New Wineskins ｜ Joy Abad

In one paragraph

Joy Bhatt brought this message as part of the Wineskins series, picking up the thread Pastor Brian has been developing from Matthew 12. The central idea is simple: being with Jesus is what gives a person the capacity to recognize and receive a new work of God, and without that time logged in relationship with him, we end up looking more like the Pharisees than the disciples. The series has been...

Read together

1. Matthew 12:1-14 the series text about the disciples eating grain on the Sabbath and the healing of the man with the crippled hand, used throughout as the foundation for the wineskin discussion
2. 2 Chronicles 20:1-24 read aloud by the congregation to illustrate new wineskin capacity through Jehoshaphat facing the Moabite and Ammonite armies
3. Matthew 25 the parable of the talents, used to argue that even a small pocket of time given to God is honored by him
4. Genesis 6 mentioned briefly in reference to the Nephilim while discussing discernment of outside teachings

What was said

• Identify one small pocket of time in your daily routine, even five or ten minutes, and give it to God this week by putting your phone down and opening your Bible or sitting in silence with him.
• Write down two or three specific things God has done for you in the past and put them somewhere you will see them, so you can remember his faithfulness when the current hard thing feels hopeless.
• Try a short walk this week with no podcast, no music, and no inputs, just you and God, and see what surfaces when you give him that silence.
• When something unusual or unconventional comes across your path this week, resist the reflex to immediately dismiss it or immediately accept it, and instead spend a few minutes asking God whether it carries familiar notes of his character.
• If you are in a season where even one talent of time feels like all you have, commit to showing up with that one talent consistently this week rather than waiting until life is less busy.

Talk about it

1. Joy described the difference between the disciples and the Pharisees as coming down to time spent with Jesus. What does that kind of closeness actually look like in your own life right now, and where do you sense the gaps?
2. Joy used her friendship with Rachel to illustrate how intimacy is built through accumulated time and shared history. Who or what has shaped your understanding of what a close relationship with God could look like, and what has made that hard to sustain?
3. Joy pointed to fasting, prayer, remembering God's past faithfulness, silence and solitude, and generous giving as ways of being with Jesus. Which of those practices feels most foreign to you, and what is one small pocket of time this week where you could try it?
4. In the story from 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat sent the worship team out ahead of the army rather than reaching for weapons or backup plans. Joy said God is calling us to stop sticking extra knives in our belts. Where in your life right now are you holding onto a backup plan instead of trusting what you sense God saying?
5. Joy said your capacity to recognize and receive from the Holy Spirit is directly proportional to the time you spend with Jesus, and that this matters especially now because of how much discernment the current moment requires. What is one thing coming at you right now that you are struggling to discern, and how might more time with Jesus change how you see it?