We Are Family: Rest Matters

For those of you that don't know who I am.

I'm Brandon. I'm the lead pastor of the church.

It's ironic because I start off every message by introducing myself,

just for the handful of guests, but there's probably.

A bunch of you that don't know who I am.

After the first service, I met new family after new family,

and I'd be like, hey, I don't think I've ever

met you before.

We've been around for three months.

Now you're stuck listening to me for the next three months.

So but again, it is amazing to be back, Diane.

I had a blast. We felt very honored and love

to have the opportunity to be away. And I want

to just tell you this. I'm not sure who told

you to stop texting us, emailing us, or calling us,

but all of a sudden, no one said a word

to us for three months.

You're allowed to text us again.

You can start calling us again, or at least Die,

you can start emailing again.

It is great to be back.

I'm not going to talk a lot about the sabbatical here.

I'll mention it probably periodically over the next several weeks

when I.

Preach, but this week I'll be doing.

Our podcast, Pastor's Unfiltered if you want to hear kind

of more detailed stories, funny things that happen, maybe spiritual

things that happened on the sabbatical. Encourage you to listen

to Pastors Unfiltered this week. Grab your Bibles and want

you to turn to First Kings, chapter nineteen. This is

a familiar passage of scripture if you've been around venture.

I've taught on this multiple times before. But I believe

that in this short historical narrative in the prophet Elijah's life,

there are many important principles that you and I can learn.

And I want to read this and then we will

pray together. Starting with verse three, Elijah was afraid.

He ran for his life, and when.

He came to Bearsheba in Judah, he left his servant

there while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness.

He came to a broom bush, sat down under it,

and prayed that he might die. I've had enough, Lord,

he said, take my life. I'm no better than my ancestors.

Then he lay down underneath the bush and he fell asleep.

I want to ask everyone to buy your heads, close

your eyes. I want you to repeat this prayer after me.

Everyone said, Hey, dear Jesus, speak to my heart, change

my life in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Interesting thing about the sabbatical that Die and Iron is

we had decided in February we weren't going to do it.

We weren't gonna We had decided against doing it, not

because we were concerned about things and things weren't going

well and we didn't feel like the church would be

healthy if we left.

Had nothing to do with that.

It was literally the opposite. Like normally when guys go

on sabbatical, it's like they're at full on burnout mode,

and we were pretty excited. We were loving everything that

was happening in the church. So we are celebrating twenty

years of venture. In fact, in November we'll have our

big twentieth anniversary birthday party and celebrate what God has

done in these twenty years.

So it was literally twenty years.

Ago when Di and I were praying and dreaming about

what could be here. So then we start a church

and the reality of starting a church sets in. Like

pastoring a church, it's hard, But if you want to

do something even harder than pastoring a church, start a

church from scratch.

Literally, the most.

Difficult thing you can do in ministry is plant a church.

So we start a Venture with all these.

Dreams and visions and then reality set in and it

was hard fast forward twenty years.

All the things that we.

Believed God for, all the reasons that we were willing

to risk everything and start.

At church early happening right now, like this is the

best time.

In the history of our church. If you're new to

Venture over the last three months and I haven't been

here in that time, you have joined Venture at the

best time ever. Like our church for the third year

in a row is being honored in Outreach magazine as

being one of the one hundred fastest growing churches in America.

In fact, this year will probably be the highest ranked we've.

Ever been on that list.

Multiple members of our staff men interviewed for that article.

Different people in our church were interviewed. So we have

that happening. The finances are healthy and strong, our campuses

are doing well, and this is far in a way.

Twenty years leading this church.

The best staff I have ever had, top to bottom.

They like I was thinking about while I was gone,

the victories that the staff had that I would highlight,

and I highlighted one in the first service.

I'm gonna do a different one in this service.

And she's not even here in this service for me

to make a big deal about.

But Kaylee has.

