Kingdom Builder or Empire Builder? | Pastor Christian Lindbeck | Venture Church

Let's go. That makes it sound really exciting. Good morning

Venture Church.

Also greeting to all of you who are joining us online.

If I haven't met you yet, my name is Christian Lindbeck.

I'm just another one of.

The really, really grateful pastors on staff Adventure. This is

a great place to be partnered in ministry with you.

I want to warn you right up front that I'm

fighting a cold or a star throat or something.

So if I have to cough, I'll try to cough

away from the microphone. Bless you in Jesus name, especially

those of you online, there's no escape. Glad to have

you with us today.

We're gonna take a big bite say we're gonna try

to accomplish two things in one sermon. The first thing

we want to do is try to launch this sermon

series Solomon, the Man who Had it All.

We're also calling it the Rise and.

Fall of Solomon like you saw in that video. And

we're also launching our second year of Kingdom Builders.

But we're gonna do all of that.

In the next thirty two minutes in one sermon.

Which means it's gonna have you know.

This is gonna be some twenty thousand foot stuff, some

introductory stuff. I hope that in both cases it causes

you to want to learn more, read more, get into

first kings with us, come out of the kingdom, milder corner,

find out more. But I think that you'll find that

they are both interconnected.

Will tie these two things together well.

Scripture has from the very beginning presented life lived in

two ways. That life has two possible central pathways. There's

maybe some nuance in between. Will probably agree we've blended

them some ourselves, but they are two fundamental ways that

you might live, and this story plays out through Scripture.

The first way is that you enthrone rightfully, enthrone God

in the center of your life, giving him his authority,

receiving from him.

Direction for life. Who am I? What is life all about?

And it's the privilege of human beings to be in

this relationship with God. When we enthrone God, it doesn't

mean we just become servants. It means we become participants

trained in the family business. We get to be part

of God's kingdom, and that means we get to take

all of us beauty and creativity and fun and peace

and restoration. We get to put our hands alongside God's

hands and participate that we become kingdom builders. It's wherever

it is that we find ourselves in life and has purpose,

It has beauty, it has the joy of participating with

God even when it is difficult. There is a good

way to live with God enthroned in the middle of

our life. But there is another way to live. The

second way enthrones ourselves in.

The center of our lives. We make ourselves the first authority.

Now, I think if I asked you, nobody would say, oh,

I'm making myself my own God.

If you do, let's have some counseling.

But like, but that's effectively what we do when we

take God out of his rightful position. As we say no,

it's me. I make that decision. I make the decision

about what life is about.

I make a.

Decision who I am. I make decision how I interact

with others, what is good and what is not good.

It feels like it's going to be this wide open,

spacious that we take for ourselves.

But scripture will show.

Us over and over it's a small, narrow, tiny decision.

One life was God rightfully enthrone. The other is this sort.

Of small, twisted disobedience is the first lie Satan never told,

who was himself the first one who would not humble

himself and rightfully put God on the throne. So it's

the lie that he told Eve and Adam, you don't

have to just decide for yourself.

If you see that.

Something is good and you want it, you want to

take it. You're just an animal. That's what animals do.

They should have it. So since he would not submit,

he gives this first lie to our first parents, and

they make this decision that it is up to them.

It is not that God has told him.

This is the first thing that they disagree with.

Did God say that?

So instead of participating in this broad, wide, open, purposeful,

fruitful life where God has bringing restoration, shalom, beauty and

peace upon the world, they chose.

A small, little life, a small.

Life of self determination, where it becomes a twist of

what they were supposed to have. And this poison, this

birth of pride, which is the first sin, nearly kills

our first parents. That is only by God's grace that

it does not kill them, But it has poisoned every

single human being, every culture, and every system we have

built since those first days pride, enthroning ourselves on God's

place in our life as what is twisted everything else.

It's a simple question.

It's a simple, recurring, constant question for every human being.

