CONSIDER THE SPARROWS - June 13th

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it is an exciting time to be following jesus i'm telling you something is happening in the house i am so excited so honored to share with you if you're new to vox my name is justin i'm the lead pastor we always like to take a moment to welcome all of our locations and so in worcester and in hartford and in springfield and in bridgeport and in stanford and in north america can we just say hello and in middletown we love you god bless you welcome to box church everybody joining us online thanks for being a part of our services today so grateful that you've taken some time out of your weekend to hang out with us and i just want to tell you friends the church has been on mission god has been moving in so many unique ways powerful ways i don't know if anybody was a part of our team's night friday night at any of our locations we had a great time and just really celebrated a number of our volunteers and so so thankful for that but we put together just a short video to show you a glimpse of what's been happening in the area of outreach in the last couple of weeks and months and i'm telling you it's been so exciting week after week after week to hear the testimonies of god on the move through his church so let's take a moment and watch across the first six months of 2021 we have found incredible ways to love our communities as a church our core value of city mission comes to life as we play an active role within the communities that we are honored to be a part of our outreach teams seek to share the love of christ through word and deed we desire to serve the greatest needs of our local communities through partnership with a heart of compassion and grace as jesus would here's a quick recap of some of the highlights just from the first half of this year our vox kids and vox outreach teams got creative this easter and delivered over 300 youth and egg kits to families in our church community these families then went out and set up a full easter egg hunt experience for another family and invited them to church we've been able to deliver lunches and cookie baskets to honor teachers and thank them for how they have gone above and beyond to teach students during this trying season our springfield campus has hosted laundry buy downs blessing local community members at laundromats our hartford campus has partnered with local schools to help beautify the grounds and has also started a new partnership with ebenezer pentecostal and foodshare to help regularly distribute groceries to those in need our new haven campus partnered with downtown evening soup kitchen and helped them move into their new permanent space that will serve as a drop-in center for those experiencing homelessness we also received 24 pallets worth of donated items valued at over 150 000 that were then distributed to over 25 local organizations along the shoreline and southern connecticut we hosted a church wide serve our city day on june 5th and had the opportunity to mobilize 150 people in our church to serve at 24 organizations across connecticut and massachusetts what a joy it is to serve together as a church we are confident that the remainder of this year will bring forth many more opportunities to love our neighbors well and to serve the least of these and we have been deeply blessed to see how god is using his people and the resources of his church to expand his kingdom in this region come on in that awesome thank you jesus thanks for being a part of everything that's happening here we've got an exciting summer plan by the way i'm so excited about the month of july walking through the book of philippians and we'll have a devotional available to everyone at the church for the month of july to go with us through the book of philippians so that's going to be a great time then some big stuff planned for august church we turned 10 in september isn't that exciting 10 years old so we've got some very very exciting 10-year anniversary plans coming up but i also have a book coming out this september that i'm really excited about been working on it for a number of years talking about discipleship and what does it really mean to have an intentional plan for spiritual growth and so in september we'll be walking through the content of that and i really believe it's going to be one of the most significant times in our church to see incredible personal and then collective growth in our spirits isn't that exciting some exciting stuff coming up awesome for those of you that have been with the church for a number of years now you know that we are six months away from completing a two-year generosity campaign that started in december of 2019 called wake my heart and so we've been walking through that campaign and one of the key things that we focused on was the construction of our first anchor location go ahead and first put that first picture up there for me would you there it is folks it's happening i don't know if you've been up to 131 commercial parkway yet but i encourage you come visit us if you're able to i know our worcester and springfield people it might be a little far but uh but every single day more and more is getting done on this facility it's very exciting there's the frame the whole structure is built the roof goes on very soon and then walls and on and on we are going to hold services there this year in jesus name and so very excited about that so everybody that's been a part of this campaign thank you thank you thank you for your faithfulness thank you for your consistency right now as we wrap up the last six months of 2021 we're trending about 12 behind and so we're really trusting god every single time you give whether it's a dollar or a million dollars it's going towards the mission of the church to plant churches reach people