We is greater than Me | Pastor Di Beals | Venture Church

My name is Di. I'm part of the team here

at our Mill Creek campus, and I don't know if

this has already been done, so if it has, we'll

get a cheer again. But two of the world's most

precious human beings got engaged this week, and I love

them both. So if Audrey and Dallas are in the room,

stand up. If you're not sure who they are, well, A,

you're missing out, but B, they're both on our staff here,

so we're really happy for them. Thanks for cheering for them.

You are joining us today for our series that we've

titled All In. And All In is our way of

representing to you, and we're using a graphic to kind

of help us get the visual, but it's representing what

it looks like to be fully engaged in the life

and mission of Venture Church. So this is not maybe

exactly what would be all in at another church, but

you are here. And so this is our way of saying, hey,

if you call this your church home, if this is

the body of believers that you have chosen to do

life and love Jesus with, this is what it looks

like here to be all in, to be a fully

participating member of the body of Christ at Venture Church.

We have compared this a little bit to an Apple Watch,

which Pastor Morgan did that when he launched this series,

and his opening message was what it looks like to

be a part of the body of Christ and how

important that is. But he used the example of an

Apple Watch, and I think it's a great example. So

if you have an Apple Watch, you're familiar with this idea.

If you don't, your watch... in the Apple version, tells

you how you're doing on things like steps. And maybe

you have a different brand of a watch. I have

a Garmin. It tells me how many steps I have.

It throws confetti when I walk 10,000 steps. Maybe you

have your set to tell you, oh, you've done enough

exercise minutes today. And when you do that, it closes

your ring. That's what Apple does. They have you close

a ring. And every day you start over because every

day is a new day of you having to get

steps in and move and have exercise. And I think

we all understand this concept, but just so we're all

on the same page, we'll say it again. You are

not healthy necessarily because you closed a ring, right? That

doesn't mean that you're a healthy person. What it does

tell you is that you made healthy choices that lead

to a potentially healthy you. For example, if my watch

throws confetti because I walked 10,000 steps, that doesn't mean

I'm healthy. But walking 10,000 steps definitely contributes to me

being healthier than if I sit all day long. So,

so far in this all-in track, as we look at

the different rings, we have covered The importance of regular

participation in the body of Christ. How important it is

for us to be a regular and active and intentional

part of the body because we tend to drift and

we don't tend to drift towards greater faith and greater engagement.

We tend to drift away from it. Also, we've covered

the reminder of who we are as a church and

where we're going and what our core values are and

what's important to us. And that fits in that discover

ring because that's discovering who we are and where we're going.

And last week, we were challenged with the importance of

serving other people. And I don't know about you, but

I think it's pretty safe to say we tend toward self-centeredness.

And when we serve others, it is good for us

to put the needs of other people before our own needs.

And also, no matter how bad things might be going

for you, you always have something to give to somebody else.

And that is good for us. This picture is meant

as a challenge. It's supposed to challenge you. It's not

supposed to become your to-do list. It's supposed to challenge

you Because the world around us might be and probably

is drifting away from or walking intentionally away from relational commitment.

And instead of walking away, we want to lean in

and directly walk toward relational commitment with each other. We

don't want to just say, hey, it's okay. Do what

you can. Show up when you can. Occasionally go into church.

That's okay. No, we want to say, hey, if you

want to be a healthy person, follower of Jesus you

need other believers press in okay today we're gonna talk

about what it looks like to join with other people

now the circle that we have highlighted says join a

group or a class and if you've been around here

for any number of years you know we talk a

lot about groups our small groups last for eight weeks

Then they take about six weeks off while we form

new ones. That's happening right now. We're forming new ones.

And then they go another eight weeks, which is great

because there's always an on-ramp for you. And it's great

because maybe you tried a group once and it was like,

I didn't really click with those people. But you can

try again to click with other people. Groups are intended

to build relationship. Classes have that as a byproduct. So

it's another option. Classes are offered every week. month, and

they're three weeks long on Wednesday nights, and they're one hour.

It's a great opportunity to grow, but you get to

do it with other people, and it's better than just

not interacting with others at all. So this is meant

also today as a dare. Raise your hand if you

like dares. Oh, not very many of you. Man, dares

are dangerous because I have a really hard time saying no.