It's an invitation that gets extended over and over. Will

we acknowledge and worship God joyfully, keeping him on the

throne of our life? Or will we deny God, pull

inward and just live by our wits and our soul

called strength and competition and build these little temporary empires

of the thing that we want. And again, this just

makes us animals like every other animal on.

The face of the earth.

You can disobey God and live exactly like your dog

and a bear. You can be Hey, I'm gonna fight,

I'm gonna.

Compete for resources. I'm gonna fight against my neighbor.

I'm gonna build my own little empire with my own

little so called safety and my own little things in it.

And it's choosing a small life.

It feels like maybe it's choosing a big life. A

big life is to see where God will take you.

What will you participate in with God? And this little

self determined life is just he chooses this tiny, little

narrow life right, just what.

Do I get, what can I get? How do I

save it?

And it sometimes comes off as like building safety, but

it's really just building our own little empires. And so

this question is presented to us in these two ways

to live, Where we build God's kingdom or we would

build our empire. We're made as sons and daughters of God,

called to participate in building his empire until he comes

back and makes things all. Well, that's what we're called

to do. But we have the freedom to deny God.

It's not wild that he gave us that freedom.

He says, I'm just giving one being the right to

say no to me.

Whales they will go on being whales, bumblebees and mice.

They will do exactly what they're supposed to do. You

you can rebel. I gave you the free will to rebel,

and I gave you the chance to.

Come walk along when you enthrone me.

This is good life, wide open, spacious, but you can rebel.

Choose to build your own little, self destructive empire. And

presented to every human being through the grace of Jesus,

is this question.

Will I be a kingdom builder like I was made

to be? Or will I be an empire builder like

a simple, small, temporary human.

You can build a grand empire and guess what happens

when you die. It's nothing, It's just it's vapor. The

little empires we build are tiny compared to the everlasting

good Kingdom of God. Will we build the city of

Babylon or the City of God?

Will we be children of God? Or will we be

mere animals? Cain or Abel, Peter or Judas. It's all

the same question. And this question about.

Kingdom builder or empire builder, God on the throne or

me on the throne? It runs all through scripture, It

runs through every story of the people.

That we will read. It runs through us.

One of my favorite theologians said, the line between light

and dark doesn't run out there with somebody else, It

runs right through the middle of every human heart.

What will I be like humans sitting here? What about

on your homes? Are your work?

You can ask this question with your kids, or your

spouse or your roommates. You can ask this in the

way you go to work, the way you invest your income,

the things that you buy. Who am I partnering with?

What am I building?

I have this grand invitation to build.

God's kingdom, and I have a small little lie to

build my own empire. And one of the most beautiful

and heartbreaking examples that this is not just some one

time decision, but an ongoing In fact, the more God

blesses you, the more pressing the question becomes.

Empire or kingdom.

And one of the most beautiful examples of this is

the subject of this series, King Solomon. Over the next

few weeks, we will see him rise to the loftiest

heights of kingdom building. He will have every human gift

plus humility.

He will kneel before.

God, and the presence of God will fall into the temple,

and all the nation will worship, and we'll think to ourselves,

it just can't get any better than that. That's the

ultimate sign of kingdom participation. I bet you, I bet

you Solomon thought it doesn't get any better than this,

does not get any better than this.

And yet we will.

See, because he fails to build into his life the

habits and real that keep asking himself this question empire

or kingdom, he will be tempted by empire.

Small, tiny, stupid, vain, foolish empire.

Lots of wives like power and sex have.

Derailed more human beings than you can shake a stick at,

and it will become these tiny, little temporary temptations of

empire that we will see derail Solomon's life and his gift.

And I just want to say, it's like, we'll watch

him rise and then to these like horrific lows that

strain our imagination to believe that.

That can be the same guy. The same guy who

did that is now the same guy who's doing.

This, you see, because his life is presented with the

same question always empire, kingdom, empire, kingdom now and maybe

his opportunities to build God's kingdom and build his own

empire were higher than ours, But the same fundamental question exists.

