Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the urgency of the Spirit of God in his sermon 'New Wineskins,' urging believers to recognize the distractions in their lives that prevent them from fully engaging with God. He highlights that the true essence of Christianity is not merely attending church but being the church in every aspect of life. Beach Jr. warns that God will first judge His house, calling for a personal and communal awakening to the need for a deeper relationship with Christ, free from the old ways that no longer satisfy. He encourages listeners to embrace the new life God offers, which requires letting go of old habits and distractions that hinder spiritual growth. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a heartfelt longing for Jesus, urging believers to listen for His voice amidst the noise of the world.

Now before we read in Mark, I want you, if you would please, to turn to 1st Corinthians. 1st Corinthians, verse number 29. There is an urgency in the Spirit of God. 1st Corinthians chapter 7. Thank you, Brian. 1st Corinthians chapter 7, verse number 29. There is an urgency in the heart of the Spirit of God. There is an urgency in the heart of the Spirit of God. Verse number 29. The context is Paul's talking about virgins and unmarried people, and he's talking about married people. And amidst this whole discourse, there is something that's underlying the heart of God. And this is really what the Holy Spirit is after. You see, because the thing that Paul was concerned about was not so much whether or not, back then it was the cultural thing for a father to choose to keep his daughter as a virgin, or he might give his daughter over to someone to be married. And they were wondering, you know, if I choose to keep my daughter, is it okay? Or if I give my daughter over to someone to get married, have I sinned? And they were struggling over these issues, and the Holy Spirit is addressing it. And really, the Holy Spirit is saying, be calm, be cool. It's okay if you choose to keep your virgin, or it's okay if you choose, fathers, to give your virgin over to marriage. The key, the Holy Spirit is saying, the key, the main issue here is not whether you marry or you don't marry. That's important, but that's incidental. The real issue, the real issue is verse 29, but this I say, brethren, the time is short. Now if Paul wrote this then, how much more shorter is the time? The time is short. It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none. And now the real spirit of what God is after is coming into this whole discourse. They that have wives as though they have none, and they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not, and they that use this world as not as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away. Now I want to just mention these few words in verse 32, the first part, but I would have you without carefulness or worry or distraction. And so the heart of the matter here is not whether you have a wife or whether you don't, whether you're rejoicing or whether you're not, whether you're using the goods of this world or whether you have nothing, but the key is I would have you without distraction. I would have you without carefulness. I would have you without becoming ensnared with the situation that you're in. Are you weeping? Weep not, lest your weeping distract you from the Lord. Are you using the goods of this world? Fine, but don't abuse them, lest the goods of this world become a distraction from the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you married? Fine, but act as if you're not married, lest being married ends up being a distraction from the Lord. The Spirit of God is moving now throughout the earth, and judgment will not come in the world before it comes in the house of God. Judgment shall begin first in the house of God. 1 Peter, 1 Peter, beginning in chapter 4, verse number 17. The Spirit of God is moving throughout the entire world now, and the first and foremost place that the Spirit of God is going to visit, it is not the ungodly nations of the world who have thrown out God in the name of God. It is not the ungodly nations in the world who are engaging in dreadful things, but first, God will visit those who name the name of the Lord. And we're going to look for a short time this morning at the nature of this judgment. Every single believer here this morning is going to be subject to this judgment that God is in the process of implementing within the house that is called by His name. And we ought not to look at this necessarily as a judgment that comes to churches, plural, or to the church down the road, but rather it's a judgment that will find its movements within our hearts individually and within our homes. Because the closer we get to the Lord's coming, the less emphasis we're going to find on necessarily gathering together and going to church, and the more emphasis we're going to find from the heart of God on the true nature of Christianity is not so much going to church, it's being the church, Monday through Sunday. It's being a living stone. It's being the church in home, being the church in the car, being the church in the workplace. That's where God wants to manifest His glory. Verse 17, chapter 4, 1 Peter, for the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God. One of the greatest needs of God's correcting, child chaining judgment in our lives right now in this hour that we live in is a loving judgment delivering us from distraction. A loving judgment delivering us from the thing or things that have preoccupied our heart and taken us from the all important ministry of waiting before the Lord and hearing His voice. Most Christians are unacquainted with the voice of God because their lives are filled with so many things they don't have time to listen. They don't have time to get acquainted with the heartbeat of Jesus. We hear voices from the radio and voices from the television and voices from our acquaintances and voices from our own thoughts