An All In Church | Pastor Morgan Butcher | Venture Church

Hey, everybody, this is Pastor Brandon. I want to thank

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from around the world. Thank you for watching. Enjoy the service.

Hey, this morning, as we dive in, I'm really excited

because we get to dive into a new series and

I really feel like this series has the potential to

really shape the future of our church for years to come.

The series that we're diving into is called All In.

Everybody say all in. And before I tell you where

I'm headed, I want to just ask a question. How

many of you are wearing an Apple Watch right now?

Anybody wearing an Apple Watch right now? Okay, raise your

hand high. Okay apple Watch users in the house, Okay, awesome,

very cool. I'm a little ashamed to say this. This

Apple Watch that I have is currently dead. It's not

actually functioning at all. I haven't worn it in a

long time. For a couple of reason. I decided that

I just no longer wanted to wear it. Second, actually

it's the strap. It's just it really makes my arm

sweaty when I wear I don't know what it is

about this strap. It's really gross. But I also I

bought this on Facebook Marketplace, and I went and I

paid for it premium dollar, by the way, and I

took it home and I put it on, and I

realized that I think that I actually purchased the women's

version of the watch. It's very small, and apparently there's

a larger one that I'm supposed to wear as a

large man. So every time I put it on my wrist,

I just feel a little insecure about it because it

literally looks so tiny on my wrist. But anyways, let

me ask you another question about your Apple Watch. How

many of you Apple watch users have found yourself at

nine o'clock at night looking down at your watch and

then taking steps around your kitchen trying to close out

your activity rings. You needed ten more minutes of exercise.

Anybody been there? Anybody been walking around their living room

or their kitchen. They go out into the backyard, They're like,

I just got a couple more steps, I can close

out the ring. If you don't know what I'm talking about,

Apple watch users, know that Apple created one of the

most motivational tools in the history of Apple right here

on the watch, and they're referred to as the Apple

Fitness Rings. If you don't know what this is, this

is kind of what it looks like on the watch.

That's these three rings that track your movement. They track

how you're doing throughout the day, and it is one

of the most strangely motivating tools Apple has ever created.

Every morning you wake up, these rings start empty, and

as the day goes on, as you start moving or

not moving, your Apple Watch will ask you some questions like, hey,

you should probably consider getting up and moving. Hey, you

should probably exercise today. Hey, you haven't stood up in

a very long long time. And for some of you,

you're like, I am never buying an Apple Watch. That

sounds horrible, right, take caart. It doesn't body shame you.

The watch doesn't body shame you. It doesn't yell at you.

It doesn't send you notifications that say, Morgan, we're honestly

just a little disappointed in you today, which honestly would

probably be the encouragement that I would need. What it

does is it simply keeps showing you the rings. It

puts them in your face all throughout the day, and

for a lot of people, not me. But maybe you

you see this at nine o'clock at night and you're like, dude,

I got thirteen minutes of exercise to get in. I've

got to get steps in. You start walking around the house,

You're trying to close the ring. You're like watching the

ring closed as you're walking around the house, and your

spouse looks at you and they're like, dude, what is

wrong with you? Are you okay? Is everything wrong with

Is everything okay with the finances? And you're like, yeah,

it's okay, I just just got to close out the

Apple ring. Watch here. But let's be honest, these rings.

Closing these rings, they don't magically make you healthy, right Like,

at the end of a day when you close out

a ring, it's not like you are magically more healthy.

If that was the case, Apple would be killing it

right now and they would have way more money than

they already do. But what these rings do is something

really valuable. Friends. What the rings do is that it

is revealing your habits, it's revealing your rhythms. The Apple

rings are inviting you to pay attention to the kind

of life that you're living. It's not a report card,

it's not a source of guilt. They're simply an honest

picture of how you're doing. And here's what's interesting. Tomorrow.

The rings are back and empty because you don't get

to borrow yesterday's accomplishments. You don't get a take to

the next day what you left over from the day before.

Every day is another opportunity to live in ten And

as our team at Venture has been praying about where

we feel like God is taking our church and taking

our community, we've been asking a similar question. We're not

asking how do we get people more busy, We're not

asking people how do we create another program? But what

we're asking is what does it actually look like for

someone to be all in at Venture Church? What does

it look like like? Honestly like if we could say, hey,

this is what it looks like to be an active

participant in God's church, what would that actually look like?

