IT BEGINS TODAY | 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

he said what if we start a church that's crazy but it just might work but it just might work but then it all started with meeting in a house and those were special times though i mean we would just spend a couple hours just dreaming about church and what it could be and he remember he said he had mentioned he felt like the lord specifically spoke if you want to change your region you have to start with the city [Music] [Music] we want to be a church where the holy spirit's doing something incredible and lives are being transformed and we hear these stories week after week after week just like lives completely turned upside down for for for god out of all my understandings of like who god was who jesus was like walking into that space and god was like you're going to learn who i am in this place [Music] [Music] so [Music] i am so excited about what is happening right now in this community you know what's crazy 17 years ago it's amazing the way god works 17 years ago i was in this arena as a 21 year old kid sitting next to my fiance at the time i married her she's my wife now and i turned to her and i said one day we're going to have a church service in this place and then for the first for the first 17 years of the chur not 17 years of the church for the first 17 years after that my wife and i christie we lived just two minutes from here in the westville section of new haven the church started in our house in the section of new haven that's right around the corner from here and i would drive by this place all the time and every time i would drive by i would slow down and i would speak to the arena and i would say one day we're going to rent this place and we're going to worship jesus here in that wild we found a picture go ahead and put that picture up here's the picture if you have that picture of our first community group training that we had that's in my backyard in new haven in westfield the first community group training we had and so by god's grace in 10 years we went from there's the church to there's the church right glory to god glory to god so awesome i want to read a passage of scripture to you today in isaiah chapter 43 you can follow along with me it says this it says behold everybody say behold behold i am doing a new thing now it springs forth do you not perceive it i will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert i'm doing a new thing and now it springs forth do you not perceive it i'll make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert the title of the talk today is it begins today it begins today you might say wait wait wait no it doesn't this is a day of reflection 10 years it began 10 years ago for vox no actually god's doing a new thing right now he's doing a new thing in your life he's doing a new thing in your heart and it begins today 262 262 you know what that is that's the number of times the average american checks their cell phone on a single day 262 times the other day my son my 14 year old son he lost his cell phone and so i said because you know when you're a parent that's like one of your aces you know like give me that cell phone boy and so he i don't remember what he did but i took his cell phone i said give me that cell phone i had taken it for two hours okay two hours when i returned it to him he had 586 unread text messages now that's crazy who rose cops where are they who is texting my son that much who in the world could have that many texts in that short of time but this is normal we're always clicking always texting always scrolling i wonder if even for the next 10 minutes as i share today you could resist the compulsion some of you are looking at your phone i can see you you're looking at your phone right now and you're like well i'm taking a picture so that doesn't count right yeah you're looking at your phone it's so hard we're just so captivated so distracted so multitask driven right and i love this text because it begins with a powerful word it says behold behold you know what behold means behold means stop and pay attention pause what you're doing and consider and i really believe that the spirit of god wants us to behold for just a couple minutes on this 10-year anniversary and ask big questions like where are you not just geographically where are you but where are you in your soul where are you who are you who is god really called you to be are you called to be an employee are you called to pursue that career who are you really and where are we as a people as a community where are we you know we're living in a unique moment we're living in a unique moment in history and we can often forget that this is a wild truth but it's it is in fact true in the year 1800 for the first time in human history the population of planet earth hit 1 billion in the year 1800 in the year 18 1982 the year i was born the population of planet earth you can do the math the population of planet earth was 4.7 billion people okay today just 38 years later it's nearly doubled we're almost 8 million people on this planet no one has ever had the opportunity to reach so many people for christ as this generation has it's a crazy idea but there's all kinds of changes happening right now you know i just read a statistic recently that said that in the last two years the human race has created more data than every other year in the history of the human race combined we are in a technology saturated population exploding unprecedented time and we just found out right in the last 18 months that with an unprecedented time come some unprecedented challenges because what happens thousands of miles away in a small city somewhere on the other side of the world has significant impact for your life and for this city and for your family right and this kova 19 pandemic has impacted all of us four and a half million people have died masks vaccines travel being restricted but it's not just covet i don't know if you noticed the world is kind of going crazy did anybody notice that the world is i mean there's hurricanes there's earthquakes just a couple of months ago i drove down to florida and then i was driving back up and me and my boys on the way we got stuck in two different tornadoes driving on the way up i was like are you kidding this is nuts earthquakes hurricanes wars social upheaval deep political divides economic divides racial divides you look around and it seems like the world is just unhinged and people are angry about everything don't you dare get my dunkin donuts order wrong some of you like ew my starbucks order either