So now I'm going to hide after this service so

I don't get a bunch of dares. But I want

to dare you today to devote yourself to meaningful relationships

in the body of Christ. And maybe what you need

to hear me say is, I want to dare you

to try again. Or maybe what you need to hear

me say is, I want to dare you to try.

Or maybe what you need to hear me say is,

I want to dare you to go deeper than maybe

you've gone before. This is vulnerable. And it's also dangerous,

and it is definitely countercultural. The world tells you, build

your life around you. But today I want to think

about how Jesus invites us to not build around me,

but to build around we. I want to illustrate what

I think the Bible illustrates for us, which is we

is greater than me. Okay, I know we already prayed,

but would you just bow your head with me? Because

this is the right way for us to hold this

message now. We just say, Lord, challenge us. Challenge us

to lean into relational commitment with each other as believers

in you. And there are some in this room that

are desperately lonely, and they need to hear the challenge,

press in, and build relationship. It's all for you. Amen.

All right, so there are benefits... to we, because we,

I think, is greater than me, and I am following

the Bible on this, so there are benefits. So to

do that, we're going to look for what King Solomon

says in the book of Ecclesiastes. I don't know if

Ecclesiastes is the most well-read book out there, but we

just did a series on the life of King Solomon,

and he happened to write Ecclesiastes, so it is recent

in our Venture Church history, but maybe you know enough

to know What's the phrase that King Solomon says over

and over in the book of Ecclesiastes? This too is meaningless.

Everything is meaningless. It's chasing after the wind. King Solomon,

who was known for his unmatched wisdom, reports on, in

the book of Ecclesiastes, his observations on a few things.

How fleeting life is. So he's not trying to be

fatalistic when he says things are meaningless. He's trying to

report on life is fast. It goes by fast. The

time we have to spend our life goes by quickly.

He reports on how limited we are as humans, how

hard we try and how much that tends to fall short.

Anyone relate? Injustices and oppression. And then also how death

is the equalizer. In other words... Because life is short

and because we're all going to die, and when we die,

we can't take anything with us, how we spend our

life matters. Okay? That's the message of Solomon in Ecclesiastes. Well,

we're going to kind of zoom in on chapter 4.

And in chapter 4, Solomon is observing different kinds of people.

So he talks a little bit about people who oppress

or take advantage of other people. And then he talks

about people who are lazy. And then he talks about

people who are motivated to succeed, but only because they're

envious of what other people have, and that's what motivates them.

And then he kind of zeroes in on people who

are all alone. And that's where I want us to

focus our attention today. So if you have your Bible,

I'm going to invite you to turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 4.

Ecclesiastes 4 · chapter mention

If you don't have your Bible, the words will be

on the screen. I'm choosing a translation we don't usually

use on a Sunday morning. It's the C-E-B. the Common

English Bible. And there's a reason I chose this one

that I will highlight in just a second here. But

we're going to start in verse 7. It says, There

are people who are utterly alone with no companions, not

even a child or a sibling, yet they work hard

without end, never satisfied with their wealth. So for whom

am I working so hard and depriving myself of enjoyment?

This too is pointless and a terrible obsession. Okay, so

a few things. Number one, the reason I chose this

translation is because translators don't know what to do with

this little, or they struggle to know what to do

with this little phrase. I don't know if you noticed it,

but Solomon's making an observation, and then it sounds like

it changes who's talking. So he's observing this person, a man,

who is working and has no one working with him.

And then it sounds like suddenly the man is talking,

where it says... Whom am I working so hard and

depriving myself of enjoyment? Who am I doing this for?

And some translations insert right there, he said. Okay, so

Solomon's observing a man. He's working really hard. He's all alone.

And then that man said, why am I doing this?

What am I doing this all for? But translators, other translations,

including the one I chose, uh, would like to suggest

strongly that really this should say what the man should

ask is why am I doing all of this? So

the translation I've chosen here for us today is basically

saying Solomon observes a man. He is working all alone.

