C NEW WINE SKINS

I. Last Year's Recap

A. Thank you to all involved with ministry and
     events this last year.
1. Elders & deacons
2. Staff -
    -Cindy Miller: Secretary
    -Cheryl Rissler: Children's Pastor
    -Norm Hansen: Worship Leader
    -Chris/Sara Bowen: Youth Pastor
    -
3.  Men's/Women Ministry leaders
4. Children's ministry helpers
5. Worship Team
6.  Sound and computer guys
7.  Food preppers & special event helpers.
8.  Tony Smith/Kevin Eckiss Celebrate Recovery
9.   Michelle Rodgers: Treasurer
10. Julia Thistle: Prayer team leader
      Patty Reberger:_______________
11. The entire prayer team
12. Outreach Pastor: Jenny Ooley
13. Home Group Leaders: Tony Hines & Dan Dragon

14: Pulpit Ministry: Rich Carmichael, John Graff,
      and Jim Evans
15. Welcome team
16. Church cleaning
17. Van ministry
18.  Hall monitors
19.  Communion prep and serve
20.  Baptism prep
21.  Nursing home/reading
22.  Missions coordinator Beth Hines
23.  Newsletter team

Some Great Events Last Year:

Experiencing God Home groups/ banquet
VBS
Kids Camp
Stretch Events
Skeet Shoot
Hog Roast/pie eating contest
West Central Village Outreach
Prayer Wednesday nights
Numerous salvations/baptisms
Baby dedications
Weddings
Carry In Dinners
Fall Fest/Punkin Chunkin/RTW
Ladies Christmas Dinner
Candlelight Christmas Eve

Accomplishments this last year

- Elders Good start on policies and procedure
(Refine/work on communication & flow as team)

-  Establishing of deacons
Grounds: Randy Jones
Building: Bob DeCamp
Communion Servers: Dan Dillman
Finances: Michelle Rogers
Panty: Bill & Sue LoughMiller
Security: Toby Miller
Missions Coordinator: Beth Hines
Treasurer: Michelle Rogers

 

- Established outreach through CD's
- Almost 4,000 CDs distributed
- Reports all the time about the blessing they have  been.

- Video productions
Pie wars w the Daryl Brothers
Shooting stuff w the Daryl brothers
Punkin Chunkin/Fallfest promo
The Christmas Cabin
A Christmas Prayer

New Signage
- Visitors can find their way around

 Said Goodbye to:
Pierson DeHart
Jenna Ripple
Robert Parks
Mike Hansen

In these cases and others we saw this congregation rally around those who were hurting and pour out the love of Christ

It's been quite a year!

II.  Coming this Year 2010:

More of the same, but bigger and better.

-  Wild Game Banquet and Whitetail Seminar with  Brent Henderson / then here on following Sunday
- Spruce up with paint and color
- More community outreach through media and  visibility
-  Sweet Hearts Banquet in Feb
- Jennifer and I tandem teaching on family and relationships.
- A series in Matthew: __________
- New study through home groups
- Bigger Punkin Chunkers

 

III. Jesus Gets Criticized by the religious people   (In Matthew 9:9-17)
God's word to us is: You need new wine skins

A. The scene:
- The salvation of Matthew the tax gatherer has just happened

B. Matthew invites Jesus for dinner.

Mt 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.  10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples.

- Revival is happening at Mathews house
- He is introducing his friends to Jesus.

C. Jesus is challenged by two groups: The Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist

The challenge of the Pharisees:

Mt 9:11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?

- Tax collectors were scum, traitors and cheats.
- Jews hated their guts

Jesus Answers the Pharisees:

- Answers with Common sense - Duh!
Mt 9:12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

-Answers teachers of the law with scripture
Mt 9:13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

- A quote from Hosea 6:6
- Pharisees were familiar with this as teachers of the scripture

Ho 6:1 "Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.  3 Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth."  4 "What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.  5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you.  6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.  7 Like Adam, they have broken the covenant-- they were unfaithful to me there.  8 Gilead is a city of wicked men, stained with footprints of blood.  9 As marauders lie in ambush for a man, so do bands of priests; they murder on the road to Shechem, committing shameful crimes. 10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel. There Ephraim is given to prostitution and Israel is defiled.  11 "Also for you, Judah, a harvest is appointed.