She leads this epic VBS while I'm gone. Hundreds of

kids are here, over one hundred volunteers. The place was complete, pandemonium, incredible,

and I've heard nothing but glowing rave reviews about Kaylee

and Grace and Kayla and their kids, team, all the volunteers,

everything that happened. So when I left, I had scheduled

multiple guests, and you guys kind of had different speakers

every week those first couple months.

Every time I would see those.

Speakers afterwards, all they would talk about is they would say,

Number One, that is the most fun church to preach

to that I've ever preached to. And I've always said that,

like I preach everywhere all around the nation, You're my

favorite to preach to. And my friends said the same thing.

But the biggest thing they kept saying.

Was your staff.

Your staff is incredible. Your staff's hospitality, the things that

you guys do, it's at such a high level. Your worship,

I heard this over and over and over again. And

let me tell you, having a great staff that is

united isn't easy. And we're in that season not to

mention the fact that we just die. And I just

love you guys. You guys aren't just people that God

has called us to pastor, but you have become our

chosen family. We like hanging out with you, We like

celebrating your victories, we like being there when you're going

through difficult times. And so we love the people in

our church. But I would say most of all, the

thing that made going so difficult is there's a spirit

of revival in our church. Like there is a hunger

for God in our church. People are hungry for the

Word of God. They love to pray, Like we'll do

this worship night on Wednesday night, smack dab in the

middle of the summer. This place will be full of

people next Wednesday, passionately seeking Jesus, passionately worshiping God. And

I've told you, when there are settings where people are

hungry and expectant and they are believing God is going

to do something, it is irresistible for God to move.

And it is really fun to be here at this church.

In this season.

Oh yes, and my job. I love my job. I

have a great rhythm of my job. Like for those

of you that are in your career, you look for

that moment when you have a really good life work

balance and you have a good rhythm. And I'm in

a really good rhythm. And then, if you know anything

about me, my life revolves around one thing.

Fun. I love fun, and I am having fun.

So I have decided I'm not messing any of this

up by leaving.

I am staying.

So Dian and I had talked, she agreed met with

my board back in February, and I opened the board

meeting up by saying, hey, I know, Dian, I are

scheduled to go on our sabbatical in May, but we

have changed our mind.

We don't need to go on our sabbatical.

Before I could finish the sentence, the board shut it down,

like within five minutes, the subject had changed and.

Brandon was gone in May.

And by the way, that was probably the most honoring

and loving thing I've ever experienced from a board. And

so if you're one of my board members, or you're

a previous board member that helped create the sabbatical schedule,

people like Laura Greenwald or Jim Rmentt, and then our

current board. Dian I felt very loved and affirmed by

all of you and the people that God has chosen

to partner with us in leading the church.

So that really meant a lot. Needless to say, that

meant we are going on our sabbatical.

Smack dab as we are reflecting on twenty years.

In this first twenty years, a.

Lot happened, and you're gonna hear us talk about that

a lot over the next several months.

But the first thing is, you.

Start a church, die and I start this church, which

is a ton of effort. Then we grew and we

stabilized the church.

Then we built this building. It had been a dream

for years.

We need a central campus facility now our church with

all of our campuses, we own buildings all over, but

we needed one main central campus facility. And we felt

like we fought all.

Of hell to get this building built. But then this

building gets built.

Then immediately after we open this building, the thing that

we don't ever talk about happened. We navigated through COVID.

Navigate through COVID, build all the momentum back for the church.

Church is really healthy, doing well. But not only is

there this professional side of my life, but there's also

this personal side. So in the last twenty years, I've

watched my kids grow up. Did you know this is

the only church that my kids remember. My kids have

been here their whole life. My kids graduated from high

school here, graduated from college a part of this church.

They start their careers as they're a part of this church.

They moved out of mom and Dad's house. So we started.

When I started the church, I had young kids. Twenty

years later, I'm an empty nester, way too young to

be an empty nester. So I went into the sabbatical thinking,

it's time to get ready for the next twenty What

are the next twenty years of mine and Die's life

look like? What are the next twenty years of pastoring

venture look like. The one thing we knew going into

this sabbatical is that.

