The Heights Baptist Church

Do you know what topic God talks about more than speaking, loving, and forgiving? As a matter of fact, it is the topic He talks about more than heaven? Money! 16 of Jesus' 38 parables deal with money and possessions. While there are some 500 verses on prayer and 500 on faith, there are 2350 verses in the Bible on money and possessions!

I don't see anywhere in the Bible the idea that we were created just to survive, to get by from day to day. We were created to be like Him. God is not just getting by. He moves and lives with meaning and purpose. We were created to be like that.

It has been a wonderful journey for us as a church this past month to go through this experiment of Living Like We Were Dying. I am hearing some great stories of what God has been doing in your lives. Many are working at not just marking time, but really seeking to live life for what matters most. It has been a good lesson for me at realizing how much I don't live with the end in mind.

As we dig into this issue of forgiveness, I want to establish the baseline of God's expectation. As Christ followers, we are given a high standard when it comes to relationships. Romans 12:18 says, "If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone." Live in peace with EVERYONE. There isn't much wiggle room in that phrase. There is no disclaimer, no exception clause, no loophole.

The Bible teaches you can't have an authentic encounter with the gospel of Jesus without a detonation of love taking place. That's the NORMAL Christian life. It is abnormal, it is dysfunctional, and it is a sign of heart disease to not be loving. You see, when you taste God"s grace, when you see darkness of your own soul and you realize that God loves you, forgives you, and wants a rich relationsh...

Today we want to speak sweeter, and remember why: you are going to die and stand before God. Life is quick. You have a set number of days and then your life is over. You have seven less days to say the right words, seven less days to correct the wrong ones. Your words matter to God.

I want us to think about it for a moment, right now. Imagine you have died, and you are standing before the Lord. What would you like that to be like? Here is your challenge: live with the end in mind. Live in a way that brings the end you want.

No real surprise here, we have been thinking about Christmas. I challenged all us with the thought at the beginning of this series that while familiarity is warm and comfortable, we should not let our familiarity with this story, this time of year, cause us to disengage our mind and our heart. Any real surprise on the songs we sung this morning? Of course not, and you would be disappointed if we d...

It is funny how our little traditions and ways of doing things are like the law. Our traditions are what we have to do or it is just not Christmas. Well, on that note we asked last week, what does God want us to think about when we think about Christmas. We looked at Mary first and saw that the Lord wants us to think long on Jesus, to significantly ponder Him. We think on Him until we know how to...

I wonder though if there are things that should come to our mind when we think about Christmas, that God wants to come into our mind. Well, you know I think there are and I guess there are a number of ways we could look at what God wants us to think about when we think about Christmas. I thought for this Christmas season we might look into the minds of the original cast. What were they thinking th...

I have a bit of a peculiar introduction to a Thanksgiving sermon. I am using a passage that has probably never been used in conjunction with Thanksgiving, but it is the one God directed me to use, so here we go. I want to tell you a story about a tree. Actually it is not my story. It is God's. Listen to this story about a great tree. I am reading from Ezekiel 31. Our tree here was awesome. It had...

I have good news for you today. Jesus has a valuable identity for you. It is an identity that gives you worth now and in eternity. It gives you worth before men, and God. It is an identity you can live out whether you are 13 or 83; whether you are strong or sick; rich or poor. This identity is effective whether you are single, married, widowed or divorced. It works when you have the best job in th...

We have been studying the Gospel of John since April, and we come today to our conclusion. If John and the Holy Spirit have been successful you are now firmly entrenched in the faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The result of that faith is that you have life and life eternal. That is why John wrote this Gospel, that you might believe and have this life.

I cannot imagine who would want to be President of the United States in 2009. Whoever wins has some very difficult days ahead of them, in which the potential to have to make choices in which they will get beat up are pretty high. There are so many big issues to get right and no one ever gets them all right. A President always deals with a lot of very important issues, but it seems like right now t...

That was a pretty popular commercial back in the 80s and that line, "Where"s the beef?" became a cliche for where is the real thing, where is what we are really looking for. I think it was so popular one, because it is funny, but also because it hit a nerve. We live in a culture that dresses things up with glitz and glamour, but not a lot of substance. We got a lot in the window, but the stock roo...

We live in uncertain times. The way is not clear, and it has gotten so complex I am not sure anyone knows anymore which direction to go or whose fault it is or who has an answer. Throughout history each generation has its moments: different challenges, fears, or failures. Each generation probably tends to see their challenges as the greatest, as the most defining challenges ever. Our generation is...

We spend the better part of our life trying to get it. It would be nice if there was one clear "it", that we could set our sights on and pursue until we get it, but there are lots of things out there trying to convince you that they are it, and they're not. That is a lot of what this movie, City Slickers, is about, finding that one thing that makes life worth it, that one thing life is all about....

In September of 2003, Colonial Heights Baptist purchased 38 acres. You should have a good feel for where that is. In January of 2004 we elected as a church to move to this location. In April of 2004 we put together a 20-member project team that would guide our church family through the process of selling the old building, erecting a new one and moving. To prepare us, I took the Project Team on a v...

I don't know that I can say definitively what is the most well-known passage of Scripture among believers or even unbelievers, but if I was guessing I think it would be Psalm 23. [Read] This great Psalm tells me there is a God. He is not an impersonal force, or a far off deity who may or may not care about me; but rather this Psalm introduces me to a very personal God, He is "my Shepherd," and He...

It is fun to be on a team, even better, a winning team. Follow the merchandise sales of the Super Bowl Champs, National Champs, World Series, NBA Finals; and you see those sales shoot through the roof. We like to identify ourselves with the winning team. Now, the die hard fan is the one who wears those colors even when the team loses and loses and loses. Looking around here today it is clear we ha...

Darkness almost universally is related to bad: from monsters under the bed, nightmares and stubbed toes; to confusion, lack of knowing, inability to see and understand; to evil. Even when we find comfort in darkness it can actually be for bad reasons. We might like the dark because it gives us a place to go and hide where we don't have to deal with ourselves and the world; or we go to the darkness...

What is bread? It is life. It's sustenance, nourishment, energy, fullness. It keeps us going. So we live for it. And whatever we live for ultimately defines our life. It determines how we treat people, our priorities, our attitude. It becomes our life. And are you ready for this: most people eat the wrong bread. Of course, it is not hard to eat the wrong bread because every piece of bread on this...

What about God? What about when He doesn't show up? Talk about counting on someone . . . talk about being let down. And now what? I was supposed to count on Him, and He didn't show up. Things didn't work out. Where was He? What was He doing? Does He care? Maybe He can't do anything. For many of us these questions have rolled through our head. We are looking today at maybe the most powerful of Jesu...

We see miracles throughout the Bible, but giving sight to the blind is actually kind of rare. There is no such miracle in the Old Testament, and no one other than Jesus is attributed with giving sight to the blind in the New Testament. But giving sight to the blind is the miracle Jesus does the most. Including this one, there are 8 references to the blind being given sight in the Gospels. In the O...

Last week we studied John 6:1-15, the fourth sign where Jesus fed the 5000. Today we want to study the fifth of seven signs that we are looking at in the Gospel of John. To see the impact of this sign you have to understand what is going on around it. It takes place on a boat. When the disciples all get in the boat Jesus is a celebrity. Look at 6:14-15. When they get off the boat His popularity is...