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Worship November 2017

Psalm 100 says,
1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his [a]; We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.

With this Psalm in mind, and as we approach a season of thankfulness, I want to point us to the most important element of our worship – Thanksgiving. In Psalm 100, it is written to enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. When we worship, we give thanks. But why do we give thanks? What are you thankful for in your life? Are you thankful for your family? Your friends? Your job?

The reality is that we have so much to be thankful for. But it’s important to remember to whom we owe our thankfulness. James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above.” It’s important for us to remember than everything we have in this life comes from our Father in Heaven. Our families, our jobs, our money, our things – every good thing is from the Father. We only have Him to thank for the good things in our lives.

But our thankfulness stretches far beyond our material possessions. As children of God, we have eternal life. God calls us Sons and Daughters. Jesus died in our place, for our sins, so that we could live with the Father forever. For this – we are to be eternally thankful, and constantly filled with thankfulness and praise.

So as we approach our time in worship, we reflect on everything we are thankful for – realizing that every thing we have on this earth has been given to us by God.  But ultimately, we approach our time with worship filled with thankfulness because we see what God has done for us through his son Jesus. We realize that without the cross, we could not be thankful. We could not have peace. We could not have hope. But thanks be to God, that we can have   eternal peace, hope, and righteousness based on what Jesus did for us on the Cross. So as you reflect on what you are thankful for in this season of Thanksgiving, remember the cross. Remember Jesus. Let’s not wait until Christmas to set our hearts on Christ, and what He has done for us. And for what He has done, we are eternally thankful, and our hearts are filled with constant praise!

In Christ,
Jared

Worship October 2017

Church Family,
I hope you have gotten off to a great start in your fall season! It has been an exciting season of ministry, with many great things to come. I want to take an opportunity to say a big thanks to everyone who was involved in our Family Night of Worship this past month, as we gathered at the Baptist Association fields to fellowship and worship. It was such a great event. I’d like to thank Pizza Revolution and Lolly’s Pop Bar for coming and providing their food truck service. I’d also like to thank our incredible worship team for putting in much time and energy to prepare and lead our Church in worship. They went above and beyond, and I am so thankful for each one of them! I’d also like to take this chance to say thanks to a few people individually, who we could not have done this event without: Chad Mehne, Randy Kilgore, and Pat Moss. All three of these men put in a lot of hours starting months before to make sure this event would go well. Not only for this event, but every week. These three guys serve week in and week out to make sure worship on Sundays goes well. They are great people, with great families, with great attitudes, who all serve God well by serving  others. There is much more I could say, and many more people I could mention, but I feel these three need to be recognized, even though they would never want the recognition. I am thankful for these guys, and our ministry would not be the same without them. We believe here at   Oakhill that family is important. We value our Church Family, and we believe God does too. Since we have three separate services on Sunday, various Life Groups meeting, etc., there aren't many times that we all get to be together to worship. That’s why we loved our family night of worship, and we’re so thankful that many of you made it a priority to attend. One church, one voice, all for the glory of God. That is our aim, and that is our mission. Though we are all unique, though we are all different, we all come to the same place when we come to   worship. We gather at the feet of Jesus. We sing for what He has done for us and through us. As we move forward, I am so excited to see how God will use our entire Church Family together, to  further the advancement of His kingdom.
I love you all, and I love worshipping with you.
Jared