Imitators of God | Pastor Jared Ming | Venture Church

Hi, and welcome to Venture Church Online. My name is

Kelsey and I'm our online campus pastor. We're so glad

that you're joining us. Drop a comment below of where

you're streaming from. We would love to interact with you.

We hope that you enjoy today's stays.

Thank you so much. Good morning, Venture Church. It is

good to see you today. A happy Thanksgiving to everybody,

and what a joy to be back here at Venture.

You know, for years I've been coming and watching God's

faithfulness and it's been fun to have Brandon come and

be with us over the years. We just celebrated this

year our twenty year anniversary. I know that you guys

the last time I was here, you're celebrating twenty years

and so what a joy to be with you today.

You know, great churches and great ministries don't just happen.

They happen because God raises up great leaders. And you

are blessed to have Pastor Die, Pastor Brandon, and an

amazing team and pastoral staff. Honor them today for their

faithfulness and service to the Lord. I pastor church called

Higher Vision Church. So if you're ever in the LA area,

we are directly My office is across from Magic Mountain.

You can see it. So we'd love for you to

come and visit. If you're in the LA area. If

you want to follow us Higher Vision Church or p

Jared Being, you can follow that. We are excited. You know,

this is Thanksgiving Day weekend and for some reason Pastor

Brandon over the years has thought this is the best

weekend to have Jared come. I think maybe because usually

the numbers are a little bit lighter. So he's like,

I don't have to worry. No, seriously, it's a joy

to come every Thanksgiving. And since it's Thanksgiving, I decided

to bring a little Thanksgiving humor, So be kind if

you will as I share my little joke. So what

did the turkey or why did the turkey join the

worship team? Anybody know? Because he brought the drumsticks. It's okay.

Somebody are like, keep your job, Jared. Today we're going

to continue the series that you've been in on the

Book of Ephesians. So if you have a Bible, in fact,

anybody bring their Bible today. Shout amen. I get up

in front of our church on a weekly basis and

I say this, we are a Bible bringing note taking amen,

shouting church. So I want to hear a good amen today.

If you'll make me feel welcome, that will help me

preach shorter. All right, amen, turn with me, if you will,

to Ephesians chapter five, and we are going to read

the first verse. In fact, i'd like you to stand

to your feet. As you stand, can you welcome all

the people that are joining us online? Come on, put

your hands together and welcome them. What are joy to

have you with us, all of our online church family.

We're going to read. Why are we standing? We're going

to stand to honor the reading of God's word, and

I want you to read it with me out loud.

The word isn't just meant to be consumed by your eyeballs.

It's meant to be declared by your mouth. So let's

declare this verse as we begin five together. You're ready,

Let's read it together. Therefore, be imitators of God as

dear children. I want you to close your eyes as

we pray. Holy Spirit, anoint this moment, Anoint our hearts

to receive what you have, Anoint my mouth to speak it.

And Lord, when we walk away from this moment, whether

it's getting in our car to drive home or turning

off that screen. May we walk away knowing that we

didn't just hear a good story or a great song,

but we heard your voice. So I pray today. Speak

to us, Lord, will you do something? We just put

your hand of your heart and pray. Prayer with me.

Say Holy Spirit, speak to me. Now take ten seconds

and connect with God. God, we thank you for your presence.

Speak to us today in Jesus' mighty name. And everybody

shouted a big amen. You may be seated. We just

read the scripture said and as we're going through the

Book of Ephesians, chapter five gives us a theme the

beginning and here's what it is, be an imitator of God.

I thought about playing, Simon says, but I decided not

to for the sake of time. But the word imitator

is a Greek word which simply means this. It means

to mimic or to follow after the behaviors and words

of I decided to show you a picture of my family,

and we are missing one of the beautiful family members.

And that's my newest grandchild. I have three grandchildren now,

Arbor is my oldest. I have Kailani as the second,

and then we have a new grand baby and her

name is Warren, or we call her Wren. I brought

this picture up because you can see my family there.

And on the far left here is my son Tanner.