with the gospel and continue to expand the reach of the people of god and so we're thankful thankful for you thankful for your generosity and i just encourage you keep trusting jesus and keep going with us you know i was talking to somebody recently and they were like wow this church is really expanding what grants do you have what foundations support you and i said no it's just just me and my friends it's just us there's no grants there's no foundations just a bunch of us who believe in this mission that's what it is and that's it that is what it is right i mean i don't know if you knew that but that's what it is that's what's making this thing move forward by the sacrifice of god's people and so it's awesome it's awesome matthew chapter 10 matthew chapter 10 i've got a word for you today i am so excited to share this word with you jesus speaking to his disciples he says this so have no fear of them this is verse 26 for nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known what i tell you in the dark say in the light and what you hear whispered proclaim on the housetops and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell are not two sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father but even the hairs of your head are all numbered fear not therefore you are of more value than many sparrows if you want to jot some notes down today i want to talk to you on the topic consider the sparrow consider the sparrow i think god has a word for you in middletown in hartford right here in new haven at every one of our locations let's open our hearts to jesus lord we thank you for this truth found in the scripture i pray that it would come alive to our hearts i know in this room today across all locations and everybody at home there is so many nuances to our stories god each of us going through different things at different times and i thank you that you are the god who is there that you are present right now in our story and so i pray for my brother today i pray for my sister that god in jesus name you would take this word and you would make it true and relevant to us individually and uniquely in christ's names we pray amen amen amen fear not fear not right the most frequently repeated command in all of scripture fear not fear not fear not fear not fear is a big deal right there are layers and complexity to fear you know there's a good fear i think we all know that not all fear is bad and so there's a good fear like i'm afraid to stick my hand in a fire right like i'm afraid to lean over the side of the empire state building you know there are good fears natural fears fears that god has placed in our hearts our biology has certain fears built into it to keep us safe and that's a good thing but all of us know that it doesn't take long for fear to become unhealthy for fear to become imbalanced you know and i think this last year of all times fear is at an all-time high all of us have experienced the reality of an exaggerated radical fear that many times is warranted other times is out of control but this idea that like you know if i'm next to a person now and they start coughing i have a slightly different reaction if i'm honest than i did two years ago two years ago i'd even noticed them now i'm like get away from me you know like i mean like you know it's a different mindset you know have you found yourself like opening a door and after you touch the doorknob you're like you know like that wasn't the way it was before fear i feel like has just been growing growing and growing and it takes all different forms you know there was a time in my life where i would have said i don't really have any fears i would have said that because i'm not afraid of spiders i'm not afraid of heights i don't have any of like those types of fears but i think the deeper i've gone with jesus the more i've realized that fear is a part of my life unhealthy fear has been a part of my life that at times i've been afraid of losing control i think this last year has certainly exposed that to some degree at times i've been afraid of other people's opinions what they think of me or what they say of me at times i feel like i've been afraid that god wouldn't come through i wonder what fears you're dealing with right now and maybe they're not exaggerated expansive phobias but maybe it's a fear of being alone maybe it's a fear of never finding that person or not being able to pay the bills or whatever it might be for you and i think some of us you know we're afraid of commitment afraid of missing out and so we're never able to commit to anything because we're afraid that if we commit to it there won't be the options and so it's destroying the relationships in your life it's destroying any depth in your life some of us were incredibly afraid of failing because you failed in the past and now that you've failed a few times it feels like man i don't know if i can risk it again because if i risk it again what if it doesn't happen what if it doesn't come through somebody in the room today you are afraid that you're not qualified you're afraid that you don't have the smarts that you don't have the right background the right education that you can't thrive in your current environment because something disqualifies you from being as sharp as that person as good as the other person you know i think every single one of us has fears i want to suggest to you today that right now fear is trying to make its home in your life i don't know exactly where or exactly how but it's working maybe in a few different corners of your soul to get a root to root down and to be a part of your daily experience the medical profession tells us that fear wreaks havoc on the body that the human body is not built to carry excessive fear and so fear weakens your immune system it disrupts your digestive system it damages your