Leave Your Labels Behind: Receive New Wine

Jul 19, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: When Labels Stick Like a Baby Moose’s Awkward Run

A gangly adolescent moose lumbers across a basketball court—a vivid image of how others’ words can shape our self-perception. Labels spoken over us often root deeper than intended, twisting identity. Jesus confronts this reality by meeting people exactly where their shame or others’ judgments have trapped them. His call cuts through the noise of every “not enough” or “too much” to speak a truer name. Healing begins when we let Christ’s voice drown out the old taunts. [52:26]

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)

Reflection: What label from your past still whispers lies about your worth? How might Jesus’ gaze upon you rewrite that story today?

Day 2: Leaving the Tax Booth Without a Backward Glance

Levi’s tax booth represented security, wealth, and societal contempt. Yet when Jesus said “Follow me,” he walked away without hesitation. The call to discipleship often demands abandoning what once defined us—even if it means losing comfort or reputation. Jesus prioritizes identity over occupation, purpose over profit. True freedom comes not from clinging to old systems but trusting the One who authors new beginnings. [57:19]

“After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. ‘Follow me,’ he said to him. And leaving everything, he got up and followed him.” (Luke 5:27-28, ESV)

Reflection: What “tax booth” have you been reluctant to leave? What might stepping into Christ’s invitation cost—and gift—you?

Day 3: New Wine Demands New Wineskins

Stiff, brittle wineskins crack under the ferment of new wine. Jesus’ kingdom cannot be contained by rigid religion or recycled self-effort. Transformation requires pliable hearts ready to stretch with grace. Just as Levi’s banquet welcomed “unholy” guests, God’s Spirit reshapes our inner patterns to hold His disruptive, life-giving work. We become vessels for renewal when we release control. [12:46]

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.” (Luke 5:37-38, ESV)

Reflection: Where is God asking you to surrender old containers for His work? What rigid mindset needs softening to receive His newness?

Day 4: Good Trees Don’t Strain to Bear Fruit

An apple tree doesn’t grunt to produce apples—it simply grows from its roots. Jesus cares more about our rootedness in Him than our frantic efforts to appear fruitful. Labels fall when we stop performing and start abiding. The Pharisees’ external piety masked hollow hearts; true change flows from intimacy with Christ. His presence, not our posturing, transforms us. [18:28]

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.” (Matthew 12:33, ESV)

Reflection: Are you straining to manufacture “fruit,” or sinking roots into Christ? What would it look like to let growth come from connection, not coercion?

Day 5: Sitting at the Table Before Scrubbing Clean

Levi hosted a feast for sinners before they’d “improved.” Jesus prioritizes presence over perfection, knowing transformation follows communion. We don’t clean ourselves to earn a seat—we come as we are, and grace does the scrubbing. Prayer and fasting aren’t bargaining chips but pathways to deeper knowing. The goal isn’t flawlessness but face-to-face encounter. [20:19]

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.” (Philippians 3:8-10, ESV)

Reflection: Do you approach God as a project to fix or a Person to know? How might sitting with Him—not striving for Him—shift your spiritual rhythm?

Sermon Summary

A baby moose running down a basketball court gives a funny picture of awkward legs and early growth, but the picture turns serious when words stop being funny and start becoming labels. Labels can get rooted deep in a soul. Labels can shift identity in a way Jesus never planned. The past can trap faith, trap life, and create patterns that feel impossible to break.

Luke 5 brings Jesus right into that place. Jesus meets Levi, a tax collector sitting at the tax booth, and says, “Follow me.” Levi was not just some tax guy. Levi had joined Rome, the oppressor, and had chosen money over family, friends, culture, and faith. Levi had become wealthy by taxing his own people and overtaxing them. The label “tax collector” carried hate, rejection, betrayal, and thief all wrapped together.

Jesus cuts through all that noise. Jesus does not stop at Levi’s label, sin, shame, or reputation. Jesus looks him in the eye and calls him into a new life. Levi leaves everything behind, gets up, and follows him. The old label gets abandoned, and a new identity begins.

The Pharisees show up as the religious label makers. The Pharisees had built systems outside the law, categories for who was righteous and who was a sinner. Their religion looked pretty on the outside, but Jesus called that kind of thing whitewashed tombs. Jesus breaks their categories because he did not come to reach only the cleaned-up people. Jesus came to call sinners to repentance.

The table at Levi’s house shows the heart of Jesus. Eating with tax collectors and sinners was not casual. It meant connection, welcome, and relationship. Jesus says that healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do. The point is not that some people are actually righteous without him. The point is that the people who already think they are good enough do not see their need for the doctor.