He's the oldest son, my two oldest daughters. Some of

you know Haley, she just got married this October. She

came and did some internship here years ago. She recently

got married. I have my young who's Hudson on the

right now. One of the interesting things over the years

of my oldest Macy. You've seen her. She's been here

leading worship before. But we would, you know sometimes, you know,

get together with people at the church or new people

would come and they would come up. They would see

my family and they would ask the question and say,

you know, Jared, I have a question for you. Is

your youngest son adopted? Now? How many would say that

makes sense, right, because he's the only black one in

the family. But here's the funny part. When people don't

know our family story, they would always say, I noticed

that your youngest is adopted, But is your older son

adopted too? Because if you look at him, he looks

nothing like me whatsoever. I can't tell you how many

people have asked if Tanner has been adopted? Why because

he doesn't look like me. But here's what's funny. You

could take the picture down if he were to come

this weekend and preach for you, and he's a great preacher.

If you knew me and then you heard him preach,

you would go because I hear it all the time.

Oh my goodness, Tanner sounds and acts just like Pastor Jared.

He's got my mannerisms, he's got the moves that I make.

He tells the same terrible jokes. So as you heard

earlier on, he's so much like me that people go, man,

he is just like his dad. And that's really what

the word imitation means. In this passage. I have a

question for you this morning, and the question is simply this.

Do you look like your father in heaven? Do you

mimic him? Or would people think, oh, they must be

adopted because they don't act anything like their father. So

today we're going to unpack this. You all with me,

shout amen. In fact, when you do this, turn to

your neighbor, turn to someone and just tell him you

look good. Come now, turn to your second choice and

tell them too. So they don't feel left out. Say hey,

look good to you look good too. You know what's interesting?

You can tell? Or you can't call God your father

and not want the family resemblance. Soday, we're gonna Today,

we're gonna learn what does it mean to be an

imitator of God and what's interesting. In the Book of Ephesians,

the first fourteen verses tells us how we can be

imitators of God. So here we go, point number one.

If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down.

If you want to be an imitator of God, then

here's what you need to do. Now. If you're not

taking notes, go ahead and write this down. Here you go,

point number one. Walk in love. Everybody say that with me.

Those online as well say it together, walk in walk

in love. Let's read where it tells us this he So,

he says, be an imitator of God. And then the

very next verse he says, and walk in love as

Christ also has loved us and given himself for us

an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet

smelling aroma. When I read this part of the story,

I'm like, okay, God, to be an imitator of you.

I need to walk in love. But what does that

really mean? Well, if you read the verse, it tells

us because here's what we learn about love. Love is

expressed through giving. You said, where do you find that? Well,

we read, just read that the imitation of God, as

Christ loved us and gave himself for us. You see,

if you really are someone of love, you're going to

be giving. Because love isn't a feeling. Love is a verb.

And Jesus, who loved us, gave himself. And here's the

interesting thing. He was an imitator of his father in heaven.

Why let's go back to the verse that's probably the

most profound verse in the New Testament, John three point sixteen.

For God so loved the world that he gave his

only son, right that whoever believes in him will not perish,

but have everlasting life. You know, love is an action,

and it's the action of giving. How many know that

in our world loves has five languages, the five languages

of love. Right, there's words of encouragement, there's acts of service,

there's physical touch, there's gift giving, there's quality time. These

are ways you know that people have the language of love.

And I was thinking about my wife and she is

a giver. She loves to give gifts, and so since

she's a gift giver, I decided that today I should

probably be kind and bring a gift to demonstrate an

example that love is giving. And I brought a gift today, Sean,

would you bring it up real quick? And since I

brought a gift, I thought, you know, I want to

bless someone. And I was thinking about it, and is

Pastor Morgan here? Here's all there? He is right there.

I decided I want to bless Morgan with a gift.

How many think that's a good idea? Okay, come on,

so Morgan, come on up. I want you to come

and open the gift I have for you today. Would

you do that? Yeah? No, it's not a fuppy but

but just keep on going. Dig there to the But

what do we got going on there? Just keep going,

keep going. This feels like your childhood. Okay, oh wait,

oh I forgot to put something in it. Well, it's

the thought that counts. Come on giving it up for moregon,

Thank you, right, it's the thought, the thought that counts.