cardiovascular system some of us you know struggle with this idea of ptsd post-traumatic stress you know where just a smell or a sound can bring you right back to a circumstance that happened years ago you know what i'm talking about where you know it happened years ago but it's still happening for you because every time you hear that sound every time you see that person every time you smell that smell you're right back there again and that fear just wells up inside you that's post-traumatic stress all these different experiences with fear for some of us it's really big and obvious like people would say oh she's a fearful person but for others of us it's not so big and not so obvious and people would say nah nah he's fine he doesn't have any fears he's not really worried about anything but you know you know behind the surface behind the scenes those fears are playing in the back of your mind they're limiting you they're keeping you and you know fear has a way of expanding doesn't it it has a way of expanding i remember when i was in youth group you know back in the day as a teenager they told me that fear was false evidence appearing real that's pretty good right anybody ever heard that before come on you get false evidence appearing real it's actually a pretty good definition because fear does seem to expand and expand and expand and expand in our minds you know i told you guys just a couple weeks ago i had the opportunity to go out to montana and i spent some time with a number of pastors from all across the country and we were just relaxing having some fun getting to know each other we went fly fishing i went fly fishing for the first time i'm not very good at it but that's okay i'm you know i got better by the end but but the first night we were there they had us stay in these tents in the middle of the wilderness of montana so i'm out there in this tent right and i mean i content it with the best of them but i'm not like a tent guy you know what i mean and so and so like i'm out there in this tent and it's like 20 degrees in montana okay and so it's very cold i finally fall asleep and about two in the morning i start hearing something outside the tent i hear this and i'm like oh that's not good and so i look up and about two feet from my head there's like the crease in the tent there is a mass that i can see the reflection of the moon i can see a silhouette of this something sitting it's like two feet from my head and it's sitting right there and it's scratching above my head and so i start doing inventory i wonder what creatures live in montana you know oh yeah every creature lives in montana and so i'm thinking to myself is it a raccoon is it's too big to be a squirrel what is this thing it's scratching and i just you know the first feeling i had i'll be totally honest with sheer terror i mean i'm like a city boy i'm like what am i doing i'm in montana and there's a scratchy creature two feet from my head outside this tent what is going on and then i got over it i cast out the demons in jesus name i went back to sleep and i woke up again at four o'clock to scratching scratching scratching and now i'm doing the inventory of every mammal i can think of you know i'm like is it a possum is it is it it can't be it can't it's too big to be a rat what could this thing be it's scratching out there and i'm i'm going through all the different things in my mind and finally 5 30 it wakes me up again and i'm like this is it i got to face my fears i got to get this thing out of here and so i you know kind of get my strength together pray a few prayers to jesus i'm wearing my boots and my shorts in the middle of montana out in the wilderness and i step outside the tent and i'm like whatever it is i had no weapon i thought i'm just gonna face it with my bare hands like samson it's gonna be fine and i'm just walking around true story two weeks ago i'm walking around the tent and then i lock eyes with the creature and here's what was on the tent you can put the picture up there a freaking chicken had found its way into the camp and had perched itself right above my head on the tent and had been scratching its little chicken claws all night long and it just looked at me went and then just shuffled away and i thought man are you kidding me how much of my life's energy has been wasted worrying about chickens how much of your life's energy has been wasted worrying about something that's not even a threat that can't even do anything and i love matthew chapter 10 because jesus is sending his disciples out on a mission to reach the world i mean no big deal just go out and reach the whole world right and so they're on this mission to reach the world and he says listen boys it's going to be tough they're going to be persecuting you you're not going to get always the respect and the honor that you deserve but i want you to step out and believe and you know i believe that that's a moment for vox church right now that god is calling us even now to step out in greater ways to trust jesus in bigger ways both personally and collectively and so this passage really resonates with me because this is the moment that we're in to step out in faith to be the people of god and to stand for the things of god in our time but jesus in the midst of this sending out says to his disciples something kind of radical he says now listen listen listen i'm talking to you listen listen listen don't fear anything that's it go ahead on your way and like you hear that you go um sorry i feel like that's a little unrealistic you know like i don't know that many people who don't fear anything and and those that do are probably lying and i i feel like you know i don't get it jesus that doesn't really sound like a realistic command to me at this stage of life and i think jesus in this moment would say listen listen listen listen