Highland Fam,
After evaluating all current factors, we will not hold any Wednesday night events or any other gatherings throughout the month of August. We will reassess as we move into September. Thank you for your understanding.
Rob
Tent Gathering: Worship
Highland Family,
Here is our latest Tent Gathering, themed: “Worship.” To those of you were able to join us, it was great seeing you; to those of you who were unable to join us, know that you were missed. If you need anything, we remain here for you, both in support and love.
Below, you will find our passages and the audio recording of our service. Communal Prayer and the Sermon are what make up the recording. I hope that you are strengthened and encouraged through God’s Word, as you check it out.
Central Points
Worship: to ascribe worth.
Jesus, alone, is worthy of our worship.
"For the grace of God has appeared with salvation for all people, instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age, while we wait for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for Himself a people for His own possession, eager to do good works. Say these things, and encourage and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people. For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another. But when the goodness of God and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us — not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. He poured out this Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by His grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.”
- Titus 2:11-3:7, HCSB
"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Or who has ever first given to Him, and has to be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”
- Romans 11:33-12:2, HCSB
Walk in the Light,
Rob
“May the Lord direct your hearts to God’s love and Christ’s endurance” (2 Thessalonians 3:5, HCSB).
Our Plans for August 1st and 2nd
Highland Fam,
Chicken & Rice and our Tent Gathering are happening this weekend!
Each Saturday from 10:30am-1:00pm, we serve our streets a meal of Chicken & Rice, along with the Gospel. Volunteers are welcome to join us. Chicken & Rice Ministries is our flagship work. It serves as the invitation to all in our streets to come and know Christ. If you would like to come and serve, please contact us.
This Sunday, I look forward to seeing everyone at the Tent Gathering. As we gather this Sunday for our Tent Gathering, I wanted to go over the schedule with you. This Sunday, our schedule is as follows:
9am-10am: Coffee and Conversation. As you arrive, grab a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Enjoy having conversation with one another and the chance to be together. Also, if you’re willing, some will be setting up for the 10 am service. We welcome your help, if you’re able.
10am-11am: Tent Gathering Service. At 10am, bring your camping chairs or blankets to make for yourself a place outside, underneath our tent. We will gather to worship as we set our eyes upon Jesus. Highland, I ask that we would be in prayer for the name of Jesus to be exalted in our corporate gathering; that those who wander, or are deceived throughout our streets, would hear that Jesus saves, and repent! We will conclude and dismiss following this service. So, breakfast will be offered but not lunch.
We are strongly encouraging social distancing and masks will be available for those who would feel most comfortable wearing one. If you have a mask, please bring one for yourself to use. We ask that you stay home when you are sick. We also ask that you cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash. Also, avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands. Finally, keeping your hands clean using sanitizer or by washing them with soap is vital. If you have a personal bottle of sanitizer, bring it and keep it on you for your personal use throughout gatherings.
OTHER RELATED INFO
Van route riding requirements: windows down, masks worn and no more than 10 on a van.
Wednesday night studies, Pillow Party and prayer sessions have been cancelled for the month of August.
Children’s Ministries, Life Class & Breakfast will not resume until a later date.
*All proposed plans remain contingent upon medical information available to us throughout the foreseeable future. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us. I rejoice over you, Highland. I love forward to being with you Sunday.
I look forward to seeing you.
I love you,
Rob
Tent Gathering: Obedience
Highland Fam,
This is the recording of our Tent Gathering from July 26th. The theme of this Tent Gathering is “Obedience.” Click on the file below to listen to our Communal Prayer and our Sermon.
Here are our passages from the sermon:
“Your own eyes have seen every great work the Lord has done.”
