New wine in new wineskins

It is a pleasure to be here with you again, as Roberto mentioned, we are in the Texas area in Dallas, there is our Rossmon Christian Center church and there I also have a Bible study center at 1304 Southampton Road, for those who are listening to us through through the internet. So we are located in Dallas and for those of you who have known us for many years, let me just say that we are already grandparents. We have a grandson, a two-month-old boy, Amadeus Alejandro is his name and we are happy, with my eldest son Manuel Alejandro.

Then I want to invite you to turn to the word of the Lord, we are going to locate ourselves in the Gospel according to Saint Luke, Chapter 5 and we are going to be reading verses 36 to 39, let's locate our Bible, Let's leave it there open and I invite you to pray.

Father, we are or continue before your presence and in this hour good God, we take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ Jesus in such a way, Lord, that your word does in our lives, oh God, those what is necessary to do. We open our hearts to you Lord and ask you to speak to us according to our needs Lord and according to your purposes for us oh God in Jesus name we ask. Amen. Amen.

Chapter 5, verse 36 says as follows: Jesus is speaking, “.... I also tell you a parable, no one cuts a piece of a new garment and puts it on an old garment, well, if it does not only break the new but the patch taken from it does not harmonize with the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the new wine will break the skins and spill and the skins will be lost. But the new wine in new wineskins has to be poured and both are preserved. And no one who drinks from the old wants the new one later because they say, the old is better.,,,”

When Roberto invited me to preach tonight that he had his participation, he told him, I'll answer you tomorrow and At night when I was praying for this invitation, and praying for the congregation, God spoke to me and God told me, I want to bring new wine to my people. New wine I want to bring or bring for my people. That is why the theme that I bring to you this afternoon is new wine in new wineskins. New wine in new wineskins.

And in the reading that we have just seen, if I go a little into the background of the context of what is happening there, we find that certain scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus a trick question to catch him wrong, they ask Jesus Why do the disciples of John, of John the Baptist fast and why don't yours, Jesus? And Jesus responds to that question with this parable that we have just read. And this is a parable that contains two illustrations, two different illustrations to bring the same principle. And we are going to be observing the general or main parts of the parable, we are not going to search for extra details that the Bible itself tells us, but the important and general points of the parable to see what God has for us this afternoon and remember , I mentioned that it is the same principle illustrated twice. And in the Hebrew thought that the Bible is written in Greek, but the Hebrew writers in the Hebrew thought of the Jewish people, which is the town from which the church began in the first century, repetition implies emphasis from God. In other words, the answer that Jesus was giving was making clear what he was and what he brought to the question of the scribes and the Pharisees.

And then we see that he is saying here that no one puts an old patch on a new garment. And if I were to take this blouse that's kind of brand new, and I grab a piece, by some mistake I got a stain or something like it ripped, and I grab a piece of fabric that my sister Milly gives me, and she says, I have one There is a little used blouse over there but also black, that suits, and then I come and take that old piece of cloth from that blouse and put it on the new blouse, what will happen? It doesn't harmonize. It doesn't look good even if it's the same color, maybe it's already deteriorated. But not only that, what else happens? The old patch is going to pull what? Or the new cloth will pull on the old patch and the new blouse will tear and the piece of old patch that we put on it will tear, both things are lost and are no longer useful for anything.

So we have to be careful that God wants to bring something new into our lives or to his people, to his congregation and we have to have our minds open and prepared for what God wants that is new but that our Hearts may also be kept new in the Lord so that what God pours out new reaches a new wineskin, which is precisely the second illustration that Jesus uses when answering the scribes and the Pharisees.

He says that no one puts new wine into old wineskins, because when the wineskin is old it has stretched what it was going to stretch. The skins were usually made of cowhide and the new skin is flexible to stretch when the new wine is poured into it, but the old skin no longer stretches, therefore a new wine is poured into an old skin that begins to ferment. , it needs the skin to expand, but in an old skin what will happen is that the skin or the leather vessel breaks, it breaks, and the skin is also lost and the new wine that was poured into it is lost. wineskin

So, with this principle, with these illustrations that Jesus gives us, we want to motivate them to what God wants, to be attentive and prepared and open our hearts for what God brings new in this congregation. And when I say, what God brings new, I am aware that I am speaking to a congregation that is active, a congregation that is constantly implementing programs for the church, for the community, a congregation that we can say that always tries to be at the forefront, He tries to respond to God, he tries to walk in purpose, and he is walking in God's purpose.