But how many know it's not really a gift if

there's no substance to it. Well, God knows I love him.

It's the thought that counts. But what the scripture is saying, No,

it's not just the thoughts. There's action that's involved. What

are you giving? Are are you giving? Are you illustrating

that you love God when someone maybe comes along and

wants to cut you off and get in the line

because they kind of, you know, went along the curb

and got in and snuck in instead of getting in

line like everybody else in traffic. Are you the one

that just keeps driving? Or do you say, you know what,

I'll be kind and gracious, go ahead and come on in.

That's an act a little small, but it's an act

of giving when the opportunity comes to, hey, let's give

to expand God's house so more people can get saved.

Are we the people that are stingy and say, you know,

I got too much going on in my own life,

or you know what, I'm gonna give of my wealth

to help so that others can find Jesus. When someone

does you wrong, are you willing to say, you know what,

I'm gonna forgive them because I've been forgiven. You see,

so often in life, what we do if we're not careful.

Is we say we love God, but there's no substance.

And what Paul is trying to teach us is that

if you really want to walk in love, love is

demonstrated through action, because love is a verb. And what

is that. It's giving of yourself, giving of your resources,

giving of your talent, giving of your time. Walk in love.

Love is expressed through giving. Y'all with me, save in

But what's interesting is we read through Ephesians. It's not

just hey, we walk in love through action by giving

of ourselves, giving of things. But the second thing is

that he shows us another part of love, and it's

one we don't expect, and let me give it to you.

It's this love is not only expressed through giving. Love

is expressed through self control. Because let's keep reading what

it says. At the beginning of Ephesians. Jump in there

with Mephesians chapter two. He says, imitate me, so walk

in love and give like Jesus did. And then he

says this, but fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness, let

it not even be named among you as is fitting

for saints. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking or coarse justting,

which are not fitting, but rather giving of things. For this,

you know that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man

who is an idolator has any inheritance in the Kingdom

of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with

empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of

God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Now, I got

to tell you when Pastor Brandon called me and said, hey, Pastoreri,

I want you to come Thanksgiving again, coming in, but

could you be a part of our series. I'd like

you to do Ephesians chapter five. I don't know if

he really took a look at that passage, but I

get to talk about sex today, and I'm like, thank

you very much, Pastor Brandon. This must have been the

part you didn't want to talk about fornication, filthy talking.

What's interesting? And I'm justting a little bit because the

last time I had him preach, I asked him if

he'd preach on the passage about Antonys and Saphara and

how they died. So I guess he's you know, it's

coming back at me. The point I'm making is that

what's interesting is that he talks about the way you

imitate God is not just by walking in love, by giving,

but also by restraining. Because here's the other thing. Love

is expressed through self control. What is he saying that

you need to control? The first thing is control your

sexual urges and appetites. What is he talking about? Well,

he uses the word fornication, and what is that word? Well,

the word fornication is actually a Greek word, which is

the word pornea. It's where we get our word porn pornography.

But this passage isn't just referencing what we would know

is pornography, which is to look at something right and

maybe less after it. The word pornography is literally a

Greek word which means all forms of sexual immorality, to

be immoral sexually. So what does that include? What's the

list for us to clarify? So we know and I

got to tell you in America, we need to understand

this as believers. Come on y'all with me, say men,

because God said I'm holy and I want you to

be holy like I'm holy. What is sexual morality? Well,

first of all, if you're not married, you've never been married,

or you're divorced. If you're not married and you're involved sexually,

that's fornication. Turn your neighbor and say it's really quiet

at church today. If you are involved sexually with more

than one person at a time, a threesome, that's immorality.

That's fornication. If you're involved sexually with someone of the

same gender, homosexuality, that's fornication. I know this one's crazy,

but in our world there is actually a thing called

beast reality. And I'm not going to go into that

in detail because I know we have a verse crowd.

But you would think that's crazy. Why even bringing that up?

