Markers of Maturity - Embracing Change

Series: Markers of Maturity

This week Pastor Matt talked about Embracing Change

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Had uh an amazing prayer meeting on New Year's Eve and uh and Otto felt he had this word for us as a church. This is Isaiah 43 from 18. Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See, I'm doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Father God, we pray, Lord, as your word is preached this morning, Lord, will you give us soft hearts to receive what it is you're doing in us, what it is you want to do amongst us, and Lord, how you want to help us to become the people that you want us to be in Jesus' name. Amen. I love the form of things. For me, the nineties were class. Nineteen ninety-six in particular was an exquisite year for dance music. Nineteen ninety nine, even better. I remember um I remember being a young guy, a young man, and I had a paper round, about 14, 15, and I used to that's not funny. Um I used I used to have um I used to listen to my walkmen. Um I'm throwing all the all the all the cliches in now, mate. I used to listen to my walkmen. I used to listen to Radio One. If the batteries died, you could listen to the radio but not play a tape. Remember that? Just me. Um, and I remember thinking to myself, make sure, Matt, that you always listen to Radio One. Don't don't listen to any other radio station because Radio One is cool. And you've got to, yeah. I remember thinking, make the effort. I hate it now. I can't stand them. Oh, it's so annoying. Like Radio Newcastle for the win. Come on, any no, just me. Um, do you remember? I remember marathons before they became Snickers. Do you know what I mean? That's how old I am. Um, I remember opal fruits before they became Starbursts, and and I I do question why, why? Why? It's frustrating. I'll call it a marathon. In fact, from now on, it's a marathon. I'm gonna go in a shop and say, hey, do you got a marathon? I want a marathon. We love the past, man. I look back fondly. The music, the fashions, the young'uns, they don't know how good they've got it, do they? Am I right though? And I find myself thinking, it's really quite hard now for me to say this, right? I find myself saying things like, Well, it wasn't like that in my day. And slowly but surely I feel the old man growing inside of me, and I'm and there's coming a point where I'm just gonna have to embrace it. But there's something, isn't there? There's something intrinsic within us that yearns for the past. It's in me and it's in you for how things were, for how for things just to be more like they used to be. It was so much easier. See, God is unchanging, right? I believe, however, he's doing a new thing, he's always doing a new thing. You know, I've heard this message preached so many times because it's a godly principle. He's doing a new thing. See, our current teaching series is all about the markers of maturity, the signposts that God is um is growing. It's God is growing us into the people he wants us to be. And and those that those signposts are often things that are just so counterintuitive to us, aren't they? Like self-control. It doesn't come easy, you know. Um, Judith talked about the foxes, Ruth, about servanthood, you know, gladly serving one another. It doesn't come intuitive to us, it's not something that comes naturally, and embracing change is one of those things that doesn't come naturally, it is a marker of maturity, our ability to step into something new, even though I much prefer maybe even how it is versus how it was. So we're going to read about it in a moment from God's word. But here Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees, they're questioning him about why his disciples don't fast. Okay? But I think his answer to that to it is totally about that. But I think there's a lesson for us to be learnt here. There's definitely a principle that's going on that we I feel if we can catch hold of this, it's going to propel us into the next season. Obviously, we're not Pharisees, are we? No. And I'm not I'm not speaking to Pharisees, all right, but there's definitely a principle here. Let's read from Luke 5, 35 to 39. He told them this parable. No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have a torn new garment, and the patch, um, the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours out new wine into old wineskins, otherwise, the new wine will burst the skin, the wine will run out, and the wineskins will be ruined. And I just felt myself asking about me, and I encourage you to ask the same question. What if, through no fault of our own, we have been trying to pour new wine into old wineskins, and we haven't even realized it. See, what if we're missing out on fresh wine because of our unwillingness to change and adapt? There's two wine skins. Can you tell which one's the new one? Yeah, it's pretty easy, isn't it? They were made from animal skin. In their new state, a fresh one was oily, it was pliable. But over time they naturally become brittle and rigid. When the new wine that's placed in is fermenting, it produces gas and requires the new oil skin that can react and expand as the fermented gas is produced. There's a flexibility, there's a growth, it's pliable. If you put the new fermenting wine into the old, brittle, rigid wineskin, it's gonna burst. It's gonna split. We don't want to spill the new wine, do we? We don't want to miss out on the new wine, do we? So we can't put we we have the new wine, we can't we can't even have the new wine without the new wineskin. So we need new wineskins, right? Because we want the new wine, right? Right? Yeah, come on. Or do we? Do we do we want the new wine? See, Jesus goes on in the next verse. Let's read, let's just read the last bit just slightly. And no one pours new wine into old skin old wineskins, otherwise the new wineskin will burst the skin, and wine will run out, and the wineskins will be ruined. He goes on to say, Luke 5 39, and no one after drinking old wine wants the new. They say the old is better. See, I think Jesus understands our human nature to