I am aware of which people I am speaking to. But what God wants to tell us, or the purpose of this message this afternoon is that we can understand that we must be on the lookout and continue preparing ourselves and be prepared for the new thing that God has for this congregation, for the next step of what God has in this congregation.

When we talk about something new, it's something we haven't seen before, right? If it is new, then logically we had not had it before, but this something new from God is relative in the sense of God's treatment of our lives as individuals and God's treatment of us as a church. In a church, a move of God that God brings new can be different from the move that God has in this congregation and what is new for some of us we already know. Or conversely, the important thing is that we can achieve what is new from God for this people, that we are happy and joyful with what we have already achieved, that we do not remain stuck there enjoying what we have already achieved, but that we move towards what God has next, in such a way that the new wine falls into new wineskins.

In the Scriptures we find especially in the Old Testament, also in the New Testament, this biblical image that Jesus used here about wine. We also find, for example, in the Gospel according to Saint John the illustration that Jesus gives us that he is the vine and that we are the branches, we find in the Old Testament how the vine is spoken of and how God promises blessing to the people and the fruit of the earth, abundance and blessing, he promises it and speaks of having abundant wine because that represents God's blessing, that represents that the people have responded to God, therefore God pours out an even greater blessing.

New wine in new wineskins. New wine in new wineskins. And continuing with the matter of contextualizing what we are talking about, we can say that in the context of what Jesus spoke, what Jesus brought when these scribes and Pharisees ask questions to catch him in some way or that he failed in his answer, what Jesus brought in his time were new truths, it was a new pact, and the new truths of Christianity could not be placed or put in old vessels, in old wineskins because the very person of Jesus, that beautiful new pact, was a wine news of God coming. And the new wine of God, of God in the times and at the moment in which Jesus answered these Pharisees did not fit with the mentality of the Jewish people, it did not fit with what they knew, it did not fit with what they knew and many times In our times, in our Christian life, as individuals, as people what we understand is where we are going in God and in God's move, it does not accommodate with others, with the way of seeing other believers or non-believers. And many times the move of God, the next step of God, the plan of God, the purpose of God with this church may not fit with the religious concepts that exist in other places, but the important thing is that according to God up to here we God has brought is willing for us to move towards the next.

When God gives the next, he usually gives it to those who have been faithful. You have been faithful in a little, I will put you in much, says the Lord, people. You have been faithful in a little, I will put you in much, says the Lord. So those who have come more recently see all this movement and all that this church has accomplished, this falls short compared to everything that is coming. God has something new. God has a breakthrough. God has extraordinary things and although perhaps we cannot define it well and say, name what God has, I do know one thing: in God's plans, in God's plans what God has is great, brothers.

If we have seen great things, what God has is even greater. So we must have our minds and hearts even more prepared. It is not that we are not, it is not that we are not open, it is not that we do not want to, we are doing it, but God is warning, what is coming is bigger, therefore I still want new wineskins, new wineskins. And sometimes when our wineskins get old we have to refresh our interior to open our mentality, because sometimes we have adjusted to what God is doing, to the way of working, to what we have achieved up to the present and even we who we are at the forefront, God also has to warn us, what I bring is greater, prepare yourself, people for what is coming.

Our minds must be elastic enough to contain new ideas in the Lord. the foundation is the same as in the word of God, the foundation does not change, but God shows that he has new things and we cannot entrench ourselves and lock ourselves in because of what we already know, because of what we have already experienced and stay there. We have to open our minds, and our hearts to be elastic enough, to stretch out to receive the fresh and new blessing that God has for us.

The new wine in new wineskins be said. And when this happens both one thing and the other are preserved, nothing is lost. But he also said in these verses, verse 39 says:

"... and no one who drinks from the old wants the new one because, he says, the old is better..."

