Luke 5 is one of those chapters that has a lot going on. Tired fishermen go fishing again and catch what they never expected. The Holy One touches and heals an unclean leper. A man who couldn’t walk runs in newfound forgiveness and leaves religious people debating whether that kind of stuff was even allowed under the Law.

Not one to back down from conflict, Jesus then went on to choose a hated tax-collector as one of his followers and challenged the prevailing wisdom on when, why, and how to fast. This Jesus probably isn’t the one we remember from Sunday School. From what I can recall, there wasn’t a lot of talk about the Disrupter in those spaces. That hour seemed to be reserved for the polite Jesus, the one who received little children and spoke of turning the other cheek. Make no mistake, he did those things, but he also came to disrupt the way we things were done, and Luke 5 is a perfect picture of that Jesus.

It’s at the end of this chapter that we find a passage that you have probably heard before. As with all scriptures that we’ve heard so often, it’s easier to allow our attention to be drawn to what we’ve always seen instead of leaning into the new thing Jesus is trying to show us. Let’s lean in.

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins. But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.” (‭‭Luke‬ ‭5:37-39‬ ‭NLT‬‬, emphasis mine)

Because I cut my redeemed teeth in Pentecostal churches, the focus when these verses were read was almost always been on the wine. People would flood the altars and pray, cry, almost beg God for new wine, which meant a new move of the Holy Spirit. Not a bad prayer, right? It just missed the point that Jesus said he would never pour that new wine into old wineskins.

“New wine must be stored in new wineskins.” So much of our Christian experience results in frustration simply because we’ve asked God for the wrong thing, or at least for the right thing in the wrong order. We want to experience the new wine and yet keep our old wineskins. We ask God to stretch us out of our comfort zones, and yet God wants us to experience a new way of doing things that, while feeling different, isn’t unnatural. Can you imagine a day when you and I wouldn’t have to work up the courage to talk about the good news of Jesus with a friend? A day when talking about the good things Jesus has done for us was as normal as talking about the good meal we ate the night before?

That’s what can happen when we receive the new wineskin. The skin that is flexible and pliable, skin that can breathe and move with the wine that is poured into it. And who wouldn’t want to live a life molded in that way by the Spirit?

Apparently, according to Jesus, anyone who keeps drinking the old wine. The people who are content with the way things are, who see all the new ways that God wants to move in our world today and would rather stick with what they know has been good enough before instead of what will be better than they could ask or imagine now. “The old is fine,” they say.

[Tweet “Faced with something new, many would rather stick with what they know has been good enough before instead of what will be better than they could ask or imagine now.”]

May that not be true of you and me. Lord, give us the new wineskins we need for the new wine that you want to give.

Have you ever heard someone say you’ll always find what you’re looking for? Isn’t it amazing how true it is?

People who look for pain in everything tend to find pain in everything.

People who look for joy in everything tend to find joy in everything.

This principle is so powerful that someone who is looking for joy can actually find it in things that don’t seem particularly joyful to you or me!

Smack dab in the middle of the brutal opening chapter of his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote these words:

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans‬ ‭1:20‬ ‭NIV‬‬, emphasis mine)

Y’all, we have the opportunity to see beauty everywhere, and as a result, to see reminders of the good God who made that beauty everywhere, too.

Today, you and I will find what we’re looking for. Let’s look for the right things and let them point us to the right One.

This month, our church is doing a series called The Elephant in The Room, and we’re connecting the gospel and mental health. It’s an important topic that affects so many people, especially in this world of COVID-19 where most of us aren’t sure if it’s almost over or here to stay. So many people are struggling with their emotions, and those people need to know that the One who made them understands that.

Often we can feel as if we are caught in an emotional tug of war, and it makes sense when you think of all the things we’re in the middle of.

Where we’ve been and where we’re going.
Fear of what if’s and freedom to explore.
The promises of God and the provision of God.
Questions and answers.
The past and the future.

It’s perfectly understandable that we would stand in between those realities and feel overwhelmed, and yet God is in the middle with us. The middle isn’t a place that is off-limits for God, only a place that is off-balance for us. It is in this place that we will see victory if we allow ourselves to hear his voice.

“Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.” (Hebrews‬ ‭3:15‬ ‭NLT‬‬, emphasis mine)

When we’re in the middle, caught in the in-between, it can be so easy to blame God. “Because you haven’t come through, I can’t get through!” The writer of Hebrews was wise to remind the readers to make the decision to keep their hearts soft and open, even in-between now and next. When we do, the voice of God will be something that reminds us that we are not alone, even when it feels like we are.