“Keep every command I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to cross into and possess the land you are to inherit, and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated by hand as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky. It is a land the Lord your God cares for. He is always watching over it from the beginning to the end of the year. “If you carefully obey my commands I am giving you today, to love the Lord your God and worship Him with all your heart and all your soul, I will provide rain for your land in the proper time, the autumn and spring rains, and you will harvest your grain, new wine, and oil. I will provide grass in your fields for your livestock. You will eat and be satisfied. Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside, worship, and bow down to other gods. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will close the sky, and there will be no rain; the land will not yield its produce, and you will perish quickly from the good land the Lord is giving you. “Imprint these words of mine on your hearts and minds, bind them as a sign on your hands, and let them be a symbol on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
- Deuteronomy 11:7-19, HCSB
“Let Your faithful love come to me, Lord, Your salvation, as You promised. Then I can answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in Your word. Never take the word of truth from my mouth, for I hope in Your judgments. I will always obey Your instruction, forever and ever. I will walk freely in an open place because I seek Your precepts. I will speak of Your decrees before kings and not be ashamed. I delight in Your commands, which I love. I will lift up my hands to Your commands, which I love, and will meditate on Your statutes.”
- Psalm 119: 41-48, HCSB
Honored to serve you, Highland,
Rob
Our Plans for July 25th and 26th
Highland Fam,
We will resume both Chicken & Rice and our Tent Gathering this weekend.
Each Saturday from 10:30am-1:00pm, we serve our streets a meal of Chicken & Rice, along with the Gospel. Volunteers are welcome to join us. Chicken & Rice Ministries is our flagship work. It serves as the invitation to all in our streets to come and know Christ. If you would like to come and serve, please contact us.
This Sunday, I look forward to seeing everyone at the Tent Gathering. As we gather this Sunday for our Tent Gathering, I wanted to go over the schedule with you. This Sunday, our schedule is as follows:
9am-10am: Coffee and Conversation. As you arrive, grab a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Enjoy having conversation with one another and the chance to be together. Also, if you’re willing, some will be setting up for the 10 am service. We welcome your help, if you’re able.
10am-11am: Tent Gathering Service. At 10am, bring your camping chairs or blankets to make for yourself a place outside, underneath our tent. We will gather to worship as we set our eyes upon Jesus. Highland, I ask that we would be in prayer for the name of Jesus to be exalted in our corporate gathering; that those who wander, or are deceived throughout our streets, would hear that Jesus saves, and repent! We will conclude and dismiss following this service. So, breakfast will be offered but not lunch.
We are strongly encouraging social distancing and masks will be available for those who would feel most comfortable wearing one. If you have a mask, please bring one for yourself to use. We ask that you stay home when you are sick. We also ask that you cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash. Also, avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands. Finally, keeping your hands clean using sanitizer or by washing them with soap is vital. If you have a personal bottle of sanitizer, bring it and keep it on you for your personal use throughout gatherings.
OTHER RELATED INFO
Van route riding requirements: windows down, masks worn and no more than 10 on a van.
Wednesday night studies, Pillow Party and prayer sessions have been cancelled for the month of July.
Children’s Ministries, Life Class & Breakfast will not resume until a later date.
*All proposed plans remain contingent upon medical information available to us throughout the foreseeable future. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us. I rejoice over you, Highland. I love forward to being with you Sunday.
I love you,
Rob
Family Devotion: Biblical Unity
This week, we invite you to take a listen and/or look over the passages below for review and reflection. After you have had the chance to review the passages below, we have written some discussion questions that we hope will be used to further the thought and conversation regarding the need for unity within The Church.
OUR PASSAGES ON UNITY FROM LAST SUNDAY
“So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh — called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:11-14).
“Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves. Each one of us must please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even the Messiah did not please Himself. On the contrary, as it is written, The insults of those who insult You have fallen on Me. For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement allow you to live in harmony with one another, according to the command of Christ Jesus, so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with a united mind and voice” (Romans 15:1-6).
This is our Communal Prayer, Offering Song and Sermon from our Tent Gathering entitled - “Unity.” This Communal Prayer and Sermon really capture our ( Rob & Carrie) hearts, as it relates to what it means to belong to the family of God.