He's working ridiculously hard. He never stops working just to

amass all of this wealth. And he never stops to

ask himself, why am I doing this? And because he

never stops to ask that question, what he's doing is meaningless. Now,

what this doesn't mean is that Solomon is looking at

a guy, poor guy. He doesn't have any friends. He

doesn't have any family. He doesn't even have a sibling.

He doesn't even have a child to help him.

No.

What Solomon is pointing out here is this particular man

is all alone in his work with no one to

help him because he wants it that way. And in

this case, it's because he doesn't want to share what

he's earning. And that, my friends, is meaningless because he's

never stopping to say, what am I even doing this for?

At the end of my life, I will pass away

and I take none of this with me. What's it

all for? I don't know if you've ever felt this way.

I don't know. Adults in the room, you go to

work every day. You know, maybe you work 40, 50

hours a week. Maybe you work 60. Maybe you commute.

And at the end of a week or every night,

you're like, what is this all even for? There's got

to be something bigger than going to work to pay

your bills. Amen? Okay, yes, this is exactly what we

are observing here. Socrates is credited famously for saying, an

unexamined life is not worth living. And this man that

Solomon is observing has never stopped to examine his life

and say, why am I doing this? What is this for?

But Solomon concludes for him, this is pointless. This is meaningless.

If you dig into the word for pointless or meaningless,

it's things like, this is a miserable decision. This is

a sad travail is one of the ways you can

translate it. So, This is not good. It's not healthy. Now,

that sets us up, though. Solomon has set us up

for the verses to follow that. So if that man,

working really hard, amassing his wealth, not working with anyone else,

working by himself, if that's meaningless, what's the other side?

What's the other side of the coin? Verses 9 through 12.

Look with me at verse 9. Two are better than

one because they have a good return for their hard work.

If either should fall, one can pick up the other.

But how miserable are those who fall and don't have

a companion to help them up? Verse 11. Also, if

two lie down together, they can stay warm. But how

can anyone stay warm alone? Verse 12. Also, one can

be overpowered, but two together can put up resistance. A

three-ply cord doesn't easily snap. Okay, so based on these verses,

let's look at what Solomon gives us as the benefits

of we and how we is greater than just me.

So first, the first benefit is work. Two people are

definitely better than one when it comes to work. We're

leaving out the outliers, like somebody who just doesn't try.

We're talking about two people working. And two people working

is better than one person working, because quite simply, two

people can get more done than just one. That's logical.

Difficult jobs are easier with four hands and two brains

than they are with two hands and one brain. Even

if they divide the profits, it is almost always still

better to have two people working because they get a

better return for the investment of their effort and energy

when the two of them are working versus one person

working alone. Two people also bring more skill and more

experience and more talent and more gifts to the table

than just one. And by nature, two people include if

one gets discouraged, one can encourage. So if you're by yourself,

and things are really hard in the work you're doing,

and you think, I want to quit, there's no one

around to say, don't quit. But if you have someone

working with you, they can encourage you to keep at

it and keep working. So Solomon observes that we is

greater than me because working shoulder to shoulder, we help

each other succeed. Okay, so that's a good start. You agree?

It's a good start. All right. What comes next? Well,

two people are also better than one when it comes

to walking, right? which is kind of actually funny. I

chuckled when I read that. But it's because roads in

ancient Palestine, which is to whom Solomon is writing, are

not paved. They're also not level. I don't know. We

could probably say about some of our roads that they're

also dangerous, but they specifically, and very much so, had

not safe roads to travel on, And some were just

a path through the wilderness, and some were hard to find,

and some had hidden dangers. Maybe they had a pit

you could fall into. And so tripping and falling was

a real and even likely hazard. And so two people

walking together made it safer. Now, if you have known

me for any length of time, you've probably seen me

trip because I am klutzy. I wish that I was not,

but I am. And so if I'm out hiking, which

I spend a lot of time out hiking, I fall often.