We were years away from retiring.

The funny thing was, there's nine other pastors on that

Convoy of Hope trip that we're on their sabbatical right now,

nine other pastors, So we really had lots of conversations.

Most of them are older than us, so they're talking

about retirement.

They're talking about.

Passing the baton, and I'm like, I'm still a baby.

I'm like, far from retirement. And so that that was

a conversation. But we go into this new season. We

still have lots of energy, we still have lots of vision.

And I will tell you something.

And I'd had friends that are older than me that

mentor me that have always said, Brandon, when you start

doing ministry in your fifties.

It's substantially easier.

And I would hear that all the time, and they're right,

Ministry in my fifties.

Has been just a blast.

So we head into this excited about the future. Now,

I will eventually retire, probably sixty eight to seventy, So

at some point in my late sixties, I've got to

come up with a transition plan for the church. But

that's fifteen years away, so that is not on my mind.

Don't ask me about it, because I'm excited to lead fearlessly,

courageously right now, and I have energy now. So Dian

I go on our sabbatical, holding on to Philippians one six,

where Paul said, be confident of this, that he who

began a good work in you will carry it out

to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. I not

only went into my sabbatical praying that over dian I,

but I also went into it praying it over you,

because I knew that when we left, we were entrusting

all of you to this incredibly dynamic staff that we have.

Heading into this next season.

The question that I was asking is how do you

courageously enter into the.

Next phase of your life?

And I believe you find in the story of Elijah

some key things that help you and I enter into

the next phase of our life and enter into it courageously. Now,

there are probably some of you you have transitioned some things.

Maybe you've transitioned a job, maybe just moved into the area,

maybe your kids just moved out.

But it is a new thee then in your life.

Or maybe you look ahead and you know that a

new season is coming and you're wondering, how do I

tackle this new season courageously? Well, I believe that in

this story are some key principles that you and I

can learn from. But to begin with, let me remind

you of this. The song that our worship team ended with,

God has not done with you yet. He's not done

with you.

Your story's not over. There's more to your story.

The person Elijah in the Bible outside of Jesus, is

my favorite character in all of Scripture. I love the

person of Elijah because he is this fearless, courageous spokesman

for God. Elijah was a powerhouse for God.

He didn't care if he was.

The only prophet left. He would stand up for what

is right. I love the person of Elijah so much

that we named one of our boys Elijah. But this

particular moment in Elijah's life is when he has a

bad week, when he makes a bunch of terrible decisions.

Have you ever been in that moment where you've done

everything right and then you just had a bad season.

You had a bad few moments where it seemed like

every decision you made was the wrong one, and then

you stacked one bad decision on top of another bad decision,

and then you found yourself sitting down underneath a tree,

throwing your hands up in the air to give up

because you'd reaped all the consequences of these series of

bad decisions. Anyone, there's a simple principle that Elijah should

have adhered to. This is a principle that whenever I'm

mentoring people in leadership.

I teach.

It's called the halt principle. It's an acrosstic for the

word halt.

Halt. I don't know who came up with this first.

I've heard it for years and years and years, and

I've heard it claimed ownership by various different people.

I don't know who came up with it.

If you're hearing it for the very first time, you

can just believe that I came up with it.

But here it is, halt. Do not make a decision

when you're hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. Never make a

decision when you're hungry, angry, lonely, or.

Tired, because if you do, odds are you will regret

that decision. Well, Elijah is hungry, angry, lonely, and tired,

and he makes a terrible decision. By the way, you

and I have seen people do this. Three years ago,

we had a bunch of friends because of all the

things that were happening in our world. They were angry,

it started to be lonely, they were tired, and they

made critical life decisions, packed up everything and moved spontaneously,

impulsively and now here we are years later, and those

same people are like, I really wished I wouldn't have

done that. You think, don't make a decision when you're hungry, angry, lonely,

and tired.

Here's what was going on for Elijah.