In fact, if I asked that question, I just started

taking hands around this room. We'd probably get a lot

of different answers and different responses to that. Some people

would say, well, it probably means that I come every Sunday.

Some people says it means that I'm a giver. Some

people would say that it means that I serve. Some

people would say it's you know, you're all in when

you're an owner or a member or a family member,

or whatever we choose to call it, at any one

moment in the life of this church. And truthfully, none

of those answers are wrong. But what I would say

is that they're incomplete, because being all in isn't just

doing one thing. It's a picture. It's a way of living.

It's participating in the family that Jesus is building here

at venture. And over the next several weeks, we're going

to unpack what that looks like. And today I simply

want to give you the big picture. Okay, Now here's

something interesting that I found. I was doing some research,

and I found that the American Bible Society put together

this nationwide study of trying to answer a very similar

question that we're asking. They're not asking how many people

attend church. They're asking what does meaningful engagement in a

local church actually look like? And I was surprised at

the things that they measured to get their answer, because

the most important thing they asked was not if they

were attending church. That wasn't the main thing that they

were asking Instead, they asked questions like this. They ask

questions like do people have meaningful relationships in the church?

How many people want meaningful relationships here in metro church.

They ask questions like do they have opportunities to use

their God given gifts? They ask questions like are they learning?

Are they growing? Are they being encouraged by other believers?

Are they known in the church? And as I read

through the study and I was looking at all the

questions that they were using to measure the results of

this test, I couldn't help but think that it sounded

pretty familiar, actually, because what they were painting a picture

of sounds a lot like what I see the early

Church look like in Acts chapter two. It really reminds

me a lot of some of the things that the

early Church we're doing to build their family and build

their community. Which, ironically, we've been looking at this portion

of Scripture a ton over the last couple of weeks

in our More series talking about the Holy Spirit. But

the truth is that long before anyone created church growth strategies,

long before anyone created membership classes, long before anyone wrote

books on what a healthy church looked like, can I

tell you Jesus was building what I believe he envisioned

the church should look like. He was building his ideal

model of what the church should look like for you

and for me, and Luke gives us a picture of

what those people. When I say what the church will

look like, I'm not talking about what the building would

look like. I'm not talking about the building design. I'm

talking about what the people would be doing, who the

people would be. Jesus, for a long time before any

of these things ever existed, was giving us a model

of what the church should look like. And Luke gives

us a picture of what those people look like right

here in Acts chapter two. Are you guys with me

this morning? Here is the encouraging things. Friend, Jesus God

didn't create a perfect church. How many of you are

thankful for that, But you know what I do see

that he was building. He might not have created a

perfect church, but he was creating a devoted church. And

that's where I want us to spend our time this morning.

If you have your Bible, you can turn with me

to Acts chapter two and we're gonna pick up in

verse forty two. But there is so much happening before

we get to verse forty two that I want to

just kind of recap and build the scene here. So

Jesus has lived his life. He has walked through the

land of Israel, he has moved all over the region.

He has taught, he has healed, he has done miracles,

and after a long thirty two thirty three years of life,

he dies on a cross. Three days later, we know

that he defeated death hell in the grave. He rose

from the tomb, he walked out of the tomb, and

for the next forty days after he exits the tomb,

he is appearing to his disciples. He's having these meaningful

exchanges with his disciples. They're seeing him in different places,

They're meeting him and running into him in different places,

and he is beginning to teach them about the Kingdom

of God. And then he ascends into heaven. But before

he leaves, he makes them a promise. He tells them

to wait in Jerusalem because the Holy Spirit is coming.

Pastor Jared talked last week about Pentecost. The day of

Pentecost comes and the believers, about one hundred believers or

so are gathered in the Upper Room praying with the

disciples and the Holy spirit is poured out over the believers.

And after that happens, Peter goes out into the community

and he gives what is the first Christian sermon in Israel.

And here's what amazes me. Peter gets up and he

doesn't give people a list of things to do. Do

you know what? He gives them Jesus. He preaches jesus Us.