And so it's been almost one year now since I

had a really, really bad fall. And if you remember,

if you were around then, you remember back to me

having lots of apparatuses on me. And that is because

I was coming down from a lake in the mountains,

six miles up into the mountains, And about halfway down,

I tripped over a root, just a root sticking up,

my foot hooked underneath it, just as I was about

to kind of jump down this little steep section. And

I launched into the air headfirst. It's a good thing

that the instinct was to put out my hand because

I would have landed face first on the ground. But

putting out my hand meant that I broke my wrist

in eight places. In fact, I broke all the bones

in my wrist. And my skin kept my hand together,

but I broke all the bones in my wrist. And

I broke my kneecap in half and then in half again.

And I still had three miles to climb down to

get to the car. And I was 30 miles off

of Highway 2 on dirt roads. So, I mean, I'm

one of those people that is like, no one wants

to go hiking with me. Fine, I'll go by myself.

But I will tell you, in this case, two things.

was definitely better than one because I was with my mom.

And my mom is the one that kept me sane

and kept me focused and kept me moving. We carry

all the safety equipment. I had a sling for my

arm in my first aid kit in my bag, except

nobody was allowed to touch my bag because it was

on my arm that was very, very broken. And I

did not want anyone to touch my bag. And so

my mom made me a sling out of her coat

and she helped me Get the three miles down to

the car and the many miles to the hospital. And

I am so grateful because I'm a pretty tough person.

And I'm a pretty, once I put my mind to something,

I'm going to accomplish. And I'm not sure I could

have done that without the help of traveling with my mom.

And we're describing here physical freedom. I couldn't have done

that without my mom, that physical task. But can we

just move this a little bit into the spiritual category

and talk about spiritual falling? If you're walking alone as

you follow the Lord and you make a mistake and trip,

which we're all going to do, and you are by yourself,

it is much harder to get up and keep pursuing

the Lord. So two is certainly better than one when

it comes to keeping us following the Lord. And you

might be thinking right now, sitting out there or watching online,

I don't need other people. I got this. You know

those people? If it's not you, you probably know this

person that says, I don't need anyone to help me.

And a couple years ago, I actually tackled this topic

of we need each other, and I said a line

in that message that gets repeated back to me still today.

And the line was, yep, you can do it alone.

I mean, usually, you can do it alone. But in

the end, you'll still be what? Alone. Alone. Someone came

up to me after first service and he said, it's

kind of like that famous quote, one person can go fast,

but two people can go farther. I just think like

there's so much power in how we help each other walk.

And Solomon observes that we is greater than me because

walking together provides a hand to help us up when

we fall. Two people are also better than one when

it comes to warmth. And this is kind of a

funny one, but it's in here. In the ancient world

of the Bible, travelers didn't have lots of options of

places to stay. And so sometimes they camped out in

a field. And sometimes they camped in the town square.

And sometimes they camped right outside of an inn that

was full. And they would be there on a cold

Palestinian night. And two people traveling together was better than

because they could provide warmth for each other, which is safer.

Think about it. The only way a traveler traveling alone

in ancient Palestinian times could stay warm is if he

carried more blankets, which means more weight. So alone, in

order to stay warm, you have to carry more things.

It's so logical. But two people together don't have to

carry as much, A, because there's two of them, and B,

because They keep each other warm. There is a physical

aspect to the safety provided by two people's bodies keeping

each other warm. You've probably seen a movie where somebody's

stranded out in a blizzard or something, and their life

is in peril, and the way they stay warm is

they press their bodies up against each other to stay warm,

and that is an actual thing. When you huddle close together...

Your body warmth is extended to the person that's close

to you, and likewise, their body warmth is extended to you.

The more surface area of your skin that is touching

each other, the more you radiate warmth to each other.

In other words, two people can stay warm in ways

that one person simply cannot. And that's physical. Then there's

the emotional and spiritual side of it, where we help

each other feel warm, safe, and connected. And psychologically speaking,

because I went on a really big rabbit hole on

this point that I will spare you of and I

will summarize. Psychologically speaking, there's an additional psychological benefit to

closeness between humans, including the physical touch of closeness. It

releases oxytocin, which combats the stress hormone in your life.

Then you add this additional fascinating thing about your brain.