Elijah had just experienced the greatest victory in his ministerial life.

He stood up boldly, courageously to the King and Queen

of Israel. This king and queen had brought in idle

worship and the worship of false gods into Israel. And

in Elijah's thinking, all of the prophets of God were killed,

or if they were alive, they'd run away hiding. And

Elijah stands up and he challenges them to a battle

on top of Mount Carmel.

He says, here's the deal.

You bring all of the prophets of Bail and the

prophets of Astrah, and I by myself will meet them

on top of Mount Carmel. They pray to their gods,

and I will pray to the God. And whichever God

answers by fire, he is God. So all of Israel

gathers on top of Mount Carmel. The false prophets pray,

and there is no answer, and Elijah prays, and God

does this miracle, sends fire from heaven. But not only that,

revival breaks out in Israel. Elijah single handedly watches Israel

turned from worshiping Bail in the morning to worshiping God

again at night. He experiences this massive victory and this

massive revival.

He is at the top of the mountain literally and figuratively.

And then verse.

Two, Ahab told Jezebel, this is the king and the queen,

everything that Elijah had done, and how he'd killed all

the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger

to Elijah to say, may the Gods deal with me,

be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow

I do not make your life like one of them.

This fearless man of God, this fearless, courageous prophet, who had.

Stood up by himself in front of hundreds of the enemy, now.

Gets the telegram from one vengeful woman.

And what does he do? He runs away.

He literally turns and runs because he's hungry, angry, lonely,

and tired. His brain is not working right. He has

lost all common sense. All Elijah knows to do.

Is run away. You ever been there.

Seriously, have you ever just thought that life got so overwhelming?

And so you're spinning all these plates, kind of keeping

every thing going. And then one plate fell and the

other one fell, and then everything fell, and life.

Was overwhelming, and all you wanted to do is run.

Can you relate? Well?

This fearless man of God runs from Jezreel to Bearsheba.

Here's a map, give you an idea. That's where Elijah was.

He runs all the way from there down to here.

That is ninety five miles today by bus.

This takes four hours, they would say back then before

there was roads. Trying to travel all this terrain, the desert,

the hills, the mountains, the rivers, the valleys, everything that

this was minimum of three day journey.

Elijah sprints it. And then when he.

Gets to hear this part cracks me yup. He says

to his servant, why don't you stay here? He made

his servant go with him, tells his servant to stay

here while he travels another day's journey into the wilderness.

Never make a decision when.

You're hungry, angry, lonely, and tired, or you're liabuble to

make a really dumb one. Finally, in the middle of

the wilderness, Elijah sees a tree like this. This is

a broom tree. Your translation might say bush. These are

strange trees because you can be in a wilderness, you

can be in a desert where it seems like it's

barren and there's nothing there, and all of a sudden

you'll come on one of these things. These broom trees

are kind of amazing. In fact, I would say that

this broom tree is a reminder from God that if

you look close enough when you're in the desert, you'll

find God.

If you find.

Yourself today stuck in the middle of a desert, maybe

it is a desert of your own making.

If you look close enough, you will see Jesus.

So Elijah wanders into the wilderness, eventually sees this broom tree,

and he lays down underneath this broom tree. Fascinating facts

about this broomtree. I mean, God is so amazing. This

is how he created it. That the bark of that

tree absorbs water. There can be no water in the desert,

but you can peel bark off a broom tree and

you can drink from the bark. Did you know that

the bark on that tree is also edible. Another fascinating

thing about it is this desert that surrounds it can

be well over one hundred degrees, but they say that

under the shade of a broom tree is anywhere from

twenty to thirty degrees cooler than.

It is outside of the shade. It's kind of a

miracle in the middle of a desert.

Well, Elijah finds this miracle and he lays down underneath it,

and he prays this prayer. Have you ever prayed a

pathetic prayer before? Have you ever prayed a prayer that

was so pathetic you're thankful that God didn't answer it.