He preaches about the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

He talks about forgiveness of sins. He talks about the

grace of God. And the scripture says that as the

people are listening to Peter, as they're experiencing and hearing

the gospel message for the first time communicated to them

through Peter, it says that the people hearing it were

overwhelmed with the weight of what they heard about who

Jesus was and is for them, so much so that

in Acts, chapter two, verse thirty seven, it says that

the people were cut to the heart, like it went

deeper than the skin. It was like a deeply profound,

moving message to these people, and they end up doing

what probably me and you did the first time that

we heard about who Jesus was for a life. I

remember when I was a high school student and my

youth pastor told me about who Jesus was for the

first time. He told me about the sacrifice that was made.

He told me about the victory that I gained through

him and friends, let me just tell you I remember,

maybe like you, I was thinking, this changes everything. If

this is true, if this man really is who he

said he was, and he really did this act for me,

this changes everything. And the people who are hearing Peter's

teaching hear the word, They're cut to the heart and

they begin looking around and asking each other, brothers, what

should we do? You know what they're asking? What does

this mean for my life? If this really is who

this man was, if this really is what he did,

what does this mean for how I live my life?

And Peter responds to them and he says, repent, be baptized,

and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, And that

day three thousand people put their faith in Jesus. Can

I tell you three thousand people would be one of

the largest churches in Washington State. But in one day

people hear the word of God. It cuts them to

the heart and they leave thinking what does this mean?

From my life. They give their lives to Jesus. Friends,

we got to read the Bible sometimes and just be like,

holy smokes, God, you are good. Three thousand people give

their life to Jesus in one day. One day, there's

a little over one hundred people gathering upstairs in a room,

and thousands of people overnight are all of a sudden

giving their lives to Jesus. Friends, how do thousands of

people become a church overnight? Like somebody had a really

great degree in organizational leadership, because I don't even understand,

like where you go with that? How do thousands of

strangers become family overnight? Luke answers this question, and I

think his answer is one of the most incredible descriptions

of the church in the entire Bible. Here's what he says,

in Acts, chapter two, verse forty two, all of this

has happened. And Luke responds with this. He paints this

picture of what the early church does, and he says,

they devoted themselves to the apostles teachings and to fellowship,

to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Now we

can read that short verse and man, there's some there's

some powerful things that they are describing what the church

was doing. They were, they are hearing the apostles teaching,

They're devoting themselves to fellowship, they are breaking bread together,

they are praying. But can I tell you what I

think the most important part of that entire scripture, that

entire verses, it's the first three words, they devoted themselves.

They devoted themselves and friends. I just want you to

hear me say those three words change everything. Imagine a

church that devoted themselves to the cause of Christ. Imagine

the impact, Imagine the reach. Imagine what would happen if

every single person devoted themselves. Luke doesn't start by telling

us what they did. You know what he's telling us.

Luke tells us who they became. They were people that

were devoted. They were people that were all in. And

I think hidden inside that one word devoted is the

secret to understanding not only the early Church, but what

it means for us here at Venture Church in Mill Creek, Washington,

in Spokane, in Seattle, across our region in twenty twenty six.

To be all in, I want us to camp on

just the first three words, they devoted themselves, because if

we miss these words, we miss everything else. That Luke

is trying to tell us here. The Greek word that

Luke uses here this is this is a hard word. Okay,

So I'm gonna try my best. I'm not I don't

I'm not Greek, I don't speak Greek, I don't claim

to speak Greek. I'm gonna try my best. Okay, it

is pros queterreo. That was actually pretty dang good, man.

I practiced out a bunch and it did not come

out that good. Multiple times. First service I said even better.

I'm not even gonna try again, because I was pbably

about as good as I can do. But this word

is a compound word, and the first part of it

means to move forward, to move in a specific direction.

The second part means to be strong, to endure, to persist,

and together this word is painting a picture of someone

who honestly just keeps showing up, someone who is steadfast,

someone who refuses to drift away, someone who is intentionally

focused on continuing to lean forward. One Greek scholar describes

this word this way. He says it is to persist

relentlessly in something, to continue steadfastly with intense effort, despite

the difficulty that may be ahead. Friends, would they say

that a venture church, oh man, that they would persist

in doing something relentlessly, to continue steadfastly, with intense effort

despite the difficulty. That could be a man. I love

that because Luke isn't describing a church that had just

a really killer Sunday morning service. That's not what he's

talking about. He's describing a church that developed a way

of life. They figured out what it meant to live

a certain way, that was devoted to the cause of Christ. Now,

notice what Luke doesn't say here in this scripture. He

doesn't say they attended. He doesn't say they occasionally participated.

