Venture Unfiltered Episode #2: Share Your Story

What up Venture Church. It's Pastor Tony Pastor Brandon Venture Unfiltered, Episode two,

Pastor Brandon. We made it to our second episode. I can't believe

it. We got a lot of great feedback last week about it. Actually

listened to it. They actually and like fully like because you know, we

had a little we had a little teaser right at the end. We went

out some stuff going on at the church and people texted me like, oh

my gosh, what that was cool? That makes me proud. Um,

have you had a good week so far? Yeah, it was great.

I went with my son who was graduating from you dab there's grad present.

We went to the Stanley Cup game live in Vegas to watch the nights they

throttled Florida. They destroyed them. And then it's followed up with the air

conditioning and my condo went out again. I know again. Whenever I taught

the condo, people are like, why don't you rent it out for free

to me? Well, it's because every time I rent it out to anybody,

they break my AC and it cost me a thousand dollars every time.

So have you ever stayed at night at the circus, Circus or the strat,

I have been in the circus Circus, I actually have stayed at night

in the strat before. Hey, one of the things I wanted to mention

is a lot of people loved us chatting about our staff last week, sure

you know, and they loved how much we chat about what's been going on

at Venture. And I had a thought the other day, let me know

what you think. Okay, if you know, we really consider ourselves like

a family here of Venture. Who would if you were to think about like

as a family, like, who would you be? Would you be like

the dad of our family? So when you think of like the family dynamic,

Yes, okay, I think yes, I would be dad? You

would be? Yeah? Who would? This will be a good one.

Who would Pastor nicoleby Nicole? Nicole would be like the aunt that whenever your

parents are out of town, they put your aunt in charge of you.

Or We're gonna be called into a meeting on Monday. I head out on

that Convoy of Hope trip, so I'll be called into a meeting on Monday.

Okay, let's think of another pastor. How about Pastor Morgan. Morgan

Morgan is like your weird uncle that you hope shows up at family events because

you never know what he's gonna do. Okay, how about Pastor Cole,

the best looking member of staff. Cole is he's liked that cousin that you

didn't really know, but he just moved by you and you really liked him.

But you're just not sure how long his family's gonna let him live here.

Before he moves way, he'll be in LA at some point, modeling

career. Um okay, I don't know, should we? How about Pastor

Die Die Oh lord, Die is like the big sister that always bosses you

around. Let's are your words as a little kid, you say you're not

the boss of me too all the time? Lenny says that all the time.

Um okay. How about our producer, Kellen Fairfield Nuance Staff. Kellen

Kellen is like your next door neighbor who every time you turn around is always

peeking over a headget you he's ned Flanders. Yeah, he's like he's ned

Flanders. Well, Hey, thereon, dude, the dad ludo neighbor areno?

Um okay, obviously he's gonna listen to this podcast and be like,

you guys, didn't mention me. How about David Diaz. Oh, David

Diaz is like your nephew. That's what he's like. He's like that,

He's like your your nephew. He's just kind of always around hoping you have

candy to give him. Uh, should we do one more person or should

we go dive into what we want to talk about? Do one more and

then well, okay, we might never do this every It was someone that

you guys would think about. How about Pastor Claire Claire Claire is like the

screech that you really love a lot, but you wonder if she even likes

you though you love her being. Yeah. Yeah. How about Pastor Kayley?

Kaylee. Kayley is like the the neighbor down the street that whenever you

need a babysitter you call her and you know that you can trust her with

your kids. Yeah yeah, and you don't even have to pay her.

When you go to pull out the check, she goes, no, it's

okay. And then your house is clean, and yeah that she made food

and left for you. She folded your laundry and yeah, that's so sweet.

Okay, hey, we want to dive in. We are almost wrapping

up our tying for series. Yeah, we're almost done with Acts an Incredibles

for those listening. We started Acts in September, and we knew that Acts

was a really long book and that we wanted to keep it as compelling to

our people and to new people that might come as possible. So we divided

it up into three sections. So there is when the Holy Spirit fell and

uh. We called that unstoppable, and our theme with that was the Gospels

unstoppable when it shared by people that are filled with the Holy Spirit. And

then we ended right when Paul got saved. And so then the next volume

we called it Volume one, Volume two. Volume two was I forget what

was it called unstoppable? Now that was Volume one unstoppable, Volume one,

Man on Fire, Fire Man on Fire, because it had this this is

terrible, I've already been good. The Man on Fire was Paul's missionary journey.

