The Heights Baptist Church

Today is the second to last in our series on marriage. We all know money matters. Money is big. It is big in our thoughts, our conversations, our work. And it is big every day. Most of us have a thought or a conversation about money way more than we do God. We think, talk, touch money every day. That’s true as an individual and true in marriage. In any report, money will be one of top 5 reasons fo...

Fighting and disagreeing is such a great opportunity to do exactly what God has called us to do in a marriage, to submit and serve. Oh, sure we can do those things when we are not fighting, but that’s not really the challenge, or the growth, or the evidence that I actually am growing in Christlikeness, that I actually am filled with the Spirit. No, it is in the moment of disagreement we find out w...

So far in this series we have said that marriage matters because it’s God’s design and because it gives us a unique opportunity to practice being like Jesus and experience how He loves us. We have said that kids matter because they are a valuable gift from the Lord and we have a valuable assignment to point them back to Him. And today is intimacy. Sex matters. I have quoted Hebrews 13:4 a good bit...

Today is our third message in our marriage series with the first two saying, 'Marriage matters'. Now we can’t talk about marriage and not talk about kids. There is not a command that every individual must have a child, but there is a command given to humanity and marriage. A purpose of marriage is kids. A great purpose that costs a lot, and where there is great cost, there needs to be great motiva...

As we close the 21 days of prayer, I would like encourage us continue to pursue some spiritual disciplines. Now some you may wonder what exactly is a spiritual discipline? It isn't a term use very often. Well one definition is 'behaviors that help our spiritual growth and enable us to grow to spiritual maturity'. Spiritual disciplines should not be something we do only certain times year, but shou...

Why do we honor marriage? Because God is going to judge those who live outside His design. We could stop there, but why is God so big on His design. Last week we saw science struggle to say God’s design, God’s way works, but it did say it. It is worth making it work. So, live inside God’s design for love, sex, and marriage. But what if I told you that marriage is about more than love, sex, and mar...

Last week I told you I would be doing 6 different sermon series this year, but a unifying theme: preparing to live in a culture that is increasingly anti-Christian, or maybe more positively said: being faithful to God in every environment. We do this by relying on the gospel, living the gospel, sharing the gospel, no matter the cost. As I tried to show last week, there may be a cost coming we are...

The American Christian has enjoyed an unprecedented life of ease. Out of all the followers of Christ over the last 2000 years, I am not sure what percentage of those would be 19th, 20th, 21st century Americans. Let’s say 15%. In that other 85%, it has been hard to be a Christian. There has been a great cost to following Christ, which He warned in Luke 14 when He said NOT to follow Him before count...

Some of us may be feeling that way today, like we are trying really hard to please God by doing things (coming to church and reading our bible and giving here and there) and we are about to beef up our efforts with our new year resolutions tonight, we are going to promise to read more, come to church more often, and we are trying and trying and it never seems enough because we always fall short. J...

Today I am concluding 4 messages on meeting Jesus in the Christmas story told in the Bible by Matthew. We have met a Jesus who is the promised Messiah, the fulfillment all the prophecies. We’ve met a Jesus who is the Savior of our sins, and oh what a Savior! We have met a Jesus that is the very Son of God. And today we meet Him as our King.

Mary and Joseph, if we can get past seeing them frozen in our manger scenes, they’re just two people, a young mom and dad, looking at a new baby. No doubt they see so much. Shepherds come in and later foreign dignitaries. Who are all these people and why are they coming to see their baby? That would certainly add to the big dreams and ideas. But then perhaps it was this young mom and dad who left...

Do you need to be saved? We may feel bad or guilty over a certain sin, but that just highlights all the sins we don’t feel bad about. So even we who believe can have a shallow appreciation of what Jesus being our Savior means. Why am I thinking about understanding and appreciating Jesus as Savior? We have begun a Christmas series, and we are looking at how this Baby in the manger is introduced to...

Christmas is a people time: family, friends and even new family and new friends. We go to gatherings, events, parties, to be with people, even some we don’t like. With all this meeting at Christmas, wouldn’t it be travesty if we didn’t meet Jesus. If Christmas is about anything, it is about meeting God in Jesus. This Jesus out of whom is going to come some wonderful and awful things. Who is this J...

Did you thank God this week for a kingdom that cannot be shaken? Interesting question when we look back over a week where we have given much thanks for things that can be shaken, can be lost. Nothing wrong with enjoying the temporary, but so much more important that our heart’s desire is the eternal. Either way, I am guessing a lot of us have heart full for God right now so where to now?

Giving thanks may be the most important discipline of the Christian life. It is a discipline. We tend to think of it as a feeling that comes from getting or having good things. But biblical giving of thanks is a choice in all things; a daily choice that enables us to see God, love life and people. A daily choice that gives strength, hope, and the ability to endure. We see all this in the life of J...

Dr. Hance Dilbeck, President of Guidestone is our guest speaker as we go into several days of hosting the SBCV Annual Homecoming.

Today we come to our 4th message on the life of Joseph, of course is a part of our study of Genesis. We have seen that Joseph’s life is a special life. It should make us want to watch, ask questions, learn. He has a profound ability to hold onto God regardless of his circumstances. He seems to enjoy a great relationship with the Lord, and the Lord enjoys a great relationship with Joseph. I know th...

More times than I can count I have wondered what God is doing. Funny thing, I don’t usually wonder that when things are going well. Shouldn’t we always want to know what God is doing? But we tend to be most concerned when we aren’t happy, when things are not going well. And we especially wonder that when we have been good, been praying, because then we have done our part, right, and now God, You d...

The Bible gives to us several provocative, sensual, steamy stories: David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah, and our story today Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. The first two stories give us lessons from failure. Joseph though, from success. Filled with sexual tension, possibly even wondering if God’s way even matters, we see with incredible clarity a path through temptation. Let’s read yet another of...

Caring for the poor is very much a part of God’s heart, the heart of the Jewish faith, the heart of the Christian faith. Jesus makes it part of what it means to come follow Him. Now, there are lots of things that it means to follow Him, but helping the poor is one of only two things that is uniquely attached like this to what it means to follow Jesus. We can and should ask, 'Am I following Jesus i...

God doesn't cause people to sin. God doesn't make people sin. God isn't a bad God, but people sin of their own choosing, but God is bigger than they are. And God is able to take even sinful people and things, and He, through providence, is able to work that out for His glory and our good.

Even when we know the blessing of trusting in God, we can slide right back to trusting in ourselves. As a matter of fact, we all do it, all the time. Self-sufficiency is our default mode when the alarm goes off every morning. In chapter 32 Jacob is returning home and in awe of what God has done for him and particularly now in God sending him home, but Jacob is also afraid of a reunion with his bro...

It is all God’s grace. I have said that over and over through the lives of Abraham and now Isaac as God gives great promises and blessings. As we saw last week, even when Abraham and Isaac fail, God still comes through. It is His goodness, not ours. His grace, not our deservedness. He is faithful even when we are not. Which means at some point we might ask, Does it even matter how I live? I mean G...

Our study today in Genesis brings us to one of the great promises of God: I will be with You. I hope we can understand what that means in Genesis 26, throughout the Bible, and what it means for us here today. So, turn to Genesis 26.

Last week we learned that God is comfortable with our discomfort. It can be a way of testing our faith, our obedience. And today we will see that God does test. God tested Abraham and is going to test you; you, me, all of us. It is not a multiple-choice, or true/false test. We’re not going to guess our way to a right answer. As a matter of fact, probably the hardest tests you have ever taken, whet...