This week we start a new sermon series titled “All In,” which most commonly refers to a move in a poker game where a player bets all of his or her chips on one hand. However, that phrase has caught on to the larger culture beyond poker games.

Nowadays, it simply implies that someone is fully committed. You hear it everywhere—whether in business talk, catchy marketing campaigns, sports pep talks, and even in discussions about faith.

One could say that the Bible had the contemporary meaning of “all in” all along. As Christians we are to give every aspect of ourselves to God—we are “all in” believers and followers of Jesus. 

But the depth of our enthusiasm goes beyond being excited about a new brand or public figure. Let’s talk about how we can go all in together to start the new year!

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Questions for Reflection & Discussion

Loving God starts with knowing God. What are the qualities of who He is that stir your affections for Him?

Jews then and now consider the recital of the Shema both evening and morning to be one of their most sacred duties. It is a discipline of their devotion to God. What disciplines do you have that help you to love God? How are they helpful? Which disciplines would you like to practice more? How can your community help?

Do you have a resolution for the new year? How could the command to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, help you to accomplish your goals?

The greatest Christmas gift of all has come, Immanuel, God with us. How will you respond to the news?

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Questions for Reflection and Discussion

In what areas of your life do you struggle to acknowledge and celebrate the abiding presence of God? How might recognizing Immanuel, God with us, transform your perspective in those areas? What practical steps can you take to cultivate awareness of His presence in your daily life?

Consider Herod's reaction to the news of Jesus's birth. Are there areas in your life where you resist surrendering power and control to God?

Reflect on the indifference of the chief priests and scribes despite their knowledge of the truth. How can you ensure that your celebration of Christmas (and of Jesus in general) is not some lifeless routine but a genuine response of worship and adoration of Immanuel?

Ever notice how the holiday season, meant to be a time of joy, turns into a stress-fest?

The pressure for perfection in decorations, gifts, and gatherings, coupled with social media's picture-perfect standards, leads to nothing but all out chaos. Add in the financial strain, family dynamics, and the ticking clock of holiday deadlines – it's the perfect storm of stress.

Question: When the trappings of the holidays rob us of joy, where do we turn?

Scripture suggests something profound: we turn to Christmas itself, not the glitzy chaos, but the real heart of it, the baby born in Bethlehem whose name is Jesus. 

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Questions for Reflection and Discussion

How do you typically seek comfort during challenging moments? How might turning to God for comfort change your perspective?

Consider the connection between the Old Testament prophecy in Isaiah and the birth of Jesus in the New Testament. How does the birth of Jesus bring joy, and how can you keep the focus on the true meaning of Christmas amid the holiday hustle and bustle?

Reflect on the connection between seeking the Lord, obedience, and the promise of joy in John 15:11. How does joy flow through obedience in your understanding, and how can it transform your approach to life's challenges?

2024 marks an election year, and it is shaping up to be unlike anything I've witnessed in my lifetime. Unfortunately, every four years, our nation appears to be growing more and more divided.

This division has reached a point where the idea of a government embodying justice and righteousness seems unimaginable, let alone one characterized by enduring absolute justice.

Can you imagine? A government so just and so good that there is only and always an ever-increasing peace in the world? It’s a scenario that feels like an impossible dream, given the historical trajectory of humanity—even the best-intentioned governments in history have eventually succumbed to the inherent flaws of human nature.

And yet, Scripture teaches that God has achieved what humanity cannot. Through the birth of His Son, a kingdom marked by everlasting authority, justice, righteousness, and peace has been established, and we get to be citizens of this kingdom, now and forever.

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Questions for Reflection and Discussion

The people mentioned in Isaiah's time were not just facing moments of overwhelming darkness but were seemingly content to dwell in it. How do you see parallels between that situation and the current state of the world or society today? Are there areas in your life where you are content to dwell in darkness too?

The victory in Isaiah 9:3-5 is likened to Israel's triumph over Midian, which was unexpected and decisive. Can you share a personal experience where God brought victory in an unexpected way in your life?

Isaiah 9:6 assigns powerful names to the promised child: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Which of these most resonates with you right now? Why?

What practical steps can you take to actively invite the peace of Christ into your life and community?