So now you're seeing somebody who saved, filled with the Holy Spirit,

and you've seen the impact of the Gospel through his eyes. And now we've

we are halfway through, almost done actually with the third volume, which is

worth dying for, and our theme with it is it's really leading up to

Paul felt called by God to go to Rome and to testify about Jesus in

Rome. And we're going with him on his journey to Rome where he gets

arrested. And we'll talk about this in just a moment. And our theme

worth dying for is that the message of Jesus, the Gospel of Jesus,

is worth laying down your life for. On Sunday, you preached a great

sermon where you talked about sharing your story. Thank you. I enjoyed it.

Where did that come from for you? You? You called me in

your office and said you're preaching on Sunday and this is what you're talking about.

No? I I just I was at a Mariner's game with one of

our elders, Paul Grant, couple of weeks ago, and I was like,

Paul, do you think most people, not an adventure just in general,

know how to share their story? He goes, I don't think they

do. I think they tense up, they don't know what to say,

they kind of get worried. And I just thought, what if we walked

our church through how to share your story? And the reason being is so

much of our church. I don't. I don't. I don't have a

percentage. So I don't want to like past Or number it, but I

would say maybe forty percent of our church has gotten saved in the last two

to three years. Maybe what do you think, Yeah, a lot of

people. That's probably high. But let's say yeah, I mean that's a

lot of people. So hey, do they know how to share their stories

their testimably? Not just them, what about people of the faith who have

been falling Christ for a while. So it was really cool discuss how Paul

shared his story in front of King Agrippa and just took that time to share

the gospel message and it was awesome. So it was a great Sunday.

Here's how I know it was a good sunday. I had a lot of

the folks in our church, who typically think I'm just a young, young

young man, young young preacher come up to me and say, Pastor,

that was above average. You got an above I got an above average this

sunday, I felt very good about myself. What are they defining as average?

Whenever Pastor Brandon speaks, well, no, I'm no Kenneth Copeland unfiltered

again, for those of you listening, think of it this way, Paul

the apostle. Paul gets this clear word from God that he is to testify

about Jesus in Rome. And on the way he stops in Jerusalem because he

wants to celebrate the festival of Pentecost, and everything that could go wrong goes

wrong. They are so upset that he's there it causes a riot in the

city. He gets taken under guard by Roman soldiers and put in a Roman

prison cell simply to protect him. And while he's there, forty Jewish men

have an oath that we're not going to eat, drink, or leap until

Paul is dead. Paul finds out about it from his nephew while he's in

this prison cell to be protected because the Romans want to keep him from being

safe, keep him from being hurt. Nephew tells him. He says,

well, you tell them. The Roman commanders tells the Roman commander, and

the Roman commander is like, we gotta get Paul out of here. The

city is in an uproar because of him. Remember the whole time he feels

called and compelled to go to Rome. This is what I love about Paul.

So they take him by armed guard and they end up in cesarea by

the sea. So Paul ends up in prison or house arrest, whatever you

want to call it, for two years, over two years in Cesarea and

most of us, when we think God has called me to do something,

all I gotta go to school, I gotta go get mentored, I gotta

go in turn, I gotta wait until I get out of debt, or

I gotta wait until I get my finances in order, or I gotta wait.

Everybody's always got something that they have to wait for. And Paul very

clearly knew God has sent me to Rome. I am going to Rome,

but he's stuck in Cesarea for two years. We missed that. Every opportunity

Paul got, he shared his story. He shared it with Felix, he

shared it with Festus. He shares it with Agrippa and Bernice. Yes,

he shares it with go back to my sermon two weeks ago, if you

want to hear about her. He shares it with the leaders of all of

Israel. But he my favorite thing is he didn't he didn't wait. His

attitude was I thought I was going to Rome. Yeah, But if what

God has me is here in this cell, I'm gonna I'm going to live

out the mission of Jesus in this prison cell as best I can, and

he just shared his story. And so I love how you encouraged people to

share their story. One of the things I was I was thinking this on

Sunday as you were sharing part of your story. It doesn't have to be

some detailed explanation of this is who I was before Jesus and this is who

I was now. It can be as simple as I was going through something

really difficult. Yeah, I didn't know what to do. I laid it

at the feet of Jesus and here is where I found Jesus in the middle

of the storm. It can be just something that happened where God kind of

helped you through. Maybe God miraculously delivered you through. It can just be

maybe you were struggling in your marriage and the Lord kind of came in and

helped restore your marriage. I mean, that is an incredible story, and

that's relatable. Yep, that's relatable. I think sometimes we think we have

to have these crazy, like I said in my sermon, Hollywood esque stories.