one don't you dare get my order wrong because i'm gonna be angry i'm angry at the government angry at the schools i'm angry at the corporations i'm angry at other countries i'm angry at my neighbors i saw a bumper sticker recently i felt i felt uh connection with this the bumper sticker said i'm tired of being a part of a major historic event isn't that great i was like dude give me one of those i'll take my vox sticker off put that no no no no no no don't you do that i'm tired of being a part of a major historic event oh man but underneath it all you know there's all this external crazy but jesus knows there's some internal crazy come on somebody there's some internal crazy there's anxiety there's loneliness there's fear there's a restlessness two thousand years ago the disciples of jesus asked him they said what would it be like at the end of the age when christ returns what will it be like i just want to reflect on a couple of passages in matthew 24 look at what jesus says in response to that question he says you'll hear hear of wars threats of wars but don't panic some of us have been panicking he says don't panic yes these things must take place but the end won't follow immediately nation will go to war against nation kingdom against kingdom there'll be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world by the way in 30 years from now the human race will require 90 percent more food than what we produce today get ready there'll be famines and earthquakes many parts of the world but this is only the first birth pains there is more to come he goes on to describe what will happen to christians in the end of the age look at it with me in verse 12 10 he says and many speaking about jesus followers he says many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other verse 11 many false prophets will appear and deceive many people sin will be rampant everywhere and the love of many will grow cold he says that at the end of the age christians will get distracted christians will major on the minors christians will use church for their own ambitions and many will just simply wander away but i've got some good news for you that the bible does not just speak of a great apostasy it also speaks of a great revival the prophet joel tells us that in the last days says the lord i will pour out my spirit on all flesh your sons and daughters will prophesy your old men will dream dreams and your young men will see visions and so as i prayed about our 10-year anniversary i heard the spirit of the living god speaking something deep in my soul he said behold i'm doing a new thing i'm doing a new thing i love new things don't you i love let me just be straight with you i love a new pair of sneakers come on somebody say amen you feel better with a new pair of sneakers i do i love a new pair of speakers by the way shout out to our springfield campus who gave away 920 pairs of sneakers the other day come on somebody that's awesome [Applause] cheech was out there yelling no child we'll be left behind we'll get sneakers for all of you and all the people that have to organize are like what are you doing are you kidding we can't 920 sneakers later it's all good new cars new clothes those things actually do new things create kind of a new way of feeling a new perspective right i believe that today that the holy spirit has a new perspective for you i'm talking right you're 56 years old you're 14 you're 37 you came today i believe that the holy spirit has a new perspective for you you thought you were alone but the lord is gonna speak to your heart today and say no no i've surrounded you you thought that god was far away but the holy spirit's gonna leave you with the deep impression today that he is not at all far but he is in fact very near you thought that other things were more important but today the spirit of jesus is going to grab ahold of your heart somebody and he's going to give you a new sense of urgency to draw close to god it says now it springs forth that's an agricultural term behold i'm doing a new thing now it springs forth it's describing like a plant a little plant that breaks out of the ground and then he says do you not perceive it see sometimes we think that the things of god are going to be big right they're going to knock us over they're going to show us so clearly what god intends but the scripture tells us the prophet tells us that oftentimes when god speaks he speaks very quietly he speaks in such a way that it's easy to miss him that you can live your life i'm talking to somebody right now you can live your life while god is in the middle of doing a new thing and you don't recognize it you can be in the middle of the arena with your hands up and you can still miss the word of the lord if you're not careful behold i'm doing a new thing do you not perceive it he wants to get your attention he wants to arrest your focus now it springs forth i love that story of mary right mary goes to the grave of jesus on the third day on easter sunday and she weeps at the grave because the tomb is open the stone has been rolled away and there's no body there and she cries and cries because she assumes that someone stole the body and jesus christ risen from the dead walks up next to her and he says why are you crying and the bible tells us in that story in the gospel of john that she assumes that he's the gardener and she starts yelling at the resurrected jesus where have you put the body of my savior see her heart was so fixed on what was that she couldn't see god in the present tense she was looking for things from a natural perspective and all she could see was death but jesus was trying to teach her just like he's trying to teach you a supernatural perspective and it allows you by the spirit of god to begin to see the resurrection life you know the thing of god very often starts small i have to tell you the thing of god often starts small it's strange to say that when we're in an outdoor arena but it's so true by the way that's why we're so passionate about small groups you think i want to know god more i want to experience jesus more friend maybe it's time to stop watching that tv show on tuesday night and instead make some space for a small group take eight weeks here's a good challenge take eight weeks starting on september 26 and just try it it's a it's a money-back guarantee just try it take the book read the book meet with people eight weeks and watch how god transforms your life watch how that depression begins to lift watch how that anxiety begins to fade watch how that distraction comes into focus watch how god begins to work