Because in our world in America, that is on the

rise in America now, somebody are saying, what is he

talking about? Why is he bringing this up? And why

does he even throw coveting in there with it? Because

when he lists coveting in the Ten Commandments, what's the

first example he says, don't covet your neighbor's wife. What

is he talking about? The reality is that if you're

not careful, if you allow yourself to not control your

urges and your desires. The Bible talks about in James

that what it does is it creates a seed, and

then that seed grows, and that seed grows into action,

and then that action. The Bible says the wages of

sin is death. So he's saying love for God. Showing

you love God. To walk in love isn't just giving

of yourself in a loving way to help others. It's

controlling yourself from the urges and the desires of life

that are not going to be healthy for you. Because

I mean, you know, some urges are not healthy for you.

I was just with my grandchildren and they were having

a snack and I brought over a knife to the

table and we were like cutting some of the stuff up.

And I turned for a moment and they grabbed the

knife and I was like wow, and I grabbed it

from him. Why did I do that? Not because I

don't want them to have fun cutting stuff. It's because

I'm protecting them from danger from self harm. If you

follow your sexual urges outside of what the Bible says

they should be, there is harm waiting for you. Broken relationships, divorce,

A lot of things are going to happen that it's

unhealthy for you. So God loves you and he's protecting you.

So here's the way you show your love for God,

giving to others, and restraining some of your desires. Come on,

y'all with me, Saudy man. I feel like I'm preaching

better than your Amen and good word pastor Jared Aymen.

I'm with you today. See, love doesn't just give. Love restraints.

Sometimes love says no. The other interesting thing is then

it goes and moves on. It says listen. Not just

love is giving, but love is restraining. So restrain sexual

urges that are outside of God's plan. And then he

gives another example, and this is a big one. He says, Also,

control your language, control what you're saying, what you're communicating.

Don't have you know, filthy communication, don't have things, don't

speak with cuss words, don't talk bad about people, don't gossip,

don't have sexual jokes that don't reflect the image of

your father in heaven. Control your urges to say whatever

you want. Anybody ever been in a moment where you

got really upset and you just wanted to say something

and you knew it wasn't going to be good. So restraint.

It's interesting because this one's a big one too. You see,

did you know that I don't believe that this is

just referencing what we say out of our mouth. It's

something we can post or write in an email, all communication.

And what's interesting is did you know that every word

online is stored in a cloud. You can delete it,

but it's still stored somewhere. Can I tell you that

that's a physical representation of what's happening in the spirit.

Because the Bible tells us that everything we say are

written in books in heaven. Did you know that because

our words don't just evaporate, they accumulate. You say, are

you sure, Passenger A, you're going to pushing this a

little bit? Well, let's go to Matthew. Look what it

says in Matthew. These are Jesus' own words Jesus and

Matthew twelve says verse thirty six. But I say to

you that your every idle word men may speak, they

will give an account of it on the day of judgment.

For by your words you will be justified, or by

your words you will be condemned. That's why when we

confess in Jesus, believe in Jesus, and we declare, we

believe in our heart and confess with our mouth by

our words, we're going to be justified. But at the

same time, what we don't understand is there's power in

our language. In fact, let me show you a verse

in the Bible. This is powerful. If you have a Bible,

follow along with me. We're going to go to Proverbs,

and Proverbs Chapter eighteen, verse twenty one says this death

and life are in the power of the what the tone,

and those who love it will eat its fruit. In

other words, you're going to reap the consequences of your words. Literally,

your words are going to direct your life here on

earth and affect your eternity. So the question is is

where are your words directing you? Simys, Are you sure, Jared,

that our words have that much impact. Let's think about

the children of visual Remember when they got to the

Promised Land and they wanted to go in and take

this Promised land a place slow with milk and honey,

and I mean their chick fil as and in and

outs everywhere, and I mean it was just this blessed place, right,

And so they go in with twelve spies and they

come back in ten of the spies say, hey, this

place is awesome. They've got you know, Chick fil A

on every corner, there's honey and milk. It's amazing. But

there's giants in the land and we could never defeat them.

And what happened. The Bible says that God sent them

into the wilderness and they died in the wilderness. And

some of us might think, well, was that really their words?