And then he'll tell me, but what's the deal? The new or the old? I mentioned to you that we were going to be looking at this parable in its main parts and one of the things that this verse says is that old wine is better, but old wine is better in relation to it, and I am going to look to this side, than to the other side. previous cult, I don't know why, I'm going to look this way, if someone can help me with that matter of wine, but they say out there, that he comes old is the best. That's in terms of the natural, right? But in terms of biblical truths, what the passage is saying is that the new is better, therefore we have to be prepared so that it reaches new wineskins and is preserved and yields and blesses many lives.

New wine is better, new wine is better, and it is that kind of wine that God wants to pour out even more on this church. sometimes we are very slow to accept what is new because we resist change. We get used to certain patterns, to a way of doing things and we entrench ourselves and stay there and on this side God in the next step, God has something different with a different pattern where I can move differently, but I stay here because this That's what I've learned, that's how the church has moved so far and it's worked for us, so why don't we continue in the same pattern. Ok, some patterns are going to be preserved, but if God brings something new and we have to establish different patterns, different programs, different ways of working, let's do it because the important thing is that when that blessing flows, it arrives and accommodates and has space to be poured out.

New wine in new wineskins. In the New Testament we find that God spoke, had spoken in the Old Testament of a new covenant and in the New Testament we find how that new covenant is fulfilled. We find, for example, that in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit only dwelt, came and fell on the person who had a ministry, on the king, on the prophets, on the priests, to perform a function at the time, a ministry at that time and then he left, but in the new covenant, in that new wine that Jesus brought, we find the Holy Spirit dwelling in our lives, dwelling in our hearts. God has already given new wine, that wine began with the presence of Jesus, with the presence of Jesus in this world, that wine began with the sacrifice of Jesus, we began to drink from the blessing of salvation.

But God also wants to continue blessing us and that Holy Spirit who dwells within us wants to lead us day by day to achieve his purposes, to reach the new thing that he has for us, to make it come true. God's plans for our lives, God's plans for this church. God desires to give fresh harvest.

And when I talk about harvest, harvest is usually thought of only in the sense of soul-winning. That is the first thing, the souls that are saved, that is the first thing. But when I talk about harvest I mean all the blessing that God wants to bring in any area of work that the church is involved in. God wants to give a new harvest. Without the new crop of grapes on the vine, there is no wine. Without the plant not producing there is no wine. The result is wine, but there is a process by which the plant has to bear fruit. We have to bear fruit or we must continue bearing fruit, remaining attached to the vine like the branches that we are, and finally we will find and being attached, being united to the Lord will lead us to enjoy that new wine, the result of that union, that new wine that God constantly wants to pour out on us.

How to achieve the new thing that God has for us? I mentioned being glued to the vine. I want to mention that we must deny ourselves to work and walk in obedience. In Luke 9:23 it says:

“... if anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me....”

We have to deny ourselves, selfishness must be put aside. Sometimes we are selfish even unconsciously, and the Holy Spirit has to make us aware. Sometimes we believe that because things have been done in a certain way, we have to continue doing it in the same way because I like how it is done. And we have to put selfishness aside because what God brings new has to accommodate with enough space to overflow, to spill out.

When we are selfish, each one of us thinks in our favor and says, no, but it is because if I think that it should be done this way in the church, it is for the good of the brothers. Well, the intention is for the good of the brothers, for the good of the church, but internally, perhaps the root of why things want to remain entrenched in this pattern has to do with the fact that I like it that way. and I don't want the change and I don't want to experience the opening of what God wants to bring. We need to not be selfish in order to be a greater blessing to God's people and those around us.

We also said, take up your cross every day. God's deal with us is daily. And we have to take up the cross, we have to strive even to the point of exhaustion at work, in involving ourselves in work, in the Lord, in work in the church, in our individual life, our commitment to the Lord, we have to take up our cross day by day, and when we take up our cross day by day we will see the glory of God. When we advance day by day towards that purpose, towards the new that God brings, we will have victory day by day, but we have to be willing to sacrifice, to work.

Sometimes even in large churches where there are many people to help, many human resources to help, sometimes they work the same. That doesn't happen here, I don't know, I'm far away, I hope that doesn't happen here, and the same people are called to work, whether they have been in the church for a while, or arrived later, earlier , they have been around for a few years or not, and when you call at work they always answer the same thing, and you know what? The new wine of God, God is going to spill it, but there is a part that corresponds to each one of us. We have to take up our cross day by day, there are not a few who have to take up the cross in terms now I am talking about service to the Lord. Each of us by getting involved in the different areas will make the new thing that God has for us come true.

