Welcome to Super Sunday at HighPoint Church! We were blessed to have our friend, Adam Curry, here to share his testimony and help us launch Providence Voice hosted by Godcaster. If you want to download Godcaster: Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/godcaster/id6744736606 Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fm.godcaster.mobile Also, check out our new Podcasts created in-house: https://www.youtube.com/@highpointchurch9974/podcasts

In the first week of our new series Miracles, we discover that belief in miracles isn't naive or intellectually dishonest—it's actually the most reasonable position for anyone who believes in God. The psalm begins in a dark place of desperation, with the writer crying out at night, stretching untiring hands toward heaven, questioning whether God has forgotten to be merciful. Many of us know those 2 AM prayers when our hearts are breaking and situations seem impossible. But the psalm shifts dramatically when the writer makes a conscious decision to redirect his thoughts from his problems to God's power. We often work hard to avoid situations where we'd need miracles, preferring comfort over the kind of obedience that requires God's supernatural intervention. Yet God does miracles for two primary reasons: to redeem His people and to glorify His name.

Our final message from our Doors series brings us to James chapter 5 where we are confronted with a truth we often avoid: the judge is standing at the door. But rather than being a source of fear, God's coming judgment should actually inspire us. For those of us who have experienced injustice, exploitation, or suffering, knowing that God will ultimately right every wrong brings profound comfort. We learn that judgment begins with God's household, which means we must examine our own hearts first. Like a farmer who patiently tends the land while waiting for harvest, we're called to remain faithful and active in doing good, even when justice seems delayed. Christ's return will be sudden, like labor pains or a thief in the night. This should drive us to live ready rather than just get ready, maintaining short accounts with God and being ruthless with personal sin. Most importantly, this message points us to Jesus as our only hope, the door through which we must enter to escape judgment and receive salvation.

At the heart of Revelation 3:20 lies one of the most stunning invitations in all of Scripture: the Creator of the universe stands at our door and knocks, waiting to be invited in. This message confronts us with the shocking reality that Christ, who holds all authority and power, chooses humility over force when it comes to our hearts. We discover that the church of Laodicea had become so comfortable, so self-sufficient in their wealth and success, that they had unknowingly locked Jesus outside their own church doors. The diagnosis is sobering—they were lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, making Christ sick to His stomach. But here's where we must examine our own lives: when prosperity and comfort surround us, when our bank accounts are stable and our lives are going well, do we subtly transfer our hope from Christ to our circumstances? The temperature of our faith is measured not by what we say or sing on Sunday, but by our deeds—our passionate pursuit of eternal things, our sacrificial giving, our active service. This passage calls us to repent, which means to return to Christ for the riches only He can provide and to renew our friendship with Him through intimate fellowship. The urgency is real because today is the day of salvation, and the door of grace will not remain open forever.

This message takes us deep into 1 Corinthians 16:5-9, where the Apostle Paul reveals his travel plans and speaks of a 'great door for effective work' that has opened to him—despite many who oppose him. We're challenged to examine how we respond when God opens doors in our lives. Do we walk through them with faith and obedience, or do we try to force open doors He's closed? Paul's example teaches us that when God opens a door, three things happen: there are places He will take us, plans He will give us, and purposes He will show us. The sermon powerfully illustrates how we often become impatient with God's timing, trying to kick down doors like a frustrated parent dealing with a rebellious teenager, rather than waiting for His perfect guidance. We're reminded that great doors open through several small steps of faith, and that opposition often indicates we're exactly where God wants us to be. The message culminates in a beautiful reminder that we are God's handiwork, created to do good works He prepared in advance for us—but we must be willing to stay where He places us and go where He sends us, even when it's uncomfortable or opposed.

In Week 2 of our series Doors, we discover that asking God for what we need isn't about nagging Him into submission or pushing the right spiritual buttons. Drawing from Matthew 7:7-12, we're invited into a profound understanding of prayer as relationship rather than religious ritual. The central promise is beautifully simple: ask and you'll receive, seek and you'll find, knock and doors will open. But there are terms and conditions we need to understand. We can't pray with selfish motives, expecting God to rubber-stamp our worst impulses. Instead, we're called to trust that our Father gives good gifts—not stones when we ask for bread, not snakes when we need fish. The sermon challenges us to stop living like pagans who try to manage everything and manipulate everyone, including God. We worry about material things and try to control people through shaming and screaming, but Jesus offers a different way. When we pray with open eyes and expectant hearts, trusting God's timing and His answers, we position ourselves to see the doors He's opening. The message culminates in the Golden Rule, reminding us that our prayer life cannot be separated from how we treat others. This isn't just about getting what we want; it's about aligning our hearts with God's purposes and trusting that He knows what we truly need.

Standing at the threshold of a new year, we find ourselves drawn to an unexpected place in Scripture—the book of Revelation, specifically Christ's message to the church in Philadelphia. In Week 1 of our new series, Doors, we encounter a powerful image that speaks directly to our hopes and anxieties: an open door. This isn't just any door, but one held by the resurrected Christ who declares Himself as holy and true, the one who holds the key of David. What unfolds is a profound teaching on divine providence—the truth that God is intimately involved in the direction of our lives, that He has prepared works for us in advance, and that He opens and closes doors according to His perfect will. The passage challenges the secular worldview we've absorbed, reminding us that we're not products of random chance but God's handiwork, created with purpose and destiny. Yet the most demanding aspect of this message isn't about learning techniques to force doors open, but about preparing our character for the opportunities God will bring. The believers in Philadelphia were commended not for their strength or favorable circumstances, but for keeping God's word, remaining loyal to Christ's name, and enduring patiently. As we look ahead with anticipation and perhaps some anxiety about closed doors and uncertain futures, we're called to focus first on Jesus, to cultivate obedience, loyalty, and patient endurance. The promise is clear: what Christ opens, no one can shut, and He knows exactly where we are, how hard we've worked, and how tired we feel.