listen i know you're inside the tent and from your perspective that thing looks dangerous and things look you know that silhouette that you see the scratching that you hear i know that from inside the tent it seems unrealistic to have no fear but let me tell you something today i'm outside the tent i see what you can't see and i'm out there and i'm looking down on what you're so afraid of and i can see that it's just a chicken and so if you could just see how i see if you could just understand how i perceive reality that revelation of reality has the power to actually set you free from fear and give you the ability to live a fearless life this is real this is what he's actually calling us to he says if you knew what i know you wouldn't fear that trial if you knew what i know i'm talking to somebody today you wouldn't fear that tumor if you knew what i know you wouldn't fear that cancer if you knew what i know you wouldn't fear that accident if you knew what i know you wouldn't fear death itself he's saying if you could just see how i see it would change everything now is this real is this real or is this just the rantings of an unbalanced human no it's actually the most reliable words ever spoken and so he begins to help us understand how we can live that way in verse 28 look at what he says he says and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul rather everybody say rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell now doesn't jesus have a strange way of motivating us it's like wait a minute oh time out i thought you told me i'm not supposed to fear and now you're telling me i am supposed to fear so why am i supposed to fear if you're teaching me to not fear you just commanded me to fear not and then you told me to fear him what is this all about see he's introducing a very important understanding for the believer and it is the fear of the lord the fear of the lord he's saying that you as a christian need to operate with a fear of the lord it's not a phobia it's not a terror okay that's not the type of fear he's talking about it doesn't mean you're scared of god even though it does have awe and reverence mixed into its understanding but to fear the lord means to be overwhelmed with reverence towards god to fear the lord means to value god so highly that you would be terrified to ever be apart from him to fear the lord means to recognize his glory and his holiness and value him above all others come on somebody that's what it means to really fear the lord to say god i love you so much i'm so in awe of your glory your goodness your holiness your faithfulness i love you to such a degree that god i'm terrified of ever being apart from you and what jesus wants us to understand is that to fear the lord means that you don't have to fear anyone or anything else he says listen only god can throw a man into hell and so he says you have to understand you're an eternal being you're going to live forever a hundred million years from now you still exist this is real to jesus and he said all that anyone in this world or anything in this world can do all that they can do is dispatch your soul to paradise that's the only thing it can do and so if you trust me and you die you're gonna literally be in my presence in paradise in an instant and so if you understand that it changes the trajectory of your fears and the worst doesn't look so bad see what he's saying is i've already traveled death i've already been there and back and now outside the tent i can see that the things that scare you are actually just chickens in disguise that's it he said i could tell you that proverbs 14 is true that the fear of the lord is a fountain of life that's what solomon wrote the fear of the lord is a fountain of life because if you reverence god above all else you'll find a supernatural freedom from fear you'll find a supernatural freedom and this is so critical because you know fear is always trying to limit your life it's like a governor on the motor of your soul you ever been in a vehicle where there's a governor where the odometer says that you can go 85 but the governor stops you at 45 and so you're unable to go it's a frustrating thing and so when you're in that vehicle it's like you're pushing and pushing and pushing but the the governor just stops the vehicle from it has greater capacity but it's not able to access the capacity that it has in the same way fear puts a governor on your life where you have greater capacity you have greater opportunity to see god move to be healed to be full of joy to experience life and yet because of that fear i'm talking to somebody because god's going to deliver you today because of that fear you find yourself always stuck at 45. today's your day to go a little faster in jesus name amen i believe it oh he brought you here did you think he just came for no reason no no he brought you here for a purpose verse 29 look at it with me he says are not two sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father but even the hairs of your head are all numbered if you're not therefore you are of more value than many sparrows what's he trying to get us to understand god is more involved than you realize this is a word for somebody he's more involved than you realize you know we often look at life and we see it as sort of a machine that runs itself you know winter spring summer fall you know all the different mechanisms of the world and it is true that there are systems that god has put into place but what jesus is saying is that it would be a great mistake to think that god is disengaged he is actually actively a part of all things that are happening in this earth to a very minute degree in psalm 147 we're told that he makes the grass grow on the hills i don't know about you but my grass on my hill has been growing a little too fast so i'd be like if