I was on tour with Motley Crue and we were back of a van

and nineteen No, it would just be normal. And I think that's more

normal is relatable not you know, and I'm not saying people who have crazy

stories aren't relatable, but I think it's really easy to tell a coworker,

you know, when you guys go out to lunch, hey, how's your

marriage going, and they open up about it. Or you have a best

friend who doesn't know Jesus yet, these are natural opportunities for you and I

to share. Every single person relates to stories like I had an unexpected financial

issue, we didn't know what we were going to do, and we started

praying and God provided, or you know, we get bad news and how

did you make it through that circumstance? And again there is people that they

should share their story of how they found Jesus. You and I are unique,

especially in ministry, and that our dads weren't ministers, we didn't grow

up in Christian homes, that we were the first Christians in our families.

So I mean that story is I mean, we know what it was like

to not know Jesus, to live a life empty, wondering what this life

was all about. I was hanging out with one of my buddies in Vegas.

He's a church planner in Vegas. His name is John Boor and we

are at lunch and we are just shooting the breeze about our faith and our

journey, and we both talked about remembering what it was like to not have

Jesus in our life, remembering, like he started saying, I remember,

just as a kid, I would just lay in bed and I would I

would wonder what is the meaning of all? What is the purpose for all?

This is literally I just struggle to pay my bills and I worry about

it. Is this really what life is all about? And as he was

sharing that, I remembered everything he was saying, I remember that even as

a kid, thinking that that is a story that people relate to. But

there's also stories that you have, just simple things that God has done and

come through. And there is nothing more powerful than you sharing your story.

And I think that's where I really wanted to push everyone in our church.

Everyone in our church has a story to share. It doesn't matter how long

they've been a follower of Jesus or you know, how long they or how

much scripture they understand or memorize. We all have a story of that moment

you say all the time where Jesus crossed our path everyone has that come to

Jesus moment. Something pastor Nicole brought up and I thought would be a really

good theme for this episode is how do you share your story if you're like

still, I don't I don't like this terminology she didn't use. This is

just my mind out here, Like if you're a work in progress, like

man, I'm still struggling. I still got some stuff, but I'm following

Jesus and I'm honestly trying. But I don't want to be a hypocrite and

just tell people get over it and just you know, buck up. What

would you say to someone like that who's maybe going through something. I mean,

first off, we're all still a work in progress. There it is.

This is where I go back to the whole Paul example that if you,

Paul Paul thought my mission is Rome. God's called me to Rome.

If if he kind of lived his life that way, he wouldn't have testified

about Jesus and Cesarea. He would have just been confused. He would have

thought, did I miss God? Did I miss something? We're all a

work in progress. If if Jesus has changed your life, like if Jesus

is sincerely the most important relationship you have in your life. How can you

not talk about it that you have only been golfing for what six months,

and you cannot have a conversation with you that doesn't involve golf. Like I

have been a hockey fan now going on six years. It's really complicated for

me to not tie in the Vegas Nights to some thing. And we talk

about things that we love. It's one of the reasons when we sit down

and we meet with people, we talk about our jobs, and we talk

about our families and that. So I always paused whenever I hear people say

I just I mean, I'm still kind of work in progress, this and

that. All. If you were passionately in love with Jesus, yeah,

you can't shut up about him, okay, And that's where I had massive

convictions. So leading up to my message, I kind of did an audit

of what do I talk about the most, and I just thought about it

contemplated, and like, yeah, like I love golf, and I love

my wife, and I love my kids and you know, I'm not crazy

with the Vegas Knights yet, but I'm sure we can get there someday.

I Why am I not talking about the most profound relationship in my life,

the relationship that saved my life that now I don't have just life here about

life in eternity and life abundant. How am I not talking enough about?

And I think one of the reasons that people don't do that is because,

unlike when I talk about the Vegas Nights, when I talk about Jesus,

in the back of my head, I'm hoping for some miraculous response, and

I'm also afraid of a negative one. So if I'm a Raider fan too,

you can't be a Raider fan and not get mocked. I talk about

the Raiders and I don't care if somebody loves the Raiders or hates the Raiders.