Repentance means a life turns. Performance cannot make a person holy enough for God. Sitting with Jesus, knowing him, and letting him invade the heart is where real change begins.

The new wine and old wineskins picture makes that plain. Jesus is not trying to pour the new covenant, the Spirit, and the new way of life into old labels and old religious systems. New wine needs fresh wineskins. The tree has to be made good for the fruit to become good. Jesus does not call a person to work harder at producing better fruit while the same old tree stays rotten. Jesus calls a person to become new, to leave the old life behind, and to follow him.

Key Takeaways

1. Jesus cuts through old labels Jesus does not treat Levi as the sum total of betrayal, greed, and public hatred. Jesus goes straight through the noise and speaks a new call over a life everyone else had already categorized. The old name does not get the final word when Christ says, “Follow me.” [62:28]
2. Repentance begins at Jesus’ table Repentance is not religious performance trying to impress God from a distance. Repentance begins where a sinner admits the need for the doctor and sits with Jesus instead of pretending to be healthy. The turn of life comes from his presence, not from keeping up a holy-looking image. [68:34]
3. New wine needs new wineskins Jesus does not pour his new life into old patterns that still cling to old labels. The Spirit’s filling belongs with a renovated life, a fresh wineskin shaped by repentance and surrender. Old religious systems and old self-made identities cannot carry the new covenant life Christ brings. [74:16]
4. God makes the tree new The goal is not to tape apples onto an elm tree and call it fruitfulness. Jesus makes the tree good, and then the fruit becomes good because the life has actually changed at the root. Knowing God is deeper than checking spiritual boxes, because transformation grows from communion with him. [78:28]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[51:49] - Baby Moose and the Power of Labels
[54:14] - Jesus Steps Into the Label Makers’ World
[56:46] - Levi the Tax Collector Is Called
[60:46] - Jesus Cuts Through the Noise
[63:36] - Levi’s Banquet and the Pharisees’ Complaint
[64:59] - The Sick Need the Doctor
[69:19] - Fasting, Prayer, and Performance
[72:26] - New Wine and Old Wineskins
[75:47] - Resetting Old Patterns
[77:52] - The Tree Must Be Made New
[80:57] - Repentance and Following Jesus

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Luke 5:27-32
“After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ And Jesus answered them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’” [00:57:04] [01:04:48]

Luke 5:33-39
“And they said to him, ‘The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.’ He also told them a parable: ‘No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, “The old is good.”’” [01:10:50] [01:12:29]

Matthew 12:33
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.” [01:18:19]

2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” [01:03:28]

Observation questions

In Luke 5, what two things does Levi do right after Jesus says, “Follow me,” and what does that show about the kind of response Jesus was calling for?
What complaint do the Pharisees make when they see Jesus at Levi’s house, and who exactly are they upset that he is eating with? [01:04:11]
In Jesus’ answer about the doctor and the sick, what contrast does he use, and what does he say he came to call sinners to? [01:04:48]
In the pictures of the garment, wineskins, and tree, what old and new things are being contrasted in each example? [01:18:19]

Interpretation questions

Levi’s label carried betrayal, greed, and rejection, yet Jesus still called him. What does that reveal about how Jesus sees a person compared to how society usually sees a person? [01:02:28]
Jesus says he came to call sinners to repentance, not the “righteous.” Does that mean some people truly do not need him, or does it expose something about people who already think they are fine?
Sharing a table in that setting meant welcome, connection, and relationship. What does Jesus’ choice to eat with tax collectors and sinners show about how repentance often begins? [01:08:34]
Jesus says new wine must go into fresh wineskins. What might “old wineskins” look like in a person’s life, especially if someone is trying to hold on to old patterns while also wanting the new life of Christ? [01:14:16]

Application questions

What label from the past still tries to speak over identity today—something said by others, something chosen personally, or something tied to old sin? What would it look like to leave that behind and answer Jesus’ call to follow him? [01:19:15]
Jesus meets people who know they need the doctor. Where is there a temptation to act spiritually “fine” instead of honestly admitting need before him? What would honest repentance look like in that area this week? [01:08:34]
It is possible to do prayer, Bible reading, or church activity mainly to feel good enough. When does faith start to feel more like performance than relationship, and what helps bring the heart back to simply sitting with Jesus? [01:19:47]
New wine does not fit in old wineskins. What old pattern, habit, or way of thinking seems most likely to burst under the pressure of new life in Christ? What kind of practical reset may be needed? [01:15:47]
Jesus makes the tree good so the fruit can become good. Is there an area where too much effort has gone into fixing fruit instead of letting God deal with the root? What might it look like to invite him into the deeper place? [01:18:28]
Levi left everything and then opened his home. After coming to Jesus, he did not hide; he brought others near. What could it look like to use home, table, time, or relationships to help other people encounter Jesus too?
God speaks a new identity over those who are in Christ. Which truths from Scripture need to be heard again and believed more deeply right now so that old names stop having the final word? [01:19:24]

