Highrock Church

The prayer for forgiveness serves as the dramatic climax to the Lord's prayer. We are to pray for forgiveness, as we might expect, but then we are to pray for something unexpected... and dangerous. We are to pray that God would forgive us "as we have forgiven" others. What is Jesus saying? Does God's grace have a limit? Looking for a previous devo? Want to share one with a friend? Start here: http...

By teaching us to pray for our "daily bread", Jesus was actually inviting us into something much deeper than just food. Once again, prayer is more a relationship than a ritual. "Daily bread" is a day-by-day relationship with the God who delights in us and eagerly desires for us to draw closer. Looking for a previous devo? Want to share one with a friend? Start here: https://www.highrock.org/daily-...

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them to pray for God's kingdom to come. In other words, Jesus taught us to bring our own priorities into alignment with heaven's. In essence, we are to pray for God's will rather than our own. How well do our prayers reflect a desire for God's will to be done? How different might our lives be if we were to truly put God first? Looking for a previo...

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he started by making it clear that prayer is not about a ritual, but a relationship. He highlighted many of the ritualistic ways to pray that we should avoid. Instead, we should begin with the relationship of being children of a loving, heavenly parent, "Our Father". Looking for a previous devo? Want to share one with a friend? Start here: https://www.highr...

In this holiday replay from March 12, 2025; Martha, Mary, and Lazarus host a dinner to honor Jesus and to express their love and gratitude. Mary's gratitude is almost embarrassing -- she pours a fortune in perfume over Jesus' feet and mops it up with her hair! Judas questions her extravagance but his practicality is actually a cover for his own selfishness. How do we show our gratitude to God? How...

You can be gifted, passionate, and still running on empty. Many of us are doing good things for God while quietly running out of fuel. What if prayer isn’t another task to master - but the simple, daily way to be refilled with the love and power we’ve been missing? · · 👉🏻 Check out other Highrock sermons: https://tinyurl.com/3rdw4x8n 👉🏻 Check out Highrock's 15-min daily devotionals: https://ti...

Every Sabbath points us forward to something greater — the eternal rest we will experience with God. One day, all striving will cease. There will be no more stress, no more toil, no more brokenness. The Sabbath is a weekly rehearsal for heaven! Looking for a previous devo? Want to share one with a friend? Start here: https://www.highrock.org/daily-devotionals/ For Reflection: Sabbath looks back to...

At the end of a word about true and false worship, God speaks through Isaiah about sabbath. In essence, Sabbath is like a final word on true worship. True worship leads to justice, and sabbath leads to true worship because we make room in our lives to truly invite God in to renew and recalibrate us. Looking for a previous devo? Want to share one with a friend? Start here: https://www.highrock.org/...

We have already seen that sabbath is founded upon the very rhythm of God in Creation -- that God worked for six days and rested on the seventh. The ten commandments in Deuteronomy brings up another reason for sabbath, that is it given for our freedom. Sabbath was their protection against becoming slaves once again. Sabbath can be our protection as well, reminding us that there are more important t...

Sabbath is the fourth commandment but long before it was commanded, it was modeled. The God who needs no rest stopped and rested, and delighted in all that had been made. God's rhythm of work and rest was then made into a rhythm for us to follow. All the other cycles on a calendar -- a day, a month, a year -- are written into the stars, but the weekly rhythm is written into us. Sabbath is an invit...

It's easy to misunderstand sabbath by rigid rule-keeping on the one hand or disregarding it entirely on the other. When the Pharisees challenged Jesus about the disciples gathering grains to eat on the Sabbath, Jesus reframed the discussion, pointing out that sabbath was meant to be a gift, not a prison. Looking at sabbath as a gift is a fitting place to begin! Looking for a previous devo? Want to...

What if the life you’re building by working harder is quietly breaking the soul you’re meant to protect? In a world that prizes hustle and productivity, Jesus invites us into a different rhythm—one that redefines success through rest, delight, and trust. · · 👉🏻 Check out other Highrock sermons: https://tinyurl.com/3rdw4x8n 👉🏻 Check out Highrock's 15-min daily devotionals: https://tinyurl.com/3...