in your life in supernatural ways i love what margaret mead said so many years ago she said never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world indeed it's the only thing that ever has you know often times god's greatest things start small and i think that for many of us today it's going to be a small nudge from the holy spirit on the inside that god's calling you to a life of focus on him i'm talking right to you today he's calling you to change your priorities around he's calling you to put down your phone and lift up your eyes he's calling you to a place of attention to a place where jesus is more important than the kids sports i'm talking to somebody more important than the extra shift at work where jesus is more important than anything else in life where he takes center stage in your heart he's trying to do a new thing and he's got a little nudge for you today he's got a little voice for you today but this passage is not just about the prophetic word for the people of israel because at this time they were in captivity to babylon and god was going to set them free and he did in fact do it it was a prophetic word for that but the prophet isaiah was also pointing to something else he was pointing to something beyond israel he was pointing to his cosmic supernatural plan his ultimate new thing to redeem the world see for all of human history and this is the truth that changed my heart and that's changed so many of our hearts for all of human history human beings have had an awareness of god and yet a sense of distance from him you know what i'm talking about you know that he's there but you just feel far away that sense of distance the bible calls sin is the broken part of us that prefers to run my own plan instead of surrender to god's plan and that sin keeps us disconnected from god it keeps us disconnected from peace and so we search for meaning in so many ways and maybe you're here today and you came with a friend or a family member and you don't attend church you know jesus is not the center of your life and yet you find yourself with this sense of emptiness you find yourself with this sense of longing i want to tell you god wants to do a new thing in your life today right now he's calling you he's drawing you it's not an accident that you're here that restlessness inside of you is from the lord and so some of us you know we run to self-discovery that's very popular in our world today right we say i have to find myself justin i have to figure out what's right and what's wrong for me you know it's interesting i've talked to so many people who are on this journey of self-discovery and so they're trying this and doing that and sleeping with her and smoking with that and all these different things and what you discover at the end of all your self-discovery is not fulfillment but a greater sense of emptiness you realize that on the inside you're still void on the inside you still don't have peace and so some of us we go the opposite direction and we run to moral conformity right we say oh i'm just going to be a good person i'm just going to help an old lady across the street and give a dollar to the united way i'm just going to be a nice person and try to follow all the rules and that's enough isn't it and yet you still struggle with a sense of emptiness too just being a good person isn't enough it's not going to fill the void in your heart in fact if you try to be a good person you'll end up either self-righteous so confident in how good of a person you are or you'll end up self-condemned always feeling guilty always feeling ashamed never really free but the prophet isaiah is speaking of a new thing he's speaking of a new way to live that in the middle of our restlessness and loneliness and pride and fear that god himself put on flesh and bones and came right church and this is the very center of what we believe in our passionate about at vox that god himself came and he came in the most unexpected way he came as a baby in a barn right small things right now it springs forth do you not perceive it he didn't come with a cherry to fire or with clouds but as a little baby and jesus christ lived a perfect life as your representative hear this for the ten thousandth time or the first time he lived blameless and perfect for 33 years and then he willingly chose to die on the cross as a substitute for your sins so that in the incredible mystery of god one perfect man hanging on a cross could absorb your debt before a holy god so that now before you were born god saw your life from beginning to end every sin you would ever commit and he imputed the debt of your sin onto jesus christ on the cross so that in that moment as he hung on the cross and said my god my god why have you forsaken me he could receive all the penalty for your sin and you could receive all the blessing for his righteousness [Applause] somebody said good news good news what's the new thing the new thing is a new way of thinking about god the new thing is a new way of life a new frame for life and that frame the bible calls grace and that's at the very center of what we believe here at vox church grace grace is undeserved unearned favor that hardly he cares so much for you that he called you by name so that you could know him by grace that god calls each of us one by one by one in accordance with grace that if you would just believe that god is that good that he loves you that much that his kindness is that profound that you could receive that grace and then he tells us exactly what will happen it will be a way of life for you i'll make a way in the wilderness right it'll be a way of life for you and then a river in the desert a river will come out of your soul a river of peace a river of hope where there was anxiety there'll be confidence where there was uncertainty there'll be a new sense of joy a river of life because the spirit of god has changed your soul by grace friends this is real come on somebody but here's what i want to talk about today here's what i want to talk about today it's that this vision of grace that is at the very center of vox church it was always god's intention not to just have our hearts individually changed don't miss this because the pandemic has tested this okay it was always god's purpose to cultivate an alternative society to build a people who thought differently about life who banded together and looked nothing like the world but looked different a different way of life look how god describes this new community in the book of acts look at it with me it says and they that's the new christians