Luke doesn't say they checked off the boxes. Do you

know what he says. He says they devoted themselves. There's

a huge difference in that. And if I can just

be honest with you this morning, I think one of

the greatest challenges facing the American Church today isn't hostility

towards Christians. It's not some of you might see the

news reports and you might hear about Coca Cola and

their whole beef with not putting the name of Jesus

on a Coca Cola. Can friends hear me Jesus said,

in this world will face trouble. Get over it. It's

gonna happen. The biggest thing facing the American Church, the

biggest problem facing the American Church is not hostility. It's

not the government. It's not even Washington State government. It's

not culture, it's not business. Can I tell you the

biggest challenge that we face. It's drift. It's drift. It's

you and I forgetting the importance of what God invited

us into. It's us slowly drifting away. It's not rebellion,

it's drift. Nobody wakes up one Sunday morning and says, today,

you know, I think I'll just slowly disconnect from God's family.

Nobody thinks that life just gets full kids schedules, Man,

let me tell you about kids schedules, my lord, travel, work, sports,

the subsequent exhaustion that comes from all those things, right,

A difficult season, disappointment in life, church, her, you name it,

and before we know it, the thing that once shaped

and transformed the very person that you and I stand

here today, has all of a sudden just become this

thing that we fit in when we can. It's drift.

And here's why I love the words of Luke so much.

I love these words that Luke uses. It's because he

reminds us that healthy churches aren't built by accident. Friends.

Healthy churches are built by people who continually choose to

be devoted to the cause of Christ. I think about marriage, man.

Nicole and I are getting ready to celebrate eighteen years

of marriage. Man, I can't. I can't even believe that

she doesn't look old enough to be married for eighteen years.

I do, she doesn't. Nobody accidentally ends up with a

healthy marriage, and I'm not saying that our marriage is perfect.

Nicole sitting in the front row, She's like, oh, but

healthy marriages are built through thousands of ordinary decisions, aren't they. Conversations,

date nights, forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness for me, forgiveness, prayer,

choosing each other every single day you wake up, even

when it's hard. Nobody celebrates their fiftieth wedding anniversary because

they had one really good date. But if you did,

please tell me what you did for that date. I'm

want to write a book on that. They celebrate fifty

years of faithful marriage. Why because they were devoted They

chose even when it was hard to not give up.

They chose even when the other person frustrated them to

not give up. The same is true with parenting. Amen

same is true for friendships. It's true for our physical health,

It's true for your relationship with Jesus. The Christian life

isn't built on one emotional moment, friends, It's built through

faithful rhythms over a lifetime, the build into a life

that says you were devoted. Now, don't misunderstand me. Luke

is not describing perfection here. I hope you don't leave

here and think Pastor Morgan just preach for thirty minutes

on the fact that you aren't a Christian if you're

not doing these things right. That's not what I'm saying.

That's not what Luke is saying either. Luke isn't talking

about perfection. You know what he is talking about though,

he's talking about a preferred direction. He's not preaching perfection,

He's preaching direction. These things are so different because here's

what happens. Hear the word devotion and some of us

just immediately discredit ourselves and we think, well, I guess

I'm failing because I'm not devoted, You know, like I

didn't check all the boxes, I didn't do all the things.

I wasn't in a growth group last year, I didn't

go to every Sunday morning service. I guess I'm not devoted.

Hear me say, friends, That's not what Luke is saying.

The word doesn't describe flawless people. It describes people who

kept leaning towards Jesus. It describes people who said, even

when it's hard, I'm gonna choose Jesus, even when my

kids are falling away from him, I'm gonna choose Jesus.

Even when my marriage is difficult, I'm gonna choose Jesus.

Even when my finances all right, I'm gonna choose Jesus.

I'm gonna continue to move in this direction of orienting

my life around the person of Jesus. People who keep

arranging their lives around him is what Luke is talking about.

