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Student Ministry November 2018

Dear Church Family,
This month my wife and I will be welcoming into our home our new baby boy! We are   beyond exited, slightly nervous, and definitely ill-prepared for the amount of sleep deprivation we are about to experience.  Ultimately we feel abundantly blessed, and we can’t wait to get to know this person the Lord has entrusted to us. It is because He has entrusted the raising and training of this child to us that we have been reading a book by Ted Tripp titled, Shepherding a Child’s Heart.

In this book Tripp discusses the need to train the heart of a child, not just the behavior. The premise is that scripture teaches that behavior comes from the heart, which means that if your heart is sinful, then ultimately your behavior will be too. And since scripture also tells us that all humans are sinful (Romans 3:23) we all have sinful, self-focused hearts that will produce sinful, self-focused behavior. Tripp’s point is that this reality is the number one issue when it comes to parenting. Children’s hearts are sinful and our parenting must point that out and give our children the solution. Obviously teaching children and teenagers proper behavior is extremely important, and discipline is necessary to do so. But we cannot forget that for all of our discipline and teaching, we cannot, as Tripp would say, give our children God oriented hearts.

But that is not to trouble us too greatly. It should make us feel a little powerless to command and dictate our child’s life; but that’s the point. God didn’t give you your child so you could control their life. He gave you your child so you could teach them about God and help them understand the gospel. He gave them to you so you would grow in your faith to trust the Lord with the heart of your most precious possession. You see, this is the hope that you have as a parent: God can change the worst of hearts. Look at what scripture has to say about God’s ability to move the heart. Proverbs 21:1 says “A king’s heart is like channeled water in the Lord’s hand: He directs it wherever he chooses.”

When you are disciplining your child, or lecturing them for the thousandth time; remember that their heart orientation is what truly matters. How are you pointing them to the gospel in your discipline or lecture. More importantly, how often are you praying for God to change their heart? Do you believe that God can change the hearts of great kings? If so, won’t you hope in Him to guide the heart of your child? By all means teach, lecture, and discipline your child. But more than that, lead their heart to Christ and ask the Lord to do the work only He can do.

Worship November 2018

Church Family,
It’s been an exciting time of ministry at Oakhill, and I pray that this Fall season has found you refreshed and excited to see God continue to move in our lives and in our church! I want to thank everyone who took the time to come out to our Family Night of Worship last month. We weren't able to have the event outside due to weather, but I am thankful that the rain didn’t keep us down, and we were still able to enjoy fellowship and worship together inside! I especially want to thank Darrell Ommart and Doughboy BBQ, as well as Lolly’s Pops for providing all the food and drink. I am excited to continue this event with our church family in the future!

This month, I want to challenge us with a question: How do we handle distractions in worship? I don’t mean distractions as in the person behind you singing off key, or the person next to you constantly checking their cellphone during worship. By distractions, I mean the stress, the thoughts, and the outside situations that we bring into worship with us. Maybe you had a bad week. Maybe your child smarted off to you right as you walked into church and your wondering how you’re going to handle the situation once you get home. The stressful situations that we bring into worship are endless. And they can be distractions. So how do we handle them? A lot of times, we want to forget them. We want to do our best to completely put them out of our minds so that we can solely focus on God. But let’s be honest, we’re human, and that’s hard to do. And if I’m honest, even as a worship leader, sometimes it’s hard to tune out stress in my life to lead worship on Sunday morning.

So maybe running from these distractions is hard to do. So why run from them? Why forget about them? Let me encourage you to not forget about these distractions, but to bring them to God in worship. Offer them to God. After all, God is all things to us. He is the ultimate healer. He is the ultimate peace-maker. He’s the ultimate wisdom-giver. He desires to be close to us, as we come close to Him. So, in worship, don’t take your stress and your distractions further from God. Bring them close. Bring your heart, and all the baggage that comes with it.  Lean in. There’s nothing quite like the presence of God. And in the presence of God, things change. Richard Foster said, “If we don’t leave worship looking more like Jesus, then is has not been true worship. To stand before the Holy One is to change.” You are loved by Jesus. The details of your life are in the hands of Jesus. And He is worthy of our worship. I’ll see you on Sunday! I can’t wait to worship together.