they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching to fellowship to breaking a bread into prayer everyone was filled with awe and that crazy many wonders and signs were performed by the apostles all the believers were together had everything in common they sold check this out their property and the possessions to give to anyone who had need every day every day every day they continue to meet together in the temple courts they broke bread in their homes ate together with glad and sincere hearts praising god enjoying favor with all the people and the lord added to their number daily those who were being saved what made the church so different put that uh that slide up there for me five things first of all they had an unusual devotion i believe is what god's doing right now at vox church they had an unusual devotion when somebody gave them a book and said let's go further in christ they didn't go matt throw it under the car instead they said i'm going to devour this thing because i want to know him and on usual devotion and on usual devotions they gave themselves check this out to apprenticeship to jesus above all else that's crazy you think no no you should be more committed to career now you should be more committed to your family you should be more committed to your bank account not these people not the church they were committed to jesus come on somebody they were committed to jesus in an unusual devotion and then signs and wonders friends look around this is a sign and a wonder what the lord is doing right now right here is a part of the signs and wonders that god is manifesting in our time and then thirdly they had a dangerous unselfishness they said oh man you need a car here i've got a car oh you need help with this i can help with that oh let me get involved let me serve let me invest let me drop off those letters let me serve those underprivileged people a dangerous unselfishness and then personal application they actually lived this in their homes it was messy it was ugly it was sloppy it was imperfect but it was personal it wasn't just a big event they lived it in their lives and then the fifth thing they had open lives they welcomed people and listen you might be here you said just never been to church my whole life well you're welcome here you might say i've never read the bible never opened it my whole life well you're welcome here you say i don't even know if i believe this crazy stuff that you believe well you're welcome here you say well i'm not sure if i'm living the way god wants me to well you're welcome here they lived an open life and the lord added to their number every day because these people had been redefined by love see it was more than a support group it was more than a nice friendship i'm talking to you it was an eternal family a people so committed to one another so committed to jesus and so committed to loving a broken world and here's where we find the very heartbeat of vox can you put that heart up there for me that slide that gives us a picture of a heart these three core values we talk about at vox this is the very heartbeat of who we are and on our 10-year anniversary i wanted to just revisit it again and remind you we are a people with jesus at the center we are a people of intentional community we prioritize each other and we are a people of city mission we're going to go where the needs are greatest and we're going to serve the least of these in our community this is who we are come on somebody say amen [Applause] and it's so interesting i want to reframe our present circumstances for you in a moment because we've been tested in the last 18 months right let's just be real we've been tested and isolated and offended and discouraged and distracted we've suffered loss we've disagreed we've made mistakes but i've got some good news for you fox church we're still here come on somebody we're still here and we're not weaker we're stronger for it because i believe that the lord has been doing something all along that this last season of not being able to meet and all the challenges we faced has not actually been a delay and it's not been a distraction that in god's sovereign plan these last 18 months have been preparation preparation for the greatest spiritual renewal of our lifetime i believe that with all my soul behold i'm doing a new thing i believe god listen to me today i believe he wants to give you a new focus a new focus on jesus a new focus on mission a new focus on love and he wants to give you a new passion a new passion on the inside behold i'm doing a new thing he wants to give you a new priority a new priority where you say to your wife i'm talking to you right now you say you know we kind of wandered away and i think it's time we make this priority again i think it's time we invest again i think it's time that we dig down some roots you know what we better take this book we better sign up for that group we better live this because god's calling us to something new i want to make an announcement from the spirit of the lord it begins today it begins today oh come lord jesus it begins today before we started this church 2010 i was on a vacation with my family and i was praying about starting a church and i was saying to god god i don't want to start a church in new england people are mean up there the winters are too long i want to start a church somewhere nice god i don't want to do this and i as i was praying i heard the lord say something to me in prayer just in my mind's eye just in my heart i didn't see it i didn't read it i just heard it i heard in my heart when you walk through the valley of weeping it'll become a place of springs and i remember when i heard that i said i literally said i think that's in the bible and i googled it because that's the best way to find a quick bible verse you know sure enough psalm 84 verse 6 and when they walk through the valley of weeping it will become a place of refreshing springs ten and a half years ago the holy spirit spoke to me and said justin if you plant churches in new england you and a community of people will walk through a valley of weeping and by the spirit of the living god i am going to make it a place of springs now it springs forth do you not perceive it and you know what i saw in this text he doesn't say i'm making a way out of the wilderness he doesn't say i'm making a way around the wilderness that's what we kind of like him to say right he says i'm making a way in the wilderness in other words it's god's plan to transform the wilderness into an oasis and in your life in your struggle in our region in this time it is god's plan to transform