Will I build God's kingdom, partner with him in this

flourishing work, or will I build my own little empire,

kingdom builder, empire builder? Will I keep God enthroned at

the center of my life? Or while I try to

creep onto that chair myself. I'm telling you we will

learn through the story of Solomon and every human being

that has existed since, to creep onto the chair of

the throne of your life is mildly satisfying for a moment,

and otherwise totally and utterly destructive.

He will rise and then he will fall. And as

the name implies in the series, he had it all. God,

he had it all.

We learn from this kind of reading around them that

he had beauty and stature and calling and intelligence and wisdom,

and he was.

Good with people and high capacity. He could like it

could have been so good. But who knows? Like just

having the.

Gifts is not good enough. And if you have the

gifts and you'll submit.

To God, great heights. If you have the gifts and

you choose your own little thing, who cares you think?

Like if the earth lasts one thousand years from now,

they're gonna be like reading about Lebron James Rome is gone. Friends,

these things don't last. He had everything going for him,

which means the temptation to fall and lose his way.

Is even higher.

Did you know that the more opportunity you're given, even

by God, the greater the risk, the more the responsibility,

the more the temptation. Last week, Brandon talked about Alex

Hanold climbing H one oh one.

Did you see that? Oh? Good?

Some of you saw it since then, because I was like, oh,

we're going to use this unworking illustration twice because.

The higher the start and the higher the climb.

The more the possibility for glory, and the more the

possibility for cataclysmic failure.

What made watching.

Alex interesting is that if he made it, you could

just be like, how did this happen? And if he fell,

that's it. So this is true for all of us.

The more opportunity. I don't know who you are, but

if you have more resources, I promise.

The temptation is stronger.

If you have more intelligence, more wisdom, more beauty. I

want to hold some beautiful people.

That I know by the face to say, be wise

with this power you.

Have been given, because often they're just manipulative with it.

The more you are given the greatest problem.

And for me, like maybe it's low, Like if Alex

Hanald clies Type one oh one and I climbed those stairs,

we're both climbing. My possibility for glory is small. Also

my possibility for failure equally small. So you can do

great things in the It's not saying, oh, you want

to be a kingdom builder, you just got.

To be a small, a diminutive person.

Solomon was a great human being doing great things for

the Kingdom of God.

He just lost the thread of the story. What am

I building? Am I building God's kingdom? Or am I

building my own little empire? And the temptation to build

your own empire. If you're a.

Business owner out there, you can say, praise the temptation

to build your own empire is high. He had everything

going for him, Like I said, he had beauty and stature,

and wisdom and relationship. Let me name two of the

things Solomon had going for him. One Solomon I think

you may or may not know this. Solomon is the

restoration son of David and Bathsheba's sin. Now most of

you know the story of David and Bathsheba. I think

that there is a Netflix mini series on it.

So you know.

David takes Bathsheba. Afterwards he must kill her husband or

have his Her husband murdered because she is embarrassingly pregnant.

With David's child. Well, he gets called out. David and

Bathsheba get called out by the.

Prophet Nathan, and Nathan tells him this child that was

conceived this way will not live.

David pleads for his son, but his son will not live.

After that son dies, David humbles himself, he humbles himself,

and he repents.

To the Lord for what he has done. And then

it says he goes to his.

Wife again and she can and has another son, and

he names that son Solomon.

Now you may or may not know this, but Solomon

in Hebrew is Shlomo.

Now we can grant that doesn't sound as cool, but

it's important because Shlomo comes from the word shallom shalom peace.

So David went through this grievous sin that cost life,

costs his huge damage to his kingdom. He saw it all,

he repented, he got off empire building back to kingdom building.

And what did he feel?

The peace of God who here has known the joy

of repentance and forgiveness to joy.

And so he names him a kingdom name. Oh, at

all points of Jesus, whose.

Kingdom he will be called king of kings, prince of peace.

So he names them a kingdom name. So I name you.

He's the Restoration Son. Two. Samuel twelve twenty four gives us.

Another image into his gifting because through the prophet Nathan,

the Lord says, and the Lord loved him and sent.

A message by Nathan.

The prophet also instructing him to name him alongside Solomon.