Sermon Clips

38s

#JesusCutsThroughNoise

“``Jesus, when he when he meets us, he cuts through the noise. He cuts through the labels. He cuts through the sinfulness. He cuts through all the wrongs. He cuts through the, the duration that we've brought even into our own soul or that people have done to us. He cuts through all of that stuff, and he gets down into the heart of what we're of who we are and looks us in the eye as God sees us and says, follow That's the invitation. Leave it all behind and follow me.”

54s

#RootChangeNotPerformance

“So here's the idea that Jesus is wanting us to understand with our life and our pattern. And this is why repentance is so important. Fasting, prayer, sitting with him one day. And we're in that day where we fast and we pray. We're in that day. But again, not to try and earn something, to know him and be transformed. here's the deal. Jesus instead says, make the tree good and its fruit will be good. But if the tree is bad, the fruit will be bad. The key is not working harder to produce a different fruit. The key is a transformation through time with him that will produce different fruit. Jesus' goal in your life is to make the tree new and healthy and good. That's what he wants to do and it will produce different fruit.”

35s

#PursueGodNotPerformance

“Your goal is to know God. That's your goal. I wanna know you. I wanna sit with you. I wanna seek you. When I pray, it's not about being better. Look, I checked my prayer box today, my bible reading box today. What it's about is Jesus. I wanna know you deeper. Because when you know him in that place, that's where change happens. That's where transformation happens. And that's when we're open to receive in a sense the new wine.”

40s

#NewIdentityInChrist

“Leave it behind. And that's the calling of Christ that is upon every single life, that's upon the world. See, if you make a decision to follow Jesus, you're gonna be different. You're gonna change because God's not interested in the labels you put on yourself and the world put on you. What he's interested in is putting a new label on you, a new name given to you, a new person. And as we're gonna find out in the next little section, the new in a sense, the new wine. He wants to make you new and give you his holy spirit and fill your life.”

60s

#LeaveEverythingFollowJesus

“How could he ever be welcomed back in? How could he ever be a part of society again? How could he ever refined God again? All of these things. And yet Jesus cuts through all the labels of life. All the sinfulness that Levi had, all the labels the society put on him, all the rejection, all the disdain, all the things that everybody else has for Levi, Jesus didn't have it. He goes through the noise, he walks up to Levi, probably in the tax collector booth, looks him in the eye, and says, follow And this is his moment. Levi's got a choice. Right? What do I do when Jesus says, come follow me? What do I choose? Notice Levi's choice. What does he do? Leaving everything behind. He got up and began to follow him.”

58s

#JesusSitsWithSinners

“this this is often the problem with our society is we want to label everybody as I'm so good. Look how good I am. I'm a good person. So I don't need Jesus. The people Jesus sits with are the people that realize they need a savior, they need repentance, and they need change. They have labels on their life, and they've seen it, and they know where they're at. And they need somebody to cut through the noise, cut through the label, cut through their own wrongdoings, their own sinfulness, and to sit with them and save them. They need a life change. They need to turn. So Jesus says, I've come to sit with those people. I've come to be with you.”

63s

#RepentanceIsTurning

“So when we're in that place, this is the beautiful part. Jesus meets you in the place of the low. He meets you in the place of the realization that I'm not trying to be holy enough for God. I realize I need God to make me holy. I need God to invade my world and my life, my heart, my mind because there's wrong things and without him, I can't change. But with him, I can. See, it's only when Jesus I'm in the presence of Jesus that real true repentance and a turning of a life. And that's what repentance repentance means, is my life turns. Think about that. You're going one way, you go a different way. That's the word repentance. And when I realize I need that and I need my savior, that's when I get to sit with Jesus. You don't you don't need to perform for God. What you need to do is sit with Jesus and be with him.”

40s

#NewCovenantNotOldSystems

“He's saying that I'm not going to the, like, the infilling of the spirit, which is that new wine, the the new teaching, the new covenant, the new agreement that he is setting up, the new pattern of living, the new way to a relationship with God, all that newness. It doesn't get shoved into the old hat. As in it doesn't get shoved into the old label, and it doesn't get shoved into the old religious systems. It doesn't work. I I he's not come to set re kind of just reinvigorate the old systems. He came to reset the pattern, and he came to reset the system, make a brand new one.”

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