a Leaders Journey | Pastor Brandon Beals | Venture Church

I want to welcome you to Venture Church. Thank you

for coming. If I've never met you before, my name

is Brandon. I am the lead pastor of the church.

If you're new, I'd love the opportunity to meet you,

to say hi. I'll be hanging out in the lobby

after the service. Please come up, introduce yourself to me.

I'd love the opportunity to fist bump you, say go Raiders,

whatever it is. We are getting ready for Trunk or Treat,

which is one of the largest outreaches to the community

that we do. There will be thousands of kids in

our church parking lot on October 31st, and we need

you to decorate a car.

And most of all... We need you to bring candy.

You will notice there's a box, a googly-eyed box.

Over by our kids area out there in the lobby.

Bring in candy when you go to the store, buy

some extra, just drop it off in.

That googly-eyed box.

Because we always tell parents that if you want a

safe environment to take your kids trick-or-treating to, take them

to Ventures Trunk-or-Treat and And not only will it be safe,

will they have a blast, but they'll get more candy

than if they actually went trick-or-treating.

But we need you to bring that candy. So if

you do that, that'd be great. All right.

Last thing I want to mention. I don't normally talk

about this stuff from the pulpit. I am not one

of those pastors who my brand is politics. There's many

pastors in our community that that is their brand. I

do feel compelled to remind you that even though this

is an off-year election, that it is really important that

you and I vote. there are some initiatives on the

ballot that are gonna have long lasting positive or negative

effects on this region forever. And a bunch of you,

you'll live here for four or five years. You're here

for work.

You'll move.

But for those of us that are gonna be here

for the next 20, 30 years, we are gonna reap

the blessings or the consequences of these initiatives forever. And unfortunately,

they are written very confusing. So I wanna challenge you

to read those initiatives very carefully. I mentioned this in

the first service. I'll say it in this one. I

am voting yes on those initiatives, not telling.

You how to vote.

I just want you to be aware of what you

were voting for and know that there are repercussions of

our vote. I also wanna mention that the state Senate,

there's many people that are up for our state Senate.

And as so often happens, we vote for something and

then the.

Party in charge sues, goes to.

The state senate, and then the state senate overrides the

will of the voters.

Who you vote for in the state senate matters. You

still love me? All right.

Grab your Bibles, turn to the book of Ezra, chapter 7,

Ezra 7 · chapter mention

continuing our series through the book of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Pastor Morgan killed it last week. I listened to that

message driving here this morning.

It was excellent.

I hope I'm close to as good as he is.

Starting with verse 8, then we'll pray together. It says,

Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the

seventh year of the king. He'd begun his journey from

Babylon on the first day of the first month, and

he arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the

fifth month, for the gracious hand of God was on him.

For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance

of the law of the Lord and to the teaching

its decrees and laws in Israel. I want to ask

everyone to bow your heads, close your eyes, repeat this

prayer after me. Everyone say, dear Jesus. Speak to my heart.

Change my life.

In Jesus' name, amen.

I want you to notice that we are now into

chapter 7. And the person who authored the book finally

enters into the story.

Did you know that this is 80 years after.

The Israelites came from Babylon back to Jerusalem.

So he shows.

Up 80 years after the exiles returned from Babylon. So

by the time Ezra shows up, the temple has been rebuilt.

The city has been rebuilt. There has now been four

different kings that have led the Persian kingdom. And I

want to remind you, that Ezra and Nehemiah, these two

books that we're talking about, covers 100 years of history.

So that means Ezra and Nehemiah show up for the

last 20 years.

That's it.

The crazy thing for me is that we're sort of

familiar as a church with Ezra. Most Christians are really

familiar with Nehemiah. In fact, when I was in Bible college,

my freshman year of Bible college.

Our school president taught through the book of Nehemiah my

entire freshman year of college. So we've heard sermons on Ezra.

We've heard sermons on Nehemiah, but we don't know much

about Zerubbabel. Now, Morgan mentioned him last week, and I

find it crazy that we know so much about Nehemiah.