We'll see it's both to name him Jedediah, because the

name Jedediah means.

Beloved by God, for the Lord loved him.

Look, we've probably seen people with all the gifts and

all the calling, and even seemed to have the blessing

of God on their life, and then somehow horrifically later

we see everything come crumbling down. I don't know who

hit for you, but Robbie Zacharias, that one put me down.

To see Philip Yancey fall two months ago, that one

put me down.

These are Christian.

Men who I honored, respected, read, loved. And look, if

you lose the thread of kingdom building, all the gifts

in the world won't keep empire building from wrecking your life.

He had all the gifts. He was the chosen king

number two. You see, by normal custom, his older brother

Ada Nija should be king. An ancient Maies custom, it's

going to be the oldest son. So Ada Niga is

the next son in row to be king, and frankly

people thought he should be king. In some very powerful

and dangerous allies of David's worked to make Ada Niga king,

and you can go read about that in First King's one.

They tried to make that happen.

That'shiba Solomon's mother finds out. She goes and tells David, hey,

they're trying to make Ada Niga king. David, upon hearing

this news, knowing that Adam Nige's next in line, says

this to Bathsheba, as the Lord lives, as God is

my witness, that's a strong pledge. As the Lord lives, Solomon,

your son shall reign after me.

He is the chosen king.

In fact, God had already told Solomon in a parallel

passage in Second Chronicles, he says, behold, a son shall

be born to you. His name will be Solomon, and

he will build a house for my name.

He will be a kingdom builder, and.

I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

All is a foreshadow to Jesus.

So here is Solomon, with all of the gifting, all

of the family foundation, all of the calling and blessing

from God.

He is said up to be a kingdom builder.

And I will say for the ten thousandth time, but

because he will not make rhythms in his life that

keep him focused on being a kingdom builder.

He loses the.

Thread of the story, and it will cost him dearly,

and it will cost his children dearly, and it will

cost the nation dearly. He'll be the last king to

look over a nation that is even unified because he

loses the thread of being a kingdom builder.

We'll watch the next few.

Weeks how he'll move from this highly favored position. Pastor

Brandon's gonna teach next week.

Out of first Kings three.

We're gonna see he took all of this privilege and

then he did the right thing.

He asks for wisdom.

We'll watch him go on this meteoric rise, and then

we will watch him come tumbling down pride and excess

and empire building, And for us, it becomes the central

lesson of this story. You see, we're meant to learn

something when we read this. We want you to be

biblically literate. So if you just know the story, that's

a good start. But it's a story so that you

can find yourself in it. This is why it's not

a book of propositional truths. It's stories of real people.

So you can read the story and you can look

at that story and say, well, I do not want

that to happen to me. I do not want that,

not for my house, not for my kids, not for

my life, not for any kind of.

Legacy I leave on the earth. That's not going to

be my story.

Well, if you don't learn from that history, friends, you

know the rest of the line, you're doomed.

To repeat it.

You don't have to fail yourself to learn from his failure.

God, don't you wish it always worked that way?

We don't have to do this ourselves, although we will

be inclined to ask ourselves throughout this series, how could

that be avoided?

How do I not have that happen to me?

I'm going to suggest that there's one phrase you can

ask yourself through this entire series that might be helpful

to you, and I'm going to ask you to sit

with it right.

Now for a second. Ask yourself this question. What am

I building? What am I building? You?

Take a second with yourself right now. What are you

building in your home? What are you building your family?

What are you building at work? What are you building

here in this community? Are you participating with God by

the Holy Spirit to expand, multiply and add beauty to

the Kingdom of God? Or are you building your own little,

tiny empire. It's just such a good question, and the question,

when dealt with honestly, will constantly lead us.

Back to a life that is worthwhile.

The question ignored because we like what we're getting for

ourselves will invariably lead to disaster, even if it looks

like temporary success. How we answer that question, kingdom builder

or empire builder, will change the trajectory of our entire lives.

