S9 Episode #1- Made New with Jes French

THE ONE WITH Jes + MADE NEW

This week on The Collected Podcast we’re kicking off Season 9 with a hope‑filled message about what it means to be made new in Christ. Jes shares the story of how God transformed her heart in 2019 through three powerful Words: freedom from old patterns, the joy of becoming “new wine,” and the slow, beautiful fermenting work of spiritual maturity. She then invites listeners to see how Jesus Himself brings new life through Scripture, from the bleeding woman to Jairus’ daughter. If you’re longing for renewal, encouragement, or a reminder that God is already at work behind the scenes, this episode will meet you tenderly and call you forward into the new life He is forming in you.

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I wanted to kick off the season with a message that has been on my heart for a long time. This is a Word/theme that God used to transform my life in 2019 and has been a constant companion in my heart ever since. So today I want to remind you that YOU ARE MADE NEW. YOU ARE NEW WINE. 

We’re going to dig into this today in 2 ways. First, through parts of my own story, and second we will look at how it was a vital part of the life and ministry of Jesus. 

So back up with me to January 12th, 2019. It was my 32nd birthday and it would end up being a significant turning point for me. The whole year before I had been in an on-again-off-again relationship with someone who I knew deep down would never actually commit to me. It was certainly not the first time that I had found myself in this kind relationship… but it turns out that it would be the last (I just didn’t know it yet). So my prayer that night on my birthday was this: 

“LORD, Heal my heart from the past year. Fill me with the strength and gumption to not go back to a place of settling for less than your best. 2018/31 was defined by reverting to old habits. I desire for 2019/32 to be defined by developing a real love that will last. Make me new. Write a new story.” 

When I wrote that prayer, I had no idea that 2019 would be the year I’d start dating the man I would eventually marry. I also had no idea that the very next day this man would randomly show up at a church event I was attending and I’d get a glimpse of His heart for God in a way that I never had before, even though we had been friends for years. On January 12th, 2019, I had no idea how close I was to seeing the answers to my prayers. I didn’t know what was in store, but God was already at work, even though I couldn’t see it. 

Now I promise this all relates to “New Wine”... But I’ll get to that in just a moment. Right now I feel like there is someone listening who needs the reminder that the answer to your prayers and your heart’s deepest desire could be closer than you’d ever imagine. The Lord is always at work behind the scenes, so please don’t lose hope. Continue to place your trust in the goodness and provision of God. This time of waiting is not wasted. God is developing things in you that He will use for your future.  Hold on to the hope that is rooted in the promises of Christ. 

Ok, back to New Wine. So I now know that I’m married to Jon, but in 2019, as we were just starting to spend time together, I was constantly fighting the temptation to go back to old habits, old fears, and old insecurities. I would soon realize over and over again throughout that whole year that there was a lot of work that God still had to do in my heart and life in order to teach me how to walk confidently in my identity of who I was created to be so that I would not fall so easily back into old patterns. Or if I did start to slip back into old insecurities, I could recognize them more quickly and not give them the same power over my choices and emotions. 

Throughout the summer of 2019 I received 3 very clear words from God: 

The first was on a night in June– I was washing my face, getting ready for bed, and I was assaulted by these intense feelings of doubt and insecurity. That I wasn’t enough, that Jon would never actually love me unless I could show him how much he needed me. That I needed to strive to earn his love and hold onto it so tightly because if I couldn’t control it, then it would all fall apart. It was a terrifying moment of reverting back to my old, toxic thoughts and patterns in relationships. But as I looked at myself in the mirror, I also felt something new and the words I spoke to my reflection in the mirror felt like a gift from God, I told myself, “Jes, You are new! You are FREE from those old patterns. So walk in your freedom and trust the work God is doing. He is doing something new.” 

This would become my repeated prayer for the summer. And I’ve come to realize in hindsight that the “new” thing God was doing wasn’t about giving me a husband, although that would happen years later, it was actually about teaching me to let go of  the need to control and to walk in freedom, peace and joy, regardless of what would or would not happen with Jon. 

So while this whole story would end up being the love story of those early months with Jon, it’s also, and arguably more importantly, the love story of Jesus healing my heart and showing me who I truly am in Him. So my prayer as I continue to share this story is that God would use it to stir something new in your heart and life as you listen because I fully believe that the Words God gave to me are also true for you. 

So I said there were 3 Words from God. That first one is June is like the thesis statement: You are new. You are free. So walk in your freedom and trust the work God is doing. The second Word came in July– I was at church one Sunday and I went forward for prayer after the service. A woman I didn’t know began to pray for me and while she was praying, this vivid picture came to my mind of gallons and gallons of red wine being poured over me and flooding the ground. Then Jesus was there and we were stomping/dancing together in the wine. It was this beautiful image of Jesus washing me in his wine and making me new. 

When the woman stopped praying, the image disappeared and I opened my eyes. Then she looked at me and said, "This may sound strange, but I feel like I’m supposed to tell you, ‘New again. It may not look the same, but it will be so good’.” 

Later that night, as I reflected on what had happened that day, I wrote this declaration in my journal, and as I read it, I want you to claim it over your life and circumstance as well. 

So here it is: “I am new. I am free from old patterns. I walk in freedom from fear and insecurity. I trust the new work that God is doing in my life. This is something different and it will be so good.” 

Amen! Repeat that over your life. This was true for me then, it is true for me now, and if you are in Christ, it is true for you too, even if you don’t fully believe it yet! 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that you are a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. 

The third Word came in August in the form of an email from a woman that I had interviewed on this very podcast. This is what she wrote– mind you, she had no idea of this made new/new wine theme that God had been weaving into my life. 