prefer and yearn after the old. Just like my love of the 90s. He gets it, and he understood that the Jewish people would struggle to move from a strict old covenant system of rules to a new system of freedom in Christ. He knew that people like us get really comfortable in our ways. That the old wine is more palatable than the new wine. And we've talked in group recently, haven't we, about aspects of the gospel, the good news that Jesus died on the cross offending the world. The old wine, it's more palatable. He knew that the real reason the Pharisees rejected him was because they were so used to their old traditions that they weren't willing to even taste the new thing that God was doing, dear Lord, let that not happen to us. Please do we want the new wine or are we accidentally preferring old wine? So the question is, what are you willing to embrace in order to see new wine poured out? What are you willing to give up in order to see what he's going to do next? What personal preference are you willing to let go of in order to see those springs well up in the desert? What change will you embrace? Are you mature enough to see it? A couple of weeks ago, uh, me and Tracy, we were talking about communion, just as I don't know, just in passing. And we we like, see, we did communion last week. It was beautiful, man. I love doing communion with you guys, like sharing communion. We're at the size of church where we still get to do it, right? Together on a Sunday. It won't always be that way. And do you remember in COVID when we had the little the little pots with a little tiny little wafer and they absolutely ming in little tiny little portion of and we don't like them, do we? It's not my personal preference. But we're already running short of cups sometimes, yeah. And we're like we're like looking going, we could buy some new cups at such and such price, but is there a new thing? Is there a new way? It wouldn't be my preference, but so what? There might be a time where it's not even practical to share together where we move to, I don't know, imagine there's another 50 people, another 100 people here. Maybe we we might have we already do communion in groups, but you know, maybe I don't know. How does that make you feel? Because you've got a personal preference, right? For the sake of his kingdom, for the sake of those people, right there. What are we willing to give up? And and and don't see me as the enemy on any of these issues, please. We just want to see the new wine poured out. See, I believe God is calling us to do whatever it takes short of sin to see our friends and families' lives changed. What if our preferences and our traditions are getting in the way of the new wine without us even realizing, because people prefer the old? Jesus said, and no one after drinking old wine wants the new wine. Well, they say the old is better. You still with me? You still love me? How do we know if we prefer the taste of old wine? Are you ready? Get them notepads out, take a big deep breath. Number one, nostalgia becomes the blueprint. See, the old was great. My mum sent me a little video that she'd seen last week. Um, because back when I first moved up to Newcastle, the church I was part of, um there was this one song, and she knows that I love it, and she sent me this. And it's just the caption said, This song is 21 years old today, and I was like, oh. Man, that blew me away. 21 years old. That's see, it would be really easy for me to choose all the songs that are 20 years old that take me back to that time in my life where I was free, I was earning some money, we were doing amazing things in church, and God was moving, and and it would be so easy for me to be like, take, take, take it all, take, take, take it all, Jesus. Do you know it? Yeah, like, oh man, I could easy, I could easily pick that song. See, Lot's wife, do you remember the story of Lot's wife? You know, they were told to leave, and she turned back. She was turned to a pillar of salt. The danger of looking back, guys, we can't afford to look at the future and dream through the lens of the past. Because comparing our believal robbers, in fact, Judith talked about the little foxes that can creep in, and I think nostalgia is a little fox. And I'm not saying I don't love traditions, love them, love them, but not at the cost of the new wine. Number two, comfort, dear me, comfort is the goal. See, if we're motivated by an easiness and ease of doing things, why rock the boat? Well, stick to the status quo. It's gotta cost us something. It's gotta cost, in fact, it's going to cost us something because the scripture says that no one pours new wine into old wineskins. God isn't gonna pour the new wine into the new wineskin. In fact, we need a new wineskin before he pours the old wine. The sacrifice, the change, the willingness, the embracing the change is gonna be the catalyst. Maybe just maybe nothing great was ever built by sitting back and relaxing. Isaiah 29 says, These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based merely on human rules that they have been taught. Oh my Lord, let us not be like that. Let us not settle, let us not love comfort, let us not prefer the easy way, Lord. Challenge us, help us, God. Number three, preference is prioritized. See, it's it's it's not about me and my needs. Because if it was, we'd still be singing Take It All. Uh uh oh. Um I'm talking about. For me, that was the golden era. It was great. Pop punk, I would call it nowadays. It was just, and the guitar parts were so fun to play, man. It was. I wonder what your preferences are. What have we confused with being necessary that's really just our personal preference? Are we willing to put aside our personal preferences to see God do a new thing? Oh man, you know, like when I'm preparing, it's much easier to write it down on paper than it is to say it out loud. Please understand that this is delivered in love and uh from a heart of just wanting to see you step into what I believe God is calling us into. Right, I'm not shying away. Next one grumbling is default. The children of Israel grumbled to Moses like ten times.