No one looks to political powers like Assyria these days, but we certainly look to political power in other forms. God invites Israel to no longer trust in these institutions and implements of political and military power and instead look to the Lord. They are invited to finally return home and to trust in the Lord. And what is the price of return? Nothing but the confession and gratitude that wil...

This section of Hosea begins with an image of God as a loving parent and Israel as a child who chooses to run away. Like a heartbroken parent, God continues to call out but each effort only pushes Israel further away. One day, God will roar like a lion, not out of anger, but in a call for God's children to finally return home once again.. Looking for a previous devo? Want to share one with a frien...

What is planted in the ground seems so small and inconsequential, but the harvest it yields can be tremendous. Extending this metaphor even further, God says that those who sow the wind (and what could be more insubstantial than the wind?) will reap the whirlwind (a tornado of destruction). What seeds do we sow today? Are we sowing seeds that will lead to destruction, or seeds that may lead to the...

Contrary to the popular saying, what you do not know can hurt you. In this case, the people did not know God. More than just a lack of head-knowledge, God accuses the people of having no real relationship with God. Knowledge about God can be a great start to real relationship, but it is a terrible substitute for real relationship. For all our knowledge about God, do we truly know God? And if we do...

Daily Devo | Does God Even Like Me? (Prophet & Loss, Hosea 2:17-23) Many believers are rightly convinced that God loves them, while at the same time wondering if God actually likes them. Perhaps God's love is merely a duty and an obligation? After all, God knows exactly who we are when no one else is looking. The beginning of Hosea's ministry shows clearly that God knows exactly who the people...

Sometimes hope feels like a cruel joke - distant promises when you’re drowning in present pain. But Hosea dares to suggest that God’s love can cure even our chronic unfaithfulness and teach us a new, better way to live. · · 👉🏻 Check out other Highrock sermons: https://tinyurl.com/3rdw4x8n 👉🏻 Check out Highrock's 15-min daily devotionals: https://tinyurl.com/38d4aryd

After all the warnings and bad news, Amos lands on a vision of what could be, and because of God's faithfulness, what will be. His message envisions a day of transformed government, renewed creation, and restored relationship with God. It was important then that the people did not lose hope in what God could and would do. It is just as important that we do not lose hope today! Looking for a previo...

God shares with Amos a vision for how God will judge Israel for her sins, but Amos twice asks God to relent, and God listens to Amos' request. Amos appears to change God's mind! This amazing moment actually is part of a long tradition of faithful people who appear to change God's mind -- Abraham, Moses, and even Jesus' mother Mary. What is happening? Do these people change God's mind? Is God train...

God warns the people not to go to Bethel, or to Gilgal or Beersheba! Why not? Those places had been key places in their spiritual history, places where their heroes had personal encounters with the living God. They had been key places but in Amos' time, they had been corrupted into places of idolatry. When corruption is that deep and widespread, it can be tempting to just retreat into silence, but...

Most of what we have been hearing from the prophets has been directed toward Israel, the people of God. Here in the opening of Amos, we see that God also has much to say to the other nations as well. We see an overflowing of violence and sin, along with incredible patience from God, a patience that was about to give way to justice. Looking for a previous devo? Want to share one with a friend? Star...

Surely it would take a special kind of arrogance to presume to speak for God, but Amos does not presume to speak for God. Instead, Amos, a poor shepherd and fig farmer, faithfully says "yes" when God chooses to speak through him - despite his lack of any special religious training. Jesus likewise chose and commissioned his followers to speak for him, bringing his grace and truth to the entire worl...

We love the idea of justice - until it interrupts our comfort or costs us something. But what if God isn’t impressed by our worship songs at all unless our lives also flow with justice? Amos’ fiery words push us to face the disconnect we’d rather ignore. · · 👉🏻 Check out other Highrock sermons: https://tinyurl.com/3rdw4x8n 👉🏻 Check out Highrock's 15-min daily devotionals: https://tinyurl.com/3...

Has it ever seemed like God did not, would not, or could not fulfill a promise to you? In such times, it can be vital to remember how God has faithfully kept even "impossible" promises in the past. In today's passage, God repeats an ancient promise that seemed beyond imagining for those in captivity. That promise would one day be fulfilled, not only to them, but to all of us in Jesus! Looking for...