Billings Vineyard Church Sunday Sermons Billings Vineyard Church

We continue our Abide series with the parables of the mustard seed and the yeast found in Matthew 13. Hope is essential for our wholeness and is the vehicle that carries us to the power of the truth of God's Kingdom. The mustard seed has life in it somehow, though it doesn't look like much. God finishes what He starts when He brings new life out of what has fallen (like the mustard seed, which He grows into the largest garden plant). In the parable of the yeast, we see that the life of Jesus brings life as it works through the flour of our day-to-day lives.

We continue our Abide series with the parable of the sower or, more accurately, the parable of the really bad farmer. Only God would sow seed the way this farmer does, with no selection criteria for where the seed is sown. The charity of God is that He scatters the seeds of the Kingdom to all, not just to the good. This mystery of the Kingdom tests our faith because God doesn't always act according to our plans. God's plan comes not as we expect, but it's always good. When we build expectations about God based on our own desires, we miss out on what He's doing. But He can change the condition of our hearts, as well as the hearts of those we're inviting into the Kingdom.

Together, we journey through the parables of Jesus, learning how to abide in Him. To "abide" sounds almost un-American, but we will seek out the paradigm-busting truths in Jesus' teachings to abide in Him, taking part in God's story.

In our final week exploring the Heroes of the faith, we look at the Book of Hebrews as a presentation of our family history to the persecuted church. The letter to the Hebrews normalizes hardship as it relates to following Jesus but is also a template for encouragement. In our goal of becoming more like Christ, we have inspiration and encouragement in the cloud of witnesses around us, including the Heroes of the past but also our community in the Vineyard building and between the Sundays.

To travel far on our journey, we have to travel light. In the process of sanctification, the Holy Spirit uses our relationship with God, knowledge of Scripture, and awareness of a healthy community to shed the weight of sin. This is how we can endure through mastery and step into the next stage of participating in God's story.

We continue our exploration of stories of faith as participation in the story of the Kingdom. Looking back at history, we know Jesus fulfilled the hope of the Old Testament. But the heroes highlighted in Hebrews 11 hadn't seen Jesus yet. For example, Elijah shows us the faith that comes when we let the story be about God instead of about ourselves. Elijah tried to give up when he thought he was disqualified, but God instead chose to relaunch him on mission. The promise of salvation says more about God than it says about us. How will you be a part of God's story?

When danger and trial present themselves in our lives, where do we turn? Our Hebrews 11 heroes this week, Daniel and the trio of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, are great examples of keeping our eyes fixed on God. As they each faced certain death, their faith was proven in their unwavering choice to proclaim the hope they had found in God. Faith that withstands this kind of pressure is built over time, in relationship with God that is proven good over and over again. How might God be drawing you closer and deepening your faith today?