This powerful message from Matthew 16 challenges us to reconsider what we've been given as the church. When Jesus declared to Peter, 'I will give you the keys of the kingdom,' He wasn't simply handing out symbolic trinkets—He was entrusting His people with genuine authority to unlock the gates of hell and advance His kingdom on earth. The sermon confronts two dangerous extremes we've fallen into throughout history: first, making the church too big by conflating it with worldly power, and second, making it too small by retreating into pietism and surrendering the public square. The truth is that Christ's authority extends over all things—in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, thrones and powers and rulers and authorities. We're called to be more than key collectors who attend services, listen to sermons, and accumulate spiritual knowledge. We're meant to be kingdom operators who use the keys we've been given—the gospel, worship, prayer, discipleship—to storm the gates of hell in every sphere of life. Whether in our marriages, businesses, schools, or governments, we serve as ambassadors of the King whose blood has purchased every inch of this earth. The challenge before us is clear: will we understand our authority and embrace our responsibility to make disciples who obey everything Christ commanded, bringing His reconciling power to a world locked in darkness?

What if the greatest miracle God ever performed wasn't creation or resurrection, but simply helping us understand who He truly is and how deeply He loves us? This week of Down To Earth, Pastor Jack takes us to the heart of Christmas—not just as a celebration of a baby in a manger, but as the ultimate revelation of God Himself. We're confronted with the most controversial yet transformative truth in all of Scripture: 'The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.' This isn't just poetic language; it's the scandalous claim that the eternal, invisible God actually moved into our neighborhood. John insists that we have seen God's glory—not from a distance but up close and personal. Where Moses had to hide in a cleft of rock and could only see the trailing edge of God's glory, we get to see the fullness of that glory in Jesus Christ. The beauty of this revelation is that God's glory isn't just power and majesty—it's goodness, mercy, and compassion. Jesus showed us God's glory by attending peasant weddings, touching lepers, eating with sinners, and forgiving the condemned. He didn't pitch His tent outside the camp like in Moses' day; He moved right into our messy, broken lives. This Christmas message reminds us that we serve a God who doesn't just observe us from heaven but enters our pain, our struggles, and our everyday moments. And from His fullness, we receive grace upon grace upon grace—it never runs out, no matter how many times we dip into it.

What if the greatest miracle of Christmas isn't just that God came to earth, but that He made it possible for us to be completely reborn? In Week 3 of Down To Earth, Pastor Jack reads us John's prologue and takes us beyond the familiar nativity story into the profound reality of the Incarnation—the Word becoming flesh and moving into our neighborhood. We're invited to examine two universal realities that demand our attention: the existence and nature of the universe itself, and the deep complexity of human nature. He reminds us that every atom, every strand of DNA with its three billion letters, every sunrise and sunset happens because Someone spoke it into being. But here's where it gets personal: that same creative Word came down to offer us something we desperately need but cannot manufacture ourselves—a new birth. Not through human effort or willpower, but through the miraculous work of the cross and the Holy Spirit. We're challenged to be honest about why we resist this light. Is it really intellectual objections, or is it that we love our darkness because it allows us to hide? The good news proclaimed here is that no matter how old we are, no matter what's in our background, the possibility of being born again remains. The darkness has not overcome the light, and it never will. This Advent season, we're called to move beyond mere belief to full reception—to open our hearts to the One who holds all things together and offers to make us completely new.

In Week 2 of Down To Earth, Pastor Derrick takes us deep into John chapter 1, verse 5, where we encounter a profound truth: the light shines in darkness, and the darkness cannot comprehend or overcome it. We're reminded that from the very beginning of creation, God's first spoken words were 'Let there be light,' establishing that light has always been God's answer to darkness. There's a stunning parallel between Genesis and John, showing us that the same God who spoke creation into existence is the one who stepped into our world as Emmanuel. We're confronted with the reality of spiritual blindness—a condition not of the eyes but of the heart, where people can hear the gospel, read Scripture, and observe God's works yet fail to see their true value. The message powerfully illustrates this through the Apostle Paul's own transformation from Saul, the persecutor, to Paul, the apostle. What makes this particularly relevant to our lives today is the recognition that spiritual blindness isn't just about individual struggles; it's a systemic darkness that has infiltrated education, government, and culture itself. Yet here's the hope: God's light doesn't just shine around us—it shines in us first, transforming our nature, then ahead of us, directing our path, and finally through us, making us beacons in a dark world. This isn't a call to hide our faith behind church walls but to let the light that changed us illuminate every corner of our lives, our workplaces, our communities, and our families.

Welcome to our first week of our Advent series, "Down To Earth". Post Thanksgiving sickness got ahold of Pastor Jack, so Pastor Ben Walls stands in and takes us deep into the opening verses of John's Gospel, where we encounter one of the most profound truths in Scripture: Jesus is the Word made flesh. We're reminded that Jesus wasn't just a teacher or prophet, but God Himself who stepped into human history to become the living picture of the Father. Before Christ, humanity lived in spiritual darkness, striving to keep commandments they could never perfectly fulfill. But when the Light came into the world, everything changed. Now, through the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we don't just hear about Jesus—we carry Him with us everywhere we go. This indwelling presence transforms us from the inside out, whispering guidance when we're about to speak words that tear down rather than build up, giving us strength to choose righteousness over temptation. The grace we've received isn't something we earned or deserved; it's God's unmerited favor freely given to all who believe. We have the right to become children of God simply by receiving Him, and that relationship calls us to represent Jesus authentically in a world that desperately needs to see His light shining through us.