In a world filled with uncertainties, challenges, and ever-changing circumstances, the concept of hope often emerges as a guiding light for many. However, the world's understanding of hope can sometimes resemble a fragile wish, a desire founded on circumstances and fleeting emotions. It’s not so for the people of God.

This Sunday, we will not gather to practice wishful thinking together, but to proclaim a profound contrast between the hope propagated by secular culture, rooted in the temporal and the uncertain, and Christian hope, which is firmly rooted like “an anchor for the soul” in our unchanging God.

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Questions for Reflection and Discussion

Discuss the three-fold foundation for Christian hope as outlined by Hebrews 6 i.e God’s Word, nature and character, and the redemptive work of Jesus. How does this differ from the foundation of secular hope? How does this deepen or challenge your current understanding of hope?

Consider the list of New Testament promises mentioned in the sermon (Salvation and Redemption, Victory over Death and Sin, etc.). Which of these promises most resonates with you currently, and why? With which do you most struggle currently, and why?

In practical terms, how can we as a church and as individuals anchor our hope in God's Word, nature and character, and in the redemptive work of Jesus in our everyday lives?

In what ways can this message of hope be shared or applied in your community and beyond?

What do you treasure? One needs to look no further than his or her priorities for the truth. 

Whatever we focus on dictates our actions–make no mistake, you are willing to sacrifice for the thing(s) most valuable to you. Whether it’s money, status, power, safety, or comfort. What do you treasure?

There is only one thing most “worth it;” one thing of “surpassing worth” (of “everlasting worth”) that is truly worth treasuring, where the gain for us and for others is truly worth the sacrifice.

This Sunday, let’s talk about the one thing of surpassing worth in our lives regardless of who we are or where we are and the gain of our sacrifice, should we give ourselves to the pursuit of Him.

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Questions for Reflection and Discussion

Consider the things that people/you treasure. Why do they/you treasure these things? Why do they/you ultimately fall short of treasuring Jesus?

Consider the areas in which we might rejoice in ourselves i.e. our flesh. Which is most enticing for you? Why? How can we have the same “count it all as loss” mentality as Paul?

How does koinonia in the suffering of Christ help you to know Him more?

How does the hope of resurrection encourage you in your life and walk with Jesus today?

Have you ever been asked the question, “What do you do?” For the majority of us, when asked the question, we begin with our career, our work–at least we do if we are proud of what we do, right? In our culture, we are often defined by our work. There are a number of problems with this mentality.

The biggest problem with this mentality, frankly, is that it is unbiblical. We are not defined by our work. The Bible clearly teaches that we are defined by God’s work–the work He has done for us in Christ and is doing in us by His Spirit; however, work is vitally important to all life. Life does not work without work. That’s true in general but also true with our spiritual life as well.

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Questions for Reflection & Discussion

There is a significant difference between “working for your salvation” and “working out your salvation.” What is this difference and why is the distinction important to make?

Behind our work is God’s work. How does this bring comfort to your life as a follower of Jesus?

We are all tempted to grumble and complain. How can you maintain a joyful attitude in the midst of the problems of life?

Who are the people in your life who model Jesus? In what ways do they model Christlikeness?

Similarly, who are the people in your life to whom you model Jesus? In what ways would they say you model Christlikeness?

This weekend is Veterans Day where we honor veterans of our country’s Armed Forces. There is something particularly beautiful about sacrifice that, when you see it, you cannot help but be moved, whether it be a hero's sacrifice for one’s family or country or, in the case of our scripture reading for Sunday, a savior’s sacrifice for the sin of the world.

This Sunday is International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Together, we join millions of Christians around the world in praying for the persecuted church. The statistics are startling. There are over 360 million Christians who will suffer high levels of persecution today and every two minutes, someone is killed for their faith in Jesus.* These persecuted brothers and sisters of ours are without question some of the most courageous people on earth. From where does their courage come?

Bring a friend and join us this Sunday as we look to the book of Philippians for the answer in a new series we are calling Surpassing Worth: Sacrificial Living for the Sake of Christ.

Join us this Sunday as we wrap up our Ready to Run series. Let's explore the discipleship strategy here at North Highlands and discover what it means to Learn, Love, and Live Like Jesus.

We often seek temporary prizes or pleasures, but Jesus asks us to seek His kingdom and His righteousness which are imperishable. This week we hear about several lessons from the Sermon on the Mount -  lessons that Christ calls us to put into practice now for an eternal reward.

