Matthew 9:14-17 Listen - click for new tab
14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast [often], but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
New opportunities, a breathe of God's favor. Versus hopelessness. Jesus told us He is the Vine.
Do you remember President Reagan accepting the nomination to run for President of the United States? He started by saying, America has not finished. Our glory days have not passed us by, there is " a bright dawn ahead." Jesus tells us the same thing when we put our hope in Him.
New opportunities for a solution. Even in the Book of Genesis we see drunkenness, permanent problems from drinking. It's interesting to remember international slave ships and trade were stopped at the same time substance abuse began to go down.
Why do we have substance abuse? People say and indicate all the time, they want to be in control of their lives, they want to decide what they believe, how they act. Then they are overwhelmed, feel insecure, want to distance themselves from their lives. According to Alcoholics Anonymous, people lose their insecurities, feel they are living life, acquire a new set of friends and new habits.
This isn't a new problem for the world. China executed everyone in the Opium Den. The U.K. had Divine Help from God to overcome the Gin problems occurring in early 18th and 19th century; by revivals led with people involved in the Salvation Army, the new Methodist Church and politicians like Wilbur Wilberforce. Did you see the movie, "Amazing Grace"?
If we speak of Spiritual issues or of substance abuse, we are speaking of the same thing. Hope, faith, Love. Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Substance abuse and hopelessness require the same remedy. We have to believe we matter to each other and to God to have hope.
What is the meaning of all of this new wine versus old wine analogy? It is for.... every single one of us:
Blessed be God, who creates light out of darkness.
Isaiah 45:
19 I have not spoken in secret,
from somewhere in a land of darkness;
I have not said to Jacob's descendants,
'Seek me in vain.'
I, the LORD, speak the truth;
I declare what is right.
20 "Gather together and come;
assemble, you fugitives from the nations.
Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood,
who pray to gods that cannot save.
21 Declare what is to be, present it—
let them take counsel together.
Who foretold this long ago,
who declared it from the distant past?
Was it not I, the LORD ?
And there is no God apart from me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
there is none but me.
22 "Turn to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no other.
23 By myself I have sworn,
my mouth has uttered in all integrity
a word that will not be revoked:
Before me every knee will bow;
by me every tongue will swear.
24 They will say of me, 'In the LORD alone
are righteousness and strength.' "
All who have raged against him
will come to him and be put to shame.
25 But in the LORD all the descendants of Israel
will be found righteous and will exult!!!
Blessed be the name of the Lord. Jesus. Amen.
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