Community | Pastor Brandon Beals | Venture Church

Welcome you to Venture Church. Thanks for coming ten o'clock

middle of the summer.

You're here.

Actually, summer's winding down, isn't it. If I've never met

you before, I'm Brandon, I'm the lead.

Pastor of the church. I'm excited that you're here today.

If you're new, let's say you're new in the last

month or so and I haven't met you yet. I'll

be hanging out in the lobby after the service. Please

come up introduce yourself to me. I'd love the opportunity

to meet you, shake your hand, fizz bump you, just

say hi and be able to see who's here with

us today.

Next week, the twenty fourth, is our Fall Vision Sunday.

Normally we would do a night meeting, but we felt

like we could accomplish everything in the morning, So in

all three of our morning gatherings next week it will

be tied around our fall vision and will conclude with

an opportunity for you to tour our new building expansion,

all the areas you haven't been and I will promise

you you will be shocked at how fast this is

happening and excited about what the future is going to

hold for the church. It's going to be great, but

that is next week. Make sure you're here. Prioritize your time.

Think of maybe friends that normally come to fend her

but have been doing a lot of traveling this summer,

and this would be a great service for you to

remind them come back to church. Don't forget you got

to see what's happening at the building and got to

hear about what the plans are for the fall. So

everybody do me a favor by your heads, close your eyes.

I want to invite everyone to repeat this prayer after me.

Everyone say, Dear Jesus, speak to my heart, change my

life in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Every August, across all of our campuses, we take a

few weeks and we teach through the core values of

our church.

The pillars in our lobby.

If you walk into our lobby, you'll see writing one

word on each pillar. They literally describe our core values mission, community, generosity.

I don't think it's an accident that those pillars hold

up the ceiling because they are the foundation for which

our church is based on. Like twenty years ago, when

we dreamt about launching a church in the Seattle area,

we decided we weren't going to build a church on

a mission statement, some cliche statement.

But Ina, we were going to build it on our

core values are.

Non negotiables, mission, community, generosity. These are who we as

a church are. By the way, if this is your church,

this is.

Who you are. This is kind of what you signed

up for now.

I don't normally get asked to teach on the value

of community. Normally Die does that. Morgan does that like

our community people. But Dian Morgan thought it would be

appropriate if this year I taught on community. It just

so happened that this week I had read a compelling

article and the article described the three types of relationships

that people have in their life, or the three types

of relationships that God brings into people's lives, and those

relationships can be summed up this way. God will bring

people into your life for a reason. He will also

bring people into your life for a season. And He

will bring people into your life that's for a lifetime.

People that are in your life for a reason.

These are relationships that serve a specific purpose. They meet

a particular need, usually for a short period of time.

These are people that help you through a difficult time

or maybe you help through a difficult time. You provide

them guidance or they provide you guidance. But they're people

that God brings into your life for a specific kind

of support, and once those needs are met, the relationship

oftentimes kind of just naturally fades away. People that God

brings in your life for a reason. Then there's people

that God brings into your life for a season. These

are more significant and therefore a longer duration. These are

people that you have fun with, you have similar interest with.

They bring joy to your life. These are people that

help you grow. These are people that teach you valuable lessons.

For the period that they're in your life.

You look back really fondly with your relationship with those people,

but it's.

Not intended to last forever.

These are relationships that move on, usually as you enter

different phases of your life. We live in the Seattle area.

One of the things about the Seattle area is this

area is very transient, meaning that people move in, they're

here for a period of time, and people move out.

It's because of our job market. We have an amazing

job market, lots of high paying jobs. But usually people

move in for three to five years and then they

usually relocate back home, they relocate to an area that's

more affordable. But you have people in your life for

a season. Sometimes that season is your kids are in

the same season of life, or your kids move out,

you're an empty nester, you're in that season of life,

or you're in a season of life where you're single,

or you're a young adult, or whatever it may be.