We know that Nehemiah built the walls around Jerusalem. Did

you know that that was a 52-day project? So, I

had an entire year of sermons in college about 52

days in the history of Israel, yet it took Zerubbabel

22 years to rebuild the temple. And most of us

have never heard his name before.

I would argue.

that the true feat of that hundred years of Ezra

and Nehemiah isn't the rebuilding of the walls, isn't the

part that Ezra talked about. It's actually the part that

Zerubbabel led, which was the rebuilding of the temple. And

for whatever reason, Zerubbabel is the leader that God chose.

That's who I want to talk about today.

First off, I want to show you a picture of

Zerubbabel so you have an image in your mind.

Wow, a different picture.

Every service, they're throwing up a different picture to trick me.

This guy looks much more wise than the one last

service that looked like he had leprosy. But, um, I

wanna warn you up front, I'm gonna be talking about

Zerubbabel this service, and I am now four months into Invisalign,

which means I'm a 25-year-old. I relate to the 25-year-olds

with Invisalign. And saying Zerubbabel is complicated without Invisalign, it

is super complicated when you have Invisalign. So let's just

know right now that I'm gonna say his name 25

different ways. You can laugh every time I say Zerubbabel

or Zerubbabel or whatever I say. It's the same guy.

I know that I'm not saying his name right. You

try and say it with two retainers in your mouth.

Fair? Okay, good. I want to say this.

Many of you here, you are in different positions of leadership.

Maybe you sense a call to leadership. maybe you're considering

serving in leadership in some capacity, this message is for you.

Even if you aren't sensing a call to leadership, this

is gonna help you understand the leaders in your.

Life because Zerubbabel is the leader, you can laugh. You didn't, good.

That's good that you're kind. He is the leader that

God chose. in a leader that God chooses. So if

you're here and you're serving in some capacity, Maybe you're

like Dave Liam and you're serving to lead CR, Celebrate

Recovery at our church.

And I picked on Lizzie Kiley in the first service.

She leads our mom co-ministry or Mike Cummings who leads

Venture Vets or Connor Takata who leads our young adults.

Or if you're one of our board members or one

of our deacons, if you are a volunteer leader.

You understand.

these concepts because a leader is someone who keeps everyone

heading in the same direction. Let me tell you something

about leading this organization.

It is like trying to herd cats.

A bunch of cats with different opinions, a bunch of

cats with different personalities, and I'm trying to rally everyone

to head in the same direction. Another thing, a leader

that's a Christian They.

Stand up for what's right.

And in our area, oftentimes what's right is not politically correct.

What's right is not popular, but a leader stands up

for what is right.

But most of all, and all of us, these volunteer leaders.

Who I shouted out. This applies to them. A leader stands.

puts the well-beings of others above themselves. Oftentimes, leaders get

accused of being personally driven or personally aspirational.

I always say this. I spent seven years leading our

church through building this building. And the amount of grumbling

I heard and gossip I heard behind the scenes that, oh,

Brandon is only trying to build a mega church. He's

only trying to build his own kingdom. Let me tell you,

you wouldn't do this if that was the goal. There's

so many other ways to do that that are easier.

Than building a building from scratch. You put the needs

of others above yourself.

I just spent all this time raising money to have

this entire kids ministry redone. Knowing that my kids are adults.

Like I did this for your kids, not my own.

Like everything we've done for the youth ministry, my kids

were in college by the time this building was even done.

This is the way a leader thinks.

A leader puts the needs of other people above themselves.

As I was studying this week, I found myself relating

to Zerubbabel. I hope you'll relate to his journey too.

I hope that today you understand who he is and

you appreciate him more.

Because if you are a leader.

or you feel that an opportunity to lead is coming,

you are gonna relate to Zerubbabel's leadership journey. And there's

three real phases of that journey. Phase one is God

chose him. A Christian leader, God chooses. Zerubbabel came back

to Jerusalem as a.

Young boy and he didn't have an option.

He is the grandson of Jehoiachin, who was the king

that was leading Israel when it got conquered by the Babylonians.

So Jehoiachin and his entire family are brought to Babylon

and Zerubbabel is born in Babylon. He is a Babylonian Jew.

He didn't have an option to leave.

