The Heights Baptist Church

We have been looking at the life of Paul and how God makes changes in our life or helps us make the changes we want. So far we have talked about life in Christ as the first step to change, then the confidence we have in change, the purpose we have in change; and today I want to talk about God’s purpose for us in change. What is God doing when we are trying to lose weight, read our Bible more, lear...

Today we conclude our 21 days of fasting and prayer. Of course, we never actually conclude fasting and prayer. It is an ongoing opportunity, responsibility, privilege to have access to God. We have access to the living God, the One with all knowledge and power, the Sovereign over space and time. Who am I? Who are you, to have an audience with God? And not just once, and not just on certain things;...

Very few seem to feel they know or have a purpose to life. That is tragic. Purpose provides meaning, strength, endurance, direction. Purpose touches who we are and why. Purpose tells us why hard things are worth it. As a follower of Christ, we don’t have to go on a long philosophical journey looking for purpose. We look to Jesus. Jesus says the purpose of life is to know God and His Son.

This morning I want to look at where does this confidence come from that Paul has that he goes on and he turns the world upside down for the gospel, planting churches all over the known region. Where does that confidence come from for him?

It seems that often the gospel is explained as if it is only for the broken, miserable, desperately needy. Paul was none of this. He had money, position, purpose. He was zealous, loved what he did. He was accomplished in every way important to him. He wasn’t needy. He wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t given to stories of a Messiah, as is evidenced by his desire to kill those who were. But He needed Jesus, r...

There is something about this time of year that has many of us evaluating, and some of us will really like where we are and what is happening. Others have some things they really want to be better, want to see changed, and it is wearing them out. Maybe there is even frustration with God. We’ve prayed, gone to church, read our Bible. We’re doing what we know to do, and it is not paying off. We need...

Merry Christmas, Everyone! What a blessing to be celebrating altogether our God and Savior coming into our lives so we could know Him personally. Here in America, we spend two months building up to this night. Here at The Heights, we’ve spent a month building up to after Christmas. Matthew 1-2, Luke 1-2 give us the Christmas story, and in that is a good bit after Christmas, after the birth of Chri...

Merry Christmas everyone! Christmas Day is upon us, and if you have been at The Heights the last couple of weeks you have been looking beyond Christmas Day with me. Each Sunday we have been in those traditional Christmas passages of Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2, but we have been looking at the stories God has given us after Christmas, stories that too often we are quick to move beyond: the flight to E...

Ten days till Christmas. This is when we crank it up – the stress, the travel, the cooking, the shopping. It’s go time. But here at The Heights we’re already thinking after Christmas. There are wonderful, important, passages included in the Christmas passages, Matthew 1-2, Luke 1-2 that are after Christmas, and too often put away in the attic without much attention. So we are looking after Christm...

There is an after Christmas story, stories we tend to box up and put in the attic too quick. That after Christmas in the Bible has much for our after Christmas. After Christmas is a hard time. Bills. Taking decorations down. The emotional letdown of 2 months of emotional build up. Family, friends moving on. We may have used the two months of buildup to escape life. One day later, life is back in o...

I can’t think of a better Sunday to celebrate the Lord’s Supper than a Sunday of Thanksgiving. In all circumstances give thanks. I would guess in this room, watching online, we cover a lot of circumstances from things we are very grateful for to things we are not at all grateful for. But we learned that God is not calling us to be thankful for those circumstances, but in them. That is a big differ...

Our theme in Thessalonians is stay the course, the end is great. And that is an answer to our theme for the year of finding clarity in the chaos: constant political tension, rejection of any kind of biblical worldview, redefining marriage, redefining sex and sexuality, fear of being canceled, waning religious freedom; what are we to do? How do we stay on track? I think Paul gives us some checkpoin...

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 believers were told to be encouraged, to encourage each other with the hope of the rapture. One day we are going to rise to meet the Lord in the air, along with our loved ones who passed away in Christ, and together we will be with Jesus forever. That is our hope. That’s what gets us through days of suffering, pain, death in this world. That is what we hang onto when we...

'Is this the end', was the question the Thessalonians were asking. Whenever Christians are suffering, confused or frustrated with the state of things, we tend to wonder, 'Is this the end'? Most generations have had their issues that led to that question. Our generation: wars, concerns of bigger wars, pandemics, immorality. Is this the end? As we start into the second letter, remember the backgroun...

Tuesday night, or Wednesday morning I guess, we will have the results and know something about a new President and government that will carry us into the next chapter in America. I am concerned about several things in this next chapter, but particularly religious freedom and biblical morality. I have, we will vote what we believe gives the best opportunity for that. And Lord willing, we wake up We...

Join us for our YTH Sunday Panel discussion. Dylan Aarum our middle school pastor and Ethan Meadows our high school pastor engage with some of our youth in a panel discussion.

As we look at the state of this world, there could be a lot to be distressed about. There is tension in the Middle East, a worldwide pandemic turned our lives upside down in the matter of weeks, political division starting with our leaders and now people in the church. We can't have a discussion without committing sin calling each other names. The Bible teaches that mankind can't survive without J...

What is the rapture? When is it? Why is it? The what is not that hard, and neither is the why, but when has proved a little challenging. Students of this have come to different conclusions. There are reasons for all the views, but only one can be right. Let’s see if we can get close.

Look at what surrounds the call to prayer: humility and repentance. Our repentance may have more impact on America, on Israel, than our requests. Now it is not hard to confess other people’s sins. We can with self-righteousness call out the sins of our nation, or those of Israel. Note the call to humility. There may be many sins plaguing our land that we are not guilty of, but that does not mean w...

Rev. Joel Eguiluz continues this week with 1 Thessalonians 4. Paul is reminding them how they must walk as believers to please God, and as they practice these things, that they continue to grow more and more. Is living to please God truly your goal in life?

Can I be a Christian and be or do ...? To all of these questions I would say, you are asking the wrong question. The question is entirely about self, and when we come to Christ, self-dies. We took off self and put on Christ. It is not even we who live anymore, but Christ who lives in us. See Galatians 2:20. Our desire now is Christ, and all things submitted to Him. We are going to read a passage t...

Friends that offend, you need them. God isn't calling us to be offensive, but He is calling us to care and yes, some will be offended by that concern. We won't stay the course in following Jesus if we don't have people in our lives who care enough to ask. Are you building those kinds of relationships, giving that kind of permission?

Everyone has a worldview, a way of looking at and interpreting the world. Some of it is made up of who we are and what we do: male, American, pastor. Much of it is made up of what we trustingly listen to: news, Tik Tok, podcasts, friends. It all shapes how we look at relationships, money, God, sex and sexuality, government, people, people groups, really everything. Your worldview is in operation e...

When people don’t like someone, they tend to only hear and see what confirms their dislike. It is an uphill battle to change that mind. Good will be ignored. Motives will be questioned. The culture is saying we are a place of hate, we are a people against. I hope we never show them hate, and while there are things God calls us to be against, He really sends us out there with what we are for. We ar...

What do we do when love is defined as smiling at evil? What do we do when hate is saying anything is wrong? What do we do when an America many of us love seems to be passing into the night? What do we do? I would say we have to answer these questions biblically and strategically, as if the church would even agree on what biblically and strategically looks like. Here is where we need to hear the th...