Your brain links warmth, physical warmth, and emotional trust. It

puts those two things together. When I am actually warm,

I feel more trusting, which is weird. It means that

people who feel warm feel safer, and they act more

kindly to each other. Can someone go turn up the heat, please? No,

I'm just kidding. I actually got some tea right before service,

and it's called sleepy time tea, and I was like,

why do we have this? I don't want anyone drinking

this right before a message. Okay. Okay. There are more

things we could list. But for our purposes today, Solomon

observes that we is greater than me because a life

lived side by side brings warmth and safety and connection.

Now let's add a little bit more about that safety piece.

Because here's the fourth thing that Solomon highlights. He says

two people without a doubt are better than one when

it comes to keeping watch. Now, strictly speaking, humans have

physical limitations. Okay, we know this. One of those limitations

is you've got to sleep. So back to these Palestinian

ancient world travelers who are traveling between towns or great distances,

and they've got to sleep out in the open somewhere,

and they're in danger of animals and sometimes humans too.

And you either can't ever sleep or you're immediately in danger,

or if you have more than one person, one person

keeps watch. Four eyes is better than two. One person

can rest, the other can keep watch. This is logical,

but especially at night. I kept picturing in my head

just the physical limitations of your neck. I mean, if

I'm standing here worried or trying to keep watch, and

I'm doing this, I'm missing everything that's behind me, right?

So I would either have to keep spinning in circles,

Or someone stands at my back. And surely you can

see that this is not just a physical analogy. It

is also spiritual. Two are better than one when it

comes to safety. If there is an enemy prowling around

who wants to bring harm to you, having someone else

watch your back, which is where that phrase comes from,

is better than trying to go it alone. Amen. Amen.

The New Living Translation of verse 12 says it this way.

A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but

two can stand back to back and conquer. And I

love that picture of two people physically and spiritually and

relationally standing back to back to cover each other's back.

So Solomon observed that we is greater than me because

back to back, we keep watch and And we can

fight for each other. I want, is it just me?

I want people that are guarding my back. I want

my friends that I have intentionally built relationship with to

know I've got their back. And I need to know

that they've got mine. And that, I mean, I could

preach a whole sermon on that. But if this isn't

compelling enough, that we is greater than me, let me

just give you this additional little piece at the end

of verse 12. Solomon says, a three-ply cord doesn't easily snap.

You've probably heard it in other translations. A strand of

three cords is not easily broken is another way that

that is said. And here's the thing. The point of

that is not, hey, more people are better. Be in

a crowd all the time, but nobody knows you in

the crowd, and you're still walking life by yourself. That's

not logical. That's not what that means. Instead, it's meant

for us to understand that me, by myself, has limits.

But we multiplies strength. So if it's a we that

is two of us, that's stronger than one. And if

it is a we that is three of us, that

is stronger than the we of two of us. Who

is number three? Okay, well that could be just your

really good friend. You have two really good friends and

there are three of you. Maybe you're blessed. Maybe you've

got four really good friends. You are a strong core.

But I want to remind you Jesus is the third

strand of the cord. This is what Jesus says in

John chapter 17. John chapter 17 is actually just a

John 17 · chapter mention John 17 · chapter mention

really long part of a prayer that Jesus prays. But

he doesn't pray about his followers. which at that point

was his followers and his disciples, but it extends to us.

If you follow Jesus in this room, we're included in

this prayer. And he doesn't pray for his followers that

they'll just be one tough cookie who can just march

along on their own and be really strong. He doesn't pray, Lord,

make each one of my followers strong. He prays they

would be one. Okay, he prays it three times in

that chapter. In verse 11, he says, protect them so

they will be united. In verse 21, he says that

they will all be one. And in verse 23, he

says that they will be in unity, that they will

be a cord not easily broken, and it's intended to

include him. Okay, another example of that, Matthew 18, 20.

Jesus says... When we are gathered together, maybe you've heard

this verse, when two or three are gathered together, he's

right there with us. Jesus is with us. If you

follow Jesus in this place, if you're attempting to live

your life for him, and you gather with other Jesus followers,

he puts his presence right there in your midst. And

you are a cord that is not easily broken when

Jesus is in the midst. Right? The crazy thing is

the world tells us to build our lives around me.

Make it about me. My wealth, my career, my goals,

my dreams, my resources, my needs, my future, and my wants.

