Vineyard Church | Weekly Update February 19th, 2025

My Grandfather had a red Ford pickup truck, an amazing machine that would always light me up with excitement when I saw it coming down the road. Smelling like the stale smoke he hid from me until he was able to quit cigarettes (cold turkey on his own by the way), I remember riding in that vehicle, especially in the summertime, and feeling like all was right in the world. When he traded it in for a blue Ford Bronco, a real one, not the fancy hippie ones we see running red lights today, I found that the feeling came from more than just the machine…

Both of those trucks had a radio, one with a dial and that orange stick that gave you an idea of the neighborhood of frequencies you were in. While I am sure it was capable of picking up more stations, it was always tuned to 850 KOA out of Denver, and a few times a day during the break of the news shows, a familiar voice would could on, reporting on a person or event. This voice would finish the report with some interesting background or little-known facts, and then, say “And now you know… the REST of the story!”

The rest of the story was the theme of a sermon series we did a few summers back, but the theme comes to mind from time to time when there are more angles to a story than we have time for on a Sunday. This past Sunday, in Luke chapter 8, we saw Jesus set free a man possessed by the enemy of God.

There are so many important points to draw from this encounter, but also one that happens at the end of the passage and then fades into history. Check this out:
37 And all the people in the region of the Gerasenes begged Jesus to go away and leave them alone, for a great wave of fear swept over them. So Jesus returned to the boat and left, crossing back to the other side of the lake. 38 The man who had been freed from the demons begged to go with him. But Jesus sent him home, saying, 39 “No, go back to your family, and tell them everything God has done for you.” So, he went all through the town proclaiming the great things Jesus had done for him. Luke 8:37-39 NLT

The rest of the story gives us an opportunity to begin moving the rudder of our series slightly as we move towards the application of everything we have talked about this winter. I am confident that Luke 19:10 will be a well-known verse at the Vineyard by the time spring comes to rescue us from this desolate, snowy prison. We will all know well that the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost, but we will also begin to see that the lost-now-found have an interesting response to this experience that testifies to God’s plan for reconciliation with His creation.

This man who was possessed by the enemy, and dehumanized by his friends, family, and community, was rescued by Jesus. In fact, we discussed on Sunday how this might be the entire reason that Jesus got in the boat and traveled to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, to seek and save this ONE man. The rest of the story shows that even though it was about this one man, it was about so much more… He went back through the town proclaiming the great things that Jesus had done for him.

This is similar to the rest of the story from John 4, the story we might know as the woman at the well. After Jesus sought and saved her, scripture tells us that many people believed in Jesus because of the testimony of the woman saved at the well.

Both this man from the region of the Gerasenes and the woman at the well became evangelists simply because they told people their stories. The reality that they were sought and saved motivated them to tell others, to share with others, and to become seekers for the Savior.

A recent study done on the culture of the current American Church shows that only 3% of congregations in the U.S. are growing due to evangelism, and 43% of churches reported no converts or baptisms in more than a calendar year. Stories are not being told.

With this in mind, the rudder of our series is moving a few degrees. We see that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save… We have the benefit of this seeking and know what it is to be saved. Now, in the example we have from scripture, we can reignite the fire of our own story and tell others how Jesus calmed the storm and gave us rescue!

Adam Greenwell
Pastor
Billings Vineyard Chruch www.billingsvineyard.org