But it's for a season. And then there's people that

God brings in your life that's for a lifetime. These

are relationships that endure throughout your life. They're deep, meaningful

connections that form the core of your support system. They

provide ongoing love, companionship, shared experiences, And what the author

was trying to do is the author was trying to

convey this idea that helps you understand the different types

of relationships so that you will understand the value that

each one brings, regardless of their links and their purpose.

Twenty years of leading this church, I.

Gotta be honest, I assumed every single person I met

it was for a lifetime.

And I found out really quickly that people move.

And for the longest time, I tried to maintain all

of these long distance relationships and there's just not enough time.

And also, if you try to hang on to people

that are meant to be for a reason or for

a season, you try to hang on to them for

a lifetime, you're not willing to open yourself up because

you don't have the time to all the new relationships

that God is bringing into your life. But instead you're

to appreciate the different reason, season, or lifetime that God

is bringing people into your life, and each one has

unique value if you look at it that way. Regardless

of the duration and time though, we need community, we

need people in our life. Community and relationships are vital

to our lives and our help while you are at

Venture for however long, if it's a lifetime awesome, if

it's a season awesome, if it's for a reason awesome,

whatever it is, you need to be in community. We

use the phrase here often when you become a part

of Venture, you become a part of our chosen family.

Like when you walk through our Discover classes and you

get to the last one and then we have our

Discover like our membership, our family covenant.

At the end.

We're basically inviting people to say, this is my chosen

family while I live in this area for this period

of time. One of the things that I'll tell you

is I am shocked at the people that have ended

up being in.

My life for a lifetime. It's never who you expect.

And then there were people that ended up just being

for a reason that originally I thought it was for

a lifetime. And then there's people that I thought it

was going to be for a lifetime.

And it was just a really important season.

But as I step back and I look at all

of those relationships, they brought immense value to my life,

and rather than look at them with regret and second

guest things, I appreciate them for what they are. We

need to be in community, We need to have relationship.

One of the lines that I use often about ventures,

I want us to be the largest church that no

one realizes how large it is because everybody's in community,

everybody's connected deeply to someone. Someone knows you and you

know someone across all of our campuses. This is a

church that weekly averages over three thousand people. It puts

us firmly in the megachurch category. But I don't want

you to realize how big the church is now if

you don't make any effort. It's really hard to be

in community. I'm gonna totally light someone up.

Can I do that.

I met someone after the first service and first time

I met her, and I hope she comes back. She

probably won't after watching this podcast afterwards, but she comes

up and she says, I love everything about the church,

but you don't have this area for me to get connected.

And then I said, well, actually, that's really that's good.

It's good for me to hear that. We'll work on that.

And she said, but I work from nine to five.

I have a two hour commute, and I go to

bed at eight o'clock at night, and my weekends are

my personal time for just me. I was like, you

don't have community because you don't have time for community.

It's not a priority.

And I'm talking to her and I'm saying, at some point,

you're gonna have.

To put yourself out there.

At some point you are gonna have to adjust your

rigid schedule to make yourself available to connect with people.

If you're listening to this podcast, please forgive me this

building expansion that we're doing. And by the way, that

I know the church is in chaos, I feel so

bad for you. You've been so patient all summer. Like, honestly,

as your pastor, I'm really proud of you because this

place is utter chaos. I walked in this morning to

do my mic check with our worship pastor, and I

looked to David and I was like.

It's dirty everywhere.

And then David goes because we're in a building project, Brandon,

and I was like, you're right, you're right. The cool

thing about this building expansion is that it's all about community.

It's helping us embody our value of community. Did you

know by the time this expansion is done, we are

gonna have an upgraded designated kids specific area that is

gonna be like the Seattle version of Disneyland, Like kids

are gonna drag their parents to church because.

They want to be in that place community.

But in addition to that, we are adding an entire

area that is just for our teenagers, just for youth.