I just talk about them. And I think a lot of times we

don't talk about our faith because or just a story about Jesus or what happened

at church on Sunday or you know, I was I was reading the Bible

and this really stood out to me, It really applied to me. We

don't share things like that because we're afraid of the response. And that is

where I come back to you. Are you afraid of the response when you

talk incessantly about your children? No, you don't. People don't care,

and sometimes your kids aren't as cool as you think they are. Yeah,

I mean, like I kidding. People talk about their dogs, don't.

Yeah, yeah, dogs. I love dogs, I know, but I

don't love your dog. I don't have a dog anymore. We gave it,

I wouldn't love it. I wouldn't care about it at all. I

don't want to talk about my dog and your dog because that is a podcast

for another day. Your dogs pass, Brenda, I love you. Your

dogs are evil. They attempt to kill theirselves. Like once a month,

didn't your dog jump off a bridge? That was one of them? Yes,

the other one got hit by a truck. And then didn't one of

them just eat like fertilizer? He just said, I'm out he fertilizer.

That particular dog also ate an entire bottle of aspirin. I'm telling you,

these dogs are trying to figure out how to get out of here. All

right, Hey, what are let's let's share maybe some simple tips. Let's

just say this is for the average person at our church, maybe works remote

job, maybe you know whatever. They're just out and about. They have

life. How do they share their story out and about just day to day

basis. I think it can be as simple as, here's something really cool

that happened to me recently, and people are gonna ask questions, They're gonna

want to hear about it, and it gives you an opportunity to share the

Jesus part of the story. And I'm a I'm just a firm believer in

Jesus is the hero of all of our stories. And how can you tell

when he's the hero? How can you tell a story and not involve the

hero. It can be as simple as you're bragging about your kids. Both

my twin boys are just graduated from college. They're really easy to brag about.

Right now. I can sum that up by saying that God just has

really blessed me with my family. It can be as simple as that.

I think we get hung up on because we think we're supposed to like share

a very apologetically theologically correct process of salvation for somebody, And I'm just a

firm You just share your story and it can be as simple. The ass

can be Hey, do you ever want to come with me to church?

Yeah? Simple, I think it's so interesting to me. Like you said,

the things were so willing to speak about, especially people who are so

open, like, let's say about politics, right, They'll say anything knowing

that they could easily offend the person that they're speaking to. Yet, if

we're willingness so bluntly talk about politics, why can't we just talk about Jesus,

the person that he was, the work he's done in our life?

You know? If people are offended by the name of Jesus, I mean,

that's that's something else. I m here, this is the truth.

I am not the same person because Jesus crossed my path. That's it.

I am a changed my future. He changed my values, he changed the

way I parent, he changed the way I live my life. Jesus changed

everything. Like, I am radically a different human being because of the person

of Jesus. The closer that I get to Jesus, the more he just

morphs and changes different things in our life. How can we not, i

know, brag about the hero of the story. You know, the other

day I was having coffee with someone. They were telling me that they're on,

like on an evangelism kick, and I was like, man, shouldn't

we all just kind of be shouldn't we all just be evangelistic in nature.

Why, why does it necessarily need to be a kick or whatnot? You

look at yourself this way, you were a permanent missionary. There it is.

You're permanently on a mission field. All of you that just heard that

you're a missionary. Now there you go. Please don't ask me for a

go fund me. The other day I was having coffee with Josh Talent from

our church. Love Josh. We're having coffee yesterday, and we're talking about

Paul and all the Pauline epistles and you know, a dondal meat. Do

you ever think Paul kind of might have looked like George Costanza. He was

short, he was bald, he had a thorn on his side. Yeah,

I guess I had never really thought of it. I know. I'm

just sorry. My add mind just went there. Well, hey, Pass

Brennan, I think this was really good. I think we gave some people

some things to consider. If you're listening to this, just a couple of

things before we wrap up. Your story is your story, so share it.

But remember Jesus is the hero of it. And if you honestly love

Jesus, speak about them. It's what the world needs right now. Thank

you, so much for listening today. Today was a little brief. Next

week, Pastor Brandon, I think we need to go a little unfiltered.

Okay, you've been watching the Hillsong documentary. You're really gonna make me talk

about that. I think we need to because on the third episode, I

think it's time to dip our toes in the water a little bit. Yeah.

I will fortunately be in another country when that comes out. Okay,

Wow, maybe we'll talk about it. I just want to close with Sayer

and never forget Jesus is the hope of the world. There it is,

there it is. Hey, thanks so much, don't forget share this podcast

people. Thank you so much for taking time to listen to us. We

love you. We'll see you adventure asap. Go Nights Go