More For His People

Matthew 9:17 - Nor do they put new wine into old wine skins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

Jeremy Prochazka evangelized a message for us Sunday. It was for our church but certainly for any other church desiring more of God. God has something deeper for those who desire it. He's never done. He's never done teaching or revealing. His mysteries are endless...for those who seek them. We can never have enough of Him. We are to search out the deeper things of God. And if we do He will not disappoint.

Jeremy told us he was grabbing a bite to eat on his drive to Milwaukee from Russellville, Arkansas. The music in the fast food restaurant was loud enough to hear the lyrics. The words were by the Rolling Stones: I can't get no satisfaction. It hit him like it might for many: that seems to be the way of life for many. Never satisfied. Always wanting more, searching for something but nothing totally satisfies.

Well, hey...we can be satisfied in Christ. He will fulfill our desires. Just not as one would think. When we continually seek the things of God, seek what He deems best, we WILL be satisfied. And yet...there is this endless supply. If we continually seek His things, we will never be full, but satisfied! He always has more. That excites me because it's the kind of thing I want to keep searching for. It's like an urging for more. And that more is the better thing!!

When we come to Christ we become new persons. The old man is dead. A new person now lives. Jeremy shared a song with us...The Old Man is Dead. This old man has left his past and now seeks new and better things. Like the scripture above states, you can't put new wine in old wineskins. We can't put the same old stuff into our new man without corrupting it. We choose to be new. We remember where we came from and choose not to go back.

I have heard that if we feel we have lost touch with God, we should go back to the last time you felt a touch from Him. Sometimes that's going back to the day of surrendering to Christ. That day we knew that we knew! But Jeremy pointed out we don't need to go back that far. We can consider what we were yesterday or two weeks ago when we had a touch from God. We just always move forward. It made me think about how just reading His Word and seeing something new, or getting a different or additional insight into a scripture any given day, maybe even a few minutes ago, is also part of that moment in time. We just keep growing and going forward. We press on...toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14)

God always has more for us. It reminded me of something similar another evangelist said a few weeks ago: God's grace does not grow, it is complete; we just see more of it. We can't take God's grace too far or have too much. He has an endless supply for His people (Tyler Owens). 

God always has more of something. He is eternal, endless, has more than we can imagine. He's willing to give as we desire to receive. We must become like the new wineskin. That means becoming new in Christ first of all. If we become complacent, set in our ways, feeling we have gone as far as possible, then we have become as dry as an old wine skin! We have become dry and brittle  and need refreshing. Like the way old wineskins were treated, we need to be soaked in water and rubbed in oil. Today, however, we are refreshed by Jesus, the Living Water, and filled by His Spirit, symbolized by oil.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? ... (2Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬, Isaiah‬ ‭43‬:‭18-19)