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Pastor's Points - September 2019

Dear Church Family,

By now you should have received a letter from me communicating the exciting possibilities that God has placed before us.  We are in a time of God’s blessing on our church family!

For the last two years or so, God has moved in a steady, consistent way as we have refocused ourselves on making disciples and doing whatever it takes to continue to reach out to those around us with the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Our focus on Life Groups on and off campus, Growth Initiatives, and summer discipleship classes have enabled us to see more people intentionally grow in their faith.  Also, in this focus we created more space for people to come and worship together on Sunday.  Before we began our off-campus Life Groups, we maxed out in worship at 500 because at the 9:30 am hour our parking was exhausted.  But since the creation of these off-campus groups we are now able to reach out to over 600 people.  In fact, the last three Sundays before Labor Day weekend we were over 600 all three Sundays!  Also, in our last quarterly M3 meeting, where we share about our mission, ministry, and money, we reported that in just the last quarter of the year we added 32 people into membership of our church!  We were also able to   report that we were running 4% ahead of budget for the year as well!  That is all God!  He did all of that!  He is moving among us and I am so thankful for that fact!!

We are now in a season where I believe with my whole heart that God is calling us to move with Him once again.  After being here at Oakhill for two years God moved among us and led us to build the sanctuary that we currently   worship in.  It was a time when God moved, and we moved with Him in faith!!  A little over 200 people believed that God would provide and came together in faith and followed God!  And here we are 11 years later where we are asking 600 people to believe once again that God is moving among us and we need to move with Him!!

My prayer is that we can secure this property that is literally a half a mile away from our church campus for our  future.  It would be amazing to continue the legacy of our church here on Oakhill for many years to come!  If we can purchase this property, we will then enter a time of praying and planning with experts as to how best use our properties for the continued legacy of ministry through Oakhill Baptist Church here on Oak Hill Road.  I am so excited and encouraged about our future!

The greatest privilege of my life has been to be your pastor for over 13 years.  I love you with my whole heart! I do not ask us to consider this step lightly.  It will take us all being willing to step out in faith and be willing to follow God.  But if we truly believe, as God moves, we move, we must take this step together and follow God into a future that only He knows.  I cannot wait to see what God is going to do!

 I love you and I love being your pastor!

Pastor's Points - August 2019

Dear Church Family,

One of the things I find myself doing on a regular basis in my ministry is encouraging others to trust in the Lord.  So many times, people find themselves in situations that are bigger than they are.  They have the tendency to look at their situations in life and try to figure it out on their own or try to power their way through it in their own strength.  And I am just as susceptible to this as the ones that I encourage not to worry but trust God.  We need to trust God in everything. And I mean everything! You name it, whether in our personal lives, or the corporate life of our church, we should trust God with it. Recently I read this devotional that really encouraged me on this  topic of trusting the Lord. The author writes…

“Trust the Lord! It’s one of those sincere, but often trite-sounding, statements we may say when we are trying to encourage or challenge someone. We may throw it around when someone has a hope deferred. Trust the Lord.

We say it when someone is anxious about provision. We say it to the terrified young mom as she brings her first child home from the hospital. We say it, perhaps in a slightly different way, to the wife who has just lost her beloved husband. I’m praying for you. Lean on the Lord.

And when we are miserable with fear — fear of the future, fear of man, fear of tragedy — we often say, Trust the Lord.

Those little words do indeed pack a lot of truth, but what does it really mean to trust the Lord and how might our encouragement better point us to the One we can trust? In other words, yes, we want to trust the Lord, but why can we?

Learning on the Job
We can learn a lot about why we can trust God from the story of Job. During great trouble, Job had to trust the Lord. I can only imagine the fear he experienced as one horrible event happened after another.

If you remember the story of Job, then you know that he lost everything. And by “everything,” I mean everything that was of any importance to him. Job lost everything. At the end of his story, as he repents and sings great praise to God, Job proclaims, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2).

Job suffered greatly, and, I imagine, he was very confused. His friends didn’t do a good job of comforting him; Job even called them “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2). But Job turned to God and was convinced of the wisdom of God, even in the midst of great pain and confusion.

Sovereign, Wise, and Loving
We get a glimpse of Job’s view of God when he says, “His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?” (Job 9:4 NIV), and, “With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding” (Job 12:13). Job isn’t thinking about how he feels at the moment or even his current circumstances, though there is no problem with considering those things. Instead, Job realizes that in order to minister to his own heart he must remember the character of God — who God is, and why he can be trusted. Job doesn’t ignore his pain — but he does remember his King.

And what did God do? He restored Job and his fortunes. He gave him twice as much livestock as he had previously possessed and gave him more children: seven sons and three daughters. Job was restored to his family and friends. The Lord worked in       unexpected ways.”

God doesn’t do anything in his sovereign will that isn’t both wise and loving. If God is for you, who can be against you? We don’t trust God simply because someone tells us to. We trust God because he is God. He is holy and awesome and righteous in  every way. We can trust God because we don’t serve a God who is only sovereign and wise. He is also infinitely loving.

I hope the portion of this devotional that I was able to share will encourage you in all situations to trust in our great God  knowing that He is perfect in every way.

I love you and I love being your pastor!