Did you know that God specifically tells us why they

went into the wilderness, And it's found in numbers fourteen

twenty eight. And here's what it says. As I live,

says the Lord, what you have spoken in my hearing,

I will do to you. The question is, are your

words directing you towards a life that is blessed? Or

are your words directing you towards a life that is

filled with trouble and trials. Turn to your neighbor and say,

it's getting heavy today. How many people live out their

self fulfilling prophecies. They wake up in the morning and

they're like, you know what, I know today is going

to be a terrible day. And what happens They have

a terrible day. People say, you know what, my marriage,

we're never going to get along, and then they have

this horrible marriage. Or you hear them saying things like,

you know, we're never going to get ahead financially. Our

families always struggled, and what happens their whole life, they

struggle financially. Why because our words direct our life and

God wants you to know sometimes we need what does

the Bible say, put a guard over my mouth? Oh Lord?

So he's telling you if you want to imitate God,

pay attention not just to being loving by giving to

others and giving to God, but by controlling what you say.

You see, words are seeds, so plant what you want

to grow. If you don't like where your life is headed,

check your mouth. You might be steering in the wrong direction.

And I love how the passage ends, and somebody like, man,

can we move on, passenger, Let's get to the rest

of this passage. We will hang in there. But let

me just say, I love how this passage ends in

this first part because it ends by saying this. It says,

let no one deceive you with empty words. Words are powerful.

They can deceive you. The truth can be twisted. Let

me pause there, leave that verse up. That's what we do.

We live in a world that is trying to deceive

us with words. And get us to believe things that

aren't true. The world says love is sex. That's not

what love is. The world says love is accepting what

everybody wants their sexual decisions to be. That's not truth either.

That's not love either. The Bible says speak the truth

in love. So what do we do. We find what

God's word says, and we say, God, I'm gonna follow that,

I'm gonna believe that, I'm gonna speak that over my life.

Let no one does say, let no one deceive you

with empty words, because watch for because of these things,

the wrath of God comes upon the suns of disobedience. Wow.

In other words, we're going to reap the results of

what we believe because what we believe is what we

will say. You're with me, amen. Let me give you

an example of this, and it's found in Proverbs twelve

to six. It says the words of the wicked lie

in wait with blood, but the speech of the upright

rescues them. Revelation says they overcame him by the blood

of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.

What if you and I, instead of setting up trouble

before us, setting up trouble for our marriage, setting up

trouble for our finances, setting up trouble in our lives.

What if instead we started sowing seeds of God's promises,

sowing seeds of God's blessings. You know, in our church,

our theme this year is simply this, the best is

yet to come. What if you begin to speak the

promises of God. What if you begin to say things like,

you know what, it's been a tough year, but I

know this Jehovah Jirah, God is my provider. He's gonna

make away from me. Well, I know our marriage has

been in trouble, but I know this God is a

god of reconcili and He's called us into the life

of reconciliation. What if you began speaking the blessings and

the promises of God and letting those wait for you,

letting those set up before you so you can step

into every promise that He has for you. Come on, somebody,

shout Amen, the best is yet to come. You see,

you can't live in victory and speak in defeat because

you will never rise above the level of your confession.

So what does Paul say? Paul says, look like God,

act like God. And here's how walk in love. That

means being loving, giving of yourself to others. Don't let

the package be empty. Secondly, love is saying God, I'm

going to restrain some things that would send me down

the wrong path because I want to walk in the

promise and the blessing of God. Yeall with me? Shout amen?

Hey man, anybody learning something, shout amen? All right. Number two,

how do we imitate God? Not only do we walk

in love, but number two, we walk in the light.

We walk in the light. I'm gonna say that again.

It's a cue for everybody up there, if you can

put it up on the screen. We walk in the light.

I want you to see what the scripture goes on

to say, because we're going to wrap up this passage now.

Ephesians chapter five says this, we read, imitate God, walk

in love, restrain right, be careful what you say. Then

it says this Ephesians five. Therefore, do not be partakers

with them, for you were once in darkness, but now

you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of

the Light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in

all goodness, righteousness and truth. Finding out what is acceptable

to the Lord let me just pause and say, isn't

that interesting that we should be discovering what is acceptable

to God? It's why I love this church like ours.