One will build peace and order and purpose and shalom

and recovery, and the other only in genders, fear, hoarding,

competition against our neighbors. Look, if zombie movies and TV

shows have taught us anything, and they have, then they

have taught us this are the zombies the real problem.

It's the people. It's always about the people, And what

it teaches us is the empire building. Humans are the

greatest danger.

Because people who think life is all about what they

can and get our selfish, violent and treacherously motivated by fear.

And that is what we'll see unpack in this story.

And you can watch that story over and.

Over, and so we have to ask ourselves, what are

we building?

What are you building? Now?

You might be wondering other than the name, Hey, how

does this fit into Kingdom Builders?

Like the pro isn't it? Like how we just raise

money for global mission around here?

I'll tell you that you'd be asking the right question

about a mechanism. Yes, we raise some money for global

mission around here, but it would.

Not be the right question about why we do Kingdom Builders?

Why Kingdom Builders? Why take all this time, Why take

all this effort? It feels like it's adding a complication.

Why do we do Kingdom Builders? And the answer is

very simple, because we desire to organize our deepest conviction

that are shared lives are about building God's kingdom first

and not our own. And we will make it a system,

a rhythm, a priority. I will make sure we will

make sure together this community is not about empire building,

but this community is about kingdom building.

We have to make a decision to do that.

I am confident that Jesus was telling the truth in

Matthew six thirty three when he said, seek first the

Kingdom of God, and everything else.

Gets added unto you.

Look, I want you to We all get homes and

cars and toys and trips. All those things are fine,

They're only poisonous. When they're the goal, they can be.

The and added into you joy of life.

But if they become the goal of your life, they

become a snare. If they become a snare, they become

a habit. They become a habit, they become the trajectory

of your whole life. If we learn anything from studying

solemn and being honest with ourselves, I think it might

be something like this.

Choosing humility in God's kingdom.

First is a lifelong, often daily decision. We can ask

ourselves over and over, what am I building? What am

I doing in the midst of this conflict? How might

I soften my heart in this moment and shift it

to building God's kingdom with my own family, in my

own home instead of my own little empire.

My wife's gonna love this, she's probably watching online. But

we got an argument, you know, because we're married for

thirty one years, and.

I think to myself, I could fight this to the death.

That's empire building, or I can soften my heart build

up my wife.

That's kingdom building in my own home. You build it

at work, you build it in your home, you build

it in your church.

But it is this decision that you have to make, and.

Then you have to learn to do it as an

habitual choice.

We learn to make kingdom building by making it a

rewarding habit.

He just learned to do this.

Until you enjoy doing it, you get to participate in

a great life.

You can enjoy doing it. But I'm gonna tell.

You if you want it but won't but fail to

make it a rewarding.

Habit, it will not happen. It just won't.

Darryl Taylor was in the first Service and he's a

long distance runner. He runs like fifty miles, which means

he has some mental disorder he should talk to people about.

But he has he loves it. He's made a rewarding habit,

so he achieves this thing.

You want to swing a kettlebell like Diabeel's rewarding habit,

you have to say, I want to do that.

So now I have to.

Make a habit. I have to like put a rhythm

in my life. I have to make commitments. I have

to make a decision. I have to sign up and

go to that thing. And then if I do that,

I can build this thing in my life. And I'm

telling you right now, this is what I am trying

to accomplish through Kingdom Builders to make it a rewarding habit.

And I don't want today to talk us into being

kingdom builders. My goal is not to come up here

and say, oh man, I'm going to talk you into

being a kingdom milder. It is the goal of this

book to make you a kingdom builder. It is the

goal of the Holy Spirit to make you a kingdom builder.

It is the purpose of Jesus for your.

Life to make you a kingdom builder. That is not

my job. I have a whole different kind of job.

That job is to make sure Venture Church is the

kind of place where we can be kingdom builders together,

where we've organized our convictions so that we can share

this mission together to.

Build God's Kingdom.

That's something I can do, and I pledged you as

the leader over Kingdom Builders. I will do that with

all the integrity and energy I can muster until Jesus

comes back or he is famous everywhere.