The new thing that God brings costs. And when I say, it costs, I mean it in the sense of the part that corresponds to us to do, because what God does is by grace and because he wants to bless us and because he has purposes in our midst. But it costs in the sense that there is a part that corresponds to the believer. God is always ready to bless, God is always ready to pour out his presence, God is always ready to take us to the next step, but we need to do our part and then we will reach the new of God, then we will reach the next that God has designed in his plan.

We also said, follow me. And follow me implies obedience. We have to be united to the vine, staying close to the Lord and following in his footsteps. I was saying this morning that on a certain occasion in my country, in Puerto Rico, I was walking along a highway and then a car came, it was one-lane and I had to position myself on the pavement, on the sidewalk, whatever the car passed, then I get comfortable and realize that this is why I was walking on the road, which was very narrow, very narrow. So I start to walk and I have to walk in this way, like this, look at my little feet so big, walking in this way to be able to follow the trajectory and move forward and we have to walk in such a way that we are there, aware that when the road it gets narrow, it doesn't matter that the path is narrow, I move towards God's blessing, it doesn't matter that the path is narrow, I follow him. He says, and follow me. We have to be willing to follow him.

How easy it is to follow him when everything sounds harmonious, when everything is joy, when everything is happiness. How easy it is to follow. But the Lord expects us to take up our cross and follow him every day, whether there is abundance, whether there is scarcity, whether there is joy, whether there is sadness, whether the road is wide and comfortable as when the road is narrow and narrow. and difficult to walk, we have to follow him in obedience and thus we will achieve what God has for us.

What else do we have to do. We have to locate our expectations according to God's expectations. The Jewish people had the blessing that the Kingdom of God broke in again, with Jesus, but what happened? The expectations that the Jewish people had of a king who would arrive with all pomp and glory, the expectations that the Jewish people had was a king in the sense of political government, of an earthly kingdom. And what God had was a heavenly kingdom breaking into the earth, breaking into the person of Jesus. The expectations that the Jewish people had did not match the reality of the newness of God.

Our expectations are often wrong. Sometimes, for example, God tells us, my servant, my servant, I'm going to use you in this in the other, He gives us a specific word and we get so excited about that word, and we rejoice and then we begin to imagine things, God goes to do this and that and the ministry and the other and the other, and sometimes we don't even pay specific attention to the details of what God is telling us, because we start to dream big and it's not a bad thing to dream. But we have to dream according to what God has declared. When we dream in a scenario different from what God has said, then frustration comes because we find that what God was supposedly telling us is not being fulfilled, it is not that it was not fulfilled, it is that my expectations were wrong. God said A and I believed it was B and I began to wait for A and it never came because what came was B and I did not recognize it and I did not identify it as it happened to the Jewish people with the King of kings, with the Lord of Lords, when He burst into this world with his kingdom to bring us blessing and eternal life.

What God is going to do is new in relation to our experience, but his plans were already determined. In his anticipated knowledge God knows everything, before our relationship as human beings that we are, and our relationship with the Lord, what God is going to do is new for us but God already knows everything, and his plan as an architect, the best architect that we have, his plan is already designed and sometimes he allows us to see up to a certain point. Sometimes it allows us to see a little further and sometimes the final goal is even bigger and allows us to see only a panorama of that final goal. Sometimes it shows us little by little, whether we identify fully and with certainty that God's plan or not, we simply see through mirrors purely, however we have to walk towards God's purpose trying to move forward and move towards the new that God has for us.

For that, in addition to setting our expectations correctly, we have to renew our minds. Romans Chapter 12, verse 2 tells us that we are not conformed to this century but that we renew ourselves through our understanding, it speaks to us of the mind, and in the context in Romans, Chapter 12 is speaking of the worship of the Lord, of our surrender, of our service that we present ourselves to the Lord as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God. But that same principle of not conforming to the world in this case, speaks of not conforming to this century, it refers to the world, to the principles of this world, but we must live in holiness, that same principle I want us to apply today to that we do not conform to those patterns where we entrench ourselves and do not have a sufficiently elastic mind to stretch and expand to enter into the new of God and that his spirit spill out as I have said and I repeat it intentionally, and that his spirit spill out and may God move with the new that he brings freely. We have to renew our mind, we have to renew our ideas and our concepts in such a way that what is new from God fits into a new wineskin. We also have to be open to the Holy Spirit.