We teach through the Bible and we get to discover

what is it the Bible says. Let me just tell

you right now, don't depend on your phone for the

word of God because one day I'm afraid AI will

change it. I don't want to get into that discussion today,

but I believe that one day we won't be able

to access the truth. That's why you need these everywhere.

Have one in your car, have one in your house.

Study what's the Bible to say? Study to show yourself

approved a workman who needs not be ashamed, but can

rightly divide the word of truth. You need to know

what this book. You need to fine what is acceptable

to God? Come on, y'all with me, amen? So we

need to know the truth? Why because the truth will

set us free. So it says, discover the truth. And

one of the things that's talking about is that you

need to be in the light, not in the darkness. Recently,

I'll be honest with you, over the last few years,

I have been playing a lot of trombone. Anybody who's

getting a little older know what I'm talking about. It

happened to your pastor. Last night we were at dinner

and it was a little bit dark in the in

the restaurant, and the menus came and he looks at

the menu's like what does this say? I can't even

read it. And he's like, I don't have any glasses.

I'm like, hey, I got my readers. I handed it

to him. He's like, oh, okay, this looks good. I

was trying to put together something that I got and

it was like a little piece of furniture thing that

I had to put together. And I get frustrated when

I have to do stuff like this. My wife says

she likes to go out and not be at home

when I'm putting things together. And so I'm working on

it and one of the pieces drops, so I'm like

searching for the piece and then I'm reading that little

you know directions they give you. I don't know what

it is about those, but whoever made them? They why

did they put them in point zero five font Even

I'm talking about you can't see it unless you have

a magnifying glass. So I'm reading it, and I'm getting frustrated.

And then I realized that I'm having to such a

hard time because the sun is going down and the

room is kind of dark. So I literally just walked

over and flipped on the light. Ah, the thing I

dropped was right there at my feet. I couldn't see

because of the darkness and the lack of the light.

Paul says, when you're following me, if you want to

imitate God, walk in light rather than in darkness. Move

away from the darkness and move towards the light. Let

me just make a statement, if you're tired of stumbling,

quit blaming the darkness and start turning on the light.

Start moving towards the light, and let me tell you

how you really get light in your life. Jesus tells

us in John chapter eight, verse twelve. He says, if

you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness

because you have the light that leads to life. Jesus

isn't looking for fans, He's looking for followers. Well, I

believe in Jesus, but that's not enough, because the Bible

says even demons believe that Jesus is the son of God.

He's looking for people who don't just believe who he is,

but believe enough that they say, I will deny myself,

I will pick up my cross, and I will follow you.

God wants you to be a follower of Jesus. So

how do we follow him so that we have the

light of God in our life? Well, there was two

ways that it mentions in Ephesians. The first is we

have to understand that our connections is what matters. Let

me show you. Go with me and continue. We'll wrap

up Ephesians five here at the beginning verse eleven, and

have no what's the next word, Have no fellowship with

the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For

it is shameful even to speak of the things which

are done by them in secret. But all things that

are exposed. This is going to be the second part

in a minute. All things that are exposed are made

manifest by the light. For whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore,

he says, awake, who sleep, arise from the dead, and

Christ will give you light. The word fellowship means to

connect or participate with, So basically he says, disconnect and

don't participate with things of darkness. I had my grandson.

A couple weeks ago, we were in Florida, and when

we were there staying my kids and my daughter in law.

They don't like them to watch screens and TVs, so

they never watch a full movie. But when we were there,

they're like, hey, Papa and Mimi are here, so we're

gonna let you watch a movie with me. Me and Papa.

So we're like, sweet, awesome, what do you want to watch?

And so we decided to watch a Christmas movie called Elf?

How many have ever heard of Elf? And so we're

watching the movie and it's fun and we're laughing, but

then we got to this one part where my grandson

starts to kind of freak out a little bit. And

his thing is if he doesn't like something, he's like, no,

thank you, no thank you. And it was the scene,

remember the scene when Elf comes running in and he's like,

I'm happy and I'm in love and I don't even

know why. I remember the spart and at the end

of the table is a little guy. And when he

sees the little guy, he turns around and he's like,

I didn't know you had elves working here. I remember this.