The mission of Kingdom Bilders is simple.

If you maybe have not heard about it, you can

check out our website or do we have that slide

with the QR code up thank you.

You can scan the QR code. Please swing by.

We have got volunteers at the Kingdom Milder's Corner which

is on your way out the main doors. Come talk

to somebody out there about Kingdom Builders. Check out the website,

come ask us more about it. The mission of Kingdom

Milders is simple, and you hear about it every single week.

To build God's Kingdom by expanding the global mission, making

a local impact, and developing future leaders. We stay focused,

laser focused on those three goals together.

And sometimes people ask.

Hey, venture, when are you going to stop planting new locations?

When is that over? When Jesus is famous everywhere?

When are you going to stop improving the locations you have?

When Jesus comes back or Jesus is famous everywhere?

When you're going to stop sending missionaries?

We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on missionaries.

When does that stop? When every human being knows.

Jesus Christ and he's famous everywhere, then we stop?

When are we going to stop investing in.

Schools and kids programs and future leaders when Jesus comes

back or Jesus is famous everywhere. We have organized this

conviction into a system, so I hope that you be

a part of it. You might be wondering at this moment, well,

how do I become a Kingdom Builder?

Well, I am so glad you asked.

Because I'm convinced that everyone who calls Venture Home can

be and should be a Kingdom Builder right alongside each other.

That's going to give you three quick things.

Number one, the simple one, it's the easiest to do,

is to give.

Please partner with us.

And this is every dollar beyond our regular ties and

offerings which makes this housework, makes us all a Kingdom builder.

And it takes an inspiring number of resources to do

what we have planned.

Across all of our locations.

This year, Kingdom Builders will invest one point five million dollars.

In the Global Mission. Let me say that again, one

point five million dollars not here, but they go straight

out to.

Expand the Global mission, make a local impact and develop

future leaders. And I can tell you so many stories

about it. But this year, this year, we are going

to open the first computer lab that has ever existed

in the Kibera slum in Kenya, largest slub in Kenya.

But there's a school that we partner with and we're

going to open the first computer lab in that school

and change the.

Trajectory of kids' lives. It's costing ten thousand dollars to

do it. It will shape kids forever. That's something we

are doing as Kingdom Builders.

This picture is of Immaculate Felix, Esther and Brenda.

They all started as orphans in Kenya.

That is a picture after of them after they all

graduated high school and with flying colors past the exam

to go to university in Kenya.

That's lives change.

Because of our investment as a Kingdom builders. When you

walk in the door, sometimes you might see the slide

on the door or up here that says translation service

is available.

I don't know if you know this or not, but

we pay you can come in and have.

These services and worship translated into eighty languages, so anybody

can walk in the door you want. You want it

to listen in like Tagalog, Filipino that's in there for you.

You want Spanish that's there for you, like every language

is available for us in there. That's how do we

pay for this kingdom impact, Kingdom.

Builders, so that the vast global community, multi ethnic community

of God feels welcome in this church. That's the kind

of thing we do as Kingdom Builders. This year, through

Compassionate International, We're going to take care daily of five.

Hundred and fifty kids this community. That is two hundred

and eighty three thousand, eight hundred dollars. Three hundred thousand

dollars will go from this community to make sure kids

are fed and discipled and reared and know who they

are in the love of Christ. Through Convoy of Hope,

we will respond to every major.

Disaster on the face of the earth this year.

That's things that we do through Kingdom Builders. And I

could go on and on telling those stories.

Here's what I will do instead. Every month.

We'll do this every year for the next ten months.

Every month you will meet a new partner or a

new initiative, something that we together are doing as Kingdom Builders,

Global Mission, Local Impact, Future Leaders. I want you to

hear the stories and celebrate alongside us and check out

the website.

But there'll be lots of time to tell more of

these stories.

Next week I'll spend a little just a couple of

minutes with our planned Vision dream Card, so we know that.

We all know how to participate. I'm going to end

with these last two things, and this very fast two

other ways.

