Highland Church Podcast

March 21, 2021 Sunday Morning Sermon Our passage today comes from Mark 5:21-43. There are many stories in the Bible about men. But this passage is very specific to women. And to the women, the message is simple. You are the precious daughter of Christ. He sees you. He sees what is unique to you. And, Ladies, he is able to heal it.

March 14, 2021 Sunday Morning Sermon Todays passage is from Mark 5:1-20. These stories describe with perhaps more realism than any others, what a life apart from Christ is really like—and why we so desperately need Jesus—even as modern people. Musicbed SyncID: MB01VO6RT5H0CIQ

Sunday Sermon March 7, 2021 Fear is the giving of our attention to what we feel is most real. If this is true, then our attention ought to be directed to the one who is most real. Jesus.

Sunday Sermon February 28, 2021 2020 was a challenging year, with all kinds of changing variables. There is an impulse to suspect those challenges mean something has changed about God. But this parable is first of all a reminder that whatever happens in life the sower is going to do what the sower has always done, scatter seed. The sower is not deficient in this story. He’s a constant. You know what else is not deficient, the seed. You see, in this story the sower and the seed—they’re good. But the soil, that’s what changes. So the question this parable raises for us is, Is my soil producing the harvest I know the seed is capable of?

Sunday Sermon- February 21, 2021 With a snow filled week in Memphis, and power outages and water shortages in Texas, Eric is taking a break from our study in Mark to look at a passage from Romans. Is it possible to grow in faith and hope during hard times when it is so difficult to see God working? Today we look at a passage that helps us get through these hard times.

February 14, 2021- Sunday Sermon Today’s passage has got to be one of the hardest passages in scripture about what it means to be a family—both a nuclear family, and more importantly what it means to be a spiritual family. In fact, by disrupting what we often assume about the smaller family, Jesus actually defines what the purpose of a spiritual family is. And at the same time—he defines the place of the nuclear family in that larger spiritual family. Eric wanted to talk about this as we start coming back together. We know that distance places a strain on the fabric that holds us together. But as we emerge from this pandemic, remember—If my family or your family has a shot, it only has a shot if it is part of the larger family of Christ. Jesus will not be my family’s center unless my family is surrounded by His family. Musicbed SyncID: MB01GNSOKOYQBGN

Sunday Morning Sermon- February 7,2021 Mark 3:29 says “But whoever insults the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. That person is guilty of a sin with consequences that last forever.” This is troubling isn’t it? That there is something spiritual, something about Jesus, that I cannot afford to get wrong. That I cannot mess up. Because the consequences are irreversible and eternal (“forever”). If that’s true—and Jesus said it is—then the most important thing we can do is figure out what that irreversible mistake is. We have to get this right.

Sunday Sermon, January 31, 2021 Jesus is pulling back a curtain in this short scene. Behind it, the truth of human condition is laid bare. Our great danger, bondage even, and our great need comes into clear focus. The good news is that God has broken into our world in Jesus Christ. That not only does Jesus pull back the curtain and show us the puppet master- Satan. He ties him up, and steals what wasn’t his in the first place. We aren’t good people who needed guidance, or even bad people that needed redirection. We were in bondage, and we needed rescue.

If there has ever been a group of undeserving guys, it’s the twelve Jesus calls to him in Mark 3. When I say these are guys are undeserving, I mean unremarkable. Which is not to say they don’t go on to do some remarkable things… But to be called by Jesus? Set aside. Given world-changing jobs. Special…to Jesus, at this point?!. They hardly deserved that. These guys are largely unremarkable. Certainly unqualified. Undeserving. And Jesus wants them, calls them. You know what we call it when we get what we don’t deserve—grace.

Sunday Morning Sermon_ January 17, 2021 We study Mark 3:7-12 and what it means for us today. Eric challenges us, in this politically charged moment, to cling to the cross of Jesus. No matter what happens this week in our nation, as followers of Jesus, we are called to love those who might think differently than we do and even love those who we would consider our enemies. Cling to the cross this week.

January 10, 2021- In todays lesson, Eric shares from Deuteronomy 30 and how it applies to us in these difficult times. He talks about the similarities between these times and when the Israelites were about to enter the promised land in Deuteronomy. He gives us three ways that we can "Choose Life" in 2021.

Sunday Morning Sermon_ December 13, 2020 A lesson from Mark 2:23-3:6. Jesus gets confronted about the Sabbath, but he is really getting confronted on the importance of Scripture. Eric compares Scripture to a house we live in. Jesus believes in this house. Everyone has to have a home to live in. A worldview. Jesus believes the biblical worldview is the only one that can stand up, especially when the storms come. But he also teaches us to leave the door open.

Jesus is giving our lives context and purpose. That our whole lives are taking place in the context of a wedding celebration, a party. That Jesus—the groom—is being united to his bride, the church, his people. And therefore our purpose is to celebrate, to party. Immauel. God is with us. That should make us want to party.

November 29, 2020- Sunday Morning Sermon The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ is an unplanned pregnancy. It's not just unplanned, its what we might call a crisis pregnancy. Have you ever considered that the good news—the greatest news this world has ever heard—begins with an unplanned crisis pregnancy, with all of its shame and rejection, and two beleaguered parents who did the hardest thing of their lives? The thing they never planned to do. They intervened, loved, fought for this one vulnerable child.

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ is an unplanned pregnancy. It's not just unplanned, its what we might call a crisis pregnancy. Have you ever considered that the good news—the greatest news this world has ever heard—begins with an unplanned crisis pregnancy, with all of its shame and rejection, and two beleaguered parents who did the hardest thing of their lives? The thing they never planned to do. They intervened, loved, fought for this one vulnerable child.

November 22, 2020- Today we want to provide viewers with a vision of a grateful life. Doing so, understanding how grace deepens are sense of gratitude. What happens when the eyes of our hearts are opens and we begin to take notice of the present reality of God around us?

Sunday Morning Sermon- November 15, 2020 Today is so important. What we do, by giving to our Life-Giving Outreach Contribution today, will last. We are giving of ourselves, we are being selfless, because we believe not only are we eternal people, but that every person outside these walls is an eternal person. Wether the young man struggling to get his life right who ends up at Timothy Hill. Or the Papaua New Guinean who is worshiping tribal Gods, the young mom coming out of incarceration through HopeWorks, the child in need of adoption. We don’t care about these people because we are nice. We care about them because they will last.

Next week is Life-Giving Sunday. We are going to raise $275,000 and give it away to the best life-changing and life-giving ministries we know of, so that more people may have life in Christ. One of those partner ministries of ours is Timothy Hill. Today we are fortunate to have their Executive Director, Thud Hill, here with us. Listen to find out more about the Timothy Hill Children's Ranch.

Sunday Morning Sermon from the Highland Church of Christ in Memphis. Josh Jackson from the Rural Hills Church of Christ is our guest preacher today. He gives us a message out of Matthew 10:1-4. Today we are challenged to live together despite our differences much like the disciples who were called to follow Jesus did.

Sunday Morning Sermon- October 25, 2020 Part of being a disciple is coming to a table every week where I admit that I too have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. The power of that, is that when we take this meal confessing our sin to one another, we are reminded that none of us—disciple, sinner, tax collector, preachers—are really any different. To use the metaphor Jesus does—that we all are sick, in need of the doctor. That’s why there’s a meal involved in this whole disciple thing. In this following Jesus thing. A meal specific to our sin. It binds us together. Not in our success, our pride, our achievements. It binds us together in our common need.