and the voice from the media and the voice from the magazines. We're hearing so many voices, but what about the voice of God? What about learning to hear His voice? And so the Lord is going to move in our lives and in our homes and begin in a very clear, concise manner to deliver us from distractions. What is distracting us from you this morning? What's distracting your heart? Mark chapter 2. This is the prophetic word. It all dovetails with the distraction and the judgment. Mark chapter 2, beginning in verse number 18, and the disciples of John and of the Pharisees and of the Pharisees used to fast. Luke chapter 5, verse 33, it says, they often fasted. And they came and say unto him, why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto them, can the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come. We're living in those days now when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them. And then shall they fast in those days. No man shall fast in those days. No man shall sow a piece of new cloth on an old garment, lest the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles, lest the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles be marred, and new wine must be put into old bottles. Now in Luke chapter 5, this is the same account, verse number 39. I want to read the last verse of verse 39 of chapter 5 of Luke, the same account, but I like what Luke put here, because this is very important. No man having drunk of old straightway desires new, for the old is better. Jesus, the Pharisees disciples and John's disciples fast their morning. You see fasting would be an indication of an act of desperation, an act of mourning, an act of abstaining from food, because my heart is hurting. The disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast. How come your disciples don't fast? Jesus said, well why should they fast? I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. In spirit I promise never to leave them or forsake them. Yet there's going to be a a mourning, there's going to be a fasting. There's going, listen, there's going to be, a homesickness that grows in my people, for me that will cause them to fast. What is the What is the Lord going to do as these days quickly come to an end? He's going to find a people in whom He can create homesickness for Jesus. But you see, we don't have time to be homesick for Jesus. We don't have time to long for the Savior. Because we're filled with so many things. I can remember early on when I first met Colette, I liked it when she called me on the phone. You know why? Because I liked to hear her voice. Because I loved her. God is going to move in the church, and in our families, and in our lives. And He's going to restore back into us a passion for Him. It's so simple, isn't it? Where's the fasting that's going on? It's not. Where's the mourning for Jesus? It's not. Where's the fervent first love, where we wake up and we say, Lord, I've got to hear your voice this morning. I've got to hear you, Lord. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of beloved God. Listen, listen, listen. God's not angry or upset with us. He's broken hearted because He loves us so much. You know, when one of your kids go astray, it's not so much that you're angry at them, is it? Oh, it's just that you wish that they would come and derive the benefits of your love for them. You want them to know the embrace of your love. The greatest joy is to give your love and to see your children enjoy that love and rest in that love. And that's what the Lord's heart is this morning. He's not angry. He's not angry at us, but He's weeping because there's so much of His fullness and so much of who He is that is yet to be revealed because we are busy following other things. God has got to waken us up. He's got to wake us up out of the sleep and slumber of this day that we live in. Are you love sick for Jesus? Now, Jesus made an interesting statement. Once He talked about the bridegroom, see, He's dealing with love now. He's dealing with a love relationship. Listen, He's not dealing with religious obligation or bondage. He's not dealing with, oh, I've got to do this out of a sense of duty. Christianity is not duty, it's love. Christianity is not trying to obey God, it's obeying God because we love Him. See, He introduced relationship into this whole thing. Why are those disciples fasting and you're not? Jesus immediately introduces relationship. Relationship's got to be at the root of our commitment to Christ, at the root of our devotion to Him, at the root of our fasting for Him. It's got to be at the root of our self-sacrifice. If self-sacrifice is springing out of fear or obligation or I'm doing this because by it I'm getting brownie points with God or I'm doing this because I'm trying to earn my way into heaven or I'm trying to earn God's love, we've got it all wrong. God's got to tear all that up. He's got to shake all that to pieces and let it turn to dust so that our devotion could be springing out of love, love, love alone. And so once He introduces this love relationship, He begins to talk about a new piece of garment and an old, and new wine and old wine, new bottles and old bottles. And basically all that simply means this, relationship, love for Jesus, fasting, abstaining because our hearts are sick for Him, cannot be enjoyed as long as we are involved in the old. The old garment and the old wine and the old wine bottles. The old has to do simply, brothers and sisters, with anything and everything that has become satisfying to us to the point where we've lost our taste for God and the things of God. Notice what it says in verse number 39. No man having drunk old straightway desires new, for it says the old is better. I can't put a new cloth on an old garment. I can't put new wine in what? Old wine skins. I need a new garment for a new cloth and I need a new bottle for a new wine. You see, Jesus was dealing with the people who were very much acquainted with an entire religious system and it