Highland Church Podcast

A blessing is a sacred thing. The kind of blessing I’m talking about, the kind of blessing the people of God give to one another and even to others, is different. That kind of blessing is sacred because its rooted in God’s blessing, for God’s purposes, and by God’s power. Today we are blessing the Oikos church. And we are simply joining, ratifying that divine blessing today, as we bless and send them.

We live in a time where folks say that everyone deserves to be treated well. And we agree. That seems right. But then people turn out to not be that great, and treating them well… gets harder. The image of God is this thing in us that sticks, no matter what. Its that inherent dignity that every person has no matter what. And that’s what should determine how I treat them.

Today we are starting a series on the book of Genesis—the first book in your bible. But that kind of under-sells what we hope this series is really about. Its about the bigger story that we are part of. One that, as we will see, is good. The one we hope you’ll lose yourself in. To tell that bigger story you have to go back to the start.

Over a year ago we started a series in the book of Mark. We figured it was good time to ask the question we started with again—what is the good news? We think it's this: Jesus is Christ, our King. He is from God, of God, for us. He sees. He provides. He forgives. He frees. Jesus is Christ, our King. And because of this we should listen to Him. This is indeed, good news.

At Christmas, we think about the beginning of the good news, the Jesus story. But in our series I’m at the end of the story. But you might be surprised at how the beginning and end are tied together. We live in a world of bad news, and unending loss, much of it ambiguous. And yet the promise of this story, is that in this man is what everyone longs for most—great joy. * Note- we lost power during the recording of this sermon so the quality of this audio suffers during that time.

This class is the second lesson in a two part series on the Birth of Jesus. Gary will be discussing the second chapter of Luke.

In this podcast, Eric looks at Mark 15 when the curtain is torn at the death of Jesus. Mark doesn’t explain it all, at least like some narrators might. But he knew when that curtain tore from top to bottom, that the world was different than it had been only a moment before. He knew that when Jesus died on the cross, you and I became different than we had been a moment before.

You ever feel like you’re the bad guy, and you don’t know when you became the bad guy. You were sure you were the good guy, and then all the sudden, you’re on the wrong side. If you are a Christian, if you are a believer these days, you probably know what I’m talking about. For centuries, Christians have enjoyed a moral high ground. Even people who disagreed with many Christian beliefs, still saw Christians as good people with good values. But it doesn’t feel that way these days, does it? Christians are labeled all kinds of things these days. Christians aren’t exactly the good guys anymore. But Christianity is about Jesus. At its core, its about him. And we see him most clearly at the cross—when he gives himself for us. And we know—we just know—this is more moral than anything in this world. Now or ever.

This class is the first lesson in a three part series on the Birth of Jesus. We begin our series be discussing the first two chapter in Matthew.

In this Podcast we are joined by Dan Henley, the director of our ministry partner, Agape's, Faith and Formation Program. Dan is leading an initiative where 365 churches are each praying for the city of Memphis for a day for the year. Dan challenges us to come together as believers in Christ and pray together. He invites us to pray together for the Will of God, Instructions from God, and Motivation to do God’s will.

This Sunday we spent our service thinking about our time of communion. We were led in thoughts by some of our elders, including Sam Leow, Jeff Frizzell, Sean Prine, and David Jackson. We hope this podcast will help you reflect on this important meal that we take together each week.

We certainly live in a time when we need encouragement from what Hebrews describes as "a great cloud of witnesses" cheering us on to "run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Heb 12:1). In this class Tim Stafford will use Hebrews 11:35b-40 to look at some of the great men and women who lived by faith and make up that great cloud.

Have you ever heard someone say—this is a must. I’m sure you have. You’ve probably said it yourself. Someone says here’s some things they may need, or some things you might do, or some things that maybe helpful. There’s all that—and all that is a maybe. But this—this thing—this is a must. Which brings us to Jesus. I want to pay attention to what Jesus says is a must. On those things there’s no debate. I want to be people who are convicted and compelled by what Jesus says must happen. What we must do. In Mark 13 we find a passage where Jesus says we "must" do something. We want to be a church that does this thing well.

We certainly live in a time when we need encouragement from what Hebrews describes as "a great cloud of witnesses" cheering us on to "run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Heb 12:1). In this class Allen Black will use Hebrews 11 to look at some of the great men and women who lived by faith and make up that great cloud.

Today, on Orphan Sunday, we look at what happens when we intercede for vulnerable children. But that also helps us to think about the way Jesus has interceded for us. The most important realities in my life are the result of this divine dynamic between God the father, the son, and the spirit. Someone is interceding for me always, and that changes everything.

We certainly live in a time when we need encouragement from what Hebrews describes as "a great cloud of witnesses" cheering us on to "run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Heb 12:1). In this class Gary Kenley will use Hebrews 11 to look at some of the great men and women who lived by faith and make up that great cloud.

Mark 13 is apocalyptic—which is a good genre to talk about on Halloween. Apocalyptic is a way of using symbols and metaphors to talk about the world as it really is, both in the future but also now. Sometimes symbols and metaphors make better sense of some things than anything else. And so Mark uses this apocalyptic language to describe our world as growing increasingly dark, and frankly scary. There are a lot of ways we can face the darkness of this world. Fight it. Resist it with beauty and power. Try to scare it away. Hide from it. Or we can be light. The people who stand in the light and offer blessings to those coming from the dark.

Our lesson today comes out of Mathew 5:13-16. 1. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus used this practice of curing meat with salt to teach us one of our purposes as believers, and that purpose is this: We are to be salt to an unbelieving world. That purpose is desperately needed by the world because without salt the world will rot. Jesus calls us to make the world a better place for everyone.

We certainly live in a time when we need encouragement from what Hebrews describes as "a great cloud of witnesses" cheering us on to "run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Heb 12:1). In this class Allen Black, David Jackson, Gary Kenley, and Tim Stafford will use Hebrews 11 to look at some of the great men and women who lived by faith and make up that great cloud. In this lesson Tim will look at the faith of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

What does Jesus do when he feels anxious? He prays. But not just any prayer. Here in Mark 14 is prayer for a special time. This is a prayer that I would say when I am in despair. Sad. When it feels like I am dying. Here in Mark 14, Jesus models how we should pray when we are anxious. And through this prayer we can surrender control to the only one who deserves it.