Everything he knew, the family and life that he'd established

in Babylon, because of his kingly lineage, he was assigned.

To go back to Jerusalem.

He didn't even have an option. He was a teenage boy. He,

as a teenage boy, was there, watched. and participated in

the reestablishing of the worship of God in Jerusalem. He

watched the foundation of the temple be laid. And you

remember that story a couple weeks ago where those that

are seasoned, I'm using Pastor Morgan's words, they wept when

they saw the foundation of the temple because they realized

it's not going to be as magnificent as Solomon's temple.

It's not gonna be as large as Solomon's temple that

they remembered. But then the young people cheered and shouted

with joy when they saw the foundation of the temple laid.

That was Zerubbabel.

He was one of those young boys that was shouting

and singing. The crazy part for him, that right around

the point where he turns 20, 21, Cyrus, king of Persia,

appoints him as the governor of Israel and assigns him

to lead the task of actually building the temple and

rebuilding the city. Have you ever been assigned a task

as a leader that you wondered if you were qualified for?

Immediately someone asks you to lead and you're like, why me?

I don't have the experience. I've never had the training.

I don't think I'm ready for this. I'll tell you

something you will find out really quickly. Zerubbabel felt inadequate

trying to lead this.

He's now thrust into leadership.

With the purpose of rebuilding the temple of God in Jerusalem.

The crazy thing about Zerubbabel is we learn more about him,

not from Ezra and Nehemiah, but from the prophets Haggai

and Zechariah. Now, quick explanation of the way the Bible works.

The Bible is not written sequentially. In other words, you

don't start at Genesis and it tells you a story

that leads you all the way.

To Revelation, right?

There are books of the Bible that are taking place simultaneously.

So by the time you get to the major and

the minor prophets, they existed during this golden thread story

of the history of the world to all of a

sudden Jesus and the salvation of man to revelation. That's

the golden thread. When we get to this part, this

hundred year part of Ezra and Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah

exist simultaneously with this. They are the prophets that were

there during the 22 years that it took Zerubbabel to

rebuild the temple.

So they were the prophets. Everybody with me?

Okay. So we learn a lot about him from them because.

Even though he is the.

One who led Israel through the 22 years and we

don't know much about him, we find out really quickly

that God needed the prophets to continually encourage him.

So listen to the words of these prophets to.

Zerubbabel when you understand a leader's journey. You understand God

chooses you. God gives you the assignment. Oftentimes you do

not feel adequate. You do not feel prepared. You do

not feel ready, but God thrusts you into leadership. And

the whole time you were dealing with your own personal

feelings and psyche all along. If you want insight into

the psychology of what is going on in a young

leader's mind, you get it from Zerubbabel. Because the prophets

are constantly brought into his life to keep him going,

to keep encouraging him, to keep him sticking with it.

Any leader that's here, whether you're a business leader, a

volunteer leader, vocational, no matter where you lead, you can

think of people that God has brought into your life

that when you get discouraged, they keep you going. I

call these people angels. Like when I am bummed about

my job, I get a knock on my door. I

open it up and someone hands me a Raiders hat.

And that's me. I'm loved. Okay.

Even though these people are mean, this person loves me.

Two weeks ago on Sunday, I get a knock on

the door.

I open it up.

A family comes in and they wanted to present me

a picture of That their daughter had painted for me.

And it was the most adorable picture. And it just

reminded me. And all of the stress and frustration.

That is leading.

A large organization. That God sees me. And that is

what God was doing here with Haggai and Zechariah. He

was reminding Zerubbabel, though this task seems greater than you,

seems more than you can accomplish, I see you. And

oftentimes that's all we need.

We just need to know, okay, God is aware of

the junk I'm going through. I picked on Dave in

the first service. He wasn't there to know it. Now

I'm doing it here. But Dave has led CR. What

are we going on nine years? Do you know how

many times in nine years Dave has met with me

because he wants to quit CR? Pretty much every time

we meet. And why is that?

Because he leads a ministry full of people that are

full of hurts, habits, and hang-ups.

People with hurts, habits, and hang-ups can pick on their leaders.

