Helotes Hills United Methodist Church

This week, Pastor Will reflects on the parable of the ten bridesmaids in Matthew 25. All ten showed up with lamps, and the only difference was a little flask of oil. That’s the kind you can’t borrow at midnight; it has to be gathered a little at a time on ordinary days. We live between the already and the not yet, so what would it mean to keep our lamps lit and to mean it when we pray “Thy kingdom...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Matthew 23, where Jesus warns against those who claim the best seats and tie heavy burdens on others. On All Saints Sunday, he names the quieter problem most of us carry: not that we think we matter too much, but that we’re sure we don’t matter enough. There is one Teacher, and everyone else is a student with a desk in the room. Maybe the saints we remember were...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Matthew 22:15–22, where a trap about taxes becomes a question about images. The coin bears the emperor’s face, but we bear God’s — and in a season loud with voices telling us whom to fear, blame, and trust, that changes what we owe and to whom. An invitation to let faith shape our politics, and never the other way around. Scripture references: Exodus33:12–23, Psa...

Sunday was Pastor Appreciation Sunday! We are blessed that Pastor Will was assigned to our church. He is revitalizing our church, teaching from the bible, and loving us all. Thank you Pastor Will. Our words cannot say enough! This week, Pastor Will reflects on the parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew 22, where the invited guests are too busy to come and the hall fills instead with strangers g...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Jesus’ parable of the tenants in Matthew 21. The tenants never forgot whose vineyard it was; they just wanted it for themselves. On World Communion Sunday, he invites us to loosen our grip on what was never ours and come to the Table as Christ's guests. Scripture references: Exodus 20:1–4, 7–9, 12–20; Psalm 19; and Matthew 21:33–46 “HERE I AM TO WORSHIP” -- C...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Matthew 21:23–32, where the people who had arrived can't give Jesus a straight answer, and a son who said no changes his mind and goes. Saying yes to God comes easily. The harder thing is letting what God is doing in unexpected people come to matter to us, enough that we're willing to be changed by them. For a church tempted to think it's almost there...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on the vineyard workers of Matthew 20, where the offense was never too little pay — it was watching someone else be made equal. What if the whole day was grace, and we've been too busy doing math to notice our hand is already full? Scripture References: Exodus 16:2-15, Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45, and Matthew 20:1-16 “THIS IS AMAZING GRACE” -- CCLI Song # 6333821 |  Je...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Jesus' parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18. When Peter asks how many times he has to forgive, Jesus answers with a number too big to keep on a ledger — and tells a story about a debt too large to ever repay. What if forgiveness was never a limit to reach or a receipt to file away, but a mercy still being poured out on us, slowly remaking us into...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Matthew 18:15–20 — a passage that reads like a rulebook for handling difficult people, until one word, brother , changes everything. When someone drifts, the circle doesn't close; it widens. What might it mean to hold the keys we've been handed not to lock anyone out, but to bring somebody home? Scripture references: Exodus 12:1–14; Psalm 149; and Matthew...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Matthew 16, where Peter — who just got it right — hears Jesus name the cross ahead and answers with the hardest word the language has: never . But Peter's "never" isn't rebellion; it's a theology, a picture of God he loves too much to let change. What might it look like to bring your own never with you, and still fall in behind the One who g...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Matthew 16, where Jesus asks the disciples the one question no one can answer secondhand: "Who do you say that I am?" Peter answers — and Jesus builds his church not on Peter's strength, but on the true thing Peter said. The mercy is that you don't have to be solid to say it. Scripture References: Exodus 1:8-2:10; Psalm 124; and Matthew 16:13-20...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Matthew 15 and the Canaanite woman who won't be sent away. Jesus draws a hard line — only the children's bread — and she answers that even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the table, showing a faith he calls "great." The people we're quickest to turn away are often the ones God uses to teach us who he is. Scripture references: Genesis...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Matthew 14 — the story we've been reading backwards. We make it about Peter's nerve, the brave step out of the boat, but the one who climbs out is the one who sinks, and all his courage gives him is three words: "Lord, save me." A word for the storms that don't wait for a good day, and the name that comes walking across the water anyway. Scr...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on the feeding of the five thousand in Matthew 14. When the disciples count only five loaves and two fish, they call it nothing — but Jesus offers a third way between leaving it all to God and carrying it alone: bring the little you have and put it in God's hands. What might Christ do with the gifts we're tempted to call "not enough"? Scripture ref...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Jesus' five parables of the kingdom in Matthew 13 — a mustard seed, a bit of yeast, a hidden treasure. The kingdom of God doesn't arrive as spectacle; it rises quietly in the ordinary and the overlooked. Where might you catch sight of it this week? SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Genesis 29:15–28, Psalm 105:1–11, 45b, and Matthew 13:31–33, 44–52 “FAITH” --  CCLI So...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on the parable of the wheat and the weeds in Matthew 13, and the instinct we all have to sort people into piles. But the roots grow tangled, and the sorting was never ours to do. What if we set the shears down? SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Genesis 28:10–19a, Psalm 139:1–12, 23–24, and Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43 “ ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR” -- Words and music by Chuck Barb...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on the parable of the sower and the anxious question of "enough" — how scarcity thinking can disguise itself as wisdom. The invitation: to trust the sower hasn't stopped throwing, and to live like people who believe there's always more seed. Scripture reference: Matthew 13:1–9, 18–23 "GO NOW IN PEACE" –  Words by Nancy Price and Don Besig...