If the new covenant and the new that God brought began with that Holy Spirit being placed within us, very different from the old, the old covenant, where the Holy Spirit simply came and ministered through a person and then left, if it started that way, if our salvation began that way, if our walk in the Lord began with the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit has not left, nor will it leave from within us, He wants to take us to the next step that God has for us.

New wine wants to be poured out, God wants to pour it into our hearts through the work of His Holy Spirit. There is no harvest, there can be no harvest. I know that you know this, I know, there can be no harvest if there is no move of the Holy Spirit. There can be no new harvest, new fruit, new wine if the move of the Holy Spirit does not continue advancing. And with this I am not saying that there is no movement of the Holy Spirit here, I am saying the next thing, I emphasize again, that God will bring, that God has for this town.

What else can we say this afternoon. The results of pouring new wine into new wineskins is that we allow the new to come and be seen in us, and by being seen it blesses others. The results that new wine is poured into new wineskins, we can mention, first of all, that what you have from God, that great blessing flows, you cannot contain it and you infect others. It is seen impacting other lives. Results that the new wine is poured into new wineskins, we will live victorious and fruitful lives.

And living victorious and fruitful lives does not imply that we do not go through difficult circumstances, but in the midst of the circumstances we are in victory, in the midst of the circumstances that new wine that has been deposited in us in these new wineskins it flows and the Holy Spirit strengthens us to overcome every day.

The Scriptures say in Isaiah 43, “... behold, I am doing a new thing, soon it will come to light, you will not know it, I will again make a way in the desert and rivers in the wilderness.... ”

When there is new wine in our hearts, even in the desert, it flourishes, even in the desert there are abundant waters, because the wine of God is within us. The impossible, God makes it possible. We reach other lives for the Lord, our walk, our movement, everything we do blesses others, but also when we allow this new wine to be poured into new wineskins we find that the Holy Spirit is poured out in such a way that even greater wonders and signs occur in our lives through us and in our midst.

In the Scriptures we were promised that those of us who would follow the Lord many things and signs would occur, they would cast out demons, they would speak new languages, they would take up serpents and nothing would harm us, different signs that God wants to do in I support the preached word, not that the word is not enough by itself, but those who do not believe by the word, will believe by works. And not only that, the works that God does: miracles, healings and prodigies, God does them because he is a God of mercy. And when we have that new wine of God in us, it has to flow to extend mercy to other lives.

Many years ago, when I was pregnant, I got a kidney stone. That was a pain worse than childbirth, I had already had another birth before, I knew what that was, it was horrible pain. And I had already had the condition for 3, 4 days and one day I am sitting on the balcony of my house and I had prayed, Lord, take away what I have to do. And I am on the balcony of my house and I say to the Lord, look, Lord, I am going to ask you to heal me for your love and your mercy because this pain is too strong. I went to the Lord saying, I know that you are a God of love, I know that you are a God of mercy, in other words, maybe I do not have a surge of faith to claim healing now, but because you are who you are, please heal me. I go to the bathroom and the stone came out immediately.

New wine, God wants to pour out so that things like this happen in our lives and happen in us and also to bless others. But also within what healing implies, he wants to tell you another testimony. This morning we had a sister named Matsie with us and the last time I came a few months back, I was staying with my sister Milagros, and she was there too. I met her for the first time, I don't know anything about her, we were praying and I'm praying for her and God leads me to place my hands on her heart, and when declaring healing, a word of healing on her heart, I don't know and I'm not making it up nothing, I am doing what God is telling me. And it turns out that now when I return she tells me that she had a heart condition. When God leads me to pray, she knows it's the Lord because I don't know her condition. When she returns I think she went to her country, a few months later, she goes to the doctor and the doctor tells her, you are healthy, you have nothing.