And God brought me into Dave's life to light wind

and fire under Dave when he's discouraged. Every leader has

those people. Every leader needs those people. These are the

people that God brought into Zerubbabel's life. Haggai chapter one,

verse 13. Don't turn there. You'll never find it. The

words will be behind me on the screen. Here's what

he said. Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, gave this message

of the Lord to the people. So he's speaking to

all the people.

And Zerubbabel is part of the crowd.

And he says, I am with you, declares the Lord.

So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, son

of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua,

son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of

the whole remnant of the people. They came and began

to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God,

on the 24th day of the 6th month move to

chapter 2 verse 23 it says on that day declares

the Lord Almighty I will take you my servant Zerubbabel

son of Shealtiel.

And I will make you.

Like my signet ring for I have chosen you declares

the Lord Almighty. So many implications from this verse. As

a leader, I know what was going through Zerubbabel's mind.

This is too big for me.

This task is too great. I'm inadequate. I can't do this.

And then God brings Haggai, who everyone in the community respects.

He's their pastor, their prophet. And he said, God told me,

he's got you. He's with you. Zerubbabel, he told me

that he is taking his signet ring and he's placing

it on your finger. A signet ring symbolically represents your

family and it represents leadership. This is in essence, God

telling Zerubbabel, hey, you're part of my family and I'm

making you the leader. And my ring is on you.

I have chosen you. Let's go to Zechariah. If you

did make it to Haggai, turn right. Chapter four, verse 10.

Who dares despise the day of small things since the

seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth

will rejoice.

Here's the part.

When they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel.

So God brought these prophets into Zerubbabel's life to fan

the flame, to keep him going when he's discouraged, to

remind him that this is bigger than you.

God has chosen you. My hand is on you.

I will tell you, being chosen for leadership comes in

a variety of ways.

Sometimes the opportunity is given.

Sometimes... Someone who's really hard to say no to asks

you to serve. Ask Riley Lillibridge about the process of

stepping on our church board.

I am hard to say no to.

Sometimes you feel compelled in your heart Like God moves you.

There are times that people will come to me and

they'll say, PB, I don't even know the process. In fact,

I had somebody do this a month ago and they said,

I don't know if you are looking for new board

members in the future, but I really feel like I'm

to put myself out there and say, if that opportunity

presents itself, I would love to be considered. I told

the story in the first service of Heather Lane. Heather

Lane leads our women's ministry. She's paid to be our bookkeeper,

but leads our women's ministry as a volunteer ministry of

the church. And Heather came to me a couple of

years ago and she said, Brandon, I feel compelled to

lead the women's ministry. And the first thing she asked

me is she goes, do you think I can do it?

I feel inadequate. I don't feel skilled and gifted enough

to do this. Do you think I can do this?

And I was like, Heather, I need somebody to lead this.

If you're volunteering, you're the person. Sometimes people are compelled.

You rarely feel qualified or ready when the opportunity to

lead presents itself. If you wait until you're ready, it'll

be too late. So Zerubbabel immediately starts the process of

rebuilding the temple. And as Pastor Morgan talked about last week,

immediately opposition arises.

That's not fair.

Like immediately he gets chosen by God to do something.

And immediately.

there's criticism from the people. Immediately people start complaining about

building campaigns. People start complaining about having to serve more.

People start complaining and there's opposition from the very beginning.

A leader's journey, God will choose a leader. Number two,

God will challenge the leader. No matter the task a

leader is called to, there will be obstacles. Take Dave

Liam out to coffee this month and say, Dave, is

Brandon right?

Has there been obstacles you've had to deal with with CR?

I dare you.

Ask Lizzie Kiley, who leads MomCo. Ask her if there's

been obstacles. You are never called to a task in

leadership that comes easy because leaders have to be tough.

Because there's always challenges.

And I'll tell you something, that if you are following

a leader who falls apart when opposition comes, that is

not much of a leader. Zerubbabel dealt with opposition from

his neighbors, dealt with apathy from his people, interference from

the political leaders, And I'll tell you, it was unkind, unfair, unspiritual,

and incredibly dangerous. And the entire building process of the

temple gets stopped under his leadership. And he has to

spend over a decade fighting to get the building process

to start again.