And I think this is incredibly encouraging for someone like me,

because how many of you know that life is hard.

There's hard seasons, there's things that you and I are

gonna walk through, man, and it's hard. Can I also

just say this, this is for free? The hard seasons

are important. God doesn't lead you into hard seasons for

no reason. The hard seasons are refining something in you.

God is teaching us something in them. Being devoted doesn't

mean that every season is gonna look identical. Friends, It

means that in every season we continue asking ourselves the question,

how do I keep arranging my life around Jesus? How

do I in the midst of this how do I

arrange my life around Jesus in the midst of my hopelessness?

How do I arrange my life around Jesus in the

midst of my job being gone? How do I arrange

my life about Jesus in the midst of me adding

to my family and my family getting bigger? How do

I arrange my life around Jesus not perfectly, but intentionally,

going in a direction that shows a life of devotion

to who He is in our life. And here's where

I think we can read Acts chapter two backwards. We

see everything the early church did, and we assume that's

how they earned God's favor. Man, they did it all,

they did, all the things, they checked all the boxes. Man,

they earned it. They were doing all the right things.

And friends, hear me say this, loud and clear. That

is not the story. Let's remember the order of what

just happened. In Acts chapter two, let me remind you

Peter preached about Jesus. People repented, three thousand people received

the grace of God and the gift of salvation. Three

thousand people were baptized, three thousand people received the gift

of the Holy Spirit, and then they devoted themselves to him.

Hear me say this, grace comes first, devotion comes second.

And if you ever mix that up, if you ever

get it backwards. Friends, that's a cheap trick that religion

will play on your life because religion will say this.

Religion will say, be devoted, and maybe God will accept you. Friends,

this is the gospel. The gospel says, you don't have

to do anything because Jesus loves you just as you are.

You have been accepted, you have been redeemed, you have

been chosen. You have been loved not because of anything

that you did, because He is faithful, and because of

that we are free to devote our lives back to him. Friends,

somebody should we should celebrate that truth this month. I

don't know who you are in this room, but I

know that somebody in here needs to realize that there's

not a single thing that you have to do for Jesus.

He has done it all for you, and all he

is asking is you would you would you would place

yourself in a posture to say, God, my life is

free to be used by you. God, is my devotion

to who you are in my life that I would

be used for what you want to do in my life.

Never reverse that order, friends, It's a totally different motivation,

isn't it. We're not trying to earn God's love. We're

responding to God's love. We're not trying to impress Jesus.

We're captivated by him. We're enamored by the person of Jesus.

I think that's why Acts Chapter two in the Early

Church is so powerful, because nobody's forcing this. Let me

tell you the Early Church. They didn't receive assigned volunteer

schedules for the kids ministry on Monday morning. Nobody's handing

out commitment cards, nobody's saying you have to do these things.

These people just simply can't imagine building their lives around

anything else other than Jesus because they look at who

He is in their life and they say God, my

life is yours should change everything. Who here would say, Man,

Jesus changed my life forever, I'll never be the same person.

And friends, I'm raising my hand too. And there's times

in my life where I have to look in the

mirror and say, God, if you really have changed my life,

what does my life say about it? It's good for us.

It's good for us to make sure that our life

is being arranged around the person of Jesus and his

mission here for us. And here's where I think this

connects to us. This morning. I'm not asking how many

of you can add five things to your schedule. That's

not what I'm asking. That's not the question. In fact,

the question is way deeper than that. The question is

what is shaping your life? What are the rhythms that

you have, and what are they forming you into? Because

here's the truth. Every one of us is being discipled

by something. We're all being discipled by something. Some of

us are being discipled by our calendars. Some of us

are being discipled by our habits. Some of us are

being discipled by our phones, our news feeds, entertainment disciples us,

our friendships, disciple us, our careers, disciple us. Every repeated

rhythm in our life is shaping the person that we

are becoming. And here is what the early Church understood

that I think we often forget. It's that devotion isn't

just about what you believe, It's about what you continually

build your life around. That's why when I talk about

what we're calling the all in Track, it's not five

church activities that we're talking about. I want us to

think about five rhythms in our life, five ways that

we intentionally arrange our lives around the family that Jesus

is building. Remember the Apple watch. The goal is in

to check the boxes, it's to close the rings. Not

because the rings make you healthy, but because healthy rhythms

produce a healthy life in the same way the five

rings can I tell you, friends, they don't make anyone

a Christian, They don't earn God's love, they don't prove

your worth. There's simply a way of asking a really

honest question, a really vulnerable question, am I intentionally participating

in the life of the church that Jesus is building

around me? Because here's something I don't want us to miss.