you could just cut it down a bit i feel like i got to cut it every four days but but he is the one making the grass grow on the hills psalm 135 he makes the clouds rise in the sky did you ever think that every single morning god paints a new sunrise but don't you realize that every hour all across the globe there's a sunrise somewhere which means that god is perpetually painting new sunrises for our eyes to see and sometimes the clouds cover them and we can't see them and those are the ones he just keeps to himself he still paints the sunrise but he does it above the cloud so the pilots get to see it that's it and so god is always working and i love how he emphasizes every single detail he says don't you understand try to get this in your head this is crazy god ordains and approves the death of every little sparrow the days they live the days they die there is the providential hand of god overseeing it all now there's 1.6 billion sparrows on planet earth right now okay 1.6 billion i don't know whose job it was to count them that's a bummer but that's the number that google gives us 1.6 billion sparrows and they are the most widely distributed bird on planet earth they are all over the place but there's 50 billion birds worldwide and so 50 billion birds god's keeping track of every single one of them but not just the birds it's the grass but not just the grasses the clouds but not just the clouds it's the sunrise on and on and on and on and on he's involved in it all and then he makes it incredibly personal and he starts talking about the hairs on your head he starts talking about some of you it's like well there's not that many but then there's some of you it's like i got so many hairs by the way blondes have the most hair of all people on the planet blondes have the most number of hairs on their heads so way to go blondes uh but all of us with darker hair who cares about them we've got uh we've got our thing going on but about a hundred thousand hairs 130 000 if you have blonde hair but 130 thousand hundred thousand hairs on a human head where you lose about 50 to 100 a day 50 to 100 a today just fall out but uh this means that god there's about eight billion people on the planet we're climbing towards eight billion pretty quickly this means that according to jesus now i don't think he's kidding i don't think this is hyperbole this is actually true he's telling us that there's a god in heaven who actually keeps track of the 800 trillion hairs presently on planet earth and that he knows the give or take variation of about 800 billion a day that fall out and he could tell you at any moment of time the exact number of hairs on your head he could tell you something about you this is important that you don't know about you in other words he knows you so much better than you know you he knows you so well that he knows your fears better than you know him he knows your strengths better than you know him he knows every nuance of your life better than you know it that's what jesus is trying to get us to understand that there's a god in heaven who actually knows you so well that he could right now tell you that you have one hundred thousand and seven hairs on your head he knows the exact number at any moment now the question that i want to ask as soon as i hear that is why would anyone count that many hairs that seems like a lot of work for a lot of nothing right but he does it he's not kidding he does it why because it's a picture of how much he cares for you and i want you to understand this this is so important it's the revelation that allows jesus to live without fear it's a picture of how much he cares for you that there's a god who is all-powerful who is sovereign over all things and he knows you and cares about you that much now here's an obvious question that i think most christians have never applied shouldn't that change the way i live shouldn't that change the way i see life and think about life because somebody's here today right there in springfield joining us online you're here today and you've been struggling with that feeling like nobody cares struggling with that feeling like nobody knows me nobody values me friend hear the word of the lord today hear a whisper in your soul from heaven today what if this is true come on every one of us what if this is real what if there really is a god like this which leads me to a deeper question and that is who is god to you let's just think about it for a second who is god to you or another way of asking it is what name do you know him by see all of us go by different names right you might think no i only have one name not really you actually have multiple names all of us do right and so for example if the insurance company calls me i'm mr kendrick that's what they call me i'm mr kendrick but if you and i hang out you're just gonna call me justin because that's my name it's the name mommy gave me right and so justin or mr kendrick but if i'm with my wife she calls me babe which i like i don't mind if she calls me babe you can't call me babe but she can call me baby isn't it awkward and someone you don't know calls you babe it's like inappropriate please don't do that but but she can call me babe i've got four little kids who call me daddy right all different names but the same person see the name that you call god is important the primary name that you know him by who is he to you and in the bible god has given dozens of names but you know what i've realized the trust you have for god it comes from the primary name that you know him by in fact in psalm 10 or verse chapter 9 verse 10 in the psalms the writer says that those who know your name trust in you which is important listen to that those who know your name trust in you in other words the degree of trust you have for god has to do specifically with the name that you know