So we're gonna have a youth specific area. One of

the things we built this building there was no adult classrooms,

so we have to use pipe and drape and set

up classrooms in the auditorium. We make you meet in

a back hallway or someone's office We're building four adult classrooms.

So you can have community.

If you're a part of our sixty and older crowd.

And by the time when I turned sixty, it becomes

sixty five in older crowd keeps moving up. But the

sixty and older legacy group, that is a huge growing

area of our church. But we built an area over

here for you to develop community. Everything about this building

is about community. We've had this incredible growing internship over

the last ten years. But what you might not know

is that we don't have any space for our interns.

So they take whatever is available. I mean they're studying

in the bathrooms, they're studying upstairs, they're studying wherever they

can find. But our building expansion, we are building exclusive

intern space. It's all about community. The expansion is helping

us embody the value of community.

Today, I want to talk to you just really quickly.

Why do we, as followers of Jesus need community?

Why do we need.

People in our life? I want to share with you

really quickly. I encourage you to take notes, write the

scripture references down, but I want to share with you

five reasons that you need to be in community. Five

reasons that people need you in their life. Why you

need people in your life? Number one is this community

reflects God's.

Design for us.

Did you know that you were created to be in

relationship at the very beginning? You were created first off

to be in relationship with God.

But it was God's intention that you would not.

Live life alone, that you wouldn't be like a solo

person walking through this life. From the very point he

created Adam, he said to Adam, it is not good

for man to be alone. I'll make a helper suitable

for him. From the very beginning, we are told that

we aren't supposed to live life alone. We are created

to live life in community. Church, you need people, people

need you. One of the verses that whenever preachers talk

about community, they always read Zach's chapter two, verse forty two.

But this is the beauty of what a church community is.

This is why a church community is different than any

other group of friends that you can make anywhere else.

Is something unique about it, and it's zacs chapter two two.

It's describing the early church. It says they devoted themselves

to the apostles, teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of.

Bread, and to prayer.

Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and

signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together,

had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to

give to anyone who was in need. Every day, they

continued to meet together in the temple courts.

They broke bread.

In their homes, and they ate together with glad and

sincere hearts.

You see, we see.

The early church living out God's design for community. They

had a commitment to each other. They were meeting each

other's needs. They were growing together spiritually. They were encouraging

each other. They were experience and seeing God's presence together.

Regardless of the duration of time, we're each other's chosen family.

Number one, community reflects God's design for us. Number two,

community strengthens our faith. Trying to live out your faith

in isolation is very difficult. Hebrews ten twenty four says,

let us consider how we can spur one another on

towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together

as some are in the habit of doing. I mean,

the author of Hebrews is saying those people that say

I'm a Christian and I don't need to go to

chart don't know what they're talking about like that is

not biblical at all. We are meant to live out

life in relationship.

We're meant to do church together.

There's something that happens by our corporate faith coming together,

encouraging one another, and all the more as you see

the day approaching. The Message Translation uses different words, and

I like it. It says, see how inventive you can be

by how you spur each other on to love and

good deeds. The New Living Translation says it this way.

Think of different ways you can motivate one another to

spur each other on for good deeds and for love.

You see, we help each other not grow complacent and

stagnant in our faith. Strong church communities aren't just a

group of nameless people going to services together, but they

grow spiritually together. Number three, why do we need community?

Community offers support in times of need. You know you're

not supposed to face challenges alone. I mean, life is hard, work,

hard bosses except for me, are challenging. You want to

have people you can talk to. Being a parent is hard.

You want people that can go through these challenge is

with you? In the fall of twenty twenty six, I'm

gonna teach the church through the book of Ecclesiastes. So

not this fall, next fall, you got a lot to

look forward to. Ecclesiastes four, nine and ten. This is Solomon.

It's just an amazing reminder about how important's community is.

He says, two or.

Better than one, because they have a good return for

their labor.

If either of them falls down, one can help the

other up.

