneuma, means wind.
Sometimes, and there's only 1 Holy Spirit, by the way, if you're searching to other spirits, those are demonic spirits, and that wind will blow you way off course. The Holy Spirit of God. Sometimes it's a gentle wind that's like a comforting peace that you need in the midst of what you're going through. But sometimes it's like a tornado, a rushing violent wind that will blow away the big logs you've got in your eyes. When the Holy Spirit hit Paul, it blew "scales off of his eyes" so he could see the world through the eyes of faith.
Some of you need the scales blown off your eyes so that you can see from a new perspective, the perspective of faith, the perspective of what He says, and the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, when you get hit with the wave and the wind and the whine of the Holy Spirit, it will cause change. And you will be a witness. And if you're not a witness yet, maybe you're just experiencing the anointing from somebody else and you really haven't had a personal encounter. You know, you can get around other believers experience the presence of God in your life, but not really have a personal relationship with him.
Because where 2 or more are gathered, there he is in their midst. There's a lot of people that come to church to have an experience, but they don't really have a personal relationship, so there's no outflow in their life outside of Sunday. Don't be that guy or that girl. Be 1 that's so full of the wine of the Holy Spirit that wherever you go, it's outflowing out of you. You become a witness.
Amen? Amen. So Acts-2. When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in 1 place and suddenly so they were unified. Where there's disunity, you're not gonna experience a great manifestation of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
That's why we care so much about culture here. We care so much about vision and mission and people being established in this body Because the people that just flow from place to place to place, they're not unified, and they're preventing the move of the Holy Spirit. Get unified somewhere and run-in line so there can be a unified movement together. The more people we have unified in the Lord together, man, the more powerful we'll be at experience the glory of Jesus. There'll be a synergistic effect of his beauty.
They were all together in 1 place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a mighty rushing wind. This was the tornado effect, guys. And it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared on them and rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy *Spirit* and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance.
Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each 1 was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished saying, are these not all speaking like Galileans, all these men who are speaking Galileans? How is it that we hear each 1 of us in our own native language, Parthians and Medes and Elamites and all of the other stuff? Verse 11, Jews and proselytes, Christians and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.
The the the manifestation of the glory comes on the other side of obedience. And on the other side of obedience, we see the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. They were being obedient to what Jesus said to wait in a room and pray. And they were doing that. And on the other side of their obedience, on the other side of faith, they saw the manifestation of the glory of God such that everyone around experienced it and were drawn into relationship.
On the day the new covenant was established and the spirit was poured out, 3,000 gave their life to Jesus. By the way, on the day the old covenant was given, 3000 died. 3000 died on the old covenant. 3,000 gave their life were came alive on the day of the new covenant. Ain't that cool?
Anyway, verse 12, and all were amazed and perplexed at 1 another. What does this mean? In verse 13, 1 of my favorite verses in the Bible, says this, but others mocking said, they are filled with new wine or too much wine. ESV says new wine. It's the new wine of the new covenant.
They didn't know they were prophesying. Want you to know that today, for everyone that's been born again, the Holy Spirit wants to fill you with the new wine of the new covenant. Not just an initial feeling, but a refilling for some of you. And you've been out out of overflowing for a long time. He's not mad at you.
It's an invitation to receive. The Holy Spirit wants to touch you. He wants you propelled forward into the calling that He has for you. He wants to take away the impurity out of your life. He wants to blow away the log that you have clogging your vision.
He wants to take the scales off of your eyes. He wants to fill you with boldness to boldly walk out the calling that God has for you today. I can't do it. It's only the presence of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, I ask you to come.
We ask you to move. We ask you to fill the room.
Transcribed with Deepgram