This is going to shock some of you. The early

Church The first Christians had no idea who venture church was.

I know, it's crazy, the gall They didn't know what

an ownership class was. They didn't have volunteer lanyards. Some

of you really liked volunteer lanyards. They didn't have a

church app they didn't have strategic planning retreats. But if

you looked closely at their early church lives, you would

have seen the rings. You'd have seen people learning. You

would have seen people gathering. You'd have seen people sharing

life together. You'd have seen people serving one another. You'd

have seen people taking responsibility for the mission to make

Jesus famous. Not because anyone invented a system, but because

that's simply what devoted people do. Luke continues on and

he paints the picture even more. He says, they devoted

themselves to the apostles teachings, and to fellowship, to the

breaking of bread into prayer. And then I'm gonna paraphrase

what he writes through verse forty seven. He says, all

the believers were together, they met in the temple courts,

they broke bread in their homes, and the Lord added

to their number daily those who were being saved. Did

you notice something. Luke isn't giving us a checklist. He's

painting a picture. He's painting a portrait of the kind

of community that Jesus was trying to create. They learned together,

they worshiped together, they prayed together, They shared life together.

They served one another, they took responsibility for one another.

They participated. It's the kind of relational fellowship that Jesus

desired for his people to be in. In fact, that

word fellowship in the Greek, there's a really cool word.

It's this word coynona, and it's one of my favorite

words in the New Testament because it means so much

much more than just being friendly. Although this is free,

how many of you know it's way underrated to be

nice in the world. Man, we need more nice people

in this world, dude, We just need some nice, kind people.

But he's describing something more. Coynonia means sharing in, participating together,

having something in common. In other words, the early Church

didn't simply attend gatherings. You know what they did. They

shared life, They did life together. They belonged to one another,

and that's why they opened their homes to each other.

That's why they carried one another's burdens. That's why they

met the needs of the people around them. That's why

they people couldn't tell where my responsibility ends and our

responsibility starts. Why because they shared life, they belonged to

one another. Church wasn't an event, It was a family

that they belonged to. And I think that's exactly what

Jesus intended for you and I to be a part

of right here in twenty twenty six. Despite the difference

in cultures, he desires that for his church today, that

they would belong to a family. So here's what we've

tried to do a venture. We've simply asked the question,

if Acts Chapter two happened right here in Mill Creek,

what would healthy participation in the local church look like.

And that's where the all in track comes in. And

you're going to see this graphic all through this next month.

We're going to refer to it over and over. These

aren't five boxes. These are five rings, five rhythms, five

ways we intentionally participate in the family that Jesus is building.

They're not in any intentional order, because no single one

is more or less important than the next. The question

we're asking is which ring do you need to close.

Maybe you're in here and the ring you need to

close is you need to discover what ventures all about.

Maybe you just started coming to the church. You need

to know who we are. You need to know what

we believe, where you fit, how you can be used,

how you can grow. Maybe the ring that you need

to close is you need to participate weekly. Maybe if

you're just being honest with yourself, church has not been

the priority for you. That's okay. This isn't about guilt,

but it is saying, man, this is what the church

was designed to be for as people that we would

gather together. How many of you would honestly say that, Man,

God does something uniquely different when we gather together and worship,

then you can experience anywhere else in the world. Man,

Heaven touches earth, and God desires for us to experience

that on the weekly, that we might experience that kind

of community of worshiping together. Maybe the ring you need

to close is you need to join a group or

a class. Man. I've been at this church for eighteen years,

and let me tell you, there's way too many people.

I'm just gonna be really honest, there's way too many

people who settle for community and rows than community and relationship.

You come here on Sunday morning. We come here on

Sunday morning, and we think that this is community. Friends,

that in community, community is living life together, knowing each other.