him by and in this text jesus gives us the name that can silence every fear he gives us the name that we can know god by that changes the dynamic of every single aspect of our lives and we've already read it twice but most of us missed it as we read it because we haven't understood the importance of the revelation behind this name are not two sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father there's the name notice that he doesn't say my father god is in fact jesus his father he called him that many times but he doesn't say that instead he says your father your father your father now in one sense god's the father of creation right he's he's created all things and so in that sense he's the father of christian but that's not what jesus is talking about here he's saying that because of something that christ came to do it's changing the fundamental dynamic between you and god so that now you can have an intimacy with him you can have a relationship with him that was unparalleled and unprecedented before christ's act and so jesus came he died on the cross he rose from the dead and he did all this to reestablish relationship between you and god to remove the barrier of sin to remove the wall of sin so that now you could know god not just as judge not just as ruler not just as sovereign but as father so that there could be an intimacy an assurance a certainty that god has your best entrance in mind that he's always going to walk with you stay with you keep you and hold you because he's not just a transient distant being he is in fact a present help in a time of need he's your father see that to the degree that you know that he's your father that's the exact degree that you'll experience freedom from every fear fear not therefore fear not you know god god he's often speaking in layers i love this about god he's a lot deeper than you think a child can understand it but the greatest professors on the planet hardly grasp the fullness of his truths he's always speaking in layers he's saying one thing but then he's saying a deeper one thing at the same time that he's saying the one thing that he was saying and this is not the first time in the bible that two sparrows are mentioned no not two sparrows sold for a penny every good jew that heard jesus say that would knew that he was talking about something he was referencing something in particular two sparrows were sold for a specific reason you know think about it how many times in your life have you bought sparrows probably not that many times back in the day they didn't buy sparrows for pets they didn't buy sparrows for food they weren't good for either of those things they only bought sparrows to fulfill the requirements of leviticus 14. and so any jew that heard jesus say are not two sparrows sold for a penny immediately their mind would go to leviticus 14 because they knew the law they knew why they sold sparrows at all why you would be buying two sparrows and so leviticus 14 god outlines the process of the cleansing of a leper and a leprosy in the bible is a constant picture of sin okay so leprosy rots your skin on the outside okay and it's incurable so also in the same way sin rots you on the inside and is incurable human beings cannot cure it and so leprosy is this constant picture of sin in leviticus chapter 14 god gives the instructions for how a leprous person can be cleansed now remember all things in the old testament are a shadow pointing to the fulfillment which is christ in the new testament look at what it says in leviticus chapter 14 about the cleansing of a leper it says the lord spoke to moses stay with me saying this shall be the law of the leperous person for the day of his cleansing he shall be brought to the priest and the priest shall go out of the camp and the priest shall look then if the case of leprous disease is healed and a leprous person the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live clean birds that word birds in the hebrew is the word for sparrow two live clean birds these sparrows and cedar wood and scarlet yarn and hyssop and the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water that hebrew word fresh if you have a little in their bible you'll notice there's a little asterisk there it's living water it's the word for living in hebrews so over living water he shall take the live bird with the cedar wood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water and he shall sprinkle it seven times on him is to be cleansed of the leprous disease then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field now on surface this is a very strange ceremony right i mean there's all kinds of weird things going on there you got a priest you've got two birds you've got the sparrows right you've got one sparrow that's going to be killed and an earthen vessel over water and then be set free you've got the cedar and the hyssop now cedar and hyssop were well-known allegories in the old testament and the new in fact there was a statement that the old uh law leaders of the law would make where they would say from the cedar to the hyssop see the cedar was the royal wood it was the highest of the high that's what they built the temple out of but the hyssop it was just a spongy small plant and so if you were going to go from the highest of height to the lowest of low the phrase would be you went from the cedar to the hyssop okay and so these prophetic pictures exist within this then you've got this scarlet thread which represented blood the blood of the sacrifice because the jews knew that it was the blood that tied everything together and so they tied everything together with this scarlet thread okay and so one bird died and the other bird was covered in the blood of the one who died and then it was set free i'm not sure if you're catching the analogy that's being painted in leviticus 