But Jesus invites us into we. And it's a we

of three of us, at least, or more. It's just

still the truth. We were never meant to walk alone.

That's just still the truth. And again, if you've been

around here for any length of time, you've heard me

speak on this topic in some way, shape, or form before.

In some way or other, I always work in, we

were never meant to walk alone. We weren't meant to

fight alone. We weren't meant to carry our burdens alone.

We weren't meant to make hard decisions alone. We weren't

meant to grow alone. We are better than me. There's

this crazy beautiful health and strength that comes from God's

people doing life together. And there's something beautiful about picking

each other up when you fall and telling each other

the truth when that's what you needed to hear and

celebrating each other as a compliment and cheering each other

on when we're discouraged and helping each other when we

just need a hand. and helping each other follow Jesus.

But we have to prioritize that. You have to prioritize this.

We have to intentionally commit to build the kind of

community that we all want to be a part of,

where we're known and cared for and loved. The past

few months, I've been thinking a lot. I actually haven't

spoken on a Sunday morning in a while. I've been

working on you know, the all-in track and some things

that go with that and just really doing some wrestling

with it. And one of the things I keep thinking

about is those of you that are here or watching

online that have been at Venture for a long time,

you know, probably like pre-COVID because, you know, that's the

before and after of all of our lives. But pre-COVID or,

you know, maybe 10 years, maybe you've been here 20 years,

maybe you've been here since the church was planted, which

is almost 22 years ago now. And if you were honest,

you would say, I mean, I used to have my people.

I used to be in a we relationship, but those

people moved away, or their life circumstances changed, or they

stopped following Jesus maybe, or they don't go here anymore,

or whatever the case may be. But it's not enough

that you had relationships. It's about being fully engaged and

committed to being a part of the body of Christ

and building those relationships now. You have to be in relationships,

which means you might have to start again. And if

you're new here and you're like, I don't know anybody, great.

We have so many opportunities for you to find your people,

but you have to prioritize actually finding your people. We

work really hard around here as a staff and a

volunteer team to provide you with opportunities to find your people,

but they're only as good as you actually taking those opportunities.

Let me kind of tie it up with this. I

truly 100% believe it is one of the greatest strategies

of the enemy of our lives. And we have an

enemy of our lives. He wants to keep you and

I in the shallow end of relationships. Because in the

shallow end of relationships, we don't get our character back.

challenged or our choices challenged or our purpose in life challenged.

We don't maybe have the same kind of character development

because we're not in relationship with other people who are

sharpening us and maybe we're in the shallow end of

purpose and belonging. But it is through deep end friendships

that God reveals our character and reveals the truth and

grows us and keeps us accountable and keeps us on mission.

It's through deepened friendships that we discover that we is

greater than me. So my challenge for you is to commit,

to really commit. We have been responding to each message

in this series with a tap. And so there is

a tap tag on the seat in front of you,

or if you're in the front row, it's the seat

behind you. And that tap, and I'm going to invite

every one of you to tap in just a second,

but you're tapping together. to commit. You're either committing to, okay,

I'm going to find my people and I'm going to

find a group that I can participate in. Our groups

are open for registration in two weeks. So I wish

I could have you join a group right now, but

we're still forming them for the fall. But you can

commit and say, I'm going to find one. Or you

can help us by leading a group. So that's your

second option. You can say, I'm going to commit to

lead a group. And we're still forming those groups. So

you can say, it's such a priority to me to

find my people. I'm willing to host and enable people

finding their people. And if for some reason you have

the kind of schedule that just doesn't allow for this

right now, but you would say, I need some people.

We do have classes as an option. So you can

tap that right now and reply. Our classes that I mentioned,

they're on Wednesday nights. They're one hour each. They're three

weeks long. And the purpose of those classes is for

your growth. but you're doing it with other people. And

that is a good place to start. It's better than

trying to do it alone. So I'm going to encourage

you to commit. So that's your response challenge right now

to tap that. If you haven't tapped it yet, maybe

you're already in a group, just tap it and say, yes,

I'll join a group. But I encourage you and dare

you to respond. And then I'm going to close this

time in prayer. So I'm going to invite you to

bow your heads. Let me preface how I'm going to pray.

