New Wine in Old Wine Skins
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Intentional Growth
Intentional Growth
Thank you to the Vesters
The Phalen family
Last year Pastor Larry came out:
On my Mt. Rushmore of people of Faith
What an honor it is to be here
Thank You!
My Parents retired last year after 40 years of ministry
Leemar’s barber shop
What God is wanting to Do:
I fully believe that God is wanting to do something new through the present day church
We carry a move of His spirit that the earth hasn’t encountered before
The problem is that we keep waiting on God to do something
When he’s waiting on us to move
2 Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
When we ask amiss (wrong motives) James:
The ask or Pray to motivate God
The way I hear people pray and sing songs
They’re begging God to do what he’s already done
we ask for revival when he’s asking us to pray for laborers
5 Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.
We’re blown away when this happens at our church
When a few sick people get healed that’s a great Sunday!
12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
Greater works should be a way of life for the Spirit filled Christian!
Are we asking God for change, when we’re the one changing
Are we asking God to pour out new wine into old wine skins?
14 Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?”
15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. 17 Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
What about Change?
Without changing the vessel of which we hold what God is giving us, new wine is wasted on lack of stewardship
A few years ago I asked God about our growth
I believe he Told me if I gave you explosive growth it would be wasted on you anyway
So we started changing things at the church
In the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, what is the worst form of stewardship?
Burying our talents
Historically burying people things they left with you was a viable solution
It was a good idea
Jesus was saying in this parable, the old way of doing things is out
Now I want you to multiply what I gave you
We have to be intentional with our growth:
Growth comes with time or age (miss-conception)
We see physical growth as a child, getting taller, building muscle, getting smarter
Then we become adults and the only thing that grows naturally is our stomachs!
My question for you this morning is:
What are you doing today to be intentional about your spiritual, mental and physical areas of growth?
What are you changing in yourself to allow God to use you in a bigger capacity?
30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.
This is the greatest commandment
Heart: your spirit your inner man
Soul: is your breath the very thing that makes you exist, we magnify God with what comes out of our mouths
Mind: your thoughts and what your put into your mind
Strength: being in control physically
There’s four areas here, Which ones do you need to get better at?
Can you find one area of this to be intentional about?
Start at the inner man and go from there
Discipline begets discipline
It takes discipline to be a disciple
Three points to focus on intentional growth:
It takes a perspective shift
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing
Renew our minds by the word of God
We have to see things differently
Look at things from an outside perspective
Ask for help!
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
Ephesians is the only epistle written without a correction
2. It takes sacrifice
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
We have to empty our vessels out so we have the capacity to take in all of God we can get
The old ways of doing things
The fear, anxiety we have to be emptied out before God can fill us new
Do we sacrifice our time and convenience
Do we go out of our way to be obedient to the word of God?
We’re going to have to stretch and be uncomfortable
Thing about new wine skin is that it starts out like all leather does stiff and tight
then God stretches us and makes us uncomfortable
be ok with being uncomfortable
being ok with being honest with yourself
3. It takes faithfulness
The world needs to see consistency in the church
Society keeps changing, they want to change biology next they’ll be coming after gravity
What does the World see when it looks at the church
Does it see us being just a as scared and worried as they are
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
We have to be consistently renewing our mind to God’s word and be consistently sacrificing our will for His will
Good leaders are consistent
It’s nearly impossible to lead without consistency
Leaders under 10 years you cant find
Elijah, Abraham, Even Jesus
19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
Maybe you can multiply
If you show up but it’s only once in a while
Maybe you hit the mark but it’s not occasionally
Anyone can do anything once but are you consistent
What do we tell the people around us when we’re no consistent or faithful?
We can’t be trusted
I want to be someone God can rely on
That’s should be our biggest desire as christians to hear the Words well done good and faithful servant
What I’ve been seeing in my own life by implementing these principles
Recap:
Do you want more out of this life
Do you want to be used by God in a mighty way?
We need to increase our capacity for something new in our lives
We have to be intentional with our growth
It’s going to take a perspective shift, change the way you see yourself, change the way you see God
Its going to take sacrifice
Finally it’s going to take faithfulness
Be someone that Pastor’s Jeremy and Terry can rely on
Be Faithful to this house
Ask God what do you want me to be intentional about this week to grow myself
Pray for:
Maybe your saying I don’t even know where to start
Start with Jesus
If you’ve never made Jesus the Lord of your life
Savior vs. Lord
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Dear God, I am a sinner.
I’m sorry for my sin; please forgive me.
I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son
and that He died for my sins
I believe You raised Him back to life.
I want to invite Jesus into my heart
today.
I’m make your Lord of my life
In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.