Dr. Gary Singleton

This Sunday we look forward to what 2018 will bring.  Over the next few weeks we will take a look at our vision, as we explore what we are about and why.  We have stated our mission like this: Making disciples by taking personal risks to bring the gospel to every relationship.
 
This week we learn from Jesus that our mission is to make disciples – and disciple-makers never lose sight of the coming kingdom of God.

Bryan Jones & Dr. Gary Singleton

Oftentimes in a new year, people are looking ahead on what they want to accomplish and what they want to achieve. We wanted to take a moment to look back and reflect on what God has done for us over 2017. Last year may have not been a storybook year, but we always want to celebrate who God is and the way he is continuing to work in our lives.

Richard Covington, Missions Pastor

This Sunday we are going to look at Joshua 4 and explore a few questions. As we turn the page to a new year, let’s take a moment to look back at what God has done and allow it to set the course for the future.

It’s Christmas Eve – this glorious evening – this night we prepare to celebrate the Light that has come into the world.

Dr. Gary Singleton

When you’re a kid, it seems like Christmas takes FOREVER to get here. The days drag by and it seems like Christmas morning will NEVER come. Well, that’s how the Jews felt as they anticipated the coming of their Messiah. For 400 years they heard nothing from God. Four hundred years of darkness and silence. Then Jesus came - the light of the world. And now all of us are waiting - for the return of Jesus and for a word from God. What word from God are you longing for today? How do we hear the word that God has for us? This morning we turn to Psalm 119 and learn that hearing a word from God requires active listening to God’s Word.

Bryan Jones

This Christmas season we are talking about light. To get us started, let’s consider three aspects of sunlight. Sunlight is essential for life. Without the sun, our world would be a frozen wasteland. Sunlight reveals what is true. It brings into the light that which is hidden by darkness. And studies have proven that lack of sunlight results in seasonal affective disorder. It takes away our joy. 1 John 1:5 tells us that God is light. And this morning we are going to see that these same things are true of God. God is the source of life. He reveals what is true. And He promises joy to all who follow Him.

Dr. Gary Singleton

This morning we’re wrapping up our sermon series, Psalms: Growing Deep. Over the past three weeks we have seen how the Psalms teach us how to grow deeper in worship, in community, and in spiritual growth. This morning we turn once again to Psalm 145 for instruction in how to grow deeper in making disciples. Psalm 145 tells us that to grow deeper in making disciples, we must display God’s glory and share God’s story.

Bryan Jones

This morning we’re continuing our sermon series from Psalms called “Growing Deep.” We’re going to talk about spiritual growth. We’ll be taking a look at a verse from Psalm 119 - the longest chapter in the Bible. This Psalm has 176 verses, and all but 7 of them talk about the same thing - God’s Word. As we consider growing deeper spiritually, there is one question that needs to be considered. How do you approach God’s Word - as a duty, or a delight? Let’s learn how to make spending time in God’s Word a delight.

Dr. Gary Singleton

This morning we’re continuing our sermon series from the Psalms called “Growing Deep.” The Psalms are ancient worship songs that have been sung by God’s people throughout the ages. We will probably hear these songs in heaven for all eternity. They are inspired by God Himself, and they take us deeper into why we gather together to worship. This morning we will open our original hymn book to Psalm 145 and learn that worship starts with a commitment, and it flourishes in a community.

Dr. Gary Singleton

This morning we’re starting a sermon series from the Psalms called “Growing Deep.” Psalms are ancient worship songs, and this morning we will begin with Psalm 95. This psalm leads us in pure worship for our great God, and it teaches us that worship does not happen just by showing up at church and singing. In order for us to truly worship, we must engage our heart and our will. We sing until we recognize that God is bigger than our biggest problem. But along with singing we must surrender. We must bow down before God and fully surrender to His will. This morning we will learn what it means to truly worship God.

Bryan Jones

Scheduling is far less about what you have to get done and far more about who you want to become.

Dr. Gary Singleton

Our society tells us that we can never be too rich, so it’s easy to get so absorbed in our efforts to have more, that we fail to recognize how rich we already are. This morning we’re going to talk about money - a subject that makes a lot of people uncomfortable. But money is not an inconsequential subject as far as God is concerned. In fact, the Bible speaks of generosity 285 times - more than it speaks of faith or hope. The way we handle our money has a huge impact on our relationship with God. Paul talks about this very thing in a letter he wrote to Timothy. Paul tells Timothy that when it comes to money, it’s not what you have - it’s what you do with what you have.