If you're in this room and you would say, I

need people, even just I need a person that will

walk beside me, would you just raise your hand? There's

not very many of you. I think you need people.

If you would say, I need people, maybe you already

have them. That wasn't my question. My question is, do

you need people? If you need people, raise your hand.

My hand is raised. I need people. I need people.

I'm going to pray over us that God will provide

the people that we need. So agree with me, Lord,

right now. We are committing to engaging in intentional relationship

in the body of believers. That is Venture Church. And

we are saying, God, would you help us to find

our people? Which doesn't mean that we sit inactive and

it's your job to drop someone in our lap. It

means we'll put ourselves out there and we're asking you

to bring the people. And Lord, I am saying this

especially for those who are desperately lonely or feel like

they're drowning or think no one sees them. God, I

pray that as they put themselves out there, you will

respond by orchestrating a beautiful relationship where we can walk

out life following you together. It's in your name, it's

for your glory, and it's for our good. So we

say thank you, Lord, and amen.

Can we give Pastor Dye a big thank you for

that message? Hey, we say this every Sunday, and I

just want to encourage you, remind you that we've got

an amazing team of people here that take the notes

from these Sunday messages and curate and put together resources

for you on our What's Next page. So if you

go to your app, if you take a look at

our website, head to the What's Next page, there's a

ton of resources put together just for you to take

this me and we conversation that we had this morning

into your week, Monday to Saturday, that you're able to

continue to grow and continue to uncover what God's Word

says about the power.

Of community and relationship.

What I want to do is I want to invite

our ushers forward as we take today's tithes and offerings.

We celebrate this opportunity to give. As you take a

look at your app, as you look at the different

opportunities to give, you're gonna find two different things there.

Number one, you're gonna find your regular tithes and offerings.

Everything given to tithes and offerings goes towards the day-to-day

ministry and work happening here at Venture Church. And you're

also gonna see Kingdom Builders. We talk a lot about

Kingdom Builders here, and that is our way to partner

with the Lord and what he's doing through various organizations

both here locally in our community and abroad all around

the world in.

Many different countries.

If you came prepared to give this morning, there's a

few different ways you can do that. You can scan

the QR code there on the screen. You can tap

that tag on the back of your seat in front

of you. Or if you came prepared to give in person,

you can grab an envelope in your seat back.

And put that in the.

Offering bucket as it passes in front of you in

just a moment. Would you join me in a word

of prayer as we bless today's offerings? Lord, thank you

for all that you have given to us. Thank you

for all of the ways that you have provided for us.

both in ways that we recognize now and ways that we, Lord,

haven't even put together yet.

God, I pray that as we give back.

In generosity to you this morning, Lord, that you would

bless every gift and every giver.

We love you, Lord. We pray all of these things.

In your name. Amen.

Sunday, September 13th, it's Back to Church Sunday.

We have three big things.

We can't wait to celebrate together.

Our Lightbearers project is finally complete and we cannot wait

to celebrate and show everybody.

Come see for yourself after third service.

For a tour. And I'm... Really excited about this brand

new series that we are launching on the 13th through

the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

It's called Ruins to Revival.

I bet many of you can think about times in

your life where it seems like everything has fallen apart.

But you're going to see through this series that God

is able to take these ruins and put it back

together again. and build something beautiful.

Out of it.

It's also Grandparents' Day. We can't wait to celebrate and

honor all of our grandparents here at Venture. So whether

you're a grandparent or you're bringing your grandparent, come meet

us under the front awning for root beer floats. You

don't want to miss Back to Church Sunday.

Come on, Back to Church Sunday, September 13th. We're going

to kick the fall off big. How many of you

guys ready to go back to school?

None of them. All right.

Hey, one quick thing before we get out of here.

If you are interested in joining the Saturday night interest meeting,

the interest meeting for the Saturday night service, joining the

team there, that's going to be in the Discover room

during third service.

Y'all invited to stand on up to your feet. We

love you.

Hope you have an amazing rest of your day, rest

of your week, and we will see you tonight at

6 p.m.

For our worship night.