This was Elijah, fearless man of God. He says, I've

had enough, Lord, take my life. I'm no better than

my ancestors. Praise an honest prayer, A broken prayer, I

call it the Lord. I've got nothing left prayer the Lord.

I give up prayer. I don't know what else to do, prayer.

I don't know about you.

I've prayed this prayer and it sounded just as pathetic

as elijahs. I always think if God would have answered

that prayer, what would have been first kings would have

ended in chapter nineteen.

There'd have been no second Kings.

There'd have been no Elisha, there'd been no references to

the person of Elijah in the New Testament. Elijah wouldn't

have been standing next to Jesus at the transfiguration. Sometimes

we need to thank God for the blessing of unanswered prayers.

But God wasn't done.

With him yet, just like he's not done with you yet.

There was more to his story, just like there's more

to your story, just like there's more to mine. What

is it that kept Elijah from quitting ultimately? How was

he able to enter into the next phase of his life.

Fearlessly, boldly, courageously. Well, what happened. Here's what happened.

So Elijah prays this prayer, says, Lord.

Take my life.

I want to die. Then he laid down underneath that

tree and he fell asleep. All at once, an angel

touched him, said, get up, eat. Elijah looks around and

by his head there's some bread baked over coals and

a jar of water. So he ate and he drank,

and what do you do next? Fell asleep again. Then

the Angel of the Lord came back a second time,

touched him, said get up and eat, for the journey

is too much for you.

So Elijah got up again, ate some more, drank some more.

Strengthened by the food, he traveled for.

Forty more days and forty more.

Nights until he reached Horrib, the mountain of God. Horb

is also known as Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai is that

place where Moses encountered God and was given the Ten Commandments.

It's this like if you were in Israelite, Mount Horrib.

Mount Sinai is the ultimate pilgrimage, so where you go

to meet God. But before Elijah could go to meet

God and have this encounter.

With God, he needed to take a nap. What do

you do quickly? Three things? Number one, you need to

get some rest.

It is not a badge of honor to work yourself

until you die.

Like I have friends all the time that.

Love to brag about how much PTO time they've saved up.

That is not something to brag about, especially to someone

like me, who solely works so that he gets to play,

and my whole life is.

Revolved around fun.

I don't consider it a badge of honor that you

save up all your vacation and never use it. One

of the things is Nicole, but you'er here, Oh, there

she is.

I'm gonna pick on Nicole. By the way. I heard

Mother's Day, I heard Nicole killed it. I heard she

was amazing.

So Nicole worked for me forever and then eventually left me,

which I forgive her.

One of my favorite things about Nicole.

I've never had an employee that knows better how much

PTO time she has than Nicole.

Nicole has this down to.

The absolute minute, because she is gonna milk every ounce

of her days off and herr PTO time she can.

I make fun of her about.

It, but I actually deeply respect it because the opposite

isn't true.

It is not a badge of honor to not rest.

So I had a boss years ago that I worked

with in ministry, and he was one of those dudes

who would work through the night. I frequently would work

through the night, never took time off, and that the

way he worked was an unspoken pressure on the rest

of the staff. Five of us from his staff were

on this convoy of Hope cruise.

Five of us.

By the way, we all lead some of the largest

churches in America now, but we were all on staff

together at this church at the same time. So we

are hanging out for dinner one night, and we're just

talking about our memories of that church and we're like,

those were the greatest days of ministry. Our staff was amazing,

and we all talked about how we never would have

left if circumstances would have been different.

And so I just asked, I.

Said, well, tell me why did you eventually leave, and

the reason that every single person left overworked, underpaid, overworked, underpaid.

If our boss would have.

Had enough foresight to say, I need to give these

guys proper compensation and proper like PTO vacation time, we'd

have all stayed together for another five years. And Lord

knows how big that church.

Would be right now.

The irony is all five of us pastor a larger

church than that church was. But we are all on

staff there together. Is not a badge of honor to

not rest. Elijah wore himself out.

He was a.

