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Happy Wednesday Vineyard Fam!

As we have followed the way of Jesus, we’ve watched Him patiently form His disciples, before and after His resurrection. He points to identity before activity. He meets fear with peace, He meets doubt with presence, He restores failure with love, and He reshapes confusion with clarity.

Little by little, He is teaching His followers to stop building their lives around their own small stories and begin living inside the larger story of the Kingdom of God. That shift is the work of sanctification as we learn to surrender our will to the will of our Father.

Because most of us naturally live from a very small center, we interpret life through our circumstances, our disappointments, our expectations, our fears, and our desired outcomes. That doesn’t make us bad people, it makes us human.

But over time, those things can quietly become the lens through which we see everything else, including God Himself. That’s part of what Jesus has been undoing in His disciples, and honestly, it’s part of what He is undoing in us.

Last Sunday, we talked about how easy it is to keep trying to fit Jesus into our version of the story. The disciples did it too. Even after the resurrection, they were still asking, “Are you restoring the kingdom now?” They still imagined a certain kind of outcome, a certain kind of resolution that fit their own desires for their world.

Jesus gently redirected them… not by dismissing their questions, but by drawing them into something larger than themselves. That movement of redirection continues this week as we approach the ascension.

The ascension is not Jesus stepping away from the world; it is Jesus taking His place as King over it. That took me this week to Philippians 2. Paul writes: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…”

Then he describes Jesus not grasping for status or clinging to power, but emptying Himself, humbling Himself, surrendering Himself fully to the Father. It is through that surrender, not around it, that Jesus is exalted and revealed as Lord.

That’s important, because it shows us something about the shape of the Christian life. Formation into the likeness of Jesus is not about becoming more impressive, more successful, or more in control. It isn’t about having desirable outcomes or an easier walk through life.

It is about learning to trust enough to surrender. Learning to loosen our grip on our version of the story. Learning to stop organizing our lives around ourselves. This is not easy work, especially when life feels uncertain, different, or unresolved.

I think this is where the church becomes so important—not as a weekly add-on to support our lives, but as a community where we are continually re-centered around Jesus together. A people learning, slowly and imperfectly, to take on the mind of Christ.

That means seasons where things feel different are not necessarily interruptions to formation. Sometimes they are the very place formation deepens. As we move toward the ascension and Pentecost, I want to encourage us not to drift backward into smaller stories centered on comfort or familiarity.

Instead, let’s lean further into what Jesus is forming among us. Let’s stay engaged. Let’s stay present. Let’s stay open. Let’s stay churchy. Jesus is reigning, and He is still shaping a people to live under His leadership together!

See you on Sunday!

Adam Greenwell
Lead Pastor
Vineyard Church
www.billingsvineyard.org