Our third and final value is an outward facing one: You are Wanted. Every church wants to be a welcoming church. But oftentimes the way churches think of “welcoming” is superficial at best or misguided at worst, opting for an approach that (even if unconscious) avoids all moral judgments and encourages a “values-free” environment in the name of being welcoming.

Well, here at North Highlands, we believe those two approaches to being a “welcoming” church fall woefully short of the biblical standard; we seek to practice a “welcome” that is both deeper than superficial smiles and higher than politically correctness.

So, I grew up going to a beautiful old (in every way) Methodist church in downtown Waco. 

My mom sang in the choir, which meant my siblings and I needed someone to watch us every Sunday. That someone was Ms. Sandra Test, a sweet elderly woman, who, to curb our boredom, would do little scribbles on the bulletin for me and my siblings and then we would have to turn them into something - a dog, a cat, etc. She did her best, but we were bored out of our minds. In fact, I associated church with two words: boredom and buildings.

I don’t associate the church with those two words anymore. Praise God! The church has come to mean so much more to me. Now, the words that come to mind are more inline with what God has in mind for His Church. And I am excited to celebrate that with you this weekend as we look at the second shared value we have at North Highlands: We are Family.

This weekend we pivot from Mission and Vision and begin to focus on a few values that we have here as a church. These values are the shared convictions that we have as a church body that create the culture we enjoy as a church. They are the things that people pick up on or feel when they are with us and this morning we hit on the first of three values we have at North Highlands: 

God is God (and we are not). I have heard time and time again from folks how much NHBC values the authority of God and His word in our lives as a church family and I cannot wait to talk about it through Isaiah 40, which is one of the great “God is God” texts in all of scripture. 

It’s going to be an exciting Sunday! We have a guest worship leader and Connect4Lunch. Yum! And to top it off, we will talk about our vision as a church which is to see lives forever changed through everyday encounters with Jesus. This is not only possible, it should be the expectation. And not because we want it, but because God wants it. Bring a friend, come hungry and we will see you this weekend!

I am so excited to kick off this new vision series we are calling Ready to Run and I hope that you are excited, too. This first Sunday would be the PERFECT Sunday to invite friends who are looking for a church family or are simply on your mind and heart because we are going to discuss our mission as a church as we consider the most important question that we will ever answer. 

Studying Paul’s letter to the Ephesians has been so good. And while we all might prefer Paul to end on “high note,” Paul opts to end with an honest one–he talks about the Opposition and the Armor of God. For we know for certain God’s plan is to create a new united humanity, but it will not happen without a fight. There is an Enemy who will stop at nothing to keep God’s plan from happening. But, praise God! The Enemy has already been defeated and the battle has already been won.

There are few passages in scripture more controversial than the one we are going to read this weekend–and possibly then for this very reason, there are few passages more socially relevant and important for followers of Jesus to both rightly understand and faithfully follow. Let’s talk about it!

This week we cover a text that is to the modern audience one of the most well-known and controversial texts in all of the New Testament–to suggest it be read at a wedding today would lead to a public outcry. I think the reasoning is two-fold. It requires something the world doesn’t have and something the church hasn’t done.

Most of us are probably familiar with the old adage “Like Father, Like Son.”

It reflects the idea that children often inherit traits, behaviors, and tendencies from their parents, especially their dads. I often catch myself saying things or doing things that my father did and I catch my kids saying and doing things that I do. It’s awesome, but also terrifying to think–kids imitate their parents.

Ephesians 5:1 and following acknowledges this enduring truth and even encourages it, only we are not called to imitate our earthly fathers–we are called to be imitators of our heavenly Father as we walk in the footsteps of His beloved Son. Let’s talk about it!

One of my favorite things growing up about going back to school was getting to buy new clothes. With a new shirt and a new pair of shoes, I felt like the possibilities for me were endless. Like it was all I needed to live my best life. Our scripture passage from Ephesians is the perfect Back to School Sunday text because it reminds us that when we become followers of Jesus, we get a new set of clothes–we are clothed in Jesus, and these new clothes truly do make all the difference.

All of us are entered in the race. We are in the marathon of all marathons. This is the only race worth running, why not run it well? Bring your running shoes and join us this Sunday to learn how to be faithful to the finish!