Workaholic and he fell asleep. He didn't just take a

power nap. I mean the guy slept for days. He slept,

had enough energy to wake up, see lunch next to him.

He would eat his food then he'd fall asleep again,

and this kept happening over and over again until God

had strengthened him and he was able to go on

his journey. The crazy thing for dian I we went

on our sabbatical not knowing we were tired, he did.

This was the crazy part. We thought we had energy.

So the sabbatical started right after the Marty Solomon Men's Breakfast,

so I went to that. Then I went into our

podcasting area and I did a podcast with Marty, and

then I left. So my first thing on sabbatical, I

hopped on a plane, flew to Sacramento and did a

revival crusade inside Incremental for two days.

Got home on Monday.

Die and I packed everything up. We headed down to

Hood River because we were gonna go hiking around Moltnomah

Falls for four days.

We stayed in a cabin. Don't feel bad for me,

because it was a full on glamping experience. I mean,

it was pretty amazing. But here's the crazy thing.

We would lay down at seven o'clock at night and

we would be asleep by eight. And you know, normally,

when you fall asleep at eight, you wake up at

three in the morning. Now, this was like we woke

up at eight in the morning.

This happened for.

Four straight nights and it was finally when Dye makes

this very profound statement, she says, I did not realize

how tired we were. And that is the reality of

pastoring a church. You're at a certain level of adrenaline

that you stay at the entire time you're leading, that

you stay there through prayer and a lot of coffee.

And then when all of a sudden we were giving

a time to rest all we were like Elijah, we

just slept. Sometimes gonna enter into this next season, it

begins with some rest. So after Elijah had rest, God

speaks to him verse nine, Are you still with me?

God speaks to in verse nine and he asks him

this question. Verse nine, He says, what are you doing here? Elijah? Elijah,

what are you doing here? Elijah goes up to Mount Horra,

Mount SEINAI, has this incredible encounter with God.

And when God speaks to him again, that's what he

asks him. He says, Elijah, what are you doing here?

What is God saying? The second thing you need to

do is you need to ask yourself some honest questions.

You need to have people in your life that will

ask you honest questions. And nowadays if someone asks us

an honest question.

We feel triggered. If someone asks us an honest question.

We go blastom on social media for it. But you

need someone who loves you enough to ask you hard questions. Literally,

God is saying to Elijah, Elijah, you know better. You

know you're not supposed to be here. Is this not

what you're called to do? You're better than this, Elijah,

What are you thinking? Elijah needs someone who will ask

you honest questions. Elijah has this huge encounter with God

and after that, finally number three, how do you enter

into this new season?

The Lord said to him.

Verse fifteen, Elijah, go back the way.

You came.

And go to the desert of Damascus. When you get there,

annoint Hazel king over Aram. Annoint Jayhu's son of Nishmik

king over Israel. Annoint Elisha, son of Shafat from Abel

to succeed you as a prophet. Literally, God says, Elijah,

go back to doing what you were doing before. How

do you enter it into this next season? There is

this great principle that I learned I was a youth

pastor for twelve years then die, and I've been leading

venture for twenty years, so that's thirty two years as

a minister. When I was twenty two years old, I

had a guest speaker and he shared this principle with me. Now,

I don't know where he got it from. He got

it from somebody else, who got it from somebody else.

So if you're hearing it for the first time, you

got it for me.

And here's the principle. If God isn't saying anything new.

Go back to the last thing God said and do that.

Literally what he did to Elijah.

He said, Elijah, nothing has changed.

Go back and do the job of a prophet.

Go anoint kings, Go anoint other prophets. Go be a

fearless spokesman of God, and go back to where you

came from.

While I was on this convoy of Hope.

Cruise, I was talking to a minister that was about

maybe ten fifteen years ahead of me, and he is

retiring in January, and we talked about the next plans

for him and what he's doing. And then he paused

and he says, Brandon, how have you and Die done

the same thing for so long? Because he knows like

all the statistics, and he knows how rare this is.