the wilderness of our lives into an oasis for his glory [Applause] and i want to tell you something today church i know it's hot out here i know that there's things you have to do later today i know there's probably messages on your phone you're tempted to look at right now but just give god a couple of minutes right now because he has a new thing for you and if you're here and you feel like your hope tank is a little low i think the holy spirit wants to say to you that there is a way you thought that there wasn't a way but there is a way and it's through the gospel of jesus christ it's through the people of god i want to tell you if you're hurting today there's a way for your heart to be healed if you feel guilty today there's a way for your sin to be forgiven if you feel like there's a dark cloud over your head you can't see clearly there's a way for that cloud to lift if you've wandered or you're tired or you're discouraged god has a new focus a new passion and a new priority for you so i want to invite all of us together to stand today and we're going to take a moment and pray and invite the holy spirit to bring a refreshing to our souls because i believe that this is a turning point moment for somebody here at the westville music bowl i believe it's a turning point moment because god brought you here for a purpose he brought you here so that in the invisible realm today you could transfer from death to life today you could transfer from hopelessness to hope today you could change from disconnection to connection with god and so if you're here today and you're far from god i want to invite you to come to jesus now i want to invite you to come home see i believe that god brought you here for a purpose you're 17 years old you didn't expect or know what god had for you and yet he brought you here to call you home and so i just want to invite all the saints to pray today all the saints to just begin to pray because you need to know that there's a god who loves you and there's a god who's known every detail of your life even in the darkest moments he was with you and right now in a still small voice he's calling you to place your faith in jesus christ he's calling you to come home and if you're far from god i want to urge you don't leave this place that way there's somebody here that you've been battling with addiction and you've been so far from god and you've tried all these different steps thank god for them but the most important step is to trust jesus today's your day to trust him right now there's somebody here i'm prophesying right now there's somebody here you own two houses you got jet skis you've got all kinds of things you've been successful and yet there's an emptiness in your heart it's because you're far from god place your faith in jesus christ give him your life he's calling you home right now there's somebody here a young lady you've been so concerned about your outward appearance always trying to get approval from the people around you and yet ultimately it's god's approval that you so desperately need he's calling you home right now you don't have to give yourself away to every guy give yourself to jesus and watch how he'll heal your heart watch how he'll restore your soul he's calling you home right now you got two kids and church has always been sort of a back burner issue for you and yet you find yourself right now in your mid 40s with things going pretty well and yet you still know that something's missing he's calling you home he's calling you home would you open your heart to jesus right now i just want to invite you in this moment to bow your head and close your eyes and i want you to take a moment of introspection are you right with god or have you found yourself today at the westfield music bowl not at peace on the inside i want to invite you today to place your faith in jesus christ to open your heart to him the spirit of jesus is here right now he's knocking on the door of your heart will you open the door let him in will you say yes and give him the keys to your life you know you tried it on your own for a long time why don't you try it with him at the center i'm going to count to three in just a moment and when i do i'm gonna invite every person here who feels far from god who hasn't been living with christ at the center you're not sure where you stand with god and you need peace with him you're here today and you say justin i need to make jesus the center of my life if that's you on the count of three i'm going to invite you to raise your hand as a symbol of surrender to god he brought you here for this purpose and he's calling you right now to take a step of faith to believe that he loves you that he died for your sin that he rose from the dead and that even now he can give you eternal life by placing your trust in him it's grace stop trying to earn it stop trying to deserve it just come home just come home it's grace he's calling you right now will you answer the call one two three stick up your hand say that's me that's me that's me god bless you god bless you god bless you god bless you god bless you god bless you god bless you god bless you god bless you up there god bless you god bless you in the back god bless you god bless you keep it up just for another minute god bless you god bless you god bless you god bless you over there god bless you right there thank you jesus god bless you god bless you there's a teenage kid you're wrestling right now make that choice god bless you god bless you over there in the corner god bless you god bless you right make that choice right now you may put your hands down god bless you as you took that step of faith he sees that step of faith i want to lead you in a simple prayer come on somebody come on somebody coming home coming home coming home i want to lead you in a simple prayer today this is just a prayer of confession and i just want to encourage you if you're a believer in jesus we're going to we're going to pray it all together today in this westville music bowl we're going to articulate our faith in christ every one of us maybe you're praying this for the first time or maybe you've been following christ for 30 years but either way let's say it to him say lord jesus i surrender i give you my life [Music] i believe you died and rose again today i receive eternal life wash me and make me new thank you for leading me home in jesus name amen amen amen [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Vox Church

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Length: 36min 56sec (2216 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021