She wrote: “You are not in hiding. You are in a time of fermenting in the LORD. It’s a breaking down to soak in and become a richer, deeper version of yourself. It’s a season and it’s for your absolute good! As you continue to “ferment” in the Word and have conversations with God, you are becoming more like Him. You are maturing into a ‘fine wine’.” 

STOP. IT. Of course that made me weep back then and it still gets me emotional now. To feel so seen and loved by the Creator of the Universe. The same is true for you. He created you. He sees you. He loves you and He longs to speak to the deepest, most broken places in your heart and bring His healing, restoration and freedom. You are His New Wine. 

So 3 Words over the course of 3 months, each one becoming deeper, clearer and more significant. Such a beautiful reminder of the richness found in the LORD as he reveals himself more and more as we walk with Him over time. The first time I took hold of the Word “You are new”, I was caught in insecurities and fighting the desire to control. Yet, choosing to cast away all of those old doubts and fears in that moment in my mirror felt like a turning point that launched me into a whole new, beautiful season of depth with The LORD. 

If you are at a similar turning point, my plea for you would be that you do not let any sort of fear (of rejection or failure or whatever) cause you to close off your heart and place limitations on how much you can grow.  

NEW WINE SKINS 

Jesus has something to say about new wine as well. I want to spend the rest of our time together seeing how Jesus thought about “new wine” and the miraculous examples of how he made people new in the Bible.

In Matthew 9:14-17, the disciples ask Jesus why they aren’t spending time fasting like the Pharisees do. Jesus responds, “Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Or course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaning an even bigger tear than before. And no one puts new wine into old wine skins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”  

In the Enduring Word Commentary, David Guzik explains, “With this illustration of the wineskins, Jesus explained that He did not come to repair or reform the old institutions of Judaism, but to institute a new covenant altogether. The new covenant doesn’t just improve the old; it replaces it and goes beyond it… Jesus’ reference to the wineskins was His announcement that the present institutions of Judaism could not and would not contain His new wine. He would form a new institution – the church – that would bring Jew and Gentile together into a completely new body.”

Colossians 3:10-11 tells us, “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.” 

In other words, we cannot put the new wine of the Gospel in the old wine skin of legalism and Old Testament law. We cannot put new wine in an old wine skin of fear, insecurity and unhealthy patterns.  In Christ, you are made new and he doesn’t want to just come into your life, he wants you to come into His! 

THE BLEEDING WOMAN

As Jesus was having this conversation with his disciples, he was interrupted by Jairus, a leader in the synagogue whose daughter was dying. Jairus begged Jesus to come and lay his hands on the young girl so that he would be healed and live. 

I’m going to pick up reading the story in Mark 5:24-34…

“So Jesus went with him, and a large crowd was following and pressing against him. Now a woman suffering from bleeding for twelve years 26 had endured much under many doctors. She had spent everything she had and was not helped at all. On the contrary, she became worse. 27 Having heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothing. 28 For she said, “If I just touch his clothes, I’ll be made well.” 29 Instantly her flow of blood ceased, and she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

30 Immediately Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”

31 His disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing against you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’”

32 But he was looking around to see who had done this. 33 The woman, with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34 “Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed from your affliction.”

I love this story! It’s such a beautiful picture of the new life that we have when we encounter Christ. This woman was considered unclean by the bleeding and therefore would have been shunned by society. She was alone, impoverished and without hope of a cure… Until Jesus. The woman is so desperate to get to Jesus, he is her only hope, her only chance at a new life free from the weight of her suffering. 

She reaches Jesus and her body is healed, but Jesus has something far greater in mind for her. Jesus stops everything for her and calls her out of the crowd. He declares that she is clean and free in front of all of the witnesses in the crowd. He restores not only her body, but her full place in society. She wanted healing from her illness, but Jesus saw the bigger picture and restored her life in more ways than she could have ever dreamed. 

JAIRUS’ DAUGHTER  

While this was happening, a messenger came with word that Jairus’ daughter had died. Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith and she will be healed.” And we read a few verses later, “Then Jesus took her by the hand and said in a loud voice, “My Child, get up!” And at that moment her life returned, and she immediately stood up!” (Luke 9:54-55)

Her life returned!! She was given new life! Christ raised her from the dead. And later in the Gospels Jesus himself would be raised from the dead, conquering the grave and fulfilling the law once and for all. 

NEW LIFE 

Romans 8:11 tells us that the “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.” So the same power that conquered the grave lives in you! How might you live differently if you truly believed that Christ’s resurrection covers every aspect of your life? What areas of your life do you need Jesus to move from death to life? That is what He is in the business of doing! 

The entire theme of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is resurrection– bringing things from death to life as God restores His creation and brings His people back to himself. We see this when God restored his people from captivity, when he brought life out of infertility, when he heals people and at times literally raises them from the dead. 

NEXT STEPS

Here are a few REFLEction questions to help you dip deeper this week!

  1. Where do you see “old wineskins” in your own life (habits, beliefs, rhythms, fears) that can’t hold what God is trying to pour in? 

  2. What is one area where you sense Jesus inviting you to “make room” for something new?

  3. Think about the healing of the bleeding woman and the way that Jesus stopped everything for her. What does this reveal about His character, and how does that challenge your view of Him?

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Thank you, as always, for listening! Please remember that everything we do is funded by those who benefit from our ministry. Our ministry a 501(c)3, so your contribution is tax-deductible.

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  • The Collected Podcast is a production of Collected Ministries, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping disciples of Jesus discover and live from their true identity in Christ, recognize and walk in their divine purpose within the Kingdom of God, and experience growth in their capacity for mature, healthy relationships.

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  • The Collected Podcast is produced by Jes French and edited by Jacob Early. Cover art designed by Ben Biondo.

Most Recent, Podcast Episodes, hope, InspirationJessica BiondorecentComment