Did you know that fifty percent of church planners leave

their church five years after they started it? Within five

years fifty percent? Because starting the church is so challenging

and it takes so many unique skill sets that once

the church is established, it usually needs a different leader

to take it from there, and so most guys transition.

So he said, how did you make it through those

first five years? And I said, because God didn't say

anything new, and I wanted him to send me to Hawaii,

but the call to Hawaii never came. So the last

thing God said is pastor ventures. So I went back

and did what he said.

He says, what about the building.

So if you're ever a part of a church and

a pastor builds a building, seventy five percent of ministers

that lead capital campaigns, that lead building projects that are

of this magnitude seventy five percent, three out of four

resign within two years of the building opening seventy five percent.

He said, why did you stay after you built the building?

And I said, because God didn't say anything new. I

went back to the last thing that God said, and

I did that. Then he said how did you make

it through COVID, Like every minister knows that COVID took

out most of our friends. Tons of churches closed, and

about thirty percent of ministers transitioned during COVID, by the way,

that happened in this area. Like all the other churches

that were notable around this area, they all have new pastors.

I am the last one standing. Why didn't I transition?

Then?

Why didn't I and I leave?

Because we went back to the last thing that God

said and we did that.

Then the infamous.

Statistic, the dirty little secret that ministers don't talk about.

Two thirds of ministers leave after their sabbatical. We've seen

that actually in this area recently. He said, so, how

are you feeling? And I said, I am DI and

I are going to retire leading venture, which.

By the way, I tell that to you.

So if you've heard those stats and you're thinking, what's

going on in Brandon's head, I haven't heard him. He

hasn't done Pastors unfiltered. He's just posted pictures on Instagram.

That's the only thing I've seen what's going on in

his head. We believe that God called us to start

this church, build this church, lead this church and kill.

We retire, which is gonna be.

Somewhat unheard of for a pastor to start at church

lead it for thirty five years until they retire. But

that is what we believe God has called us to do.

Now here's what's crazy about that. If you know me

very well, I like change. If it is up to me,

I'd have a new job every three years. I would

move to a new house every two years. I love

buying new cars. I like everything new and different. But

God has me at the same church. It's one of

the reasons I keep having his new buildings.

So I gotta have some sort of change.

Do I have a feeling you're gonna be hearing about

some building stuff in a little bit. Ah, How do

you enter into the new season?

You get some.

Rest, you have an encounter with God where God you

let God ask you some honest questions, and then finally

you go back to what God said and you do that.

That's how you do this in any season of your life.

But most of all, Church, I just want you to

know I believe that God is not done with die

and I leading venture. Yet I also believe that God's

not done with you yet.

That there's more to all of our story.

There's more to this venture story, and it is going

to be so much fun to see what God does

over these next twenty years. I want to ask you

to buy your heads, close your eyes. I want to

pray for you, Lord Jesus, for those that are here

that might be in a moment where they're evaluating what

is next, where they're in a season of searching, they're

in a season of wandering wondering. God, I pray that

they will hear you shout you were not done with them,

that there's more to their story.

God.

We claim that over each and every one of our lives,

and we claim that over our church in Jesus' name.

Amen, you're not He's not done with me. He's not

there's not the story. Oh, you're not done.

He's not not me.

Yeah, it's not trying to be No, no, no, because

they're so nice watches. So you're not talking, he's not talking,

he's not trying to.

Just getting so hard, there's so much starts sort.

Oh, you're not tuning.

In anything. It's possible.

Anything, it's possible.

Anything.

It's possible to the mind to.

Do what the Lord. Yeah, any days, any days.

Any days possible? Can we be praizy Jesus.

May you go with that promise in your heart and

in your mind and that song stuck in your mind

all week long, the truth that nothing.

Is impossible for God. Okay, have an incredible day. I

am so glad to be back. Anna. There's actually drinks

out front, so grab a drink on your way out.

High five somebody. Have an awesome week.

We'll see you on Wednesday for our worship nights