Dr. Gary Singleton

How would you define the American Dream? Is it loving God, country, baseball, and apple pie? Or maybe you think of the American Dream as one word - freedom. No matter how you define it, the American Dream is self-focused. It shines the spotlight on what we have, what we do, and who we are. So this morning as we begin a new sermon series called “American Dream,” we want to balance the American Dream with God’s dream for us. God’s dream is that we would take on the character of Jesus, and that means our life should be focused more on what we give than on what we get. Today we will look at the words of Peter as he speaks of this lifestyle of generosity that God dreams of building into our character. You have been given a gift. Are you giving away what you have been given?

This morning we welcome Barrett Johnson to The Heights. Barrett founded INFO for Families in 2013 to “help regular families stay informed, equipped and on task.” A popular speaker on issues related to marriage and family life, he is frequently characterized as authentic, practical, and wise. He and his wife, Jenifer, have authored several books including The Talks: A Parent’s Guide to Critical Conversations about Sex, Dating, and Other Unmentionables and The Young Man’s Guide to Awesomeness.

This morning we welcome Barrett Johnson to The Heights. Barrett founded INFO for Families in 2013 to “help regular families stay informed, equipped and on task.” A popular speaker on issues related to marriage and family life, he is frequently characterized as authentic, practical, and wise. He and his wife, Jenifer, have authored several books including The Talks: A Parent’s Guide to Critical Conversations about Sex, Dating, and Other Unmentionables and The Young Man’s Guide to Awesomeness.

Dr. Gary Singleton

This morning we’re continuing the sermon series we started last week called “Picture Perfect,” and we’re going to talk about marriage. That sets the bar pretty high - right? Chances are you wouldn’t describe your marriage as picture perfect. But even if your marriage isn’t perfect, don’t let that keep you from striving to get better. This morning we’re going to take a look at the only couple who ever raised a perfect child - Joseph and Mary. Joseph was a carpenter. He and Mary were just normal people like us, but they had a great marriage. What was their secret? The thing that stands out in Mary and Joseph’s relationship was their love for God. And as we will see this morning, the closer you grow to God, the closer you grow to each other.

Bryan Jones

This morning we’re starting a sermon series called “Picture Perfect,” and we’re going to be talking about being single. Now in our culture today, being single is not always seen as the “picture perfect” life. In fact, in some ways we idolize being married and having a family. We imply to our single friends that they’re not normal until they are married. But that is not what Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 7. Paul tells us that marital status is not the main storyline in your life, because your love story isn’t as important as your God story.

Dr. Gary Singleton

In every area of life there are dashboard indicators that tell us how we’re doing. Think about the gauges on the dashboard of a car that tell us how the car is performing. The same thing is true when it comes to our spiritual health. There are some dashboard indicators that reveal our level of spiritual progress. This morning we are wrapping up our sermon series from the first chapter of James - a letter written to Christians who faced brutal persecution. All of us experience trials, and the good news is that God uses those trials to produce spiritual maturity. But we can’t just assume that we are spiritually healthy. This morning James gives us some dashboard indicators that we can use to track our spiritual health.

Bryan Jones

This Sunday, we continue our series in James 1, “Restart – Back to the Basics.” Over the past few weeks, we’ve been reminded that we all need to do a hard reset in life from time to time – to return to the basics of faith. And we have seen how by doing just that, we are flipping the script on the rut we’ve found ourselves in. Trials, Wisdom, Patience – they are tools of God the Father to grow us into the perfect image of His Son, Jesus Christ. This week, we will tackle one of the more familiar passages, James 1:22-25, which can be summed up as follows: don’t just hear what the Bible says, DO what the Bible says!

Dr. Gary Singleton

We all experience times when we need to hit the reset button and make a fresh start - and the same thing is true in our faith. There are times that we need to restart and get back to the basics of following Jesus. In the first chapter of James, we have seen that James was writing to Christians who were facing severe persecution. It is in the context of these trials that James tells us that one of the basics of our faith is that we need to listen. We must stop and listen to what God is saying in order to understand what he wants to teach us. This morning James shows us that when things aren’t going our way, we need to listen up instead of blowing up.