DISCUSSION & REFLECTION FOR THIS SUNDAY
Read John 17:15-23
Discussion
John 17 was the dying request/prayer, from Christ, to His Father for The Church. Typically, whatever a person says right before they die is usually what is most pressing and most important in their heart and mind. It usually sums up the one thing they want others to know and remember.
What did Jesus ask His Father of behalf of the The Church in John 17?
One thing is clear from that passage, you cannot help but feel the passion and love that Christ has for The Church! He loves The Church and He designed it to have power that defies the very powers of hell (Matthew 16:18). In light of that, we should be striving to fulfill His desire and His design for The Church, which is unity.
As we discussed last week, unity cannot be replicated by the world because at the heart of unity is a submissive and unconditional love and that love can only come from God. While we cannot control the actions and decisions of those around us, we can certainly decide what we will be about as individuals and as families. The Church desperately needs individuals and families who are committed to unity more than they are committed to their own causes and opinions. The world desperately needs to see The Church being unified because that is the only way they will see AND believe in Jesus according to John 17.
How can you and your family, in a day and time when everyone around is making much of their opinion, make much of pursuing unity?
How can we, as families and individuals, serve to aid in the unity of the church and be repairers of the breach?
Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Discussion
What ministry did Christ give to every believer?
Look up the meaning of the words reconciled and ambassador and discuss the meanings.
How are you and how is your family fulfilling the ministry that God has given you to be an ambassador for reconciliation?
“From now on we do not know anyone in a purely human way.” That means, as Christians, we cannot “size people up” by their appearance or their actions. We do not have the right to look at another person and sum them up as good or bad, righteous or evil, deserving of mercy or deserving of judgement. Our role is to see ourselves and every other person the same, as sinners who are in need of being reconciled to God.
How does understanding the ministry of reconciliation help us in our pursuit of unity?
End your time by praying and celebrating the fact that because Jesus prayed and asked the Father for The Church to be unified, unity is indeed achievable! It is NOT a far-reaching, unattainable dream. It is an achievable command given to us by Jesus. Ask Christ to accomplish His desires for unity through the life of Highland Community Church. Ask Him to then use Highland Community Church to be a witness to the unity and power that is meant to come from The Church.
Know that we love you and to continue to check our website for updates.
Rob & Carrie
No Tent Gathering This Sunday.
Highland Fam,
A person who rode our van and attended our Tent Gathering last Sunday called me Monday to tell me has tested positive for COVID. Thankfully, this person was masked during the van ride and during our tent gathering, which should greatly limit the amount of exposure. In light of that, this week we will be cleaning the van according to CDC guidelines and during that time the van will not be used to transport people. Because our van riders are so devoted to our church family, I would not want them to feel excluded. So to consider the best interest of everyone, we will cancel our Tent Gathering for this Sunday, July 19th. The church leader board will evaluate information to make decisions on when to reconvene. If you should have any questions or concerns, please contact us.
I love you.
Seeking the good of all,
Rob
Sandra Smith Starts New Job!
So happy for Sandra Smith, who was just hired by Kia today!
Rob
Congratulations, David & Patricia!
David and Patricia have tied the knot! We’d like to wish you both the best and walk alongside you throughout this new and exciting chapter in your lives!
Blessings & love,
Rob
Tent Gathering: Unity
Highland Fam,
Below is our Communal Prayer, Offering Song and Sermon from our Tent Gathering entitled - “Unity.” Our passages can also be found below. Know that I love you and remain in your corner, through prayer and support.
Blessings & Love,
Rob
OUR PASSAGES ON UNITY
“So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh — called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:11-14).
“Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves. Each one of us must please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even the Messiah did not please Himself. On the contrary, as it is written, The insults of those who insult You have fallen on Me. For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement allow you to live in harmony with one another, according to the command of Christ Jesus, so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with a united mind and voice” (Roman 15:1-6).