We have talked about the truth of  who we are in Christ. Now, we begin to talk about what it looks like for us to live in response to this truth together. What does it look like to walk worthy of our calling?

The first three chapters of Ephesians have been all about who God is, what God has done, and consequently then who we are in Christ Jesus. The final three chapters are about how we are to live in response–how we are, as Pauls says, “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”

Understanding who God is and what God has done is essential for us, especially if we are to know what is true of each of us in Jesus. But, you and I need more than knowledge of these things if we intend to live accordingly–if we intend to walk in a worthy manner.

And so in Ephesians 3:14-21 Paul prays for what we need.

Are any of you prone to getting distracted? In today’s world, there is no end to the things that cause distractions–it seems like literally everything in life is competing for our attention, right? 

Well, believe it or not, this seems to happen to Paul in our scripture text for the morning. He is motivated to pray, but he quickly goes off on a tangent before he gets around to actually praying.

But how awesome is it that even something that seems like a detour or a digression, even with this, our God is able. Praise God–He is able to take a tangent, a rabbit trail and reveal to us timeless truths!

We live in a world of rivalries: Coke vs. Pepsi, *which are both wrong because Dr. Pepper is clearly the best; Democrat vs. Republican; Star Wars vs. Star Trek; UT vs. OU, etc. Rivalries can be found literally everywhere, some of them even leading to bloodshed. This morning we discuss the blood shed to end the bloodshed. We have been made one in Christ Jesus.

Missionary from Ukraine, Mark McDonnel shares a message to help us see our place in this country.

If you missed the sermon last weekend go back and give it a listen to get up to speed because this Sunday is Part Two to our time in Ephesians 2:1-10. If last week we discussed what we are by nature i.e. the Bad News, this week we discuss what we can become by God’s grace, which is the Best News. Ever.

“I’ve got good news & I’ve got bad news.”

Have you ever heard or said it before?  Which do you prefer first? Good or bad?

Multiple studies have found that roughly four out of five people prefer the bad before the good. Whether we’re a patient getting test results or an employee in our end of year review, our preference is clear: bad news first, good news last.

Ephesians 2:1-10 is the ultimate bad news, good news passage. The bad news is bad—as bad as it gets. But, the good news—the good news more than makes up for it. It’s better than good news. It’s the best news. Ever.

Pastor Marvin Walker from the Watermark South Dallas Campus will be sharing a message this week from Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders of the church.

We all have eyes. They help us to see things as they truly are. Some eyes obviously help better than others, but even with 20/20 vision, there are things you and I cannot see on our own. Paul therefore prays that God would open our eyes to see things as they truly are, but he does not pray for our physical eyes, he prays God would open the eyes of our hearts. 

This week we begin a new summer sermon series on the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians, which he wrote while he was under house arrest in Rome circa AD 62. For an overview of the letter, check out this video from the guys over at BibleProject.

This Sunday we celebrate the heart of the message of Ephesians, which is this: God has a wonderful plan for all of His creation–things in heaven and earth. Want to know what that plan is? Join us as we look to Ephesians 1:3-14 for the answer.

Have you ever experienced that moment when you hear something or see something–something you swear you’ve never heard or seen before–but from that moment on, you cannot help but hear or  see it everywhere…

Jesus teaching us to pray for our Heavenly Father to lead us and deliver us helps us to see things he sees, things that have always been there, things we will never not see ever again.

We have arrived at the most difficult phrase in the Lord’s Prayer:

and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

The expectation is that Jesus’s followers are people who “Ask, and Pass It On.” Easier said than done. Let’s talk about it.

Prayer is many things to many people, but at its simplest and most obvious, it is asking God for help. This is how most people in the world, religious and non-religious alike, understand the word, and to a certain extent, they are right. It is really one of the most natural things in the world to ask God for things. This week we will talk about one thing in particular: Daily Bread. 

Riots in the streets, teens being shot for approaching the wrong house, and fentanyl killing over 150 people everyday. The hope of humanity is the return of Christ to set up His righteous Kingdom. So, we pray ‘Thy Kingdom Come’. Listen as we look at this all important prayer.

“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name!”  Could this be the battle cry for the church in the 21st century?  We’ll look into this possibility Sunday morning.

