Key Verse:

Matthew 9:16-17 (New International Version)

 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. ¹⁷Neither 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.”

When I sit down at new piano or keyboard and feels new, more creative, sounds better -but eventually I get used to it and it loses that feel.  Then I try a new one again, and the same thing happens - if you can’t relate to the keyboard example, then think of a new car.  When you first drive it, it feels new, fresh, and a little scary! But that soon wears off, and you forget about the newness of what you use to have.  That same thing happens in our walk with God - we must desire moving onto new heights, depths, widths of God and His love!

Here is a brief description of a wineskin:

The Israelite, like the modern Arabic and Syrian, used mainly the skin of the goat and the sheep, but the skins of the ox and the camel have also been put to this purpose. The explanation of the New Testament passages is that the new wine, still liable to continue fermenting to a small extent at least, was put into new, still expansible skins, a condition that had ceased in the older ones.

We are like the wineskins - in order for something new happen in our lives: new ministry, new understanding, etc - we must be ready to receive. Are we ready? Are we desiring this? then we must be ready.  If we stay the same, we will never expand to allow God to pour more into our lives! I want to go to new depths of God, and go on new adventures with Him.  I don’t want just the same old thing all the time - I want something fresh! I hope you do too!

How are we made new to receive?

Let’s look at this Scripture:

2 Corinthians 5:17 (New International Version)

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

First, If we believe in Christ, we are new creations.  That is a great start.  Wow - something new, the old is gone, the new has come - be ready to receive more because God wants to pour out so much. 

What about past that initial point?

 let’s look at this:

Romans 1:17 (New American Standard Bible)

 ¹⁷For in it ^(A)the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “^(B)BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”

NEW FAITH - God brings us to new levels of faith before He can fill us with a newness in Him - perhaps before having a deeper understanding, or walking into a new ministry or path.  We must get to a deeper level of faith.

Personally, I had to leap out and trust God before He was able to take me deeper in life - sacrificing and believing God would provide - and how awesome is our God! He brought a greater abundance and provision that outshines what is sacrificed!  And I know that I will come up against it again - we all will come to this place where a deeper level of faith is required - and until we get there, we won’t be ready for what God has - we need preparation to be new wineskins!!

This is something God desires in us - it is the very nature if God to make things new:

Revelation 21:5
And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new ” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

Lamentations 3:22-24 (The Message)

 ^22-24God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
   his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
   How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
   He’s all I’ve got left.

His mercies are new every morning!! WOW! Just think about that for a second - they are new!  We have the potential to know God in a new way each day.  We have the potential to go deeper.  We have the opportunity to receive new mercy, new love each day.  Are you looking for this? Seeking it? If not then I urge you to ask for it, because God wants us to experience Him with fresh encounters!

With new levels in God comes a risk in our fleshly nature - looking back to the past and either getting caught up in it, or looking for the past to repeat itself in the same exact way, limiting the work of God.

Let’s look at the encounter Lot experienced:

Genesis 19:15-26 (New International Version)

 ¹⁵ With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”

 ¹⁶ When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them. ¹⁷ As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”

 ¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, ^[a] please! ¹⁹ Your ^[b] servant has found favor in your ^[c] eyes, and you ^[d] have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. ²⁰ Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”

 ²¹ He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. ²² But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar. ^[e] )

 ²³ By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. ²⁴ Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. ²⁵ Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. ²⁶ But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

God was taking them to something new - Sodom and Gomorrah was in a deep (to say the least!) state of complacency, this led to its immoral nature - that’s another lesson in itself! God required them to leave what they had known, a place of comfort ability, their past and move on to a new adventure in God.  But what did Lot’s wife do? Looked back - and consequently turned into a pillar of salt.  Now I don’t think God is going to do that if you look back, but in an analogous sense, looking at our pasts can cripple us to the point of being frozen in our walks with God, and prevent us from moving Forward!!!

Worship leader Israel Houghton addresses this in his song Moving Forward:

 I’m not going back, I’m moving ahead. Things are made new, I’m moving forward.

It’s time to step into something new, whether God is calling you to take that leap of faith, or start with receiving His love and mercy new with each day.  Experience a fresh encounter of God - It’s in His nature, and He will help us.  Let’s not turn back - Things are made new! Let’s move forward!  Are you ready for something new?