The Heights Baptist Church

While our vision is to be a church our community can’t imagine being without, our mission is: Building relationships that connect all people to God-sized life and love. Last week I said for us to become that church the community can’t imagine being without it is going to be as important as ever before that we be connected.

We must build relationships that connect all people to God-sized life and love. God has given us great love to experience and a great life to live here at The Heights and we want to share it with all who would hear and receive. We want to be the best, most visible force for good in the 804. We are going to take time this fall in the sermon series and life group to see what that means to us as indi...

Can we even imagine not being afraid of what will be on the news tonight? Not afraid of all the rumors about the shut down? Not afraid of the call from the doctor’s office? A life not afraid . . . is that real?

Churches have reputations, good or bad, they all do. Some have reputations that cross the country. Most churches reputation is held to a community. Good or bad they are known for a pastor, a style of worship, a work they do, the way they treat visitors, maybe some event in their past. Sometimes it is what the church wanted the community to know them as, and sometimes not.

We can have the best intentions in rising children with a strong faith but if you don’t have a plan in place other than taking them to church, my experience tells me at best parents will only pass on a moderate to faith at best or children with no faith at all.

Are we a people living life on purpose, on mission? Are we on the mission Jesus, our King, sent us on? America needs us to be on the mission of our King more than ever before. They don’t know that, and wouldn’t ask. But it is the only chance they, the country we love, has.

What do we want out of life? A sense of satisfaction, fulfillment, purpose? Where do we go looking for it? Only in Christ, can you see the full truth about God and about yourself, and that's what you've been searching for all your life.

When there's fulfillment, when there's beauty, when we see God as He truly is - an endless reservoir of fascination - boredom becomes impossible. In heaven we'll be filled with joy and eternal pleasures.

Where is the best place you have ever gone? What is that bucket list destination that you have dreamed about? For the next couple of weeks, I want us to think about a destination. It is not the beach, the mountains, or the lake. It is not a bucket list destination, but it is an ultimate one. It is talked about in the book of Hebrews.

Rev. Ronnie West as he talks about Celebrate Recovery, and how we should not let fear immobilize us, but we should move forward doing what God wants us to do.

I think as I have gone through this series the thing that has struck me is that I do not think enough on the promises of God, step out in faith enough on the promises of God. I am guessing the same is true for most of us. Why is that? Do we just not believe in promises anymore? These promises hold everything we need for whatever we faced last week, or will deal with in the coming week. They have e...

My guess is every one of us here has known the anxiety, the fear of being left, and not only left, but maybe left for good, because that is how you think when you are four. Don’t we all stand on the sidewalk at some point between the age of maybe 4-8 and wonder if our parents remembered they were to pick us up. Getting left is awful. We should be able to imagine how the disciples felt when Jesus s...

We have all been wronged and treated unfairly. I think there are injustices we end up laughing at, move on from, and really, just forget about all together. But some aren’t that easy. There are injustices that change the course of life. Injustices that left us alone, left us with pain, left us without the ability to trust anyone. God cares about what has happened to us, and He has a way through it...

Rev. Ronnie West shares about freedom, not just the freedom we have gained in this country from the sacrifices of men and women, but ultimately about the freedom we have in Jesus Christ from the bondage of sin.

Just think, because He never leaves, He is already there when we call out to Him in prayer. He already knows what is going on, knows what led you to pray and knows perfectly how to help. He is there in love, devotion and commitment to you. He is there to help you. He promises.

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. – Philippians 4:13 We have kind of made this verse the spiritual mantra, the pump me up before the big game, the big meeting, the big opportunity. It is a promise that seems to imply God wants me to be a winner. God wants me to be the man. Is this verse just for whatever I want to apply it to and my success? Let’s read the whole context. Philippi...

God calls us not to worry, but to trust, with a promise that He will make straight our path through this challenge, this problem, this decision. We have four verbs in our passage: trust, lean, acknowledge and make straight. Three are imperatives or commands for us to do and one is a promise for us to claim. The main idea is simply: trust the Lord, with the next two verbs amplifying what is involve...

Does God hear my prayers? There is so much in that question, much more than just “Do prayers get beyond the ceiling, does God hear my voice?” Bigger questions inside of does God hear. Aren’t we really asking, “Does God care?” “Am I important to God?” “Is what is important to me important to Him?” Being heard is big.

Sunday, May 28, 2017 was Youth Sunday at The Heights. One of our students, Brad Atkinson, shared about why we as Christians serve.

I don’t know what your experience has been with promises, but I sure pray as we go through this series that your heart is open to the most incredible Promise-Maker, Promise-Keeper God is. He fulfills every promise, never disappoints, never comes up short. And we need those promises. His promises are not luxuries to make life more comfortable, but necessities to make life work.

We are starting today a lengthy series today that will carry us to the end of July on the Promises of God. There will be 9 messages and that won’t even come close to exploring all the different promises God makes to us, who the Promise Maker is, what all they can mean in our lives; but hopefully it is enough to strengthen and encourage our walk with the Lord and get us on our own to exploring more...

What is it going to mean for us to be a Christ-follower in America? Our fears and challenges, while new to us, are not new. Jesus told us we will be hated, even killed for loving Him. There is significant New Testament instruction on living in a broken world against you. One passage, 1 Peter 4:12-19, speaks directly to how we live in a world of suffering, decay and decline that also hates us. It i...

We are looking today at how the power of the resurrection will help us navigate politics. I wondered if when I announced that on Easter if it would sound odd to link the resurrection with politics. Those are such different things, different worlds. But I believe, like many of you, that God’s word gives instruction and guidance on every area of life; and that would have to include politics because...

Would you like to know what the resurrection has for your relationships? Well, the rest of the world also wants to know what believing in Jesus does for your relationships. So since they are watching and wanting to see, for that here is our operating principle for all relationships, from good to bad, intimate to stranger, for those of us who hope in Christ: As Christ did for me.

Hope, the confident expectation it can get better, it can still happen; and that belief is powerful. It gives energy to our body and soul. It can bring a smile in the most difficult situations and be what gets us up to try one more time. Almost anything can happen when we have hope and there is maybe nothing worse than losing it.