And we do that through groups. We grow together in

groups and in classes. We got to get in smaller

circles so we can know each other's story, so that

we can encourage each other, so we can lift each

other up. We have to join groups and classes. Maybe

the ring that you need to close is you need

to serve on a team. Can I tell you that

this is not so much about the fact that we

need you, although let me say we need you, but

the reason that we need you is because you're Is

it okay if I just be honest, You're robbing the

body of Christ of the gift that God gave you.

You're robbing this community. I literally I could look around

this room and God has given each and every one

of us in this room a unique gift, a unique quality,

a unique thing that he had in store for his

church to be better, to be unified because of Paul

goes on in nauseum in the Book of Corinthians and

talk about how the body is many parts, but it's

whole when all the parts come together. We need you,

we need you here. Maybe the ring you need to

close is you need to become an owner. Becoming an

owner is not just saying this is the church I attend.

You know what becoming an owner says says this is

my family, this is my mission, this is my responsibility too.

I carry that with this community of people. Now hear

me say, these rings they don't make you a Christian.

They don't Jesus does. These rings don't earn God's love.

Jesus already took care of that on the Cross. Friends.

These rings don't even make God love you more because

you already loved because of Christ. But what these rings

do is help us to ask one honest question and

my fully participating in the family that Jesus has invited

me into. And I know in this room right now

there is all sorts of people that I'm talking to.

Some of you are here for the first time ever.

This is your first time here. Man, I just want

to say thank you for choosing to be here with

us at Venture Church. And I hope that what you

walk away from this with is Man, these people care

deeply about what it looks like for me to be

a part of this community. And I want to just

say we do. Nicole and I have been here for

eighteen years, and just like all of you with your jobs,

we've had opportunities to go to different places and take

on different roles and move away and do things. But

you know what we've come to the agreement with this

is our chosen family. This this is our family. And

I just want you to hear me say, if this

is your first time here, we invite you into that family.

We invite you in to find your place here and

to find community and to grow here in your relationship

with Christ. And if you're looking at this and you're thinking, man,

I gotta do all this next week, no no, no, no,

you don't just take one step. Maybe that first step

is discovering what this church is all about, discovering how

you can find your place here. I know that there's

others of you who have been here for five, ten, fifteen,

twenty years. You help build this church. And this message

isn't saying start over, It's simply asking is there a

ring that you've quietly stopped closing in your life? Maybe

you used to be in community, but life got busy.

Maybe you used to serve, but somewhere along the way

you saw all these new people coming in you said

it's their turn. But let me just tell you. Let me.

I want you to hear me say we need you.

You help build this church, and you will help continue

to build this church. Maybe you've attended every Sunday for years,

but you've never actually embraced the ownership of mission. Friends,

this isn't about guilt this morning. It's simply an invitation

to honestly evaluate where you're at today and an opportunity

for us to partner with you and experiencing everything that

God has in store for us together. And then there

is many of you in this room right now listening

to this message, and you feel like I'm preaching to

the choir, and I want to just say that there

are so many faithful people who have been closing these

rings all along the way, and as one pastor on

this team, I just want you to hear me say

thank you so much. We could not do this without you.

Every weekend, my kids and your kids included learn about Jesus.

Be of you students encounter Christ because of you. Guests

feel welcome because of you, People are prayed for because

of you. Services like this can happen because of you.

Meals are delivered because of you. Groups are led because

of you. The mission of Christ doesn't move forward unless

hundreds of faithful people have already said I'm all in.

But every morning, your Apple watch resets, starts back at zero.

Yesterday's rings don't count for today. And I actually think

there's something really beautiful about the reality of that, because

every single day Jesus is inviting us again, not to

earn his love, but to respond to his love, to

devote ourselves again, to participate again, to worship again, to

serve again, to love one another again, to build his

church again and again and again. And the goal isn't

to check boxes, friends, it's to close rings. Not because

we're trying to complete a program, but because we truly

believe that God designed his church so that every person

has a place and every person has a part in

this thing. So for the next four weeks, we're going

to tackle one ring at a time. We're gonna walk

through why each one matters. If my prayer isn't that

you leave thinking I need to do more it's not

the goal. My prayer is that you'll leave asking one

simple question, Jesus, which ring are you inviting me to

close in my life right now? Because here's what I know.