Signs and wonders, because the new wine is in our lives and the new wine wants to be spilled in our midst. But there are also other signs that perhaps we don't like very much but I want to mention them for a reason, I don't know why the Lord wants me to mention them, but I have to mention them.

When all these things are happening, these blessings, this advancement of God, these things that God does as it happened in the church in its beginnings, things can also happen that can surprise us. At the beginning in the church while the church spread and there was blessing, joy, singing hymns to the Lord, preaching the word, signs and wonders, the brothers began to supply each other's needs and on a certain occasion a couple named Sananías and Sapphira decided to sell a property that they had and put it at the feet of the disciples to help those who were in need and they did not agree. The two of them did not agree, we are going to sell it in the meantime. But it turns out that later when they sell it and go to take the offering to the Apostles they decided to keep a part of it. They could keep a part, tell him, look, Pedro, we were originally going to sell it for 10 and we sold it for 10 and we wanted to give the 10 but we have a need and we are going to give you 8. They could have done that, but they lied to the Holy Spirit of God and the man fell dead and when the woman comes, because one entered first and the other later, and then Peter confirms that she had also lied and fell dead.

With this I am not scaring anyone, but I want to say something: in this move of God when people can even come to want to do harm. I'm not saying, come, look come, I'm not talking about here, if God does what he does, I don't wish bad on anyone, but when God finishes pouring out the blessing that he has, and the enemy wants to sneak in to harm , God does what he wants to do.

Just a warning to be aware of what is coming. On a certain occasion also, in the Old Testament we find that Korah along with other people from his house and followers, was in the service of God just like Moses, just like Aaron, he had a certain task in the Lord, in terms of service to God, not equal to Moses and Aaron's. It seems that jealousy came in, or something happened with him and with those of his house and a group there, and what happened? They began to murmur against Aaron and Moses, and to such a degree was the murmuration that Moses presents everyone before God and tells him, gather in such a place and we are going to see here who is serving the Lord, in other words . And what happened? The Scripture says that something new happened. The earth opened up and swallowed up Korah's and those who followed him.

I come back and say, that's not happening here. What I want to tell you with this illustration is that in this advance of God when obstacles from outside want to come, of whatever nature, God will take care of doing what he has to do, but God's advance will continue, so, church, don't be surprised. Church, do not be surprised by the miracles that God performs, whether of one kind or the other.

The new of God has to advance in this place and must not be stopped, says the Lord. the new of God has to advance and must not be stopped. Willing to keep our wineskins new, we need to be willing to keep our wineskins, minds, and hearts new and fresh for all that God has.

Let's try to reach that new wine that God has for us. Stand up, please.

We adore you, Lord, we adore you, God, you are blessed, Lord, you are blessed, oh God. We are going to raise a prayer to the Lord while the melody is playing in the background.

First we are going to pray to the Lord introducing ourselves individually, what we are and if you have identified that at some point in your life, you have blinded your mind to what God wants for you, tell him Lord, here I am, I want to have elasticity in my mind and in my heart for what you want to do. And I want to move forward for what you have for me. And then then we are going to be praying as a church, as a congregation:

Father, at this hour we present ourselves before your presence or continue before your presence, Lord, and we say to you, oh God, and we even ask you for forgiveness , Lord, for having closed our minds and our hearts to what you have for us, to advance to what you have for us, for my life, Lord. At this time I tell you, Lord, I want to move forward, I open my mind, I open my heart to you, do with me as you please but I want to move forward in your purposes, Lord.

And now Lord, we present ourselves as one people before you, and we tell you, Lord, we want to advance in what you have for us, we want to advance in that new step in the next, we want to get out of any pattern, if there is one where we have boxed ourselves in and entrenched ourselves and we tell you, we want to move to the pattern that you bring that accommodates the new. We want to be as a church a new wineskin for all that you have, Lord, because you said that you want, or that you bring new wine on this town, Lord. Here we are, Lord. Here we are, oh God.

Let's sing a song please and while the melody is playing let's pray for people who are sick please let's follow the instructions only people who are sick anyone who needs prayer for healing we are going to be ministering, the leaders or the people who usually minister, I want you to pray with me, not only to be there accompanying, but to pray with me, to help me in prayer, while the music is on, those who need can come by the sentence.