The crazy part for me is what he's doing.

Is a task assigned by God he's doing a good

thing he's trying to build the house of God a

place where God's presence will dwell it is an admirable

task an honorable task yet the opposition was fierce And

he wasn't trained to deal with this. He hadn't been

coached how to navigate through this. This was all new

to him. I have never met a pastor that does

not say this.

The things I wished I learned in Bible college.

I think every single one of us could teach a

class on what we wished we would have learned in

Bible college, but as a young, naive, 19, 20 year

old would have thought that won't happen and would have

ignored it anyways. You got to walk through it to

learn it, to experiencing it. Every leader is called to

every task. Every leader called to every task. will face opposition.

If God's called you to lead a business, anything worth

having doesn't come easy. The problem is opposition can.

Be very discouraging.

I accept that opposition and criticism comes with the job.

It doesn't mean I like it. It doesn't mean it

feels good. When people talk smack about you behind your

back and it gets to you, it bothers you.

I relate to Zerubbabel because.

He was called to leadership at a young age and

the opposition was discouraging. How do we know it was discouraging?

Because the prophets constantly had to encourage him. Here, let's

go back to the prophets, things they had to say.

Haggai chapter two, verse four and five says, Be strong, Zerubbabel,

declares the Lord.

Be strong, all you people of.

The land, declares the Lord, and work, for I am

with you, declares the Lord Almighty. This is what I

have covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt,

and my spirit remains among you.

Do not fear. Why would God tell Zerubbabel not to fear?

Because he was afraid. Why would he tell him, keep working?

Because everything inside of him told him to run.

And he said, stick with it. Keep with it.

You are fulfilling a promise that I made to the

people of Israel hundreds of years beforehand.

I chose you to build this temple. I'm gonna be

with you. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Verse six,

chapter two. This is what the Lord Almighty says.

I mean, this is like one of the most quoted

verses from Haggai and it has everything to do with

encouraging Zerubbabel as he's frustrated because the building of the

temple process has stopped and he's wondering if he missed God.

Have you ever been there? And here's what the Lord said.

In a little while, I will once more shake the

heavens and the earth, the sea and dry land. I

will shake all the nations and what is desired by

the nations will come and I will fill this house

with my glory.

The silver is mine. The gold is mine.

The glory of this present house will be greater than

the glory of the former house.

I want you to picture that.

Remember, these were public statements that the people that were

crying because the temple is not as magnificent as the

one they remembered under Solomon, the people that were upset

because it's not as large as the previous temple, now

the prophet is saying.

The new temple is, I'm going to move in that

place greater than I ever did in the former place.

You won't remember the past because what I'm going to

do here. If you were Zerubbabel and you're the leader

called to lead this project and that word comes, you're thinking,

let's go.

Oh, let's read some more things here. Haggai chapter 20,

or chapter two, verse 21, tells Zerubbabel, governor of Judah,

that I'm gonna shake the heavens and the earth. All

this opposition you're.

Dealing with, I'll overthrow royal thrones and shatter the power

of foreign kingdoms. I'll overthrow chariots and their drivers, horses

and their riders will fall each by the sword of

his own brother. On that day, declares the Lord, I

will take you, my servant Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, declares

the Lord, and I will make you like my signet ring.

I've chosen you, declares the Lord.

These popular words were originally given to encourage a discouraged leader.

The crazy thing that I get asked often is why

would God call a leader to something that is immediately

followed by many trials and obstacles? Because we're talking about

the journey of a leader. God chooses you. then God

challenges you. Then number three, then God changes you. What

you are going to find out really quickly in any

task that God calls you to lead is that God

is more concerned with completing the person than he is

the task.

And you know why that is?

Because God's task will always get completed in his time.

But while Zerubbabel was building God's physical temple, while he's

dealing with all the complaints, while he's dealing with all

the government issues, while he's dealing with all the funding issues,

God is building his character. The leader's journey is oftentimes

way more important than the end result.

You see, the kings and the people.