14 thousands of years before christ would come but god is symbolically showing us how he intends to cleanse you from every sin you've ever committed see the two birds represent you as you stand before god you stand before god whether you realize it or not right now you stand before god he sees you fully he sees you absolutely and completely exposed and the two birds represent your standing before god okay these two sparrows but rather than standing alone you notice that there was two that someone is standing with you and the first bird represents the one who would stand with you the one who would go from the cedar to the hyssop the one who would go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows i wonder why they stretched out the hyssop branch and jesus drank from it on the cross and then said it is finished from the cedar to the hyssop but we're told we're told that he's going to die in an earthen vessel and that he's going to be filled with living water but that after he dies his blood is going to cover you and then once you've been covered you're free so jesus smiles at the disciples and he smiles at them and says you know the one who fell to the ground did not do it apart from your father in other words god always had a plan for your redemption he always had a purpose for your freedom in other words he was saying i am the one who has gone from the cedar to the hyssop i abode with god in heaven and i came down and died on a cross and i've come in an earthen vessel i am spirit and yet now i inhabit a body i am full of living water the spirit of god abides in me i will shed my blood and like a scarlet thread it will tie everything together in your life so that the sinner can be cleansed and so that you can be free and you can know for all time that fear has no power in your life because his father has become your father and god always takes care of his kids come on somebody he wants to set you free today i believe something's gonna shift in your heart i believe that even right now god has gone to such great lengths to get your attention he's written his plan in a thousand stories just so that your heart can believe just so you can get out of unbelief and into faith and even right now the spirit of god is in this place at every one of our locations and he's drawing you calling you pulling you saying you don't have to entertain that fear about making those bills anymore you don't have to entertain that fear about what happens to my oldest child you don't have to entertain that fear about what if the doctor says this you don't have to live in the cage of fear anymore he wants to set you free he wants to set you free right now imagine what your life would look like if you actually tapped into a fearless way of living what could god do through you if the governor gets taken off and now you can experience your full capacity before god i believe he wants to do that in your heart today i believe he wants to meet you today so let's pray and ask him at every one of our locations if you're joining us online would you stand your feet right here right now let's open our hearts to god i've been praying for you i've been praying for a fresh awakening a fresh awakening on the inside a new courage a new assurance for some of us that fear has been growing on you like a mold these last 15 16 months and today god is just gonna power wash you he's gonna blast all that mold off your soul so that that little fear that's been growing in the background is just gone today in jesus name that when you leave the house today there's an assurance of confidence that god is for me not against me that he's my father and that he loves me and that as i trust in christ the fear of the lord is a fountain of life as i trust in him and i aw and reverence and and honor him with my whole life i don't have to fear a single thing that the fear of the lord really is a fountain of life in my soul i want to pray for you i want to pray that god baptizes you in a fearless spirit today i want to pray that god fills you with a confidence that never cowers i believe that today represents the next level in your life that there's no turning back that this is in fact a turning point moment across the jordan moment where you were in one place when you came in and you are now at a different place when you leave that's my prayer of faith and even as we worship today god is going to meet you and he's going to do a work in you that you've never experienced before because now is the time for his people to be set free with a courageous spirit so let's pray church right there in stanford right there in hartford right here in new haven let's pray because i believe that even now the holy spirit's going to come upon you and we're going to worship jesus together so lord jesus you know every story every detail every concern every frustration every challenge you know all the false evidence appearing real you know all the chickens sitting outside our tents that we've obsessed over and been afraid of not realizing how pathetic our fears really are when we see them from your point of view and so i pray holy spirit that you would come upon your people even now i thank you that you've not given us a spirit of fear but of power of love and of self-control and so i pray even now that you would baptize us in a courage that can only come from heaven i pray that the mold of our fears would be blown off by the living water of your spirit today holy spirit come upon your people i just sense your presence here even now as we begin to worship you exalt you and honor you i pray that you would meet us in our fears and bring freedom like we've never known in jesus name come on church you

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Id: Ti_MyV_tsB0

Length: 41min 33sec (2493 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 12 2021