You know, it's crazy. There are times you're gonna fall

you need somebody to help you up. There are gonna

be times someone else is gonna fall and they're gonna

need you to help them up. Solomon reminds us about

the challenge of people that isolate themselves. He says, but

pity anyone who falls and has no one to help

them up. Community, Paul said, Disigalatians, he said, carry each

other's burdens. In this way you fulfill the law of Christ. Man,

whether you are struggling or you're celebrating, you don't want

to do it alone. Man, You don't want to struggle alone.

You don't want to celebrate alone. This summer really fun

summer we've had. And it's a fun summer because it's

just been wedding Central at Venture. Now, I know there's

this rumor that PB doesn't like weddings.

That's just not true.

PB doesn't like wedding receptions. I also don't enjoy wedding rehearsals.

But I love weddings and.

I love it.

First off, they're only thirty minutes long nowadays. You know,

I went to a wedding and it was twelve minutes long.

I was like, my kind of wedding. No, just kidding,

But here's what was fun about it.

Three of the weddings that happened this summer were people

that grew up in our church and got married. So

we have I think, like, Maddie and Tanner are here,

right there, they are, they just got buy from their honeymoon.

They just got married.

Right next to them, It's like this is that just

newly married section. Right here, you got Kayla and Micah

just got married. And recently, right around the exact same day,

Maddie and Tanner got married, Miles and Jenna got married.

And I would go to these weddings and I would

see all these Venture people and I would remember all

the stories that led them here. And I am going

to I've pastored this church long enough to go to

weddings of people that I did their weddings and now

their kids are getting married.

Crazy, But you don't want to experience that celebration alone.

That happens uniquely because of the relationships you develop in

a community of faith. I will say this as a parent,

I'm so thankful for really good kids leaders that love

my kids. And as a parent, it's so hard to

drop your kids off in kids ministry, but when you

drop them off to leaders that love them, it just

lets you know you don't do this alone. As a

parent with teenagers, there's nothing more reassuring to you than

when you're trying to instill values into your teenage son

or daughter and they just happen.

When they're teenagers.

They get to that point where mom and dad are dumb,

and the best thing is they'll listen to really good

youth leaders who are usually instilling the exact same values

in them that mom and dad would. Now, I will tell.

You it takes a village. It takes a village to

live this life.

Since I started the church twenty years ago, my wife

and I have moved four times.

It takes a village to keep moving. You need people

to help you move.

You need people that help you with your kids. You

need people that help you when you're struggling. You need

people to celebrate with you. Number four, Are you guys

with me still?

They be with me?

All right?

Why do we need community?

Community reflects God's love to the world. Jesus said this

in John thirteen thirty five. He said, everyone will know

your mind, disciples, if you love one another. Now, when

I first started going to church in high school, and

I had lots of buddies.

I played football, I wrestled.

I had all these buddies on my football team, my

wrestling team, I had all these friends that I'd grown

up with. So I had buddies. And then I started

going to church, and I saw the depth of friendships

that other people my age had, that they'd established in

the church.

And I'm telling you it was different. They had these.

Deeper, more meaningful relationships, these relationships that had a greater

degree of love than mine had. And beyond knowing I

need Jesus in my life, man, I looked around and

I thought, that's what I need.

In my life.

So almost the first prayer I prayed as a follower

of Jesus is that I would make friendships like these

people in the church had, because there's something that happens

when you become deeply connected to people in the church

and you develop community and relationship because it's based on

something that's beyond you. You immediately have a relationship where

you have in common the fact that Jesus is the

center of the universe and Jesus is the center of

your world. And when you have this foundation that is

on Jesus, you have similar values, You have similar ideas

of the way you'll raise kids, you have similar morals.

You just have similar perspective, you have a similar worldview,

and those relationships are d even people that don't go

to church. Outside of all the churches in our region,

everybody wants relationships. Everybody wants friendships, and they try to

find them everywhere. I mean, you've heard this statement. It's

kind of a cliche statement. Oh, I'm gonna go hang out.