WHAT GOOD IS YOUR RELIOUS STUFF IF YOUR HEART IS FAR FROM ME.

- Mercy/tenderness vs Sacrifice
- Knowledge of God vs Burnt offerings

I'll take mercy and knowledge every time
- This was a stinging rebuke & revelation

 The challenge of John's disciples  

Mt 9:14 Then John's disciples came and asked him, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"

- They didn't even like the Pharisees
-  Why aren't you spiritual like us?

Jesus priority was people
John's disciples priority was religion

Jesus Answers John's Disciples:

Mt 9:15 Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

- There is a time to fast
- There is a time to celebrate

Jesus was saying:
Now is the time to celebrate I'm here and folks are coming to God.  The kingdom of God has come rejoice.

Don't fast to just do something religious
Fast when I'm gone and you need to quite the flesh so you can see me better.

IV. Jesus Teaches Them Using Wine Skins

Two similar examples: cloth patch & skins
Mt 9:16 "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.  17 Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

- Wine was a common drink - water was often poor quality.
-  Not advocating drinking alcohol, but Jesus uses an illustration that everyone would understand.

Wine Making
- Grapes crushed and liquid gathered
- Placed in animal skins
- As the wines ferments - sugar turns to alcohol
- Releases carbon dioxide gas
- The wine skin has ability to expand.

- Can't use old wine skin with new wine
- It is already as stretched a far as it can go
- It will burst and waste the skin and the new wine.

A. Jesus is saying:

- You need to wine skins in your heart
-  Expand your thinking

-  YOU ARE NOT GOING TO KEEP ME IN LAST YEAR"S BOX!
-  I'm breaking out - Let's go farther

 IV. New Wine Skin at CCC

- God wants to pour Himself out

- Our present wine skin will not be sufficient to receive what He has for us

POINT: When a new wine skin was prepared there was an anticipation of it being filled.

We Need Anticipation! Of what God is going to do this year.

A. Application of a New Wine Skin at CCC

#1. Expand our circle: Stretch to include more people in your life
       - They didn't want Matthew in their circle, but  Jesus did.
       -  Let God fill your circle

#2.  God gets more than last year
       -  More time/ worship, relationship
       -  More service
       -  More honor by how I live
       -  More money

#3. Expand and increase our understanding of Jesus
- Matthew study:  Watching Jesus/knowing Jesus
- Word/prayer - Goal to get closer/ be more filled

 #4.  Enlarge our expectation of God's Manifestations of His power.
- Miracles of God through faith in His word
- Power over demonic assault on lives
- Gifts of the Holy Spirit alive and well in our midst

CRAZY: NO      REAL FREEDOM:YES

What is this a Pentecostal church? NO

We are a church that believes the whole Bible.

Closing: 

In Chapter 9 of Matthew Jesus Talks to two more people

A woman with a hemorrhage - A man who was the leader of a synagogue

Mt 9:18 While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, "My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live." 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.  20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.
 21 She said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed."

- The woman was healed
- The man's daughter was raised form the dead

Neither asked Jesus how long had it been since He fasted.

They didn't care who He was hanging with

They didn't what anybody else thought - they needed something real and powerful

The woman thought to herself: If I can just touch Him

The wine skin of her heart was far more prepared that the Pharisees or John's disciples.

ARE YOU READY TO HAVE NEW WINE POURED INTO NEW WINE SKINS?

 

Are you ready to say, If I can just touch Him I know:

- My body can be healed
- That job can come
- My marriage can be restored
- My children can be brought to God
- My sins can be forgiven/ relationship with God can
  be mine.

 

Jesus makes a promise to the father of a demon possessed boy who was constantly being thrown into the fire

- how cruel if untrue - but by faith it is true

Mr 9:23 "'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."

Step over into new territory, expand that wine skin of your heart, and just believe God.