It's like totally inappropriate. Right, and he's like, does Santa

know you left the workshop? I remember the spart and

the guy's like, funny, dude, funny funny. He's like, how

did you get here? Did you steal a rein here? Remember?

And then finally he gets all messed, say it one

more time, So one more time, he says he's in

angry heath, and then he jumps on the table. He

starts running, he starts like fighting. And when they start fighting,

my grandson's like, no, thank you, Papa, no, thank you, papa.

And so we fast forward the movie. We finish out

the movie and it's happy and joyous, and we go

upstairs and he's gonna get his pajamas on and he

always wants to wear his elf pajamas. I pull his

elf pajamas out. I start to put him on. He's like, no,

thank you, Papa. I don't want no thank you, no

thank you. I'm like, it's the elf. He's a happy elf.

Put on the OAF. No, he didn't want anything to

do with it. Why because he didn't want to associate

with the mean guy that was fighting. That's what the

word fellowship means. And I just wonder how many of

us have allowed ourselves to continue in associations. Maybe it's

a habit, maybe it's an old mindset. Maybe it's something

you've continued that's a justification and you know it's not

God's best for you. Maybe it's well, you know, I'm irish,

so I can get mad and yell things at people.

Maybe it's well, you know, that's just how our family is.

What the Scripture saying is no, no, no, turn on the light,

don't stay in the darkness. And then it says this,

and I'll end with this. It says, and when you

have darkness, here's how you get rid of it. Well,

we know that you follow Jesus, right, you follow his

as the great prophet, not your librace. I follow his ways.

If you follow his ways, you'll be in the light.

But the problem is we stay connected to the ways

of this world. So what does the Bible say, Expose it,

confess it, reveal it, and it says, and you will

have light. It reminds me of I'll end with this story.

Several years ago I was I've been a runner for

a lot of years. I don't do that anymore because

it's a little hard on the back. At my age

but I would run, and one time when I was running,

I started feeling this pain in my foot, and every

time I would run, it just get a little worse

and a little bit worse, until it got so bad

I couldn't run anymore. And I'd look at my foot

and I didn't really notice anything. It just kind of

looked like I had a little callous in that area.

I discovered that I had what's called a planner's wort.

If you don't know what that is, it's a wart

that doesn't grow out. It grows up into your foot

and it becomes extremely painful. So I found out what

I needed to do into the doctor, and really there

was not very many good remedies. I mean, you could

try this little thing that they stuck on their a

patch or they would, you know, try to cut it

out and it comes back because it's say a virus

that grows in your body. And so one day, after

trying a lot of things, nothing got better. It kept

getting worse and worse and worse. I found this guy

on YouTube, I know they've done about and he started

talking about the you know, advantages of apple cider vinegar,

and so I started this routine and I kind of

took what he said and I did my own remedy.

And let me just say, I'm not suggesting anyone try

this at home, but I'm going to tell you what

I did. I took a razor blade and I made

sure it was clean, and then what I would do

is I would go to my foot and I would

slice off all the calluses. It was. It was, it

was rough to the meaty part of my foot, and

I would take apple cider vinegar and I would dip

that cotton ball in it and I would tape it

to that and all night long. It was painful, all

night long. I would let that sit on there. I

did it for a month. I did it for two months,

did it for three months, did it for six months.

And what's interesting is it's got a little bit better,

a little bit better. And at the end of six months,

suddenly I looked at my foot and there was this

little seed looking thing and it was the wart. And

I grabbed a little pair of tweezers and I just

pulled it out and it's never come back. And that

was ten years ago. Some of you can't get over

the fact I was using a razor blade. Okay, so

we'll move on. But here's my point. It couldn't heal

until it was revealed. And there are many of us

that are still walking in bondage. We're walking in struggles

and habits. And here's the problem. Those things are still

in the dark because God can't heal, which you're unwilling

to reveal. And it's not God's plan. You don't look

like God when you stay connected to the unfruitful deeds

of darkness. God's saying it's time to walk in love

and to walk in the light. To confess your sin,

to repent of your sin. Go talk to somebody, a therapist,

a pastor accountability partner. It's time for you and I

to look like our father, to act like our father,

to love like our father, and to live in the light.