Provided the resources necessary to build the temple, but ultimately

it was Zerubbabel's endurance, perseverance, and character that got the

job done. Zerubbabel had to develop endurance through this journey

When I think of like young leaders in the church today,

like young 20 something leaders, and they're all over the

place because they're super passionate about Jesus. They need to

learn endurance. They need to learn perseverance. They need to

learn tenacity. They need to learn stick-to-itiveness. That is the

key character trait that God is trying to develop in

a world where you can just enter the transfer portal

when you're upset with a coach. You know, it took

Zerubbabel 22 years to build the temple. And he only

spent four of those years actually doing construction. He spent

18 of those years dealing with everything else. I lead

this group called Pastors Huddle, which is a group of

guys every year that I take through leadership for a year.

And I challenged my guys.

I said, I want you to come up with one

word that is your theme word for 2027. And I

shared with them that, and now you know where I

got it from, that my word is endurance. Zerubbabel inspired

me let me tell you what I learned from Zerubbabel

about endurance endurance refers to the capacity to tolerate difficult

situations without giving up it requires physical and mental resilience

resilience is the ability to bounce back from setbacks and

keep moving forward It's about withstanding challenges to achieve a

goal or fulfill a purpose. It doesn't allow failures and

difficulties to deter you from your goals. It requires discipline

and self-control. It involves pushing beyond your comfort zone and

maintaining focus and determination when you're faced with adversity. Endurance

learns courage.

Patience. Because you have to wait for results.

You have to wait for progress without being too discouraged.

Because understand, success takes time. Zerubbabel exemplifies the character trait

of endurance. He got discouraged but stuck with it. He

faced insurmountable odds but stuck with it. He kept everyone

focused on a goal. He stood up for what was right.

But most of all, he cared more about God's purpose

than his own well-being. The Apostle Paul said this in Romans.

This is the verse I'm challenging everyone to memorize.

He said, we gladly suffer because we know that suffering

helps us to endure. And endurance is builds character, which

ultimately gives us hope. Back to Ezra, chapter six, verse 14.

It says,' The elders of the Jews continue to build

and prosper under the preaching of Haggai, the prophet, and Zechariah,

a descendant of Edo.' They finished building the temple according

to the command of the God of Israel and the

decrees of Cyrus, Darius, Artaxerxes, the kings of Persia.

Remember, a lot of kings have passed through during this time.

The temple was completed on the third day of the

month of Adar, the sixth year of the reign of

King Darius. And they announced it. And guess whose name

they didn't mention?

Zerubbabel. The guy that actually led.

The rebuilding project. You want an example of what it's

like to be a leader?

There it is. The temple is completed.

Then 60 years later, Ezra chapter seven, which is where

we'll take from next week.

Ezra comes on the scene. I wanna ask everybody to

bow your heads, close your eyes.

If you're here and you're a leader, maybe at work,

maybe on your HOA, maybe in the community, maybe in

this church, and you're a little bit discouraged and you

needed to hear this and you want me to pray

for you right now, I want you to raise your

hand if that's you. People are so excited, they're waving

at me. On the floor, in the balcony, you can

put them down. Lord Jesus, you know which you've called

all these people to, you've chosen them. You know the

challenges that they're facing and you know the character that

you're trying to develop in them. And God, I pray

first off that I could be maybe that angel that

encourages them, that they would be reminded that you have

a plan for them, that you called them to this

task and they need to stick with it.

They need to endure because in the end, It's going

to be good.

And Lord, I pray you would encourage them in this moment,

challenge them in this moment and be with them. May

they be reminded over and over again, this week, this month,

that your hand is on them, that you are with

them and to not be afraid.

Lord, I commit this word to you.

I thank you for your word that ministers to us,

blesses us in Jesus name.

Amen. Amen.

Maybe you have wondered what do I do next or

how can I learn more and we have a page

for you on our app. It's called What's Next. This

is where you can find resources. If you've wondered, how

do I get started reading my Bible? Where do I

even start? There's a five-day Bible plan. There's also a

summary of the message. There's questions you can wrestle with.

We're here to help you, and we want you to

grow and be encouraged. So I'm going to invite you

to stand to your feet, and I'm going to send

you out this morning with the encouragement that what God

has called you to, He will equip you to do.

So keep working. Have an awesome day. We love you.