With everybody at the bar after work.

Why do they go hang out at the bar after

work because they're looking for community.

Why do they call CrossFit a cult? Now? Because you

took all this.

Physical fitness addicts, they started doing CrossFit together and they

got deeply connected together.

Why is that? Because everybody's desperate.

For relationships, But there's nothing like relationships that are founded

on our love of Jesus and our collaborative desire to

fulfill his mission in the world. Relationships here are different.

Jesus is saying, people that don't have faith in me

yet should see the way you love each other, and

that should just be another reason they want to check

out this faith thing. Because we know when we have challenges,

we don't face them alone.

We also know that when we have something to celebrate,

we don't have to celebrate by ourselves. Finally, why is

community important?

And by the way, I know there's many other reasons,

these are just five that I came up with.

Number five.

Community helps fulfill our purpose in the world. Helps us

live out the purpose that Jesus gave us. Matthew, Chapter

twenty eight, verse nineteen. Jesus really tells us what our

mission is. If you're wondering, why am I here? What

is my mission? We all have the same mission. We

all have the same purpose, and it's this And I'm

gonna wear my glasses. I'm sorry they don't make bibles

big enough, with big enough print for me to be

able to read them as my eyes get older. So

I went in I got an updated prescription for my glasses.

I was told I needed progressive lenses.

Some of you wear them. You know. I'm supposed to

be able to wear these all the time.

And I can see normal, and then when I need

something magnified, I can look down. So when I tried

them on the first time, I was told I look

like an Italian Harry Potter.

So I don't wear these very often.

But Jesus said this, All authority in heaven and on

earth is given to me.

So this is his This is your purpose, This is

our purpose.

All of you are just seeing Harry Potter when I

look at you now, I know, Baby, close.

Your eyes and listen instead.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them

in the name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey

everything I've commanded you. We're all supposed to tell everybody

about Jesus.

We're supposed to let the.

World know that Jesus is the hope of the world.

You and I know we're supposed to make Jesus famous.

We do that together in community. We accomplish this mission

together by serving the less fortunate. We accomplish this mission together,

not by going to a Mariner's game and grabbing a

megaphone and yelling at everybody. Accomplish it by coming here

on a Monday afternoon and giving groceries to people that

otherwise wouldn't have food.

We do that every Monday. We do that by.

Helping with celebrate recovery and helping people through their hurts, habits,

and hang ups on a Monday and serving a free

meal to everyone who comes. We do that by going

on our Saturday monthly Serve Day and just serving wherever.

We do that simply by inviting people to church, because

we're inviting them knowing they're going to engage with friendly,

accepting people. We do that knowing that they're going to

experience spirit filled worship. We do that knowing they're gonna

hear compelling, challenging, thought provoking anointed messages when Dye preaches.

But we partnered together.

To spread the gospel to make a difference because each

one of us understands that we have a vital role.

An effective church community encourages each member to use their

God given gifts. I will tell you whether it's for

a reason, a season, or a lifetime. All I know

is it takes a village. We need community. We're going

to close with communion. You can go ahead and start

grabbing those communion emblems if you didn't get it during

Johnny's announcement time and you still need community.

And raise your hand.

All right, a few people towards the front, of course,

the way it always works, keep your hands up. I

want to just give you before we receive communion together,

I want to share with you three simple tips on

how you develop community adventure.

This is what you need to do.

This is my words of advice on how you get

connected here. Number one, join a growth group. We do

growth groups three cycles a year. Join a growth group.

I have a guy right now. I'm leading three growth

groups this summer. I have two different men's groups, and

I have a group of couples that are coming over

and we're eating dinner together on Wednesdays.

So three different groups.

And on my Monday night group, one of the guys said, hey,

I've been to growth groups before and they kind of

peter out and people leave. And I said that happens

happens to me too. And my advice is, if you've

tried a growth group and it didn't work, don't throw

out the baby with the bathwater. Try another one. Eventually

one will work. You will find friends, you'll find community,

you will get connected. But you have to make an effort.

