The Heights Baptist Church

Last week we learned that Advent has been around for over 1500 years and most of that time the focus of Advent, of preparing for Christmas was repentance and fasting. We’re thinking about preparing for Christmas in a way that God says, 'You’re prepared', and that is a place of great richness, strength, and joy. Last week we looked at hope in the sermon and then the devotional took you to 5 more places to think on hope and then a day 6 and 7 to repenting and fasting. Today we look at peace in our sermon, and the devotional will take us to 5 more days of thoughts on peace, and then repentance and fasting. So, there is a rhythm.

Are you ready for Christmas? We ask each other about our readiness for lots of things: vacation, a new job, start of school; but that all pales in comparison to how we inquire of each other’s readiness for Christmas. We ask strangers if they are ready for Christmas! What are we asking about? Cooking and shopping, maybe travel plans, or parties to prepare. Church! Don’t forget that Christmas Eve service. With the time, money and energy we give to preparing, seems appropriate to ask, 'Does God think we are prepared?'

As we have taken time to think about God’s good in our lives, there is no greater good than the gift of His Son, a gift He gave because He loved. Not because we were owed. Not because we were pretty good at heart. Not even because we had asked. He sent His Son as gift because He loved. And it was Jesus’ love for His Father, His love for You and me that brought Him to the cross.

And here we are at the end of another sermon series, Truths That Kill. We have looked at 3, today will make 4, statements used repeatedly by Christians, by the Church, and by the world that are true statements. But statements that have gained a life of their own apart from the context in which they are true and in that they have become destructive. Today we come to all sin is the same. We will look at the truth, the context, and the problem.

Join us for our Youth Sunday sermon.

We continue our series on Truths That Kill, and it is not the truths that kill, but the misapplication, misunderstanding, loss of context of truths that can be so destructive to faith and the Church. Today we look at a statement at the very heart of knowing God, of being saved: 'Just say this prayer'. As before we’ll look at the truth, the context, and the problem.

Truths That Kill is the more grabbing title, but as I explained last week it is the application of truths outside their context that can be destructive to our Christian life and the Church. We are looking at four ideas that are true but have some bad application. Last week we looked at 'You don’t have to go to church to be saved'. True, but you do need to go to church to be in a thriving relationship with the One who saved you. Today we are looking at 'Jesus just wants us to love'. Like last week, we’ll look at the truth, the context, and the problem.

Truths That Kill. My own title of this series scares me. I would refer to a lot of what we will talk about as elementary ideas, simple truths that have gone horribly wrong. Now to be clear, I am not talking about biblical truth. Biblical truth, God’s truth is life and life eternal! In all things we need God’s truth. At different times the Church has addressed certain conditions, ways of thinking among people in the world or people in the church and we come up with these sayings that are true, in that context. But out of that context, these statements have gained a life of their own and have become destructive to the Christian life and Church.

Kids pick up more from us than we realize. They’re always watching. But what do we want them to catch? A love for Jesus. Catching alone isn’t enough. If all we do is live it without ever teaching it, our kids may copy our habits but miss the heart behind them. Scripture calls us to do both: faith is both caught and taught.

Pastor Shay Osborne explains how every believer has both box ministries (within the church) and circle ministries (their personal circles of influence where they live, work, and play). Using John 1 as a model, he shows how ordinary people—like Andrew bringing Peter to Jesus—can impact lives by simply sharing faith within their circles. We are challenged to move from the sidelines into the game, living out the mission daily.

Here we are, the end. We have been studying Psalms since March 9th. I did two messages just introducing the Psalms. I took 3 messages to walk through Psalm 22 as we prepared for Easter. So that’s 5 messages and 24 other Psalms beyond that including today, Psalm 119, the longest Psalm, the longest chapter in the Bible, and it is a Psalm on the Bible. Psalm 119 is about your relationship, my relationship with this book we call the Bible.

Two of the most well-known stories in the Bible involve David. They are stories of David and. David and Goliath, David and Bathsheba. In David and Goliath, we see how great it is, how great it can be when we live for God and His glory. In David and Bathsheba, we learn that even when we are living for God and His glory, we’re not above, we’re not immune to doing great wrong. Our study in the Psalms today brings us to Psalm 51. There is much to study in Psalm 51 and that includes much to study in the historical moment that produced Psalm 51. That moment can be found in 2 Samuel 11-12.

The title of my message today is “How would you describe church?” There are more than a few words: God, worship, family, beliefs, praise, preaching, casseroles. Another set of words: boring, preachy, judgmental, money, casseroles. Regardless of the words we use, we might want to be thinking about the words God wants to use. If we are going to have church, His words ought to build the program. Turn with me today to Psalm 100 where we find those words.

Israel forgot who God is. The Church, our church can do the same. All we give God came from Him. Do we give God money? It is all His. Do we give God our life? He is the Creator, the Sustainer, the Redeemer and the Judge of our life. Do we give Him our time? You woke up today because He deemed it so. We give God nothing that does not come first from Him. If we don’t grasp this, or we forget it, we don’t appreciate how greatly we are loved, and how He has shown that. We possibly act like God owes us.

Job 42:2, Psalm 115:3, Luke 1:37 and a lot of other passages teach us that God can do whatever He wants. Nothing is impossible for Him. He has all power, all authority. No one, nothing can stop Him. That means God could make us obey Him, make us believe, make us worshippers who sing His praises. And He wouldn’t have to sweat to make it happen. He’d be entirely successful, and the world better for it. But He doesn’t. He doesn’t make us obey, believe, worship. There are consequences for not, but He does not make us. He invites us. He invites us to do these things and experience how good He is when we do. We continue our study of the Psalms and that bring us to Psalm 34, an invitation.

From Genesis 1-2 we learn we were created for the presence of God. Therein is our joy, purpose, life. There is not something else. There is not a second and a third thing. To be in and enjoy a right relationship with God is life and life eternal. But Genesis 3, we sinned. Sin makes us entirely not like God and His presence, His heaven. It makes us a life in rebellion. Sin is not just rules we broke, but nature of unholy rebellion. How can the very unholy come into the Holy? When you hear David say, 'Lord,' don’t hear a title or a salutation. Hear a cry from the depths of his soul. Who, my Lord, can dwell with you? Who can enjoy intimacy with their Creator? And then we get an answer, ten actually. Ten answers, character qualities, actions that answer who can live with God.

Today we continue our study in the Psalms with Psalm 37, a wisdom Psalm. Psalm 37 reads like a chapter in Proverbs, a series of short, direct, practical statements on how to live life. They are right and they work. Every one of us needs to hear what God has for us in Psalm 37.

Jesus is the victorious King and eternal Priest who reigns over all creation and intercedes for His people. He has conquered every enemy, including death, and now draws us near to God as our perfect High Priest.

Psalm 111 calls us to worship God with our whole hearts. Through reflecting deeply on His works and character, we grow in knowledge and reverent fear of the Lord, and we are formed into the people He designed us to be.

While the Israelites were in exile in Babylon, they were encouraged to depend on the Lord. As Babylon was defeated and the Israelites were allowed to return to their homeland, the Lord encouraged them to depend on Him. Just like the Israelites, we are spiritual exiles living in a world that is not our home. But in God's infinite wisdom, He has us here is a sinful world for a reason. While we are here, we are called to build, trust, and pray, not a physical house, but a spiritual house with it's foundation on Jesus Christ. We have to trust the Lord and depend on God.