As we prepare our hearts to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ let’s pause for a moment and remember why He died—that we might have life, with a new identity and a new future. Come and see what the Lord has done.

The Bible is so good! This weekend is both Palm Sunday and Communion Sunday at North Highlands and our text for Sunday, Psalm 118, is intimately linked to BOTH! Seriously, if this wasn’t already one of your favorite Psalms, it will be.

Hebrews 11 opens with the declaration that for the follower of Jesus, faith is not wishful thinking, naive or blind hope that something is true, but it is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Faith then is entirely rational. Make no mistake, there is certainly more involved in Christian faith than rationality, but not less. All this means that we believe not because want Christianity to be true or because we need Christianity to be true, but rather we believe because it is true.

Come, let us behold the empty tomb together.

One of my favorite lines from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy comes after the infamous ring has been destroyed at Mount Doom. Sam Gamgee wakes up from his sleep surprised he is alive and surprised to see Gandalf alive as well. This prompts him to ask the question, “Is everything sad going to come untrue?” I love this line!

The answer we hold as followers of Jesus to this question is—”Yes. Everything sad is going to come untrue!” Jesus once gave a wedding party a foretaste of this beautiful truth.

Pastor Rick Chitwood shares a message from the book of Job and looks at why bad things happen and what we can do.

Pastor Rick Chitwood walks us through the goodness of God's grace. He shows us examples of where our goodness falls short and that only what Jesus Christ did for us is good enough to satisfy God.

Just one quick glance at your Newsfeed and it should be as obvious to you as it is to everyone else: Something is wrong–with the world, with people, with all of it. No one would suggest otherwise. We ALL know something is terribly wrong, which begs the question: what–or who–can set it right again? 

Have you ever heard of the expression, “Two sides of the same coin?” It refers to a situation where two things appear superficially to be opposites of one another, but they are in fact fundamentally alike. I think last week’s message and this week’s message are a great example of this.

Last week we read about a conversation that Jesus had with a social, moral, and religious outcast. “The outcast of outcasts”, we said, right? She was a woman, five times married and was now living with a man who was not her husband, who went to the water well to draw water at noon because she would rather brave the heat of the day than face a crowd. She was obviously desperate…

This week we will read about a conversation Jesus has with not an outcast but an insider in every way imaginable–socially, morally, religiously, you name it. We might say he was “put together” or he had life “all figured out.”

Superficially, these two could not appear to be any more different than they are, but spiritually, they were one in the same. And if these two, who were as different as we could imagine, had this in common spiritually, I think it is likely many of us share this same spiritual diagnosis as well.

Every person in the world wants what will make him or her truly happy. As a result we are all desperately searching for the person, place, or thing that will meet our expectations, needs, and wants; searching for that which will fully and forever satisfy our deepest desires.

What–if anything–can satisfy this never-ending thirst? 

Pastor Rick Chitwood helps us to see when sacrificing our freedoms for others is loving.

This Sunday we begin a new series titled, Come & See, where together we will look at centuries old life-changing conversations that individuals had with Jesus from the gospel of John. My prayer is that we would experience life-changing encounters with Jesus like these individuals experienced.

The first conversation will address perhaps the most fundamental question: Where should we look for answers to life’s biggest questions?

This past Friday was sarcastically referred to as “Quitting Friday” by those among us who study people and our predictable New Year’s Resolution patterns. I read an article last week that suggests that nearly half of us (43%) expect to fail by February. This is not saying that 43% of people DO fail in the first month, that number is closer to two-thirds (64%) – No, this says that 43% of people who start resolutions in January, START EXPECTING TO FAIL one month into their resolutions. It’s almost as if we know–even in our resolutions–that our priorities are out of order.

Matthew 6:25-34

This Sunday we are going to talk about… wait for it… investing wisely. No need to adjust your screen. You read it correctly. We are going to talk about our investments, BUT I PROMISE YOU it will not be anything like the investment conversations you have with your financial team if you are into that sort of thing.

Jesus will help us invest wisely by teaching us the reality that what we invest and where we invest it is determined by at least two things: 1) how clearly we see and 2) who we choose to serve.

Pastor Rick Chitwood teaches from Romans and challenges us to accept others no matter what their convictions may be.

Pastor Rick Chitwood challenges us to take our faith in Christ seriously and make some changes this year, starting today.