You have to put yourself out there. Join a growth group.

Number two, serve.

I mean some of your closest.

Friends will be because you've served together. You serve and

celebrate recovery together. You serve as a youth leader together,

you serve as a kids ministry worker together, you serve

on security together, you serve in the parking lot together.

But find an.

Area to serve and you will have community. And then finally,

number three, you.

Gotta put yourself out there. Here's a way to do it.

Come a few minutes early and stay a few minutes late.

Just hang out in the lobby. Some of you are thinking, PB,

I'm an introvert. A gal you talked about earlier has

to go to bed at a needs our weekends to ourself.

That's me.

Then, if you are shy, look around for the other

person that's huddled in a corner by themselves and go

talk to them. Find that other massive introvert and then

just introduce yourself and then talk to the same person

the next week. Then maybe sit by them on a Sunday.

Then get the courage at some point say hey, let's

do coffee, let's do lunch.

Can we get together some other time. That's what you

have to.

Do if you want to make community. One of the

greatest examples of community is when we receive communion together.

Would everyone stand up on your feet? Community communion is

that thing that fully reminds us why we are united

in community. And can I tell you the coolest thing

about receiving.

Communion is.

Every church around the world does this. This unites you

with every other Christian believer, regardless of the language they speak,

regardless of the difference in theology, they all receive communion together.

So you're a part of the global over a billion

church community.

You're part of the church.

Community in the state of Washington, and you're part of

this church community here. And the one thing that all

these communities have in common is we take time to

pause and remember that.

This is all about Jesus.

So regardless of how we differ on this theology or

this practice, we all agree on one thing. At just

the right moment, Jesus crossed our path and he changed everything.

Before we receive communion together, I just want to make

sure that your heart is right, So would you close

your eyes. I'm going to invite everyone here to just

pray this simple prayer that prepares our heart.

To receive communion.

And communion is all about grace, It's all about forgiveness.

And this is our opportunity to make sure that our

hearts are right before we receive it. And I ask

everyone to pray because we're family.

So with no one looking around.

Get yourself in a position where you're thoughtful of you

and Jesus, and I want everyone to pray this prayer.

Everyone say, dear Jesus, I'm not perfect. I've messed up,

I've made mistakes, But in this moment, I ask you

to forgive me, and I thank you for always forgiving me.

And as I received communion, may I remember everything you've

done for me in Jesus' name.

Amen.

On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he was embodying

the importance of community. He was spending a moment with

his closest friends. They ate a meal together, and after

that meal, he took bread and he broke it, and

he gave each one of them a piece, and he said,

this is my body that is broken for you. Whenever

you receive of it, remember me. Peel off the top

layer and that's the bread, and let's receive it together.

Peel off the next layer. There's the cup. I love

to remind you that this cup represents grace, and it

is this grace that we all have in common. We

are in need of Christ's blood covering our sin.

We are in need of His.

Grace washing over us, his grace cleansing us, his grace

covering us. So before we were receive this grace, I

just want to pray for all of us, Lord Jesus,

in the next few moments, as we drink together of

the cup of Grace, may we all be reminded, no

matter what we've done, no matter where we've been, no.

Matter how lost we feel we are.

At times, Lord, may we be reminded that your grace

is sufficient for us. And now, Lord, I pray that

from the tops of their heads to the soles of

their feet, that they would be washed in your grace.

In Jesus' name, Amen, let's receive the cup of grace.

Together, anybody grateful for God's grace? This more than come on,

well listen, I want to take your attention to our

What's next page, maybe looking for more practical application, more

additional resources to us again amplify what we talked about

and what got has to say about community. What encourage

you to check us out at our all church picnic

after third service today. We'd love to have just that

hangout time with you and you know Dunk Tank, So

it's gonna be sick.

You guys have a great day. We'll see you all later.

Bless him