had satisfied them. They got satisfied in their religion. They got satisfied in their devotion. They got satisfied in keeping all of the Judaism. They got satisfied in all of it. And Jesus showed up on the scene and said, it's not about that, it's about me. It's about me, Jesus said. It's about walking with me, hearing my voice. But Jesus is saying, but I can't put this new patch on an old patch. Jesus is saying, I'm not going to conform to your old. I can't put this new wine in old bottles. As we walk with the Lord this morning together, and as we continue to go with the Lord, we're going to discover that Jesus is going to begin to disrupt the old cloth. He's going to begin to disrupt the old wine bottles. He's going to begin to disrupt the things that are preventing relationship with Him, love for Him from happening in our life. Yeah, yes He is. This is exactly what He's going to do. He's not going to put the new patch on the old garment. He's not going to put the new wine in the old wineskin. He's not going to come to us on our terms. He's not going to come to you on your conditions. Now, He knows you want Him. He knows I want Him. But we want Him to somehow conform to the old. We want Him to somehow take His new life and put it in our old wineskin, our old wine bottle. We want Jesus and all of His love and all of His fullness to conform to our way, our lifestyle. We want to be servants, but we want to tell God how we're going to serve, who we're going to serve, how long we're going to serve them, and the conditions upon our service. As the church, we've come to God and we've said, God, this is my life. This is what I do. This is what I like. This is what I don't like. And if you can somehow work within the confinement of these conditions, I receive you, Lord. The church is about and is currently experiencing a shaking. Our lives are going to be shaken. Our homes are going to be shaken. Our individual walks with God are going to be shaken. And they're being shaken out of love because Father longs to pour out His new life and His new wine into us, but He will not do it on our terms. The church is going to have to come to a crisis in this late apostate hour where she acknowledges that it is His way and His way alone. It is His will and His will alone. Though He loves us and though He cares for us and though the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and they had their provisions taken care of, yet they failed to enter into Canaan. God didn't forsake them. He healed them. He took care of them. He loved them. But they failed to enter into the full intention of God's heart. And in this hour that we're living in, God will care for all of His children. He'll love all of His children. He'll provide for all of our needs. But only those who through submitting to the hand of God's child training discipline will come to know the full intention of God's heart in this last hour, which is in fact manifesting the full manifest glory of the Son of God through His church. Manifesting the glory of Christ. To go that way is going to require to forsake our way, our preference, and to be pliable in the hands of God. Perhaps you've already begun to experience this in your home. Brothers and sisters, I feel the need to emphasize this. We're only going to go a few more moments. Listen carefully. There is not one person here who is going to be an exception to this. Some of us are very deeply rooted and steeped in what we could call the old garment and the old wineskin. We're very set in certain things. And we're actually, in a sense, asking God. We're saying, God, this is how I am. This is the way I like it. And you can do it, but you have to do it my way. God is going to go to the depths of our being and begin to put His finger on those areas in our life in order to free us so that we're not asking God any longer to bring His new life our way. But now we're saying, Lord, it's a new way. It's your way. I'll go your way, Lord. I'll follow your will, Lord. Some of us it's going to go very deep. Some of us it's going to touch the very depths of who we are. And when God begins to shake the depths of your home and your life, don't despair. Don't think something's wrong. Don't think God doesn't love you anymore. Thank Him. Thank Him because He has come to visit you so that He can prepare you to be a recipient of the new wine and the new patch. Oh, yes. This is where we're heading as a body. This is where we're heading as individuals. And this is where the church at large is heading. And we need humility and grace. Let God search the depths of your life. Listen. Don't despise the day of shaking. Don't despise when God somehow comes into your life through a person or a circumstance and begins to show you an area in your life that needs readjusting. Don't despise it. Don't despise when God starts dealing with that self-will, self, self, this way. I want it this way. Thank Him. Thank Him. It's a new way. It's new wine. And it's God's way. No man having drunk old wine straightway desires new. The old wine satisfies us and we don't even want the new. Don't be surprised when God begins to reveal areas in your life that you have become satisfied in, keeping you from desiring Him. He's going to do it. As we close, I want to ask a question, a rhetorical question, one that you don't have to answer out loud. Are you prepared to hear what the Spirit is saying to your ear? He who has what? An ear. Some of us might need to go home and take some Q-tips and clean out that wax because we haven't been listening. Or maybe some of us have listened, but we have decided that we're not going to go that way. Are you prepared to simply say, Lord, I want You to take my ear, the ear of my heart, open it up and let me hear Your Word. Deliver me from what satisfies other than You. Deliver me from the old. Deliver me from my way. Deliver me from what I like. Deliver me from everything keeping me from being a vessel through whom Your life can flow. Let's bow our hearts for a few moments.