~Open in prayer~
Icebreaker
• Do you like to cook or eat out?
• What is something you can eat every day?
• What is your favorite restaurant?
Message Review
Mark 2 :21 -28 says the following: 21“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” 23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” 25 He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” 27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
In the book of Mark, this is the first recorded thing that we have that came out of Jesus’ mouth. What Jesus is talking about here is the Kingdom. Whenever Jesus is trying to release a Kingdom truth, he uses things like garments, wine, sheep, goats, pearls, and fish as examples. Jesus is trying to release a Kingdom truth in a way that the hearer can understand it. We have to remember that forgiveness is free, and the Kingdom is not. The Kingdom is hidden, and it doesn’t come to the casual, it comes to the seeker. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” This is an idea that has been lost because many stay casual in their relationship with God. The Kingdom will not come without you seeking it. We have to get past the causal relationship with God and become a seeker of God so that we can see behind the veil of the pearl of great price which is the precious things of the Kingdom. In this passage of Mark, Jesus is speaking a Kingdom truth and He’s using wine, wineskins, old cloth, and new cloth to talk about wine preservation and seamstress type things. Why? Because there is a spiritual truth that He is trying to convey to His people.
Let’s Talk About It!
What is a wineskin? Jesus said there’s wine and then the skin. The wine is spiritual, and the wineskin is natural. The wine is eternal, and the wineskin is temporary. The wine is God made; the wineskin is man-made. Jesus is speaking in Mark chapter two about the cooperation between Heaven and Earth. The Kingdom is all about cooperation between Heaven and Earth. Heaven responds to Earth, not Earth responding to Heaven. If two of you will agree, if touching anything on Earth, then it shall be done by my Father in Heaven. If two or three are gathered together, then I will come and be in the mist of them. The way God has Heaven and Earth cooperating, is first the natural then the spiritual. There’s first the natural body then the spiritual body. An example is Adam being the natural Adam, and Jesus being the spiritual Adam.
We have to understand that spiritual things have to fall into natural things. Whatever God wants to bring into the Earth, something has to be built to hold it. For example, discipleship was God’s idea, it is spiritual in nature. So, we take that concept and turn it into a natural concept that we use in church. This may be demonstrated naturally through small groups, bible study, evening services, etc. How we are going to do it is the wineskin, it is temporary, man-made, and is subject to change. God will never change his mind about people growing in their faith. But the way that discipleship is out into a skin may change many times over the years. Do you tend to get caught up in man-made things rather than God-made things?
There are many wonderful Christian people that are spiritual minded, but they don’t understand why their life feels stuck. It’s because we don’t build the things in the natural that it takes to sustain the move of God that God wants to bring into the Earth realm. If God wants to bring you blessings, then you have to build new habits that hold that. If you don’t, if something new is sent your way and you put it into something old, it will smash the skins and will ruin the wine at the same time. Are you holding onto anything new that might destroy a new blessing that God is trying to bring into your life?
When God is wanting you to smash the wineskin and build something new because he is going to pour out something fresh, we have to make a choice. We have a choice to smash what we have and rebuild for the new. Or we have the institutional preservation. What is holding you back from smashing the old to make room for the new? This week write down at least two things that you believe is holding you back from the new.
Prayer Focus and Requests
Ask your members if they have any prayer requests or praise reports. Encourage one another to stir up your faith and pray BIG prayers this week and expect God to blow your mind with His answers.