I want you to close your eyes. Maybe you're here

today and you're not sure if you're in the light.

You're not sure that if you got to heaven you

would be justified or you would be condemned. Is Jesus

going to say depart from me? Or is he going

to say, welcome into your etianal kingdom. You can know

that right now, you can know that you're on your

way to heaven. How well. The Bible says, you have

to reveal something, and that is that you have sin

in your life. And I'm not here trying to point

a finger and you say, oh, you're a sinner. No,

we're all sinners. We all do things wrong. Fellow says,

we all sin and fall short. And the Bible says,

if we'll have the courage to reveal it, to shine

the light on it and say, I am a sinner. God,

I've made mistakes, I do things wrong, and I can't

be saved by trying to be good or doing enough

good deeds. I can only be saved by confessing my

sin to you and putting my faith in you, because

you're the only righteous one, and you came and you

gave yourself for me. You died for my sin. The

Bible says, the wages of sin is death. Jesus took

the death for you. He died on a cross, and

he rose again, and he said, if you will confess

your sin and believe in him and follow him, you

will be saved. So today I want to give that opportunity.

I'm just going to simply count to three and say one, two, three,

and when I say three. If you want to be forgiven,

if you want to expose your sin, go and have

the courage to admit I need a savior. I'm going

to ask you to lift your hand. Now. Maybe you've

prayed this prayer before, but now you're a prodigal and

you've walked away and you're not following Jesus and you

need to recommit yourself. I'm talking to you too. Are

you ready? This is your moment if you'll confess your

sin and then pray this prayer with me. The Bible

says if you confess with your mind health the Lord

Jesus and believe in your heart that he was raised

from the dead, you will be saved. So you're ready,

this is your moment. I'm going to say three. You

can lift your hand. First time recommitment. Why not today,

on this Thanksgiving weekend? You're ready? Where are you? Lift

your hand? High? One? Two, three, Raise it up, Raise

it up. Don't be ashamed. Thank you, thank you, thank you,

thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Back there, anybody else, thank you, thank you, thank you,

thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Over here,

anybody over here, thank you, thank you, thank you. Back there.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, over there, thank you.

All right, you can put your hands down. Now. I

want everyone to pray this prayer with me. Say Jesus today,

I confess I've made mistakes, I've sinned, and I need

a savior. So I put my faith in you as

a son of God, as a savior of the world.

Forgive me and change me. I put my faith in

you as God's Son. Now I want you to do this. Everybody,

lift a hand towards Heaven. Right now, everybody across this

holy Spirit we want to be. You don't have to repeat.

I just want you to pray in your heart. I

want you to lift your hand to receive. Father. I

pray that we would be imitators of God. May we

reflect your nature. May we be people that don't offer

a gift that has nothing in it. Lord, Let it

demonstrate love for You, love for those around us. Lord.

I pray that we would break the power and the

fellowship with darkness and we would begin to walk in

the light. And I thank you Lord that you're going

to raise up sons and daughters of God at Venture Church.

This is going to be a year of freedom and

light in Jesus' name. We pray Amen, God bless you all.

I want to invite everyone to stand up on your.

Feet first wart illustration i've heard in church since O Youth, Pastor,

thank you for coming to Venture. We are finishing up

our Ethesian series, Pastor Morgan.

We'll finish it up next week.

Thank you guys for your willingness to learn and dive

into some intense passages of scripture over these last couple months.

We always provide an opportunity on our What's Next section

of our app that allows you to think, how do

I go deeper on what I heard? Is there more

that I can learn? And we invite you to check

that out. But thank you for coming to Venture today.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Christmas season starts next week.

You better get ready. We'll see you guys next week.

Thank you again for joining us. If you enjoyed today's service,

go ahead and subscribe to our channel so you can

see future messages. If you'd like to learn more about

Venture Church, you can slick the link that's in our bio.

We hope to see you again.