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And they'd been freed from slavery. Oh, we're hungry. Oh, have you led us to our graves when we'd be better off back in the past?

SPEAKER_01 18:43

If you find yourself more often grumbling than getting excited, then this is a sign that maybe it's time to embrace the change. Last one. Brittle is the norm. Lord, we don't want a brittle spirit. Because brittle things, what happens? The new wine's poured and they break. Brittle things break easily. And and for me, this manifests itself in defensiveness, in a rough demeanor. It speaks, brittleness speaks with a harsh tongue, doesn't it? It's got a critical mindset.

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How dare he say don't grumble?

SPEAKER_01 19:32

I wonder if that was you a couple of seconds ago, I'm so sorry. But but like, I wonder, is brittleness one of the foxes that's creeping in or crept in, or maybe it's been there for a while. I don't know. Ephesians 4 talks about the people whose hearts have been hardened and how they've become ignorant to it, they don't even realize it's such an easy trap to fall into. So that's kind of that's how we know we prefer the old wine, right? I'm praying that if any of those stir something in you that we can do the journey of learning to change and grow and seek the new wine together. But this is how we know that we remember because Jesus said no one tastes the old wine and then the new wine and prefers it. It's not going to be easy, it's gonna cost us something. But here we go. This is how we know we prefer the taste of new wine. Number one, risk is normalized. Oh, he's talking about risk again. Big risk, big faith. See, you can't have faith without risk. Like I said two weeks ago, I'm not asking you to go and stand on the edge of a cliff. Not that kind of risk, but it's gonna cost us something. If you're ready to take some big, calculated, God-inspired risk, then it's likely that you're drinking the new wine from the new wineskin. Hebrews 11. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. If you can't see it, but you can. It's likely faith. But if you can see it, and it oh yeah, all we've got to do is this, isn't it? It's likely not faith, is it? It's gonna cost us something. Let's keep going. Flexibility is effortless. This person says it's not a big deal. If we paint the wall a different colour, it's not a big deal. If Matt asks me to come in early and serve, even earlier than we already do, Brian's quivering in the corner, um, even earlier. It's part of the sacrifice, whatever it takes. If we cancel your favourite event, you find somewhere else to serve. See, flexibility comes from a heart to see God's kingdom come at whatever the cost. It's easy and it's a trap to fall into if you think, I'm pretty flexible, I can cope with all that. Paint the wall, it doesn't matter, it doesn't bother me. It's easy until it's your blind spot. Get this, right? There will be something that triggers you that you won't want to be flexible on. And it's in that moment we go.

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Okay.

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I believe that is maturity. Amen. If we can be the people who go, Lord, help me see it. Help me understand. Soften my heart, Lord. If we can be that kind of person, that's maturity. Watch out for the blind spots. We've all got them. Nearly there. Expansion is essential. Jesus said, otherwise, the new wine will burst. The skins. The wine will run out. At all costs, we avoid the wine running out, please. And the wineskins will be ruined. So not just the wines wasted, but the old ways ruined as well. See, personal growth, you taking responsibility for your growth is vital for us to sustain the new wine and keep your wineskin pliable. To avoid the brittleness, to avoid it splitting. We need to grow. We need to develop. We need to take responsibility for our own journey and our own spiritual growth. See, we want to help you in every way that we can. We feel 100% called to. But it's your decision to make it happen. So read your Bible, study it, listen back to this. Listen to whatever you need to. Read that book. Go to group. Join in in our awesome Bible study. It was great this week, wasn't it? Wasn't it good? Um last one. Curiosity is constant. I wonder what he wants to do next. I wonder what he's thinking. I wonder what God is planning. What does he want us to do? How do we move? When do we move? When do we take the big risk? And we're curious to hear from God and move. See, curiosity understands that God is doing a new thing and wants to be part of it. Habakkuk 2, verse 1. I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts. I will look to see what he will say to me. Can you see it? Can you see the baptisms? Can you see the lives changed? Can you see the drug addicts here? Can you see families reconciled? See, for me, that's a new wine kind of church, isn't it? Where we glorify God, where we equip his people, and where we make disciples. Can you see it? Are you willing to take the risk? What needs to go in your thinking? What stuff are we doing that needs to just die? What are the old wine skins that you in your personal life need to throw out before God can pour out the new wine? Let's pray it, Lord. I pray, Lord, that you'll soften our hearts. Lord, we don't want to miss. We don't want to miss on the new wine. Lord, where our preference or our way of doing things or our inflexibility is maybe even holding you back. Lord, will you reveal it to us? Holy Spirit, even now, in the minds of these wonderful people in front of me, I pray that you will open their eyes, reveal to them where they need a new wine skin. Lord, we believe you're doing a new thing. We don't want to look back to the former things, we want to prepare our hearts for the new, for the fresh wine that's bursting forth, for its expansion. Will you help us, Lord? See, when Joshua was leading the children of Israel into the promised land, till that point there was a pillar of smoke guiding them. And as they crossed over, it went. It was a sign of God maturing his people. I wonder if there's a level of maturity that needs to be brought forth to the altar. Even this morning, even now, so that we can walk into the freshness, the newness, the maturity that He's calling us to as a church. We want to be pliable, moldable, oily and fresh, expandable, not rigid and brittle, not harsh-tongued and critical. God, will you help us? In the name of Jesus, amen.