New Wine Old Bottles
The title of todays message says it all. We are closing out 2007 and soon we will all step into 2008. But how do we step into the New Year? What do we bring with us from the old year and what do we hope for in the arrival of new one?
I think it is good for us to take a kind of inventory at the end of each year. We encountered or authored successes and failures that we need to evaluate and measure and then learn from them. We have to be very, very careful as we review the past year as some rules are necessary.
We need to admit many things that occurred were beyond our control. For those kinds of things we had to react or respond from our experience and trust God with the out come. Then there were the things that occurred that we did have an influence on or that we may have initiated. These things are hard to escape and we must be honest with ourselves about our involvement and the results.
Now we can turn to scripture and apply it to the old year as we look to the new. Jesus uses everyday language here as he talks to us. Everyone in His time knew about the art of wine making and every family had its own special recipe etc.
Jesus knew that the example of a wine bottle would prove to be an effective illustration. It was a given that everyone knew that you do not put new wine into old bottles otherwise you will lose both the wine and the bottle.
That is the principal I want you to apply as you review your past year and look forward to 2008. Just as wine has its own unique vintage so does your life. Each year that you have lived so far has a kind of vintage by which you grade it. Some were very good years, robust and full of flavor. Others were off years not too sweet but palatable. Others still seemed bitter at the start but had a surprise finish.
So you see your life is all corked up in a wine bottle and maybe you dont even drink. I hope you like this illustration and you follow my line of thinking.
The bible is there to help us live while we remain on the earth. It is Gods treasury of wisdom and counsel it also educates and entertains as we travel through its pages. God never intended it to be boring or to hard to understand. It is given to us as a tool to use in wine making, thats the wine making that is involved in bringing our lives to Gods table as something wonderful and complete and unique. Our lives should not leave a bitter taste in Gods mouth.
At the same time God does not want us to give up on wine making. Our Heavenly Father knows we will make mistakes and some years will be better than others. He knows that we can only have control over specific things and not everything like He does. It is for that reason that we must turn another page of His word as we turn each new day of the calendar.
We can not make an award wining wine out of our lives without the help of the Master Wine Maker. So in looking back over 2007 can you recall the pages of Gods Holy Scriptures that were most helpful to you as you tried to make your life into an award wining wine? Was there a particular passage or verse that helped you as you cultivated and tended the fruit that was your life this past year? Maybe the reason you had a bad year is because you did not consult the wine-makers book?
Was the past year bitter or sweet for you? Did it swing one way or the other through the course of the year? Most likely it did as the events of your life fermented through each passing day. You see we are a lot like wine. We are a product that is sometimes years in the making. We are of great value and unique just as wines are unique from one geographical area to another.
We are subject to change as we go through the processes of becoming fit for our Masters table. Since we are trying to make our lives into a great wine we must learn from our past mistakes. Once again we can only change the things we have control over.
We can not control how hard the sun beats down upon us we cannot control the amount of rain that falls upon us or the pestilence that may strike without warning. That is why we need a very long very detailed record from the Master Wine Maker in order to know how to proceed under certain circumstances.
For us that is Gods word. It contains thousands of years of peoples mistakes and successes as it relates to growing our lives into the kind of fruit that is needed to make great wine.
What we can do is to prepare the ground and evaluate it. That ground is our lives. Just what kind of ground are you? Are you fertile ground, have you been readying yourself to grow for God? Are you hard ground full of rocks and clay and weeds? Maybe you feel you are tired ground that your life is worn out and no longer capable of being fruitful?
I can tell you this that the Master has a book that can change the ground that you find yourself to be. He knows what to add. A little sand a little fertilizer, some irrigation, and how to clear away the weeds. God can renew the ground that you are and make you to be a fertile source of life for the fruit He wishes to produce in your life.
A few things you need to remember. Do not carry over into the New Year the disappointments of the past year. If you know you had done your best and made your best effort than do not beat yourself up. For God you remain a work in progress. The best wine from your life is yet to come.
If you in fact have given yourself to God and have trusted His hand to prune and cultivate your life then be thankful for what 2007 was. For it was a year that you trusted God and He saw you through it.
Matthew 11:27 NIV
"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
If you are Christs then you are being made into a beautiful bouquet fit for the table of the Lord. You need to realize that in growing there is discomfort. Think about your own children and your own experiences such as sleepless nights, teeth cutting as they come in, fevers, clumsiness, hunger and all those swings in emotions. Thats growing pains and it is all necessary if you are to grow.
Maybe this year was one of those for you. Maybe this year you experienced the sort of pain that is associated with growing? Maybe you failed to connect the pain with growing and saw it for something else. Did you mistake it for Gods wrath or disfavor with you? Did you mistake it for judgment or a curse of some kind?
You see you were made to grow. You were made to experience certain things common to us all. Some of those things are very difficult to bare and can come into our lives at a time when we feel we are not ready for them. But God knows best and He brings into our lives the events we need when we need them. His timing is perfect He holds the book, the Master of the Vineyard knows exactly the kind of wine He can produce from the fruit that is in your life.
Now let us be careful to keep our vintage separate and not try to bottle up last years wine into this years bottle. New wine must be put into new bottles. You have been given an entire year from which you could have been fruitful for the Master. How did you do?
What ever the year was good or bad it is time to put a cork in the bottle and let it sit on the shelf. Occasionally it will be turned so as to age evenly and to allow the sediments to fall. Leave it there.
So often we Christians like to give God something and then we take it back. We give over to God a particular sin or habit only to try and take it back at a latter date. Why are we teasing ourselves and who do you think youre kidding?
If you are truly ready to give something over to God then do it whole heartedly not half heartedly. Give God the full bottle of whatever it is you wish to give Him. Leave the cork in it.
In 2008 let us not try to use the same old bottle that was our life in 2007 to try to put in the new wine that will be the fruit of our life for 2008. Trust God if you have asked for forgiveness in an area of your life but be sure you have surrendered it all.
Do not beat yourself up over it again and again, move on. Do not keep silent as you bare a hurt or a sin or a broken heart. Pour yourself out to God like a drink offering and let God consume what you pour out.
Rejoice in the knowledge that your Father in Heaven loves you as His child and He wants to see you succeed and thrive and make your life into a fruitful vintage.
Well we have a New Year before us. How will you approach it? Will you rely on your same old experience or will you consult the Master of the Vineyards book for some advice and help? Will you turn to it daily the same way you turn the page of the calendar or will you stop and study it for those insights that will help you along the way?
Leave 2007 on the shelf, good or bad it is behind us now and it is there if we need to reach out to it but leave it for now as we look forward. 2008 is brand new with opportunity to fruitful or unfruitful. Its an empty bottle to be filled, what do you wish to put into it? Look to Gods word for the vintage that you want your life to represent and trust Him to grow you accordingly in the coming days.
Let us pray.
