Venture Church | Bozeman

What is Community?

Galatians 5:16-17

What is the Holy Spirit?

Genesis 1:1-3

Matthew 3:11

Matthew 3:13-17

Acts 2:1-4

What is the Holy Spirit?

Galatians 5:19-21

Galatians 5:22-25

What’s Holding You Back?

When it comes to Jesus and His Church, are you a fan or a follower?

2 Corinthians 5:17

Romans 12:1

Your salvation is a funeral for your will.

Romans 12:2

3 Characteristics of a Team

We CONNECT

YOU CAN’T BE THE BODY ALONE.

WHO CAN I ENCOURAGE?

WHO CAN I SERVE?

WHO CAN I HELP GROW?

CHURCH CHALLENGE:

Stick around for 10 min and meet new warriors each week.

Hebrews 10:24-25

3 Characteristics of a Team

We CONNECT

We PROTECT

Ephesians 4:3

Proverbs 6:16-19

You can either be someone who makes the church healthier or someone who makes the church harder to be part of.

3 Characteristics of a Team

We CONNECT

We PROTECT

We ENGAGE

Acts 2:42-47

We are not consumers!

We are joining a calling!

Are you a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God?

Critical?

Calloused?

Consumer?

Are you connected, protecting the unity of the body, and engaged in the mission of Jesus?

It is impossible for God to be made unholy.

It is impossible to be made holy without the shedding of blood.

What are you waiting for?

John 8:58

C.S. Lewis

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him:I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Christ up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us and He did not intend to.

Where are you at with Jesus?

Psalm 13:1-2

We mistake silence for absence.

Romans 5:3-5

God will not waste the season you’re in!

Romans 5:6

Hebrews 4:7-8

Luke 22:42

Gethsemane = Olive Press

Who do you know that needs hope?

Will you follow Jesus?

Mark 10:26-27

3 Impossibles of the Bible:

It is impossible for God to be made unholy.

Hebrews 6:18-...it is impossible for God to lie

None of us are holy. 

God’s holiness is not the problem. Our sin is!

3 Impossibles of the Bible:

It is impossible for God to be made unholy.

It is impossible to be made holy without the shedding of blood.

Hebrews 9:22

Sin isn’t something we can fix ourselves.

Exodus 25:8

God was making a way to dwell among his people, but their sin could not simply be ignored. Atonement was necessary.

Have you become casual with the holiness of God?

3 Impossibles of the Bible:

It is impossible for God to be made unholy.

It is impossible to be made holy without the shedding of blood.

Without faith it is impossible to please God.

Hebrews 11:6-And without faith it is impossible to please God…

Where are you placing your faith? 

Our sin created a problem we could not solve.

God provided the sacrifice we could never provide.

Hebrews 10:19-25

God is without equal.

Sin leads to death.

We are to blame.

Identity of Babel

I make myself important

I protect my future

Identity of the Promise

God makes me important

God protects my future

God invites me into a bigger story

Genesis 50:24

Exodus 1:8

Exodus 19:4-6

1 Peter 2:9

NEVER confuse “IN CHARGE” with “IN CONTROL”

When God put mankind in CHARGE of the earth, He did not relinquish CONTROL.

“Moses spent his first 40 years thinking he was somebody. He spent his second 40 years learning he was nobody. He spent his third 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody.” D.L. Moody

Exodus 3:1-10

NEVER confuse “IN CHARGE” with “IN CONTROL”

NEVER LOWER THE STANDARD

Exodus 19:4-5-Stop 5 after the word covenant

10 Commandments-Guardrails

Leviticus 11:45

1 Peter 1:15-16

It is impossible to give God control of your life and not be changed.

First 4 Commandments-Relationship with God

1. You shall have no other gods before me. 

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol.

3. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God        

4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

Matthew 22:37

Matthew 22:39

Next 6 Commandments - Relationship with People

5. Honor your father and your mother. 

6. Don’t murder. 

7. Don’t commit adultery. 

8. Don’t steal.

9. Don’t lie. 

10. Don’t covet.

Romans 7:7

NEVER confuse “IN CHARGE” with “IN CONTROL”

NEVER LOWER THE STANDARD

In what do you place your identity?

Recap: Genesis chapters 1-11 set up the rest of the Bible

Today’s plan:

New Testament book of Galatians

Genesis 11 (last major story of the set-up)

Genesis 12 (first major story of God’s promise)

Galatians 3:26-29

Outrageous claim #1: God relates to his people as family

The Jews believed they were part of God’s family because they descended from someone named Abraham, the figurehead for the entire Jewish race

Outrageous claim #2: Jesus is the true figurehead for God’s family, and under him there is equal accessibility between races, genders, and societal status

Genesis 11:1-4

Identity of Babel

I make myself important

I protect my future

Genesis 12:1

Genesis 12:2-3

Identity of Babel

I make myself important

I protect my future

Identity of the Promise

God makes me important

God protects my future

God invites me into a bigger story

Genesis 12:10-16

Identity of Babel

I make myself important

I protect my future

Identity of the Promise

God makes me important

God protects my future

God invites me into a bigger story

Genesis 12:17-20

Identity of Babel

I make myself important

I protect my future

Identity of the Promise

God makes me important

God protects my future

God invites me into a bigger story

Galatians 3:26

Final Questions:

Do you need to stop living in an old identity and take on the identity of the promise through surrendering to Jesus?

You may already be in Christ and you need to remember that his promise to you is stronger than your inconsistency and cycles of shame

Can you figure out a puzzle with just a handful of pieces?

Goal: To help us see the Big Picture of the Bible.

Accidents happen when we are distracted by the little things and miss the big picture.

GOD IS WITHOUT EQUAL

Genesis 1:1

Creating something out of nothing is a God-sized thing.

Psalms 14:1

GOD IS WITHOUT EQUAL

SIN LEADS TO DEATH

Genesis 2:15-17

Genesis 3:1-6

Problem:

We don’t believe sin is dangerous.

GOD IS WITHOUT EQUAL

SIN LEADS TO DEATH

WE ARE TO BLAME

Read Genesis 12-15

Which one of these truths is most unsettling to you?

GOD IS WITHOUT EQUAL

SIN LEADS TO DEATH

WE ARE TO BLAME

What have you done with the resurrected Jesus?

What will you do now? 

Why does the resurrection of Jesus matter to you and I today?

John 21:1-3

John 21:4-6

Notice: The Disciples made the switch.

Will you?

John 21:6-9

How do you picture Jesus responding to something like this in your life right now?

John 21:10-15

John 21:15-17

Romans 5:8

On this seashore, Jesus is bringing Peter face to face with His mistakes and God’s redemptive love.

Feed My Sheep

John 21:18-22

We don’t follow Jesus so He will make our life better. We follow Jesus because we realize He is better than life.

Where is shame holding you back?

What does your life restored look like?

How can an encounter with Jesus change us for good?

1. Jesus enters willingly into our space, vs. 1-4

2. Change happens through faith AND action, vs. 5

3. The invitation is to a whole new way of life, vs. 10

4. We must do the hard thing and the right thing, vs. 11

Three life-changing questions: 

1. How long has this been a problem?

2. How many times have you tried to stop?

3. Is it causing you or people you love significant pain? 

Jesus’s supply of power is experienced through our response of faith and action 

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.

-Author Joseph Campbell

Three Takeaways:

Identify and confess where you are too familiar with your old ways

Determine the ‘nets’ you need to drop today

Decide who could go with you: we ALL need our people!

Mark 14:29-31 

Read Luke 22:55-62

Part One: The Prediction

Proverbs 16:18

Part Two: The Sin

Romans 3:23

Part Three: The Reckoning

Read John 21:15-19

1. Confrontation

2. Reflection

2 Corinthians 7:10-11

3. Repentance

4. Commission

“The gospel is this: we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” - Tim Keller