Pastor Will is on vacation this week and we welcome Rev. Charles Anderson to deliver our sermon! Scripture references: Genesis 24:34–38, 42–49, 58–67; Psalm 45:10–17; and Ezekiel 37:1-14 “AMERICA, THE BEAUTIFUL” -- CCLI Song # 33368  |  Katharine Lee Bates | Samuel Augustus Ward  |  © Words: Public Domain  |  Music: Public Domain  |  For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights res...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Matthew 10:24–39 and Jesus' unflinching word to those he sends: it will cost you something, and do not be afraid. Not because the cost isn't real — but because the God who counts the sparrows has counted you. “HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD” -- CCLI Song # 4348399  |  Chris Tomlin | Ed Cash | Jesse Reeves  |  © 2004 sixsteps Music (Admin.by Capitol CMG Publishing) ...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Matthew 9:35–10:8, where Jesus hands his own gut-level compassion to ordinary followers and turns them into sent ones. The grace is that the work begins before we ever know to call it ministry — something has been moving toward us the whole time. Scripture references: Genesis 18:1–15 (21:1–7); Psalm 116:1–2, 12–19; and Matthew 9:35–10:8 (9–23) “IT REALLY IS AMAZI...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Matthew 9, where Jesus stops for a tax collector, a bleeding woman, and a grieving father — three people with nothing left b…This week, Pastor Will reflects on Matthew 9, where Jesus stops for a tax collector, a bleeding woman, and a grieving father — three people with nothing left but their need. The sermon asks what it costs us to say the words I'm in troub...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Trinity Sunday and the Great Commission in Matthew 28, where Jesus delivers world-changing instructions to eleven grieving, doubting people on an unnamed mountain.  Scripture references: Genesis 1:1 - 2:4a, Psalm 8, Genesis 1:1-2:4a, Psalm 8 “IF WE ARE THE BODY” -- CCLI Song # 4196589  |  MarkHall  |  © 2003 My Refuge Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)  | ...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Acts 2 and the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost — not a blank Tuesday, but an ancient harvest festival already set aside for firstfruits. On Confirmation Sunday, the sermon asks what it means when the Spirit falls on all flesh, young and old alike, and whether we are ready to receive what God is bringing forth. Scripture references: Numbers 11:24-30; Psalm...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on Ascension Sunday and the question the angels ask the disciples standing slack-jawed on a hillside: Why do you stand looking up toward heaven? It's a question that still finds us — waiting for Jesus to come back and finish what he started, when the commission has already been handed to us. Scripture references: Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47; and Luke 24:44-53 “LORD I...

This week, Pastor Will reflects on John 14:15–21 and what it means to live out Jesus’ command to love. In this Easter season sermon, we explore how love is not something we earn, but something we live from—and how the Spirit abides not just within us, but among us. It’s an invitation to see how Christ’s promise is being kept through the life we share together. Scripture references: Acts 17:22-31;...