When every follower of Jesus finds their place, when every

person discovers that they have a part to play, and

when a church doesn't simply just gather, but they participate,

the world notices it happened. In Acts chapter two, It's

exactly what happened, and Luke ends with these words. After

reflecting on the early church, he says, and the Lord

added to their number daily those who are being saved

Holy Spirit, would God say that about venture church in

this community, that God's people would be so devoted that

the world would take notice, and then he would add

the numbers by the day. Amen, let me pray for

us today, Father God, I thank you so much for

my church. God. I love this place, I love this community.

My life has been changed because of this place. That's

what family is. So God, I thank you that you

created the church so that we might be able to

be richly blessed through it, so that we might have

a part to play. God, so that we might have

a community, to have and so Father, I pray God,

this is not a morning of guilt. God, this is

a morning where we look at our life, and we

look at who you are for our life, and we

honestly ask ourselves the question, God, if you really are

who you say you are, and if you've really changed

my life? Then God, what rings do I need to close? Say? God,

I'm devoted to you and your plans for this community,

your plans for this house, your plans for their kingdom,

and so got I just thank you for who you

are in alife. I pray that you'd speak to each

and every person. I pray that you change your lives

in Jesus' miny name. Amen.

Hey man, Hey, can we give Pastor Morgan a big

thank you for that message kicking off this all in series? Hey,

if you are hearing this and you're wondering, man, I

want to go all in? What's that next step? How

can I get more connected here at the church? I

want to invite you to just check out two things.

Number one, our app has sort of all of the

information that you might need in order to figure out

where those opportunities are. Our ownership Class Discover one oh

one serving joining a group. All of that can be

found in our app. And so if you're going back

home this weekend, heading into your week wondering, man, how

can I get more connected? How can I get more involved?

I would invite you to check out the app. And

then secondly, we've got a team of people here that

take in the notes from these messages and then they

curate specifically resources for you your families to be able

to continue leaning in and learning more about whatever was

talked about on these Sunday mornings. And so we've got

a What's Next page in our app where you can

find all sorts of resources specifically around the text that

was taught this morning. So if you're curious, if you

want to go in learn more about what the early

church was like in Acts chapter two, how they lived

sort of all in devoted lives, then I want to

invite you to be sure to check out the What's

Next page for all of those resources that have been

selected for you. Hey, I want to invite the ushers

forward as we consider today how we might be able

to give towards this special offering. You heard Pev mention

it at the start of service through that video Pastor

Morgan shared a little bit more about it. But when

we read about the news that's going on in those

Spokane fires this week, we recognize, man, there's people in

here who know people out there that have been impacted.

And if you don't know anybody directly, know that.

Man.

We have a venture campus out in Spokane, and so

when we see that we hurt with them, we are

impacted with them. That's a part of our body, that's

a part of this church. And so we're going to

take this special offering this morning, and just know that

this morning and all money given to Kingdom Builders over

the next twenty four hours is going to be going

towards Convoy of Hope and their relief efforts, specifically their

relief efforts to assist in what's happening out in Spokane.

So again, this is a special offering that we're taking

to go towards the relief efforts that are happening out

in Spokane. I'm going to pray over this offering and

then we're going to show a video about some of

the work that Convoy of Hope is doing in and

around this community as well. Would you just join me

in a word of prayer. Jesus, We lift up right now,

the people that we know in this church that have

been impacted by what's happening in Spokane this week, and

all of the other people in the community that have

been impacted. God asked that you would show yourself in

a mighty and powerful way in the midst of loss,

in the midst of tragedy, in the midst of life

changing events. God, that you would use these moments to

reveal yourself to people, to glorify people, and God, to

turn people to you. God, we trust that you are

a provider and a giver of good gifts. And so Lord,

would you provide for every need. Would you satisfy every desire,

Would you meet needs in people's lives. Jesus, we love you.

Bless this offering, Bless these gifts. Use it to turn

lives around. Jesus, we love you. We pray these things

in your name.

Amen.

All right, all right? I actually think that was the

back to school bash that is facilitated by Convoy of

Hope and the table up at Everetts. So really exciting

to see what's going on up there. Well, hey, you

guys can all stand on up to your feet. We

love you so much. Hope you have an amazing week.

It is so good to see so many of you.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and we will see

you on Sunday.