So you can give, you can go, and you can

get involved. Go means go on a short term missions

trip with us. If you want a life set on fire,

a heart lit up to participate in God.

Mission around the world, go on a short term mission trip.

We set a goal last year that eventually someday we'd

send like twelve missions trips a year, because we're sending

one every two years. This year, there are seven mission

trips available. Seven mission trips, so find one to get

involved to. We're going to Tijuana and La Paz and

Kenya and France and Indonesia and Turkey and Israel, like

find a place to get plugged. And you can find

all of that on our website. And honestly, I could

just I would love to just tell you more and

more of these stories.

But what I hope I have done today is unite

these two things together.

I hope that by looking at the life of Solomon,

I have wet your appetite to hear more about this.

How does he rise? How does he fall? What can

we learn?

And I hope in the same story we have set

a foundation for what makes us kingdom builders instead of

Empire Builders, and that looking at the life of Solomon

becomes a personal thing to you and a personal thing.

For the life of this church. And that we stay at.

This with diligence, prayer, and creativity and passion and cooperation

with one another until either Jesus comes back or he

is famous everywhere.

This is our calling. I'm so glad to be on

this mission with you, thanks to each of you.

For those of you who've already joined, I hope that

this week you'll check out Kingdom Builders, become a Kingdom Builders.

That you'll read first king Chapters one and two, and

if you like, you can memorize Matthew six point thirty three,

seek first the Kingdom of God.

It's a blessing to be on mission with you.

When you walk out those doors today, whatever is you're

going to do, go make Jesus famous, build his kingdom

until he comes back, or you go home.

Amen.

Man, I hope you hear the heart of that message

this morning, because the question that He poses for us

from the Book of All the Men in regards to

Kingdom Builders is one that every single believer should ask themselves.

And that's whose kingdom and I building? Am I building

my own little personal empire? Or am I building something

that will go beyond what I can do on my own.

It's a question that we should all wrestle with, and

our belief here is that together as Venture Church, we

want to do everything that we can to make Jesus famous.

Amen.

And that requires us to not just focus on our empire,

but to say, God, what do you want to do

with our lives and this community to make his name

known everywhere? And so as you leave this morning, you're

going to be handed one of our annual goal cards.

This is our goal card for twenty twenty six. We

hand this out to every single person who comes to

church today because we want you to know the things

that we are doing together to make his name known.

Amen.

As you take this home, it's it's a magnet, which

is which is pretty cool. Turns out box weighs a

metric ton when you order a bunch of these. But

you can take this and stick it on your fridge.

And what we want to encourage you to do is

be actively praying over our church and ask yourself that

question every time.

You look at it. Who's kingdom in my building?

Consider how you can be a part of kingdom builders

this year, you and your family, whether that's going on

a missions trip, serving giving above your tithe, whatever that

may look like for you. We want to encourage everyone

at Venture Church to be a kingdom builder. And here's

what I would love to do. Just to close out

our service. You're gonna grab one of these. They're going

to hand you one as you leave the doors. But

I want to actually invite you to stand to your

feet this morning because I want to just turn this

into a prayer over you, over myself as we walk

out of here today, would you just pray with me? Lord, God,

we thank you so much, and I don't want to

just breeze by that.

God.

I thank you that my life has extreme purpose. God,

that you desire to use me to build something far

greater than anything I can build on my own. And

I pray that that truth would reside in the hearts

and the minds of every single person here. God, you

have called us and created us to build something far

greater than we could build on our own. And so God,

as a church God, I pray over my friends in

this room. God, I pray that you would stir their

hearts for what it means to build your kingdom this

year in their own life. And as we walk out

of here together and we believe for twenty twenty six, God,

I pray that you would do greater things through us

than we could ask or imagine God as a body

making your name famous. God, we love you, We thank

you in Jesus' name. And everyone said, amen, Hey, as

you leave this place, you're gonna grab one of these cards.

And for all of you in here that are family

members here at Venture, I want to invite you back

six pm for our annual family meeting tonight right here

in this place. So we'll see you back here tonight.

God bless you, and we'll see you next week